Those of you who tow a car hauler (not a tow dolly) - some questions

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John Canfield

John Canfield

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Never in my wildest imagination would I think I've ever consider anything other than towing the Jeep 4-down, but never say never....

We have a moderately built up Jeep Rubicon rock crawler with expensive tires (again) on her - the last set was only a year old.  I can see us going through a set of tires per year with the hard off-roading we do and the associated tire scrub while towing.  At $300 a tire, this isn't working out real well  :eek:.

So I'm now thinking about an open aluminum car hauler - in fact I'm working with a private seller right now that's selling a 2008 18' Featherlight car hauler.

Those of you who tow a trailer/car hauler, how has that worked out for you?  I realize that pulling a trailer adds an entire layer of complexity with campgrounds - I know that we always can't find a pull-through site, or a pull-through long enough for our 40' Horizon with Jeep in tow.
 
We are not doing it, but are seriously thinking along those same lines. It will be interesting to see how this thread pans out. Be blessed.
 
When the DW and I started Park Hosting, we were using a 28 ft car hauler behind our FC35 Bluebird, mostly for the convience of her having a Washer and dryer and a Deep.-Freeze. Plus her sewing room. [A blind hemmer, a serger, a straight stitch sewing machine, a fancy stich sewing machine, and a miniature straight stich sewing machine.] I also got to put my Fiero in it on occasion. It worked out pretty good, with only about a loss of 1-2 miles per gallon. That had to end due to the new 40 ft Bird putting me two feet over length for most states.
 
If you have the room you could always just get a 2nd set of wheels/tires and swap them when you get to wherever you want to be.  You would have to deal with loading/packing the wheels up somewhere but that might be a good option. 

We got + 50K miles out of our wrangler unlimited stock tires..... about 41K miles driving & another 12K miles being towed behind our RV.  I couldn't imagine how slow these jeeps would be with big/heavy offroad wheels.... I am sure the new close to 300 HP motor helps... unfortunantly out unlimited is a 08 so it has that completely gutless v6. 
 
John, I use an 18' enclosed trailer that I can haul up to 5 motorcycles in or a car/van, etc. It is app 24' OAL and what a pain. I have not found many spots that I cannot get around with just the MH but with the trailer we are really limited. It's not like you can just unhook and move it like a toad. The biggest problem is not the OAL of 60'+ as I have driven tractor trlr before. The problem is having that trlr starting about 40' behind your seat and another 20' of length after that. It's tough to do any backing without a spotter and you need quite a bit of room. If you are just going from point A to B without need to stop than not a big deal as any trlr will follow you. Want to go for fuel, a restaurant, stop at the supermarket, forget about it. Truck stops are all that are in your future. I lose about 1 mpg with an enclosed but your open trlr should be better. I would at least suggest you rent a car trlr once to try it before you purchase one.
 
Thanks for all of the comments. 

If I had room for five large tires in a bay, that would be a thought - keep the big tires for just off-road use.  Our old 33" MT/R Kevlars (one year old) started life with a tread depth of over 1/2" - I've gone though at least half of that tread.  A lot of the tread loss was on the trail but some was due to tire scrub while towing.

Mavarick - I'm not too worried about maneuvering a car on an open trailer - I think towing an enclosed trailer would be a royal pain though due to the visibility issue you mentioned.  We use truck stops 99.9% of the time, so no worries there.

My big hangup with a trailer is the campground, service facilities, etc., and the mechanics/logistics of dealing with it.  I have been giving this considerable thought and I think I'm okay with the idea - after 70k+ miles of RVing, I have a pretty good idea of the challenges involved.
 
John,

I've given thought to this issue as well and finally decided that the benefits just aren't there. First, I expect it would cost about a 10% or greater increase in fuel dollars (1 MPG). Secondly, the PITA would be a significant factor although its worse for us since we have a gas MH. My final consideration is that the miles on the Jeep are about 40% driven and there is no savings there. We've used about 50% of the tread on our '06 Jeep while driving it about 10,000 miles and towing it some further than that; ~12,500?

You might consider one of those single wheel trailers that install to the hitch on the Jeep to carry spare tires (they are integral to the Jeep and only add about five feet to its length).

My answer? Spend the $1,000 (now have expensive tires as well - only 32", but still up there) every 18 months or so and enjoy the Jeep.

Ernie

On a more important question; where do you wheel in the east Texas area?

 
This may sound a bit silly, but is the tire wear on all 4 or mainly the front tires?  If mainly the front tires, maybe you could find room for the 2 big front tires (roof, storage bay, Jeep???) and just swap out the front tires for towing.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
...My answer? Spend the $1,000 (now have expensive tires as well - only 32", but still up there) every 18 months or so and enjoy the Jeep.... On a more important question; where do you wheel in the east Texas area?
Click to expand...

Ernie - five new MT/R Kevlar 35x12.5x17 were $1700 with shipping from Tire Rack which at the rate we tow and off-road would be at <=50% tread after one year (we do a five tire rotation.)  That tread loss is not a big deal in a passenger vehicle tire, but it's a big deal off-roading.

We're in central Texas and there are places to wheel within a couple of hour's drive, but we just joined the San Antonio Jeep Exclusive club so not sure where those guys wheel - we have done the Texas Spur Jeep Jamboree twice now (Llano on the Inks ranch) and the Palo Duro Jamboree last year (going to do it next month) held near Amarillo.

Molaker said:
This may sound a bit silly, but is the tire wear on all 4 or mainly the front tires?  ..
Click to expand...

No, not silly at all.  The front tires always take a beating when towing 4-down any time you turn (the tires scrub or don't react instantly to the direction change and they get drug a short ways before they follow the coach track.)  Since we do a five-tire rotation, we minimize that impact.

At this point, I'm about 98% in the go mode to make an offer on the Featherlight car hauler.  If it doesn't work out, it will be real easy to sell (assuming I can make a deal on it.)
 
John,
An idea you may not have thought about.  Put a hitch reciever on the Jeep if it doesn't already have one and get a drop hitch where you can pull the empty trailer with the jeep.
My thought is if you get into tighter areas you can unload jeep and pull the trailer to get situated.  Maybe in some cases you could even pay for 2 sites...
Just a thought...<shrug>
 
Phone handshake to buy the trailer.  Photo attached  :).  I will pass along updates about our experience towing the trailer - first chance will be next month when we take the Jeep to Palo Duro (Amarillo) for the Jamboree.
 

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Nice--Good Luck.
I think you'll be happy unless you go into alot ot tight areas or places where you bottom out back or RV or trailer.
I'm betting on you liking the set-up for your situation. 8)
 
Thanks Derby!  I have a feeling the RV learning curve just got reset while we learn to deal with pulling a trailer.  Oh the new stories we will accumulate  :D.  One great benefit will be that we can back up - there has been situations where we wished that was possible when towing 4-down.
 
Money has exchanged hands  :)

We left the ranch at 0800 headed to the rendezvous (four hour drive), inspected the trailer (no problems), did a bill of sale, checked out the clear and signed title, handed over an envelope full of $100 bills, hooked up the new Rubi hauler and off we went.  Didn't get back until 1730 hours (yeah, I did a hitch in the military  ;) )

The trailer needs new tires (not unexpected), needs a spare tire, and I want to buy the storage box that fits on the tongue.

It towed great and didn't bounce around like my unloaded 20' equipment trailer.
 

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Looks good John,  I always wanted one of those for hauling my lighter stuff, but never have found one of those envelopes full of $100 bills. ;D

Remember to pack the wheel bearings and check out the brakes.
 
Ned said:
Too many toys, John :)
Click to expand...

Another trailer (#3) to buy a tag for  ::).

BigLarry said:
..Remember to pack the wheel bearings and check out the brakes.
Click to expand...

The seller repacked the wheel bearings and I was going to get the manual on the axles/brakes and do a brake job (if necessary), but I think I'm going to take it to the Featherlite dealer in San Antonio to have an aluminum tongue box added and I'll get them to look the brakes/bearings over.

I think I'll pull the tires off today and take them down to the tire shop I use and get some new shoes.  Need a spare tire/wheel also.

The brown Santa is delivering the brake controller for the coach this afternoon (Tekonsha P3), so there's another project.
 
You are a glutton for punishment John! :))  We are having the same issues with tire scrub and wear with the Rubicon too. My second set of tires sounds like we are driving on cobble stones all the time! I don't think I am ready to go the trailer route yet though.....
 
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