Harbor freight has some solid rubber ones that are fantastic. Great for when you forget they are there and you run them over. $8 non sale price i think.

 

Yeah, I have like 4 pairs of the HF ones, they're super useful.

Can you swap out the heavy steel ramps for some aluminum ones?

--Ian

 

I'll pick up some HF chocks next time I'm out. I don't see why I couldn't swap out the ramps with lighter ones, but I'll just deal with it for the time being. I'm already into the setup pretty far between the trailer and the truck I bought to tow it with.

 

That weighs in right at what my 20' steel deck trailer weighs, so that isn't bad honestly. Your silverado show tow it just fine. My wife tows our open trailer behind her '05 4runner pretty well. Just the mpg's drop to about 10 or 12.

I like to see alternatives to the usual trailer fare. I also haul my race car in a older forest river work and play toy hauler thingy. Plus it gives me a place to sleep at the track.


track setup

 

Alternators.

I think mine has been on the way out for awhile now, voltage at idle is really low and seems to cause my A/C compressor clutch to disengage while idling and some other weird stuff. But it's not performing bad enough that it's ever taken a toll on the batteries. Even when the truck hasn't been started in a month and takes a little extra cranking, there's no problems there.

I used to work at O'Reilly's and saw the reman units come back constantly for warranty exchanges and will probably avoid that, so I'm wondering if anyone here has some experience with what to do?

Buy new OEM?
Take the current unit to a small alternator shop and have it rebuilt?
Aftermarket?

My truck is a 2000 Ford F-350 7.3l Diesel if that makes a difference.

 

If you have a real alternator shop or an old school electronics kind of shop. That's definitely the way to go. I'd pick them over really any other option at this point especially for an old truck. I assume you know but be careful with voltage on those 7.3 trucks. If I remember correctly low voltage can kill some sort of electronic that's very expensive

Id call some of the local shops and see what they can do. In my experience it's been very cost effective.

 

I ordered one of these aftermarket alternators for my 7.3 since the pulley was wobbling. As a bonus, the voltage is a much happier 14.1-14.4V all the time instead of the low 13s. It’s been working well for a little over a year so far.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

That seems way too good to be true at that price haha.

I think I found a local alternator shop that can rebuild it with quality parts, gonna give that a go first.

 

So I picked up this piece of ****:




I was halfway down the rabbit hole of researching enclosed trailers, which I’m not even sure I want. This showed up at a price that was hard to say no to. Just the right size for a Miata at 16’, probably weighs less than 1500 lb, 3500lb axles and new range D tires and brakes on the rear axle. I figure I’ll use it until I’m tired of it then sell for more than I paid. Need to build some ramps for it this weekend.

 

I was also tempted by the deckover that the guy was selling in PA. I have a narrow space next to my driveway that I will eventually be parking the trailer in (need to install pavers). But the price of getting the trailer from PA to CA killed that, so I looked for something locally and found an Aluma A8818. It's very high off the ground, lol, which makes loading interesting, but I've got a setup that works and will be improving it. It uses pretty standard size trailer tires (thus the height). And given that empty it's less than 1000lbs, it tows really nicely (65+, while loaded, over the grapevine was no problem). I added some etrack the whole length of the deck and it makes strapping low cars down so easy, cannot recommend that enough.

Recently pulled an Integra from Phoenix to the SF bay area for a friend. Mileage was not as good as when I've used a Trailex CT-7031, which I assume is from the car being up in the wind more, but it was still in the teens.

I managed to get the exofish on it just fine with my long loading ramps and rhino ramps under the truck tires.

 

I'd recommend some fenders too

--Ian

 

Fortunately the car is just as big of a piece of ****, so I really don’t mind if it gets hit by road debris. I probably will get a set to bolt on though. Eventually.

 

and a tire rack. I think thats a great score on the trailer, whenever i move to a house I'll be looking for something like that and putting some money improving it

 

Ha. No way. That's my buddy's car that he just sold and also the car that I'm gunning for to break all of it's TT4 records once I'm back up and running.

Small world.

 

I used aluminium builders plank, it comes on looong lengths. If you use a very long length, you will probably need a small trestle or similar to support it around the mid point. I use c3m lengths on my trailer, unsupported.

 

10-foot long single-axle trailer and a manual-trans V8 with autobahn-ready cooling and brakes. Works surprisingly OK...

 

Love the non-conventional tow rig and your fabulous disaster of a race car. Huge fan of the control arm mounted wing. I'd be interested in seeing a build thread some day.

 

2014 E350 passenger 5.4 v8. Bought it two weeks ago and got myself, the doggo, and miata from Sac to PPIR and back with no issues and 12.7 mpg with uhaul trailer. Slow going (~55mph) on the steeper climbs, spent most of the time on cruise at 75 though, just have it a little pre tap of throttle to get downshift and get it up smaller hills.

 

Towed again with the Tahoe this weekend and I'm fairly impressed by it. Here are the figures:
Miles traveled: 555.5
Fuel used: 41 Gallons
MPG AVG: 13.5

This was with a Uhaul trailer, gear and the miata. I maintained a speed of 70 on the way to the track, but driving home at night I averaged 55.

I plan on converting from the airbags to traditional spring/shocks and running air spring kit to help the rear out a bit.

 

Tow rig got new shoes today