dmoffitt

After reading through a number of threads I think I have most of my "basic" questions answered about buying an enclosed trailer. Here's a few things I was wondering if someone could shed some light on:

MTI aka Middlebury Trailers Inc - anyone buy one of these? Are they good? In my limited local shopping I looked at an 18' and 20' and was suitably impressed but I'm also a self-professed trailer n00b so "looks good" to me doesn't mean much.

I'll be towing with my 07 F150 (gas 5.4 v8) and the owner of the local trailer place said I'd be ok up to 24' but that 20 is probably more ideal weight wise. I wish I had a budget for an all-aluminum but if I had that much cash I'd also probably have an F350 or F450 or similar lol, so that's way out of the question. Is this correct, that I should be ok with my truck and that size/weight?

Insurance - my insurance company will add the trailer for a whopping $33/yr which is nice, but what do I do about insuring the CAR (it's an 03 Nissan 350Z, sorry, not a P-car... I'll be back to the fold sooner than later tho, my GF's boxster on stickies is far too much fun lol). I was hoping to take it off the road completely as it's never street driven, but from reading the thread Chris from ProSure posted it seems I have to maintain street registration / insurance?? I'm not so much worried about stuffing the car - it's just for DEs now and Yellow/Blue seems a cautious enough group - but more like "what if someone hits me w/o insurance" or "what it vandals burn it down in a parking lot" or what have you.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Astro0boy

i have one of the MTI 20' trailers.
i bought it in april, and have towed to several events so far.
So far, so good. They have heavier axles and brakes on both. The interior finish is a little shoddy, but it was easy enough to fix with some small screws. The dove tail and drop gate make loading/unloading pretty easy. I drove through a wicked thunderstorm coming back from Road America, and there were no leaks.
I tow with an '06 Toyota Tundra with the V8. (not the new, husky version).
It tows fine with a weight distribution hitch. it's a little squirrely without it. Power is good, not awesome.
My car and trailer comes in around 5200 pounds, if i don't overload it with too many tires, bikes and other stuff.
Feel free to give me a shout if you have any other questions about MTI.

Vlocity

Hey:

I'm towing a 20 foot with my 5.4 liter Expedition and no problems at all except the fuel mileage which is about 10MPG. (4 wheel drive and 3.73 axels) You shouldn't have any problems at all. Be sure to get a good digital brake controller, they make all of the difference.

As for your car, you could drop the collision and carry Uninsured Motorist Property Damage coverage, that would cover you if someone uninsured hits you and then keep Comprehensive coverage on it as well for the vandals, wind fire etc.

Good Luck

Ken

M758

I have no insurance on my 944 race car and never had it on it as a DE car either. It is not street registered and never street driven. It is trailer everywhere and drive only on the track. I could get STP (Storage, Paddock and Transport) insurance for it, but figure it just not worth it for a low value car like mine.

As for the trailer.. I would stay under 24 feet. 20 should work as more space in the trailer = more crap = more weight. You can tow and enclosed trailer with 1/2 ton truck as long as you keep the trailer small and don't pack it too full. V-nose = less drag

dmoffitt

wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone!!

yeah - only reason I was thinking 18 vs 20 ft was resale - I DO hope to eventually climb the slipper slope and get a bigger truck and trailer when I get a different car and am hopefully back with the PCA and getting into club racing (3-5 years?) but for now I don't have much - 4 tires, some fuel bottles and a few tools - most of which fit in the toolbox in my truck.

M758

Go 20 feet instead of 18' for resale. Fits most cars with some room. 24ft is nice, but too big for some.

Vlocity

My 20 foot is enough trailer for even my 928. I built cabinets in the front. Loaded I am at about 8,000 pounds.

mikew968

You will be over 6500# with the trailer and the car...before adding spares, tools, tires, etc.

Mike

silver44

What's the GCVW of your truck? What is it rated to tow? Granted I have a diesel, but its 20,000# and I am within a couple of thousand when I pull. Does anyone else use these numbers? As someone once told me, its not a matter of how much it can pull, but rather how much can it stop? Just throwing this out there.

Astro0boy

Vlocity, do you have any more pics of your cabinet work? I'm interesting in building some, too. I'd love a closer look at what you did.

JBH

I recommend a beaver tail trailer - it makes loading/unloading so easy. You might look at used trailers too. The time is right - as winter approaches, people start to think about making changes for Spring.

dmoffitt

Yeah, the ones I'm looking at all have (hidden?) beaver tails built into the floor, like this:



It does look quite handy for loading the car. I'm actually very seriously considering one from Cargo Express - an 18ft, looks like this:

http://www.cargoexpress.com/index.ph...=1&key=5&hit=1



I figured I'd build some shelves / a tire rack up front, still have room to load the car (slightly forward for ~10% more over the tongue, right?) and have room on the sides for some jugs, maybe hang one of those organizer things on the door for fluids, paper towels etc?

My F150's GVWR is 6800, max 7050, towing max 9500, the trailers I've been looking at are in the 32-5300lb range with a max loaded weight of 7000ish. The Z's curb weight is 3200lb and some tires and minimal other stuff (part of the point of getting a smaller trailer, less room for less crap and less weight lol as M758 said) that I should be ok? I realize "ideal" is overkill aka a big heavy turbo-diesel pulling a light aluminum rig, more weight in the tow vehicle etc etc, but I think this should be fine, right?

dmoffitt

oh yeah, I'm totally open to used btw, where should I look? I didn't see anything in the Classifieds

MPD47

www.racingjunk.com

dmoffitt

Thanks Mike. Didn't find anything all that exciting (no sense in saving $3-400 for one that's several years old, no warranty)... most of the good deals are the 40-45k ones going for 18-20, waaay out of my entry-level price range... maybe in a few years...

I did, however find a cheap fat lady :