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20' Enclosed inTech - Alternate Title: No really, towing an enclosed with a Cayenne
Just wanted to post this thread to finally introduce my new 20' enclosed inTech trailer and to assist anyone else who may be interested/curious about how to setup their trailer build to suit not only their race car and track necessities but also their (smaller) tow vehicles.
First, I'd like to thank my bestfriend Chris (Hams955) for not only being the guinea pig on several inTech purchases/builds so we could perfect our latest trailers, but also for letting me borrow his brand spanking new RAM 2500 to drive to Nappanee, IN from Dallas, TX to pickup said new trailer. When push comes to shove, I'll be the first to admit that a 3/4 or 1 ton pickup of your preferred flavor is still the best towing platform for a trailer of any size. But, when your circumstances dictate that your daily driver needs to be an SUV, and double as your tow vehicle, there are acceptable solutions available.
Second, big shout out and thank you to Mark Kitchen at KB Trailers (mark@kbtrailersales.com) . He was extremely responsive, knowledgeable and helpful during the entire ordering process. From initial contact, to the first rendition of the spec, to the first set of prints, to even the emergency change order halfway through production, Mark did everything in his power to not only make my trailer vision come true but to always be willing to find solutions beyond his direct control. If you're in the market for the best custom aluminum trailers on the market, inTech and KB trailers should be on your call list. Just so happens that he's a Porsche owner and Rennlister as well, so that comes in handy! Thanks again Mark!
With all of that out of the way. The goal of the build was for the trailer to not only be safely towable via my 2008 Cayenne Turbo, but also to be able to function as the primary storage of my track car (2009 Cayman S) while not at the track. The major factors that would be critical priorities then would be weight, weight, weight in the right places, oh, and weight. It wasn't really that bad but the 7700lb capacity of the Cayenne (though it's been well proven a Cayenne can tow significantly more safely) and more specifically, the tongue weight limits, meant we needed to be careful with planning and placement of components. Also, for the record, I am using the original 770lb tongue rating, which remains as the stated rating on the sticker for my hitch, despite the hitch not being purchased or installed until 2016. Somewhere along the way a bean counter or lawyer decided the tongue weight needed to be reduced, which means that it's impossible for you to reach the minimum 10%, let alone 15% tongue weight without being well below the actual stated towing capacity of the Cayenne. I'd much rather have the tongue weight be at or above 10% for stability, rather than the alternative which results in a very unstable trailer/towing platform.
Quick specs of the trailer:
20'x8'5' with extended (5') tongue- fully insulated
Exterior Color- Silver Frost
Interior Walls Color- Silver Frost
Cabinet and Cove Color- Schneider Orange
iCon Package- ceiling height: 6'6" (reduced from 7'), front lower cabinet deleted, side door width: 36" (reduced from 48")
5200lb Dexter torsion axles
Empty Weight- 3900lbs
Loaded Weight- 7500lbs : includes car w/full tank, 2 full fuel jugs, spare wheel set (OE Cayman R 19"), tool box (only partially loaded), all other required goodies (jack, stands, ramps,straps)
Overall the trailer ended up being about 400lbs heavier empty than I was hoping for due partially to the full (ceiling and walls) insulation, which we deemed necessary since the car spends most of it's time in the trailer. Also, having tested multiple trailer ACs in the heat at COTA in August- I assure you, you want an insulated trailer if you're in TX. Additionally, I opted for the tongue mounted generator box and the in-floor storage boxes to keep the main floor of the trailer as open as possible. All of those boxes are very robustly built (as is everything inTech builds) so they definitely added weight to the final trailer. However, I'd rather work around the weight situation than lose any of the flexibility the design has provided for me.
Now on to the pictures!
Hooked up at inTech in Nappanee ready for leg one back to East, TX:
Last Leg (and first empty haul with the Cayenne) - East, TX to Austin, TX (co-pilot checking air temps- or looking for squirrels):
Empty Interior:
Exterior Lighting test:
Loaded up:
Tongue weight:
Load bars & trickle charger
Never worry about a dead battery again :-)
Shore power at storage lot comes in handy!
Shake down testing
Main storage box fully loaded
Folding tray/wall storage with USB charging station on wall In floor battery box and winch box- no point in winding the winch cable back in when we're loading the car back up in a few hours. All coiled up for transport
All Packed up after the shakedown day at H2R:
Very happy with the stability of the entire rig over the 102 mile round trip to and from H2R from my storage facility. After having towed with various other SUVs (2008 Denali, 2010 Yukon XL) the Cayenne Turbo has proven to be the most stable and competent. The 4 corner air suspension makes for a very stable platform and no worrying about nose up driving or the need for a weight distribution hitch. The power available means you never need to worry about having enough power to merge safely and the braking power has already been tested with several infamous I35 panic slow downs/stops. Biggest gripe is, of course, fuel economy. The good news is I'm averaging roughly 9-10 mpg at 70mph cruise and on flat terrain, the transmission will shift itself into 6th and maintain 70-75mph. However, fuel economy starts dropping drastically above 70mph as long flat stretches are surprising hard to find in this part of TX, so generally speaking the truck will be running in 5th gear for most situations. As is the case with Cayenne transmission tuning in general, there are certainly times where a manual shift via the buttons is required, usually a long hold in either 2nd or 3rd gear where you'll need to manually upshift. Otherwise, I've found the transmission tuning to be very close to optimal, though the tuning does tend to prefer to shift gear for RPMs rather than rolling more boost in the selected gear.
Sweeeeeeeet. *very* well thought out. Any idea how much lighter/heavier it would have been with a wood floor?
How did you figure out the weight of all your "accessories"? Is there a trick other than to weigh everything you think you'd want to pack?
Sweeeeeeeet. *very* well thought out. Any idea how much lighter/heavier it would have been with a wood floor?
How did you figure out the weight of all your "accessories"? Is there a trick other than to weigh everything you think you'd want to pack?
Turns out- the wood floor is actually heavier than the aluminum floor. I had the thought to go with the wood at first as well but it was confirmed by inTech to be heavier, especially if you add any type of covering (vinyl, rubber dot, etc) on top. Once you see the trailers being made (the factory tour is absolutely worth it) or look underneath a completed one, it becomes pretty obvious why as the aluminum floor panels are relatively light corrugated panels that notch together. No extra barrier sheet, no 3/4" plywood, no floor covering to add additional weight. I even checked on the interior finished wall options and the aluminum sheet walls were deemed to be lighter as well once you factor in the weight of the vinyl panels and the plastic finishing/connecting components. inTech does offer their trailer interiors completely bare/unfinished so you can see the actual uprights (ala featherlite) but they do not offer a luan/wood interior wall option.
If I were really looking to keep the weight down on another build, reducing the in floor boxes would probably shave the most, first. Followed by the tongue mounted generator box and then the insulation. Another way to reduce weight would be to remove/reduce the A track and E track I had installed (both floors and wall) as inTech installs backing plate bracing for all of the tracking and lighting. Here are a few pics from my actual build (inTech provides construction photos each day as your trailer is built!) with the bracing circled in red.
Realistically though, I wouldn't want to ditch the generator box (since it gives the best option for expansion to power an AC later) or all of the in-floor boxes. The heaviest is obviously the largest box between the axles, but I also feel that's the most useful and last to go. Instead, if I were shaving, I'd lose the spare tire box (moving the spare to a wall mount) and the winch box. The winch is necessary because the Cayman sits low enough that you cannot open the doors far enough over the fender boxes to get in or out and I decided I'd rather have a winch than go with a different option (side door) for ingress/egress from the car. A GT3 on the other hand (997 and 991) will clear the fender boxes so depending on your situation, you may be able to get away without a winch at all. However, it's most certainly a better to have, and not need, than the reverse. You could always sacrifice floor space and floor mount the winch instead, deleting the box, and the same for the battery. Deleting the extra D rings and the floor A track would shave some weight as well, but the flexibility to strap down nearly any car, in nearly any fashion, was again worth the weight penalty to me. The last place I'd go to shave the weight would be the insulation though. It's already proven to be very effective at maintaining the climate, be it hot or cold, inside the trailer and that makes it a hard sell to remove.
Anddd I just realized I didn't answer the rest of your questions
Accessory weight wise, I weighed a bunch of them ahead of time (wheels/tires/fuel/jack). The tool box was purchased after the fact specifically to fit between the load bar setup I have to create my tire rack and one of the determining factors in it's selection was it's weight. I already know which generator I will be adding (Honda EU3000is) as the box was sized specifically to fit it, and it's specs are available on Honda's website. Everything else? Just load it all up and head over to your nearest big name moving company and ask them if they have a public scale. Like I said previously, I was hoping to have the trailer itself be about 400lbs lighter as that would have given me more buffer room for adding the AC (~100lbs) and the generator (~135lbs). Instead, with those added, I'll almost certainly be over the 7700lb rating of the Cayenne. I'll still be well below the GCWR (~14000lbs) even with those added, and that's a much larger concern to be, but that's a bridge to be crossed at that time. Worst case scenario would be the removal of the Cayman R wheel set to keep the loaded trailer weight below 7700lbs.
Thanks for the info! My initial thought was that wood would (heh) have been lighter, but after I posted I actually thought about picking up a piece of study ply vs "thin" aluminum and knew the answer. Just as a preference I prefer wood (less slippery for one), but I have no doubt the aluminum is a superior construction.
As far as weight, I just know there'd always be something I'd forget to weigh or didn't think I would want to bring with me. And I'm too lazy to weigh all my crap.
The tongue mount generator is the best way to go. I'd like to sketch up some plans to see if it would be possible to a full height box almost like a v-nose.
Looks like the exterior lights are LED?
Thanks for the info! My initial thought was that wood would (heh) have been lighter, but after I posted I actually thought about picking up a piece of study ply vs "thin" aluminum and knew the answer. Just as a preference I prefer wood (less slippery for one), but I have no doubt the aluminum is a superior construction.
As far as weight, I just know there'd always be something I'd forget to weigh or didn't think I would want to bring with me. And I'm too lazy to weigh all my crap.
The tongue mount generator is the best way to go. I'd like to sketch up some plans to see if it would be possible to a full height box almost like a v-nose.
Looks like the exterior lights are LED?
inTech will definitely do larger boxes (friend with a similar trailer has the box to fit a Honda 7000) but I'm not sure if they'll do one that tall. I did request if they could extend the box to follow the angle of the tongue but that was a no go- it needed to remain a rectangle. However, if you're ok with the rectangle shape-but just want taller- that's definitely something they do for front mounted ACs/Gensets on their stacker trailers so I would presume you could have them build some form of double stacked box for a regular height trailer as well without too much fuss.
As for the lighting- yes, it's all LED, both interior and exterior. That's one of the best parts of having an onboard battery/electrical distribution center. All of the interior lighting works even when disconnected from the tow vehicle, as does the dual USB charger. The LED scene lights on the curb side are a paid upgrade from the standard 120v flood scene lights, but it seemed silly to me from previous experience to have to fire up the generator just to get some decent light in a dark paddock before the sun comes up. The generator for my trailer will only be needed to run the 120v receptacles and the future AC but since I have shore power at my storage facility, I'm able to power the trailer while it's parked. The side benefit of that-besides keeping the car on a trickle charger, is the tool box has it's own power strip which allows me to keep battery packs charged for things like impact guns, go pros, etc.
Here's a picture of the full exterior light show:
inTech's pricing on the exterior lighting is very reasonable so I added several additional marker lights beyond the standard spec. Most importantly, I added the side turn signal light which you see between the axles above the wheel arches. That particular light is fantastic in that it serves various roles. At night, it's illuminated as you see there, at the same brightness as the other other markers. However, when you step on the brakes, it illuminates brighter, as a side auxiliary brake light and my favorite feature, it blinks bright and in the shape of an arrow, when you're signaling to turn or change lanes. It's especially helpful for those freeway merges where people decide to run up beside the trailer but refuse to speed up or slow down to let you over. It pretty much blinks directly at eye height for most passenger cars and makes it pretty obvious an object much larger than they are is about to impose the rules of physics upon them.
Interesting. My plan with the box would be to keep the generator, plus everything that I would ever want while on the side of the road for quick access. E.g. spare tire, 4-way, flares, bottle jack, pad for the nose jack, hitch. This way I wouldn't have to dig through the loaded trailer when I needed any of them.
I like the extra side light too. If I ever custom spec a trailer it will absolutely have large taillights with separated turn signals. I hate following a trailer with some sort of wiring fault and trying to tell if it's stoping or turning.
Quick update- I'd been pondering the upgrade to a 958 for while to get the electronics improvements, interior updates, and the 8 spd transmission. Went ahead and pulled the trigger on a '13 Diesel recently and after adding the factory hitch package and the Redarc Tow-Pro Elite brake controller- I'm once again ready to haul:
From the 958 what do you tow thread regarding the my nose down tongue pics:
Actually, it may just be a case of user error of why the tongue looks to be riding low...or it may be a case of I'll need to flip the draw bar and reverse the ball. The exterior shots were from my initial test drive with an empty trailer this past weekend after installing the Redarc brake controller. I had just washed both the Cayenne and trailer at our local oversized self serve bay car wash and had dropped the Cayenne into the low (not loading) setting to wash the roof easier. One thing I've yet to figure out over 3 years of Cayenne air suspension ownership is when the damn thing is going to retain it's previous setting, and when it's going to automatically go back to the "normal" setting. Obviously when it's been dropped all the way to loading height, it always comes back up to normal, but when it's only been in low- sometimes it stays in low for the entire next drive, sometimes it comes back up to normal.
Anyway, I'm wondering if the truck was still in the low height for those pics as I didn't notice the nose down pitch of the trailer at the time on my phone, I only picked up on it at home later on during upload, so by that time it was too late to confirm the suspension setting on the Cayenne. Previously on my 957 Turbo- normal height gave me exactly 17" of ball height which is dead on for the trailer. I admittedly assumed the 958 would be the same so I have not measured it yet but I'll be whipping out the tape measure over the next few days as I have an event on Thursday. Keeping in mind that you actually want a slightly nose down pitch with the trailer loaded, I may have to get creative if I indeed end up being too low at normal height as the Cayenne is very specific (as recently noted) about draw bar length/ball distance from pin. Most aftermarket draw bars push the ball significantly further out from the pin than the Cayenne calls for so alternate draw bar shopping will be fun.
01-18-2018, 01:06 PM
20' Enclosed inTech - Alternate Title: No really, towing an enclosed with a Cayenne
