Help picking a tow vehicle and trailer for my Caterham

[pethier]

20 hours ago, savagete2860 said:

As for securing the car, I am going to have them put in E Tracks. Would the erickson tie downs work if the rear ratchets need to be in front of the to rear tire rather than behind? I imagine it wouldn't make a difference? https://www.etrailer.com/Car-Tie-Down-Straps/Erickson/EM58523-09162-4.html#exp-productdetails=.all-description 

 

Video of the straps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4cK1aOsdbQ

I have bought from Steve at Autohauler Supply and have been happy.  Last year I treated myself to a new set of over-the-tire straps and these are the best ones yet. Ratchets are silky-smooth.  Right now they are $36.95 a corner.

 

https://www.autohaulersupply.com/products/2x11-ratchet-hdor-endshdorauto-idler-lps-dw-554676?variant=49012265746738

[pethier]

20 hours ago, savagete2860 said:

As for securing the car, I am going to have them put in E Tracks. Would the erickson tie downs work if the rear ratchets need to be in front of the to rear tire rather than behind? I imagine it wouldn't make a difference? https://www.etrailer.com/Car-Tie-Down-Straps/Erickson/EM58523-09162-4.html#exp-productdetails=.all-description 

 

Video of the straps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4cK1aOsdbQ

I always go off the ends of the car, but that's really because I am used to tying down cars like an Elise where you have no choice.

 

I see no reason why a guy could not tie down a Seven by having both ratchets between the front and rear tires.  The geometry of the strap holding the tire to the track is the same either way.   I don't recall seeing a formula car tied down that way, but there is no reason it would not work.

 

BTW, the guy doing that youtube video is not that good.  Among other things, there is no good reason to tie up your strap ends like that on an enclosed trailer.  That's only to keep them from flying around in the slipstream.

 

Also, I looked again at the site and I don't understand why you want those rings and the of the straps.  This set is like mine, and it is 31.95 a corner:

 

https://www.autohaulersupply.com/products/ultimate-horizontal-e-track-wheel-strap-low-pro-553719?variant=50221642744114

 

I have never tried that Erickson brand, but I cannot imagine they would be any better.

[pethier]

44 minutes ago, pethier said:

I see no reason why a guy could not tie down a Seven by having both ratchets between the front and rear tires.  The geometry of the strap holding the tire to the track is the same either way.   I don't recall seeing a formula car tied down that way, but there is no reason it would not work.

I can see a reason.  On one side of the car the exhaust system could be in the way.  You might have room for one ratchet and not two.  Then again, there is no reason that the ratchet end has to be exactly in-line with the main piece of E-track. On the exhaust side of the car, you could run the front-tire ratchet behind the front tire.  The ratchet for the rear tire could sit offset from the main E-track and anchor to a short track placed for that purpose.  A single could do it.  If it is a single, I'd be sure that one is through-bolted.

 

I put my E-track in this trailer and through-bolted all of it, except where the hole hit a steel frame member I tapped the frame for 1/4-20.  When I bought the Caterham, the tracks were too far apart for the single-strap method.  I put in a second set of tracks butted up against the originals.  Since I didn't have a helper, I screwed this second track to the deck except where I hit a steel frame member I tapped the frame for 1/4-20.  Usually, the Seven lands so I put one clip in each track and the strap runs at a slight diagonal over the center of the tire.  With the wider wheels I now have for the Caterham, I will probably be on the original outside tracks.

 

Time for lunch.  The pounding rain and light hail seems over...

Edited April 17 by pethier

[savagete2860]

The weather has been cold and wet the last few weeks which has been holding up trying out my new trailer. My Caterham's radiator also decided to spring a leak, as they apparently like to do. Because of that, I have not been able to load up my car on the random decent days. I managed to sort the radiator and figured I'd load up the trailer and see where I could get the tongue weight using a scale I bought.

 

This is important not only to see if I can even get under 15% window for tongue weight but also to see where my payload capacity lands with a loaded trailer. After passengers and fuel, I only have ~970 lbs left for available payload with no trailer, tools, hitch, etc, so I am going to be cutting it close.

 

I put the car on the trailer, near the rear, and lowered it onto the scale. Bam - 250 lbs! I was starting to think the scale they used at the trailer shop was wrong since it ranged from like 700 down to low/mid 600s depending on car position. I was pretty happy because I am aiming for 365-550lbs and with how far back the car was, that should be simple to hit. I pushed the car to the front of the trailer and lowered onto the scale again, not is at 200 lbs. Huh.. turns out MY scale, not the shop's scale, was a dud and wouldn't measure over 200 lbs. I am now waiting on a replacement scale to try this all again and I still don't know exactly how I will load the trailer up or what my available payload will be.

 

Figured I would post some pictures of my almost complete tow setup.

 

Here is the full setup after I bought the trailer. No car loaded.

 

 

 

These are all from today...

 

Also discover the bell housing/skid plate gets hung up on the ramp door with me in the car. It just clears when the car is completely unloaded though.

[toldfield]

I bought a set of Race Ramps to lessen the angle so my car would not hang up when I loaded/unloaded it.  They are light and work just fine.

[pethier]

On 5/2/2026 at 4:48 PM, toldfield said:

I bought a set of Race Ramps to lessen the angle so my car would not hang up when I loaded/unloaded it.  They are light and work just fine.

You beat me to it. 

I don't really need my Race Ramps for my Sevens, but I believe that's because my trailer has a beavertail.   The nose cones of my Sevens easily clear my ramp.  It is nicer to use them because it is smoother.

The trailer belonging to savagete2860 appears have a flat floor.

I originally bought the Race Ramps because my first trailer had a flat floor and I would catch something on the bottom of my wife's TR4.  I originally solved this with Rhino Ramps under the back wheels of the tow vehicle, but that's a real pain.

For the Elise I needed the Race Ramps not for high-centering but because the front overhang on my Elise would hit the trailer ramp before my front tires reached the ramp.  The little flip-up wedge with the piano hinge on the end of the ramp did not help.  I took off the wedge and the trailer ramp fits well in the notches in the Race Ramps.  This also made my little winch work easier because instead of two planes to get up from street level to trailer level (trailer ramp + beavertail), I have three (Race Ramps + trailer ramp + beavertail).  The inclination of the trailer ramp is reduced.

Bonus is that the trailer ramp is easier to lift without the weight  of the little flip-up wedge.  I can toss the trailer ramp up with one hand and then use both hands to shove in a Race Ramp before the trailer ramp falls down again.

For savagete2860,  Race Ramps should eliminate the need for the little flip-up wedge with the piano hinge and solve the high-centering problem. 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by pethier
There was a funny echo in there.

[pethier]

In your next-to last photo, it looks like your hinges might be too low.  Photos can deceive.

 

If you slap a yardstick against your trailer ramp and side it forward, does it hit your trailer floor?

 

Put another way, does the yardstick strike the vertical surface at the back of the trailer?

 

I believe if I put such a such a yardstick flat against my trailer ramp and pushed it forward, it would pass over (the beavertail portion of) my trailer floor.  I'm not going out at midnight to check it.

 

 

[Taber10]

Haven't digested this whole thread, but the sump problem on my 7 is easily solved by jacking up the front of the trailer with the trailer's jack, taking all of the "travel" out of the tow vehicle's suspension.  This makes the angle from the trailer ramp to the trailer floor much less, even straight depending on the parking location.  Of course I do have a skid plate on my 7, and I have sanded down the forward edge of the trailer ramp a little bit.

[pethier]

3 hours ago, Taber10 said:

Haven't digested this whole thread, but the sump problem on my 7 is easily solved by jacking up the front of the trailer with the trailer's jack, taking all of the "travel" out of the tow vehicle's suspension.  This makes the angle from the trailer ramp to the trailer floor much less, even straight depending on the parking location.  Of course I do have a skid plate on my 7, and I have sanded down the forward edge of the trailer ramp a little bit.

I have done that also.  It has the advantage of not needing to buy Race Ramps, and the disadvantage of putting more strain on the trailer jack and the person powering the jack.  

 

Another factor to toss into the mix is how you get the car into the trailer:  Push it, winch it, or drive it.  For me, the best way for me to get any kind of car into my trailer is to winch it.  With my 3000-pound Champion ATC winch, I can get my 3000-pound Cayman or one of my 1300-pound Sevens in placed exactly on the E-tracks by walking alongside the car with the steering wheel in on hand and a little wi-fi remote controller in the other.  When the Champion remote died, I bought a two-pack of remotes of another brand from Amazon for lunch money.  I devised a system using E-track parts to change the lateral position of the winch to suit the placement of the "extraction" connection on any car.  The Elise is on centerline.  The Cayman and Sevens are offset by various distances.

Winching allows one to observe how everything is clearing.  Also handy for cleaning the stones off your tires while the tread is still warm.
 

If I was going to put a Seven into a motorcycle trailer, I'd want to winch it.  With a light, narrow trailer, a smallish truck, and a Seven, the Taber10 method makes sense.  Even if the trailer floor is uphill, the winch method makes placement a breeze.  After you get the car placed, put your straps over the tires and disconnect the winch cable.

 

Be careful when selecting the winch.  I started with a 1500-pound winch of another brand from Horrible Freight.  The design was faulty:  It allowed the cable to climb over the rim of the spool and a get jammed between the spool and the frame.

Don't bother with trying to wire the winch to your rig.  A substantial jump box runs the winch just fine.  I have my trailer set up with lugs inside near the right door to connect a jump box (or in a pinch, jumper cables).  My trailer has a recessed step inside the door, and the jump box rides and operates there.  The jump box is easily recharged in my shop or motel room.

[pethier]

On 4/17/2026 at 8:39 AM, 7Westfield said:

I tow a friend's Formula Ford in a similar trailer. I load it as far back as possible. Then several hundred lbs of "stuff" goes in cabinet at the front, and a rack above the car, roughly at the trailer axles. Never weighed it, but my guess is 4000 +/-.  Towed w/ Suburban 2500

When I load the 7, it goes a bit farther forward, with the rear straps crossed in an X pattern.

We just use a fixed length loop thru each front a-arm, and ratchets at the back

I'd say start with the nose a foot from the front of the trailer, and work from there.

 

When he quits racing later this year, I'll be using my little open trailer for the 7, prob just put a hitch on the Accord

over the years, I've found the Sub to be real picky about rear tires. Get a set with weak sidewalls, and it can dance in a crosswind

Don't think much of the terrain tires on my F-150.  The Michelin all-weather LT tires on my Suburban 2500 were much better.  On the F-150, I keep the tires at 80 PSI all the time and use the sway-snubber. 

[savagete2860]

Thanks everyone for you commets and advice so far. Made some more progress today.

 

New tongue weight scale came in, and it wasn’t accurate at all either. These things are junk. It would weigh the tongue weight at ~200-300 lbs which just didn’t seem right. I decided to just strap the car down and drive to a CAT scale and get real weights.

 

truck

steer axle: 2800lbs

rear axle: 2240lbs

trailer axle: 0lbs

 

truck + trailer

steer axle: 2560lbs

rear axle: 3020lbs

trailer axle: 3100lbs

 

So the loaded trailer was 3650, and tongue weight with where I happened to place the car, was 540lbs, pretty much sport on 15%. That also gives me about 100+ pounds more payload than I thought I would have which is great. I can probably move the car back a foot and gain even more payload if I ever needed it.

 

Strapping the car down was... interesting. I am new to ratchet straps, etrack, etc. I put it all together and wasn’t 100% confident on how tight the straps need to be or where to place them. I just cranked away until it was not that easy to do more. I checked after a few miles and the straps didn’t move or loosen, so must have been okay? Here are a bunch of photos of the car strapped. Does it seem okay or should I change anything? Should I leave the car in gear with the ebrake on? I do have drings I can certain use in addition to the over the tire straps if that would be a good idea as well.

 

The truck with the trailer loaded with the car drove fine, albeit I was not on a high way and only was going between 30-55mph. You can certainly tell the trailer has more weight with the car loaded though. Its much more sluggish in every area.

 

 

[pethier]

You don't need those rubber blocks on wide tires.  I stopped using them long ago because they were a right pain on my lowered Elise.  You can test the theory by leaving them off on one wheel.  If the strap is placed correctly, it's not going anywhere.  If it is placed incorrectly, I don't think the blocks are are going to help much.

 

It probably does not matter, but I tend to have the parking brake on and the car in neutral.

 

I use the space behind the car to stack up my race ramps and use a 1" ratchet strap from one E-track to the other to hold them in place.  They weigh almost nothing.

 

Ignore the D-rings.  The car needs to move on its suspension.  A Caterham does not offer much in the way of good places to hook tiedowns:  That's what is so good about using the tires. 

 

I have a short strip of E-track about shoulder height on the side wall of the trailer near each corner of the car.  About 6 slots: three for a tire strap and 3 for whatever else is hanging around.  Since I run my ratchets ahead of the car, I generally only disconnect the after clip of the three on the front straps and leave the assemblies lying on the trailer floor while I am driving the car.  When the trailer is used for something else, I hang the front straps on the wall E-tracks.  With all three clips fastened, the mass of the straps themself is unlikely to cause any trouble. Don't just clip two; you don't want that idler roller swinging around when you are towing an empty trailer.

 

If you need to put the car in the trailer and don't have time to tie it down right then, take one of the straps and put it in the driver footwell of the truck so you you don't come back later and drive the rig away.

[SENC]

Maybe the #s you posted were before moving the car around a bit, but it looks to me like your tongue weight is 780lbs (3020-2240).

 

As to the tie downs, the last picture shows the rear side dropping straight down to the swivel.  I was always taught to "tuck" the straps down inside the outer circumference of the tire... ie., move that swivel roller a slot or two closer to the tire.  I'm not certain my way is "right", but it does provide more strap-to-tire contact area and allows less movement.  Do similarly with the anchor on the front side of the tire if you don't use the yellow ramps.

 

Like Pethier, with 4 tires strapped I tend to engage the parking break and leave the car in neutral.  I tighten my straps down quite tight, then make a point of stopping in the first 50 miles for a quick check of strap tension.

Edited 1 hour ago by SENC