trailer for a light car

looking at a car. it's just over 2,000lbs wet. dimensions are roughly 13' long and 5' and a couple inches wide. this car will be going to gainesville, and that is a 1000 mile one way trip. my trailer is 18' long deck and can fit a dually between the fenders. way overkill. i would like to use the wife's truck to pull it, and the lighter the better no matter what, and on top of that i will be pulling it to the track here, and other stuff can go on a smaller trailer. i'm ridding myself of 2 small utility trailers.

how much trailer do i need? will a 6x12 landscape trailer with a 3500# axle work, or should i just go get a 5k axle and springs, get some steel, and build my own custom trailer? i know the latter is cheaper and i have built several trailers, but it takes time.

i'm used to straight up overkill, which is why i have the 18 foot dovetail with tandem 5k axles to begin with. i have an older cargo trailer that i retired to shed duty due to frame rust and could swipe one of it's axles to build from, but it has dexter 8k 8 lug torsion axles so that would surely be overkill. it would be free and allow me to get the deck pretty low though.

what are you guys doing for low light cars with small dimensions? tire rack will be in order

I have a single axle 12*6 wood decked landscape trailer with unbraked 3500lb axle that I tow the 1500lb MG upon. The trailer weighs <700lb. It has hauled a Miata and civic before with no issues. Whenever I start hauling a lot I will probably put a braked axle on it. It has a hugely heavy full width mesh ramp that I will be removing eventually and replacing with a dovetail and removable ramps for ease if loading low cars as the breakover angle is to much.

How about buying a tow dolly off CL and then selling it when you get where you are going. I've sold a couple real quick for $600 that were left here. One came with a car I bought, and one was being towed behind my mothers motorhome until she became frustrated with it.

In reply to patgizz:

You are overthinking everything if you have a dovetail 18ft car trailer.....so long as it has a suspension worth a damn, and light truck(think older f-150 spec) tires instead of those E36 M3ty trailer tires...you'll be happy. I just pulled a 3100lb car to Michigan and brought back a 2100lb car without any issue and a nice smooth ride. Even averaged 15.5mpg out of the 6.7 Powerstroke.

Wish the guy who made my trailer still did- it's 14' and weighs 700lb, including the dual 2000lb axles. I pulled my Alfas thousdands of miles with it- including 4 trips to Florida carrying a car (3 challenges, 1 Alfa convention). We've pulled that thing over most of the east with a car.

Used a 3.0l Ranger up to a 5.4l F150, currently a turbo Escape. Pulls really nicely.

One problem, though- the length of it plus the vehicle is a bad length for Michigan roads- especially new concrete ones- whatever POS concrete spreader they spec- there's a beat to the roads that sets the vehicle up oscillating up and down. Only in Michigan and only concrete.

Other than that, it's pretty awesome.

The major guts of the trailer are 2 bent sheets of 1/4 aluminum.

Other than friends who bought the same thing- I've never seen another.

I have several smaller trailers for small cars. My go-to trailer for towing an Opel is 13x6 on a single non-braked 3500# axle with 10" snowmobile trailer tires and 2000# trailer springs. It weighs under 600# and pulls like it isn't even there.

I keep trying to identify a single-axle car trailer solution for sub-3000# cars. No luck yet; might have to build one myself I guess.

I'm with yamaha on this, use the trailer you already have, so long as it has working brakes it should pull fine behind any half ton truck from this century.

What is "the wife's truck"?

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

You don't even need brakes, my 16ft tandem doesn't have them and it does just fine.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: I'm with yamaha on this, use the trailer you already have, so long as it has working brakes it should pull fine behind any half ton truck from this century. What is "the wife's truck"?

His wife has a SaaBlazer otherwise known as a Saab 9-7x

In reply to NGTD:

Which should pull a normal length tandem trailer quite well.

Yup, she has an 07 9-7x 5.3 that is rated for 6k towing. The other tow vehicle is my 05 avalanche that is rated at 8k. My thought is a lighter trailer can take 25% off the towing weight on the journey, and unless someone in GRMland will let me park a trailer and challenge car at their place for a week, might be easier to park at a hotel. We are planning to visit family in orlando the 2 days post challenge, brother in law just got hired at Universal. Then we're going to spend the rest of the week in daytona beach area.

If i have to pull 2k car on 2k trailer with 500# extra tires and gear, i'd rather take avalanche for the extra capacity and wheelbase through the west virginia mountains

I have no problem with a different trailer if it makes sense

You're still 1500 lbs under the limit, it should be fine.

I don't know why the 9-7 would be an issue. I have a 1600lb 16' wood deck trailer and we towed the e30 (~2500lbs) and all our race gear up and down the mid-Atlantic with the V6 4Runner (5k towing limit) no problem.

I'd just use the trailer you have. Safer, just as easy, and free.

My limited towing experience is that the trailer matters less than the wheelbase of the tow Vehical. This is a case of longer is definitely better. Unless the Saab is the el model I would use the bigger Vehical. Instead of a white knuckle ride you can relax and enjoy the ride.