TRAILERING YOUR RACE CAR – Part One

To find a trailer for your race car on a budget can be a real challenge. The best way to go shopping is to know in advance what your needs are, and then stick to your budget. There are a lot of fancy trailers out there for big bucks that might not meet your needs, but with a little research you can find a budget one that will do everything you need. Before I purchased mine, I spent some time at the track looking at other racer’s trailers and asked a lot of questions, then I borrowed one from a good friend for my first race weekend. After that I hunted the internet and the classified ads, and then went to a couple of sales lots. I finally found a dealer that made their own trailers and had them build one for me with only the options I was looking for. For about $2200 I got just what I needed from Gravely Trailers.

The first concern with trailering a race car is its ground clearance. Race cars are usually pretty low to the ground, and many have front spoilers as well. This makes a shallow angle loading platform necessary. An enclosed trailer with a  big fold-down rear door would work nicely, but that was outside my budget. I looked into a couple of tilt-bed trailers as well, and they were still outside my budget. But the problem with the usual cheap, open, car-hauler is that the deck is relatively high, creating a steep loading angle. My car has 4″ of ground clearance at the spoiler which protrudes 28″ from the front wheel centerline, so I need a trailer loading deck angle of 28:4, or 7:1.

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A standard car-hauler has a deck height of 20″, so that would require ramps 140″ (almost 12 ft) long to load my car without dragging the nose; hardly practical. I’ve seen some racers build removable nose pieces for their race cars as an option, another I’ve seen is using taller trailering tires. But the solution I was looking for was a lower deck height. So I had the manufacturer use 4″ drop axles on the trailer which lowered the deck to 16″. The trade-off is now that the fenders ride higher above the deck, so I can’t open the car doors while on the trailer.

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I then had a dove-tail built into the deck lowering the tail end another 4″. I upgraded from the standard 5 ft ramps to 6 ft ones, and now almost had the necessary loading angle. In theory, with a 12″ rear deck height I would need 84″ (or 7 ft) ramps.

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I added a couple 2×6 boards for the last bit of needed ramp extension. After a of couple race weekends, my back told me that the 70 lb each steel ramps had to go, so I spent $200 on a set of aluminum ones weighing 20lbs from Discount Ramps. The trailer’s low tail height certainly dragged on many driveways and gas station ramps, so I added some small wheels under the tail to aid over the transitions.

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Some other considerations for your trailer decisions:

• Steel vs Aluminum frame – steel is stronger, heavier, cheaper, and can be welded up at any truck-stop along the highway; while aluminum is lighter, more expensive, and more difficult to repair. I decided on steel. I now live near the ocean, so the rust factor is obviously an issue as well.
• Steel vs Aluminum wheels – same considerations as the trailer frame, again I went with steel.
• Wood vs Steel deck – wood is lighter and cheaper, steel is heavier and more durable. I chose wood.
• Flat deck or side rails – personal preference, I like flat.
• Tie down rings, external or built-ins – wood decks require external, steel decks can use flush built-ins.
• Tongue and coupler – your tow vehicle will determine this.
• Electric vs Hydraulic (surge) brakes – again personal preference. Electric requires extra wiring and a controller unit for the truck, surge type requires hydraulic lines. I prefer electric for the easy adjustability of braking force.

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