weldcrane

atc makes a real nice enclosed trailer good size dealer in conn called trailer depot good people large selection to chose from

PowerplayDave

Try to find trailer with 81 inches between the fenders, there are a lot with 77 inches. When i load my race car ride height is 3 1/2 inches. I attach trailer to truck and jack as far as it will go up then lay down some boards to extend ramps. I have a steel trailer and i cut fender in half and pinned to remove. Steel trailers require more upkeep then aluminum but is way more expensive. In my view it's just a trailer to get my toy a to b i rather spend money to go faster then have a fancy trailer.

Rippem

Timely.

been shopping myself. Very competitive. Easy to +50-100% what you want to spend. Gotta be realistic.

What I need is a do everything open trailer to keep and use for many years

. I have a 27' aluminum enclosed for sleds but it is finished inside to the max and don't want to trash it with junk and mud ect.
Plus there are everyday tasks that are absolutely suited for an open trailer and the ease of loading/unloading.

I need to get around a couple commercial zero-turns, four 4-wheelers, lumber, pallets, dump/junk runs, and last of all use it for a car/small tractor ect. in the future as I will be messing with other stuff as I semi-retire/retire.

18 or 20' is all I foresee needing and I believe for me a car trailer is the best all-around use trailer to buy to keep.
The landscape type is out as Ideally I don't want rails. The only convenience are the swing gate ramps for 80% of my use.
I want to be able to get whatever onto the trailer easily virtually 360*

The spread in a steel 7K wood deck is $7-800 depending on quality, features ect. Once you get into the low 3's in steel, you might as well shop alum. The only thing I hear about alum is @7 or 10K the trailer is so light they bounce around pretty good with a light or no load.

So as a value-for-occasional use to me, it appears a 7K steel wood deck 18' or 20'under $2500 is where I look to be.
The down sides are:
unloaded weight to move it around
Being here in NNY I wouldn't want to use it in the winter, unless I had to, and have both the finish and structure last indefinitely.

There are dozens to choose from! The SureTrac seems to be higher end readily available and priced accordingly.

Is the powder-coat really that much more durable than paint on them?

I know my story is different but for the reasons above an open car trailer would be ideal so I am interested in anyone's experiences as much as Sydwayz

ben

iTrader: (1)

I'd go with 5k axles over 3500, price isn't much different and if you plan on keeping it for awhile you will end up using the extra capacity sooner or later. gets you bigger tires also.

Donzi1979

iTrader: (1)

I'll throw my 2 cents in. I have a 20 ft steel floor car hauler with dove tail and Does everything I need. Haul 4 wheelers, CJ 7,and an early camaro perfectly. Heck we even use it every year at Halloween for hay rides with the kids. It's heavy like 2 k plus but can drag at 75 unload no prob even with my half ton (use bags and weight dist hitch for cars and heavy loads). I didn't want to replace wood every few years so the metal floor is great. You can find mine @ sub $4k, it's aTexas Bragg Classic Car carrier I believe their are dealers all over the US. I plan keeping it a long time as it does everything we need. Another to note is how the ramps slide out from the rear and are wide with expanded metal works great when wet. I've have bad experiences with other style slick ramps and wet tires/ slicks.

http://www.texasbraggtrailers.com/pr...c-car-carrier/

jwurl

I had a Texas Bragg classic car carrier with a 20 foot deck and all the options. It was a nice trailer. Started rusting in a few years and I had it blasted and then I painted it in epoxy primer and standox single stage. I sold it on eBay for more than what I paid for it in the end but it was done right. I recently bought my featherlite 24 footer as a two year old new left over and they took almost 4K off the price. Take a look at their locator and see if you can find one that been sitting around awhile. Jeff wurl

Rippem

less expensive aluminums make me nervous.
There's an even bigger price spread in aluminum- there has to be a reason.

Wolverine is an example. Attractive price but still ur into 3500-4K for an 7K 18'. Kissing close to twice the price of steel.

Where do you draw the line? The one thing I will say is that even modestly cared for used steel that are ready-to-work appear to bring a lot of your $ back on resale.
Surprising.

ezstriper

Well have had several, waiting on another now but being jerked off by dealer, another story, but for your question, couple of things, beavertail w/long ramps, some sort of tool box with WINCH & battery inside(nothing worse than trying to push a 4000lb non running whatever up a freakin hill ! Install a onboard charger with a shorepower connecter for std ext cord(marinco makes a great one) to keep battery charged when you do need it, and last DONT buy a trailer from Chad Edwards @ LKN trailer sales...