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I am starting to look at trailer to take the car to track days and the like. I am just going to go for a used single wheel utility trailer. Dovetail trailer are tougher to find, does it really make a big difference?

Graham

I would think that most track prepped sports cars would get hung up on most of the beavertail trailers that I've seen. Of course, I live in farm country, and most of the B/Ts around here are used for hauling tractors!

BTW, you DID mean single axle trailer, didn't you?

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Mike - Read my story at http://twinlakesseven.blogspot.com/

Yes,single axle trailer like

http://mattoon.craigslist.org/grq/5431943291.html

Graham, I'm no trailer expert. But the dovetail (beavertail) on mine acts essentially like a longer ramp. Meaning, while sitting on a flat surface, the ramps are essentially in-line with the angle of the dovetail. Looking at it another way, the angle of the same ramps would be less than if you had the same ramps on a trailer of the same height. There are a lot of ways to look at trailers but if you don't have a tilt-bed, then some of those variables disappear. The length of the ramps are definitely one major one.

You are welcome to bring your car over and see how it loads on my trailer for comparison. You can look at nose clearance entering the ramp and bottom clearance as it breaks over the hump.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

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Chuck, great into, the dovetail effectively make the ramp longer, that makes sense. How large is your trailer, my measurements are 11' by 65" actual size so I am looking for a 12'x6' trailer.

Graham

I have a flat trailer. I bought curved ramps. I also jack up the front of the trailer a couple of inches while still connected to the tow vehicle. I guess it depends how low your car is, mine is around 4" and I get a little scrape if I do not jack up the front.

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I'm at 11'9" deck (including the 20" dovetail, IIRC) and the deck is 75"wide overall, 69.5 between the wheel wells. When my car is loaded and tied down, the rear tires sit just on the top of the dovetail. The back of the car is just forward from the back of the trailer by maybe a couple of inches.

Something else to pay attention to, if you don't have too much "extra" deck length, is the location of the trailer axle relative to the deck. You won't have a lot of extra deck length to play with. Depending on your car's weight bias, extra deck length may be needed for setting the loaded tongue weight.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

I thought about trying to find a ready made trailer to haul mine on, but car trailers are way overkill for a locost, and most other trailers are either crap or have too high of a deck. So I built myself a small tilt deck trailer in a weekend. It's simple, light, and best of all, no ramps to screw with. Just pull one pine and back off. When loading the car, the front of the deck drop just as I hit the wheel stops. The trailer weighs about 500lbs and I don't have azny clearance issues loading my locost, even with my slicks, which give me about 2.5" clearance under the front of the frame and 2" under the oil pan. Getting the car on the trailer is as easy as pulling into a parking spot. I even managed to back it on when I broke a suspension arm and the front end was dragging on the ground. And compared to building a car, a trailer is dirt simple. The deck is 11' long and 69" wide to the outside of the frame. The back of the deck has a gap in the middle so the nose doesn't hit when driving on.

Kristian

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Kristian, very neat, is that a solid axle? Do you have any pics of the trailer so I can see the tilt setup.

Thanks

Graham

I don't, but I can take some next week when I get home from work. What would you like to see? The frame is all welded together, the only pivot is the tongue. It's a single piece of 3x2x.125" tube that pivots on a 3/4" bolt back near the axle centerline. The from of the frame attaches to the tongue with a trailer hitch pin. It's all balanced so when the pin is pulled the deck will tilt when empty, and when I drive the car on, it drops back down. It's easy to get on and off the hitch even with my locost loaded, there's only around 100 lbs of tongue weight. These are the axles I used, they've gone up a lot since I bought mine. Pretty sure I paid $180/side. I spent about $900 total, using all new parts except wheels and tires (winters from my wife's car), and it took a weekend to build.

http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/3 ... aQodtxMGJA

Here's a picture of the frame before I attached the axles and tongue.


Kristian

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Its great that you built one. I planned to make one but ended up needing one and found mine on Craigslist for $500. It is a single axle small car trailer which weighs about 700lbs. The only problem with mine is that it is old and really badly made. For example they only painted the top so the bottom is all rusty. I may make my own at some point and add a nice tire rack, supply boxes and possibly a tilt deck.

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2015 & 2016 EMod Florida State Autocross Champion
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I'd build something like Kristian's and use torsion axles so its low. I've seen several small and light trailers at the track for hauling around sub-1500 lbs cars with minimal ground clearance. I wish I would have thought to take some pictures. They're little more than a tongue attached to an axle with two ramps so the car has a place to sit.

My enclosed trailer has a dovetail at the back and I had to make the flap at the end of the door 2' longer to keep the exhaust from scraping. Assuming this is for your FF, I'd imagine your nose will be much lower than any point on my car. I have two friends with enclosed trailers without dovetails and they really have to watch to make sure their Sprites don't high center. Can't see it getting any easier with a lower car.

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