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Futura Trailer: First time outHad a 600 mile round trip tow this past weekend, San Diego to Buttonwillow and back. This was the maiden voyage of my new Futura trailer, the Tandem Axle 16'5' version, weighing in at 1,322 Lbs. PRO:Towing is very pleasant experience, not a nightmare. With my 3,050 Lb GT3 car and the 1,322 Lb trailer, my load was 4,372 Lbs. Because of the streamlined load, the GT3 facing forward, and the relatively light weight compared to the gross weight of the former ATC enclosed, mileage was decent at about 13 mpg. With the ATC, it was 8.5 mpg. In addition high cross winds were not a problem. CONSTRUCTION: The trailer appears to be very well built and sturdy. NO RAMPS REQUIRED: First, release the fasteners at each wheel allowing the trailer to descend. Next, just use the wireless controller to lower the trailer bed down. Drive on....press the Raise button, the bed raises to a parallel to the ground. Open your car door****, and step down, fastening the fasteners at each wheel. NOTE: My GT3 is at stock ride height, the doors clear the fenders in the up position. If your car is slammed, you may have to deal with this. My trailer is now in storage, so I can't do the measuring for you. But, Mike at West Coast Corvette will do it.
DEALER HELPFUL: Mike at West Coast Corvette, the SoCal dealer is very helpful. He gave me my hands on tutorial: 714.803.1593.
CON: The tie down straps may take a while to get familiar with. The straps fit over the tops of the tires and wrap around the back. The strap is then cinched to gather parallel to just below the centerlines of the wheels and then 3 way anchored to the trailer and cinched down.. If you want to see how they work, there is a demo on the FUTURA web site. I will take a look at YOU TUBE, maybe I was just doing something wrong. It took some manipulating to thread them through the narrow space between the fender lip and the tires on the GT3. I may go to conventional tie downs for my next tow. Mike assures me that I will adapt and grow to love these tie downs. Being that I only tow 6 to 8 times a year.....hmmmmm, we'll see. That's the only CON that I can see., and easily addressed at that.
SUMMARY: I dont regret going back to an open trailer to get rid of ramps...hated them, so did my back. I can see that I will have to buy tire storage racks....putting 4 race tire into the back of a SUV takes up too much room.
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Martin
They're a great trailer, made in NZ. A few of the cup car and GT4CS guys here in Aus have still needed ramps to drive onto them which is a bit disappointing given the cost but hard to beat otherwise. Question, how are you securing spare wheels to a wheel rack? I do not have a futura but my trailer has a wheel rack and I can't work out a good way to fasten them safely...
On the Futura, the spare tire is under the deck. Do I want to crawl under there to get the spare? NOT...but I will call the AutoClub and have their guy crawl under the trailer. I do carry a aluminum drive on ramp that the trailer can be towed on to. This elevates the trailer deck and would make changing a tire easier. I suppose it could slo provide access to crawl under the deck for that spare. Some ingenious chap will come up with a better way to mount the spare.
Disappointing to hear that ramps are needed for some cars...if the nose wheel is at maximum retraction....the deck is close to flat....I can easily get a GT3 on the deck. In the case where opening the drivers door will not clear the fenders, you'll need to load with a winch....you need to reach through the window and set the hand brake, and if desired, put the car in gear....then close the window... closing the window could be interesting...depends where the window button is....on the console on the GT3 as we know....
Fortunately, I have no worries....I just drive on, tickle the remote to raise me to full up position, egress the car and tighten down the four (4) securing levers. Next strap her down....then hot the road.
Yea, I saw this advertised and it looks really cool. Recently I saw one live at Watkins Glen. I really like the idea of not having to use extra ramps. On the other hand, the wheel mechanism looks very problematic. I don't like the cables and how the whole thing leans. O would worry something would fail or user error. I will stick with my feather lite trailer and race ramps. By the way, only 13 mpg while towing -- are you using a tank to pull? I get over 20+ mpg with my BMW X5d.
"Looking forward to the enclosed option that will he coming out next year for existing trailer." I will have a sales job on my hands with wifey....I can see $10,000 for the upgrade, hopefully less....I would consider it....I am with Futura to dispense with ramps, tripped and fallen over these damn things at least 2X, messed up a knee on one of these pratfalls. The trade off, no more ramps, but I lost my secure storage. I can live with that. My trailer sees very little of the outside world, outside of its storage unit, 6X a year, hopefully more.
Seeing the posted pics of the car tied down on the bed of the Futura was helpful, but there is still the problem of threading the tie down straps between the fender lips and the tire...on my car there is very little clearance, maybe after I dial in some more negative camber the problem will go away. Paid $250 for the straps, would like to use them.
"By the way, only 13 mpg while towing -- are you using a tank to pull? I get over 20+ mpg with my BMW X5d."
I am towing with a 6,000 Lb SUV tank, it only gets 17 mpg when not towing, so dropping to 13 is not so bad for me. When I towed a 6,200 Lb load (ATC 20' + 3,050 car + set of wheels and tires), I got 8 mpg.
11-12-2018, 09:04 PM
Futura Trailer: First time out
