Any experience with “cheap” enclosed trailers?

I'm daydreaming about enclosed trailers, with the hope of buying one in the next year. Being in Georgia, it's hard to miss the cheap WOW and Diamond Cargo trailers. A quick google search shows they're poorly made and crap....

But my question is how poorly made and crap are they? Is it work my time to save a couple grand to have a way to get my car to the track with the goal of getting a nicer trailer in 3-5 years? Is there any "do this first" sort of thing with these trailers to make them last longer? Or should I save my pennies until I can afford a nicer used trailer?

I ran a 20' v-nose Diamond Cargo for a few years and really didn't have any complaints. Sold it for a few hundred less than purchase and delivery price. If you can pick on up from the factory yourself, even better. 

A friend still has the 10klbs rated version and has towed a bunch of varied things in again with no real failures.  Some trim and door pieces but nothing appalling. 

If your planned usage is race car hauler it could be worth the savings.  If you want to run a landscaping or construction business I expect it would be scrap in a few years.

The off brand ones sketch me out a bit. But we've had a "cheap" Pace (that looks almost identical to the off brand ones) for four years now with zero issues. I think they're only marginally more expensive than the off brand versions. We even got the same cheap tires as replacements (upgraded to the load range E version though) because the originals did so well. After four years the spring shackle bushings were all worn out and needed to be replaced (okay...actually probably after three years but we're lazy) but other than occasional wheel bearing greasing and a set of tires that's the only maintenance/repairs it's needed. My half joking assessment of it was 'they all come from the same factory, pace gets the ones that actually passed QC".

20 years ago i bought one of those "cheap" South Georgia trailers.  Still using it.  Has not yet leaked.  Outside is starting to not shine... thinking about painting it.  Came with Dexter axles.   It has been good for me.

I bought a slightly used, cheap 24ft box trailer in 2007. It has served me well, was well worth the money, and is so much better than an open trailer at the track that I cannot see going back.

But it is a cheap trailer, and it has not been trouble free:

It has always eaten tires. The inside edges wear out within 2-3000 miles. I have had a few blowouts, and that sucks. I am not sure this is a "cheap trailer" issue, or if it was overloaded by the previous owner.

The roof has had multiple leaks. I have used RV seam tape, and a few patches to fix, it but it still leaks a bit, and I am struggling to find out where. Water intrusion (from roof and some in the walls) has caused some wood rot, and rusting of metal box structure.

The box is pretty flimsy, particularly the roof is not very rigid, so the fasteners that hold everything together tend to loosen up. I put a luan ceiling in, and the self tapping metal screws I used like to back out. The beefier self tapping screws for the floor also tend to back out and not stay torqued. Better quality trailers use things like curved roof spars and beefier attachment of the walls to the roof to make everything more rigid.

I am currently trying to decide if I do a significant rehab of this trailer - including new axles, or if I replace it. I did a fair bit of outfitting to this one, added a ceiling, wired it for AC shore power with outlets and lighting, shelving, better placed tie downs, etc. So any "new" one I buy will likely also be a project to get it the way that I want.

We bought a cheap trailer (Anvil brand) brand new in 2018. It's leaked from day one, and a few months ago we had the front two feet of the tongue cut off and replaced because the horrible welds and rust were about to crack right off.

Every time I crawl underneath it, I cringe at the horrible coping and welds holding it together. 

Oddly enough, the trailer is still worth what we paid for it. 

We have 2 construction trailers and 1 30' car hauler all different brands but made at the same facility in Georgia.  Not 1 single problem in 15 years.  
 

I've owned about 30 different enclosed trailers in all different sizes in the last 30 years. (Not counting RVs and campers).  Some were name brand, but most were cheap.
 

I abuse these things badly- construction hauling, often overloaded, very little maintenance. I've never had one I would say had a major failure. 
 

The worst problem I ever had was with an older 26' enclosed car trailer. I had to replace an axle. But that was a "name brand" trailer. 
 

I disagree that some trailers are better just because they have a "name brand". The truth is that most of these trailers are built in some of the same plants in GA (I've been to some, and seen them rolling off the assembly line with various names on them).

Tom is right. Some trailers are poorly built. I feel like most of the issues that arise with trailers could be seen in advance with a good careful inspection.
 

I generally don't inspect that well... 

I was in the trailer building business for a while.  The stuff made up in Georgia isn't necessarily bad just light weight.   Make sure whatever you buy has a Dexter axle so it will be easily serviceable in the future.   For what most guys are doing with them such as hauling a car on the weekends they are fine.  The big difference you will find between the Georgia trailers and something a lil more expensive is the springs.  Most Georgia trailers have leaf springs where the more expensive ones have torsion axles.  The walls on the Georgia trailers are built with z channel where the more expensive ones are framed with 1x1 box tube.  The floors are usally z channel also instead of 2x3 box tube.  You will also find v nose flat tops more often because they are much cheaper and faster to build, not a problem but much less head room. The hinges and latch bars are much cheaper but completely usable.   Just like pretty much everything in life....treat it right and it will treat you right.

That looks really nice, let's talk this weekend.

In reply to RonnieFnD :

That's good info. Well balanced, and accurate. 

Where do light, steel trailers come in? I am just pulling an Elise or go-karts, so I'd like the space of, say, an 18'-er, but I don't need a trailer that weighs twice as much as my cargo. Are there steel trailers that use larger spacing to achieve lower weight but still using quality build? If such a trailer exists, it could be both cheap (less material than an overbuilt trailer) AND good (still stronger than it needs to be), which is a rare combo. 

In reply to cyow5 :

Unless you are getting into heavy equipment hauling, I would say there is pretty much no such thing as an overbuilt trailer. 
 

If you space framing members further, you have to use heavier decking materials to span them. 

...and 18' is really big for an Elise or a kart

2 karts plus racing gear can fit in a 12' single axle trailer. 
 

An Elise won't fit. It would fit in a 14' trailer, but it would have to be a double axle because the weight would exceed the capacity for a single axle. 

In reply to SV reX :

 I haul my F500 (within an foot of length of an elise) in a 6x14. For a fendered car of that length I would likely want at least a 16' length. That said, having a trailer a bit too big is better than a bit too small. 

SV reX said:

...and 18' is really big for an Elise or a kart

 

2 karts plus racing gear can fit in a 12' single axle trailer. 
 

An Elise won't fit. It would fit in a 14' trailer, but it would have to be a double axle because the weight would exceed the capacity for a single axle. 

You'd also have a really difficult time getting around it to tie it down properly.  Open trailers can be much closer to the size of the race car than enclosed trailers can because you have way more access for tiedowns.

I didn't say I WOULD use a 14' trailer. I said an Elise COULD fit in it.

The poster wanted a lighter weight trailer. That would be a smaller trailer, not one with fewer framing members. 

SV reX said:

In reply to cyow5 :

I would say there is pretty much no such thing as an overbuilt trailer. 

A trailer that can safely hold a 4,000lb car is overbuilt for a 2,000lb car. It was overbuilt to begin with, and I get no warm fuzzies from doubling an already-acceptable safety factor. A 20% increase in span would not require thicker flooring but would save a decent amount of weight. Or, you could keep the span and use lighter cross-members. 

I don't want the shortest trailer that'll fit because there are other problems with that. The Elise is heavily rear-weight biased, so I need extra room at the nose to get CG right. An 18'er gives me room at the nose to pull the car forward while still also having storage at the nose. Karts also take up way more space than you'd expect if you aren't stacking them, and a trailer makes a good workspace on a rainy day. I don't want it cramped. 

SV reX said:

I didn't say I WOULD use a 14' trailer. I said an Elise COULD fit in it.

The poster wanted a lighter weight trailer. That would be a smaller trailer, not one with fewer framing members. 

There are other ways to reduce weight than just span. 

In reply to cyow5 :

I agree that a trailer with a capacity of 4000lbs is more than is needed for a 2000lb car, but a trailer with a weight rating of 3500lbs is not overbuilt for that load.

The problem is that you are looking for a large volume trailer with a low weight rating.  No trailer manufacturing company would build that, because it is a lawsuit waiting to happen.  An 18' trailer can easily fit a 4500lb vehicle inside, and shouldn't be built with a 2000lb capacity.  Because many users WILL overload it.

But feel free to build it yourself if you like. 

For reference, a 14' single axle enclosed trailer probably has an empty weight of about 2400 lbs.  If that's a 3500lb axle, the capacity is only 1100lbs.  That won't hold a 2000lb car.  If a trailer gets up to 18', the manufacturers are gonna put 2 axles under it.  That would make it a 7000lb trailer (with a capacity of about 4200lbs).  

In reply to cyow5 :

Here's an 18' trailer that only weighs 1650lbs:

Aluminum enclosed trailer

But its a 7000lb rated trailer, with a capacity of 5350lbs

If you removed 1 axle, it would only weigh about 1450lbs.  It would be a 3500lb trailer with a 2050lb capacity.

In reply to SV reX :

Yeah, I'm not thinking something silly like a single axle enclosed 18' trailer or cutting the margins down crazy tight. I juts can't help but wondering if a steel trailer was built to be *as strong as* an aluminum one, how heavy would it be? Lighter? Heavier? Neutral? I just don't think an aluminum one is as strong as steel, especially after you downrate for fatigue. This could be wrong and frames a lot of my thinking, but it is admittedly a guess. I towed with an 18' open steel trailer that weighed somewhere north of 2250, so there's got to be a lot of easy fat to trim

I've already accepted that there's a 99% chance I will end up with aluminum, and I am okay with that. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some low-hanging fruit somewhere. If the cheap steel trailer are cheap because they use less material in reasonable places, then that is actually a good thing for my use IF it is not done recklessly. 

Talk to your local trailer dealer and ask them about minor damage one, I bought one with a small tear in the aluminum plate over the nose of the trailer and saved 2k.  Fixed it some clear silicone çaulk

just picked up a 8.5x16 cheap trailer from south georgia, towed it 2000 miles so far with no issues at all. perfect size for the europa, a little overkill for my f600 maybe. with the extra width and the 7 foot interior height it did kill my gas mileage of course, not that a 5.7 tundra gets anything approaching good mpgs normally