Buy a trailer (instead of a pickup truck)

[sparkg]

I have one of those light duty fold up trailers. I've used it on a couple of vehicles - Outback, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry. Now, I've taken off the hinged back half, moved the wheels up so it's about a 4 x 4 ft trailer. Bought a hitch for my Honda Fit to use a hitch bike rack and use it for picking up a couple sheets drywall, plywood, 2x4's, mulch etc. Sometimes I throw my kayak on it, just back down the ramp and slide it off the back.
Of course you have to keep it light but even a couple hundred pounds capacity will haul a lot of stuff.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by BlueCruxHF

Interesting points...and brings me to wonder if I want a trailer now. My HF has standard brakes (i.e. non-powered), and is marginal on just braking itself, much less a trailer.
I wondered about it pulling one to begin with, the motor is tired with 200,000 miles on it...but the brake problem is gonna snuff that idea now anyway. Trailer brakes are an option, but your adding quite a bit of weight with drum brakes to the trailer... Round and round we go...lol.
Now I am still gonna go with a rack for the back...you can get them in aluminum and pick them up with one hand, but still big enough for trash cans or coolers and such.

In some states a trailer with trailer brakes requires inspection every year or 2.

[BlueCruxHF]

Bobmutch says "big hit" on gas when he has his trailer lol...my 08 Taco only gets 20 mpg when empty! Smile, your still doing well at 30mpg my friend.
I actually considered buying a Golf, but my fear of solving problems with the diesel steered me toward the CRX. I have good skills in fixing gasoline powered old school cars, but am weak at diesel...I bet your little diesel is alot better at pulling than my CRX though..

[Jakins]

I'm thinking about making one out of a 240sx rear sub frame and then building the deck on it out of wood and then covering it with coroplast to make it aero dynamic. Just big enough for 4 bikes. And then pull it with my civic

[danwat1234]

That's the main reason why I installed a hitch on my '99 Civic auto along with a 4 way flat light connector. I'll just borrow a trailer from u-haul if I want to take a riding lawn mower in for service or get something at home depot or even to move since I don't have that much junk (though that would be 1500LB or so with trailer, that'll be fun but I would).
If you aren't planning on towing a lot, often, don't get a truck, pimp out your car with a hitch. Automatic transmissions have the benefit that the fluid heats up rather than the clutch and they are less jerky so all you have to do is keep the fluid from getting too hot and you are set. With some cars you can jumper the radiator fan to be on constantly by jumpering the coolant temperature or something.

[Real_Ale_Act]

I have a Kia Soul, '11, with a manual transmission. I installed a trailer hitch, and bought a little 4x6 trailer from Tractor Supply. I did this mostly because I was tired of cleaning straw out of the vehicle from bringing bales home for the garden. The vehicle/hitch are rated 2000 total/200 tongue.

The best mileage I have ever gotten, bar none, on the trip home from town (which is mostly downhill), was when I put 30 cinder blocks in the trailer (fills the bed near-perfectly) and got 51.5 mpg.

The most I've loaded, and the most I want to load ever, with this rig, is a 1/3 yd supersack of gravel. Exactly 1000 pounds. Only got 48.5 mpg on the trip home with that one, which is comparable to my non-trailering trip economy.

Uphill into town mileage is not as good as no-trailer, but it's not that much worse. I don't have numbers though.

I would not recommend doing this with an automatic version of the Soul. I don't know anything about how robust the automoatic trans. is, but I do know it's a bit of a dog, and certainly not optimized to keep it in the high rpms you'd need to start weight moving, or to keep it from running away with you down hill. But with the manual, and a solid knowledge of the torque curve and how to downshift, it's do-able!

Does anyone know if there's anything I can do to make the trailer itself more aerodynamic? It's expanded mesh for the most part. I've bolted the license plate to the fender instead of the straight-down-from-the-taillight bracket. Does bolting a sheet of ply to the bed make any difference?

[hsus2k]

I skipped few pages, no sure anyone thought of or mentioned renting trailer when they need it?
Here in north Atlanta, on CL, they have trailer for rent at $35 per day.
I rented the 6X10 trailer, pull behind my 87' Mazda B2000 hualed a 1970 Subaru 360 body shell and full truck load of parts from Tenn. (over the Mt.)and back (over 1000 miles trip, Gasoline cost more than the trailer rental!)

I used to have a car hualer trailer, a Snowmobile trailer and Small ultility trailer; but they took too much driveway space and had to register every year and pay for the Tax on them.

I finally got rid of them, and just rent the trailer.
I've also got rid of my WVO burnning F250 and the B2000 truck now.
We have trailer hitch on all our cars except wife's Camry.
We still have the Suzuki Samurai and My WVO burnning TDI GOlf to tow small stuff and the Honda minivan for the heavy stuff.


But I 'm think of building a "swivel wheel" trailer to hual my mini/micro cars.
The thing I do not like regular axle trailer is I'm not very good at backing up!
Too easy to jacknife on me. with swivel wheel type trailer will not happend, but they are expensive to buy; usually over $2000, and I can't find any used ones yet!
So, I'm going to build it myself; there are people selling just the swivel wheel and suspension ($200) on ebay.
I'm thinking of buying the HF (Cheap) trailer and covert the wheels and axle into the Swivel wheel trailer for under $500

[P-hack]

got a tow hitch on my prius, and a $300 menards 4x8 trailer. A few people have actually gotten angry at seeing a tow hitch on a prius, strange country this is, doesn't fit their worldview or something, but it is perfect for my occasional hauling/camping purposes.

[NoD~]

Anybody use their car for camping... like pulling a pop-up tent trailer? Curious on that one.

[ron]

Here in calif. many contractors pull box trailers with a shop set up inside and that way they save gas and have all the toys on the job. secured&insured at the same time.