We wanted a fully functional
car trailer that would handle anything that we needed to use it for.
We found out very quickly when we were transporting Project C-10's
cab and bed to the body shop how limited and to be honest the
factory tie downs were on the trailer. Well they weren't tie downs,
they were stake pockets actually. Who builds and sells a car trailer
with no form of tie down points for.......tying down well....a car??
While the trailer lacked tie
downs of any kind and cheap halogen lighting on it, it was the best
built for the price that we could find. Almost everything else we
looked at in that price point simply was to light weight when it
came to the type of steel tubing they used and the bracing and
supports.
We started by mounting our
Bargman deck mounted "D" ring tie downs by cutting holes in the 2"
wood deck and bolting them in with carriage bolts. We then drilled
the front steel frame and mounted our Highland ratcheting tie
straps. We use these mostly for strapping the front of cars down. We
then mounted a aluminum tool box to the front tongue of the trailer
and mounted our Westin winch inside along with our marine battery in
out Taylor battery box. On the front "crash bar" of the trailer we
also mounted some Wesbar LED work lights for night time work. They
light up the deck perfectly for loading cars at night. We mounted a
switch to the side of the battery box so it was out of the way.
We then replaced the trailer
brake safety switch, which has a long cable to attach to the truck
but is WAY to long with the new Fastway safety switch which has a
curly cord so it will never drag. (the design just makes sense....)
Fastway also supplied us with their swing away trailer jack. The
design allows the foot to swing up out of the way when driving which
increases your ground clearance which is great when you are towing
with a lowered truck. We also made up a quick release cable for our
independent 4 ga charge wires for the trailer battery.
Once we used the trailer a few
times we decided to make some more upgrades. We added a Fulton swing
away tongue jack with a wheel on it for moving the trailer around
with out a truck. We also added some angle iron inside the tool box
because honestly we found the box just to flimsy from the factory so
the angle iron just beefed everything up. We also mounted some
aluminum handles that are great for hanging locks and straps on to
keep them out of the way. We also mounted some extra storage shelves
for things like tie wraps, gloves and side cutters. We found that
where we had mounted our spare (on the side of the trailer) wasn't
doing the job so we made up a mount on top of the tool box for it
and use the Fulton spare lock to secure it in place. We also found
that our rear mounted "D" rings were to far forward for most cars so
we didn't get enough support when strapping the back of a car down
so we added two large rings at the rear of the trailer for the best
support. We have since found it sucks up there to get stuff out of
the tool box, got to come up with a new plan now.
Next up we had to address the
crappy cheap halogen lighting that came on the trailer. This is
simply a safety thing for me, if people can't see you at night your
a road hazard. We crawled under the trailer and found that while the
actual wiring was run in welded "U" channel the whole length of the
trailer (not many companies do that) they simply butt connected the
plugs for the lights to the harness. So we went to Maxxima and they
supplied us with all the items we would need to replace all of the
trailer lights, make some upgrades to the trailer as well as the
truck itself. They also supplied us with all new harness plugs for
the lights. We went along and cut off all of they old plugs and
solder/heatshrink all new ends so that we would have no corrosion
issues in the years to come. We also upgraded to all clear LED
lights with chrome mounts for a nicer look.
Our next upgrades will be
covering the wood deck with either checker plate or doing a textured
treatment like Line X to give the deck more grip. We will be making
longer ramps to make it easier to get lowered cars on and of course
finding another home for the spare (probably under the tongue). We
also want to make at least the drivers side fender removable and
upgrade the wheels to something nicer, even if they are just chrome
spoke wheels. We need to address the length of our safety chains as
they are two long for our lowered truck and are a bitch to hook on
the hitch as well as adding some more lights to the trailer for
working. We also want to add a compressed air system for filling
tires etc to either the truck or the trailer.
We look at the purchase of the
car trailer as one of those things that you will always have a need
for and other then to go with a larger one or a enclosed one you
will probably have it for a very long time so you might as well
upgraded it or build it to last and have it as safe as you can.