bigdog Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Just had a trailer made for my seven by a Canadian company called Express Custom Mfg on Vancouver Island. It's all Aluminum, twin axles, 11 Ft deck and weighs about 550-600 Lbs. The best thing is with the exchange rate the trailer only cost $2,600 USD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locost7018 Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Wow that is a sweet deal!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGTorque Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 looks very nice, though i wonder why the axles are so far back? i would imagine they would be more centered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 I think the wheels/axels are off-center to help ensure that proper (significant) weight is on the tongue. Mine is the same way. Trailers dont tow well or track well if they are balanced 50-50. That is quite a deal for an aluminum trailer. I had a friend who spent $5K over 20 years ago for something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 looks very nice, though i wonder why the axles are so far back? i would imagine they would be more centered. With a trailer this short and having twin axles. The axles are much more centered than usual. Take a look at a featherlite 20-30 ft car trailer. It's axles are way, way back. When I first loaded the seven on this trailer. I took it to a not often open DOT scale house. I had to push the seven forward a bit. The tongue weight was a bit too light as I could easily lift the tongue with one hand and I still had nearly 7-8 inches of deck beyond the cars rear tires and about 12" beyond the front tires. I have now set it to 150 Lbs. The GLK's limit (per Mercedes) is 275-300 Lbs and my rear sag is only 5/8" @ 150 tongue weight. The trailer is rated to 3,000 Lbs & the GLK is rated for 3,500 Lbs. As it sits, My gross weight was right at 1,800 Lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse D Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 I do a lot of trailering, my boat especially, so I've learned about tongue weight. You really do want 10-15% of the total trailer/load weight on the tongue. Cutting this down to keep your tow vehicle level is asking for trouble. The trailer I bought for my Caterham is at the other end of the spectrum, as it is enclosed. Made in NH, it is a motorcycle/snowmobile trailer but has been great for me behind an RV or my pickup. Not cheap but my brother was buying and it has other uses. http://www.nhtrailers.com/multisport.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Another confirmation of the tongue weight importance. I have a small enclosed single axle trailer for the Birkin (w/ electric brakes), about 3000 lbs with car on it and tow it with a 5000 lbs Hyundai Santa Fe. When I had only 200-250 lbs tongue load it tended to fishtail seriously going downhill at speed or passing trucks and I had to use the manual brake override occasionally. After moving the load forward to make 330 lbs on the hitch that was all but gone. But the real difference made the sway bar that I installed this year. The rig is rock solid now at any speed or downhill grade. A little weird with the sway bar groaning loudly when turning at low speed but it works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rx7locost Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Nice looking trailer Bigdog. I think the axles look further off center due to the long tongue. Looking at the car over the axles it looks fine. You may want to move the car further forward to get ~200 lbs on the tongue. I have had no problems towing my Locost with a short wheelbase 2dr Jimmy. The car is about 1425lbs + 8 or 900(?) lb trailer. I haven't weighed the trailer after completion. The tongue weight is right at 265 lbs. The car is noticeably forward of the axle. I too have electric brakes but have not had to use the manual override at all. BTW, no sway bar either. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) Slomove! A single axle trailer and a Birkin weighs 3K!!! Yikes! That's bloody heavy. An open trailer is of course much less prone to sway than an enclosed one, And even less prone with a twin axle one carrying a car that is only two foot high for most of it's length. When I towed the trailer too the scale house to weigh it and set the tongue weight. I had very, very little sway at highway speeds, And my tongue weight was under 100 Lbs. It is now at 8% of the gross. Remember. Too much tongue weight has it's own set of issues. Like sway, Poor steering, poor braking, suspension damage. I want to be safe. But I'm also mindful of the over zealous nature of the health & safety nuts that throw one giant blanket over everything. One just needs to be aware of the situation and be willing & know how to alter the load based on how their combo of tow & towed vehicle handles. I used to own a trucking company in a former life & always pulled doubles. ALL trailers will have some sway. A key factor is to slow down a bit when towing. Edited August 28, 2015 by bigdog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) Nice looking trailer Bigdog. I think the axles look further off center due to the long tongue. Looking at the car over the axles it looks fine. You may want to move the car further forward to get ~200 lbs on the tongue. I have had no problems towing my Locost with a short wheelbase 2dr Jimmy. The car is about 1425lbs + 8 or 900(?) lb trailer. I haven't weighed the trailer after completion. The tongue weight is right at 265 lbs. The car is noticeably forward of the axle. I too have electric brakes but have not had to use the manual override at all. BTW, no sway bar either. . [ATTACH=CONFIG]9561[/ATTACH] My trailers tongue is 5Ft. & the deck is 11Ft. This makes it less likely to hit my GLK in sharp maneuvers and makes backing up much easier. As you say it's how the load is setting in relation to the axles, Not how much tongue is in front of the load. Edited August 28, 2015 by bigdog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusaNostra Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Nice dog ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGTorque Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 great info guys for my future trailer finding adventures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) Slomove! A single axle trailer and a Birkin weighs 3K!!! Yikes! That's bloody heavy. ...... Yes, I agree. The trailer started life as a tilt-bed dual motorcycle trailer and weighed maybe 700 lbs. Then I expanded the frame and built a 5-6' tall shell on top of it which got it to 1500 lbs. Add 2 spare trailer tires, the battery and some other small junk and you end up at over 1600 lbs. But it is extremely practical with the tilt-bed (no ramps needed), protects the car and tows really stable now. The Hyundai with trailer in tow gets 16-17 mpg which is not too bad. Not visible on the photo, it has a v-nose for better aerodynamics. I used it also to camp out at the racetrack. Edited August 28, 2015 by slomove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rx7locost Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Bigdog, your tongue weight seemed to be a bit on the light side for everything I have known. SO I just had to check things out. I looked at several trailer websites for recommended tongue weights. Virtually all single axle trailer mfgr's recommend 10-15%. That seems to reduce by 1% if you have dual axle trailer so, 9-15%. So your 150# of an 1800# trailer seems to be close enough to the minimum recommended weight. 8.3% vs 9% Where things don't make sense to me is the boating guys' recommendation, specifically Shore-Land'r. They recommend 6% for single and 5% for tandem axle trailering. I can't figure out the why's on how boat trailers are different than all other trailers. There are presently 4 states that require trailers over 1500# to have brakes. Does you trailer have electric brakes or didn't you bother? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 (edited) Bigdog, your tongue weight seemed to be a bit on the light side for everything I have known. SO I just had to check things out. I looked at several trailer websites for recommended tongue weights. Virtually all single axle trailer mfgr's recommend 10-15%. That seems to reduce by 1% if you have dual axle trailer so, 9-15%. So your 150# of an 1800# trailer seems to be close enough to the minimum recommended weight. 8.3% vs 9% Where things don't make sense to me is the boating guys' recommendation, specifically Shore-Land'r. They recommend 6% for single and 5% for tandem axle trailering. I can't figure out the why's on how boat trailers are different than all other trailers. There are presently 4 states that require trailers over 1500# to have brakes. Does you trailer have electric brakes or didn't you bother? Didn't bother with brakes. But if I had, I wouldn't have done electric. I would have used surge brakes. Which is the norm for the EU. The way I look at the (recommended) minimum tongue weight, is to me the same as a state setting the recommended speed limit on a curve in the highway. It is set by taking the worst case scenario (a high profile vehicle) and then making that the default speed limit for everyone. We as drivers of sevenesque cars surely know that when a curve says 25MPH that means it's 50MPH or more for us before it even starts to get dangerous. I firmly believe it is the same for towing recommendations. It's a guideline and as in all things involving politicians (lawyers) they will always over state things. However, One should always try the recommended tongue weights first, Drive and evaluate. If the recommended tongue weight is really bouncing your tow car. Then back off the weight a bit and retry it. When you get to a point that the trailer pulls straight and doesn't beat your car to death from bottoming out. Well! then you have found the happy compromise. I just made a highway trip to the Tri-Cities Washington for some maint. on the Mercedes and had a paint shop give an estimate on a respray of the seven. The trailer was very stable, I barely felt it back there. And with a bit of city stop and go along with a slow down through some of the farm communities. I ended up getting just over 28MPG for the day. On the way to the cities (before the traffic) I was getting nearly 31MPG. The speed limit on US 12 is 60MPH and that is what I was doing. Edited August 29, 2015 by bigdog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 (edited) Yes, I agree. The trailer started life as a tilt-bed dual motorcycle trailer and weighed maybe 700 lbs. Then I expanded the frame and built a 5-6' tall shell on top of it which got it to 1500 lbs. Add 2 spare trailer tires, the battery and some other small junk and you end up at over 1600 lbs. But it is extremely practical with the tilt-bed (no ramps needed), protects the car and tows really stable now. The Hyundai with trailer in tow gets 16-17 mpg which is not too bad. Not visible on the photo, it has a v-nose for better aerodynamics. I used it also to camp out at the racetrack. I see where the weight came from. It's called middle age spread, A pound or two here and there and before you can say: Bob's your uncle. It's Jabba the hutt time. Looks like a nice rig though (the car & trailer) Edited August 29, 2015 by bigdog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NVP66S Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 That's an excellent deal for a really nice trailer. I recently bought an Aluma tilt bed and with electric brakes and spare tire it was just under $4K. I love the tilt feature though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 A tilt feature would be nice. But they tend to be more complex, expensive & heavy on a twin axle trailer. My drive has just a little incline to it and it was a breeze to load my seven. I guess that if I find my self having issue at the unload spot. I can always buy another set of ramps and place them half way down my current ramps. Which will very much reduce the over all climb angle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee break Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Did you consider getting a closed trailer? What was your requirements? I've pondered getting one, but that's about it. :willy_nilly: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Did you consider getting a closed trailer? What was your requirements? I've pondered getting one, but that's about it. :willy_nilly: Most 12ft closed trailers that I found were single axle. A move to a twin axle would put me in a 14ft that weighs nearly as much empty as my trailer with the seven on it. My requirements were that I did not want to have such a heavy set up that I would have to buy a fuel hungry truck. Most of my driving is without a trailer. So I wanted a tow vehicle that was economical when not towing. The Mercedes GLK twin turbo diesel fit the bill. It can tow up to 3,500lbs. Last week when I went to Canada the GLK returned 43MPG. On Friday I towed my seven to a nearby city and got 30MPG. The GLK is also AWD and since I bought it in Germany I'm into it for only $35,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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