As a trailer guy myself, you guys are right on! The 4' width is not so significant as the extra length. You need it to balance tongue weight. MOST single axle (especially tilt bed) trailers IMHO are improperly built. They do NOT maintain 10% minimum tongue weight when empty. Add a load that is the full length of the bed, and you are in Trouble! If you've ever seen a trailer sway, you'll know what I mean. Suffice to say, if you pick up the tongue of a trailer, and it will sit on it's *** with the tongue in the air, you'd better be sure to bias your load to the tongue!

 

I bought a Triton 8 x 10 tilting trailer for my quads. It works great for "dumping" them off, but if you have snow, mud, rain, etc., it's almost impossible to drive them back on. All you do is spin the tires. As my SP500 weighs 700lbs, and my Prairie is 600lbs, they are not very easy to "lift" up, so I just use the front half of the Cat folding ramps I bought.

 

I still maintain that the Triton ATV Trailers are the way to go. All Aluminum construction and marine grade plywood with a lifetime warranty. The one I bought is side loading (either side), so it makes them easy to lock up, too. IMHO, this is the best trailer to have with 2 ATV's. Check it out;
http://www.tritontrailers.com/sl8.html

 

I prefer the Aluma LTD brand. triton is a good economy trailer, but the Aluma has an aluminum plank type floor. This keeps the trailer from flexing (this cracks aluminum easily) and lasts basically forever.

A little bath with FPPF Trailer Brite, and the entire aluminum structure looks like new again!

 

I made the mistake of trying the used market to buy a trailer to carry my SP500.

I brought the quad to this one guys house to try out the sizing of his smaller two place snowmobile trailer. I said it doesn't look like the will hold the weight and he said "Yes it will. Try it out!'. I said it was best I didn't try it, but he insisted. So I drove the quad up the pitiful thing. Sure enough it folded like a cheap blank!

I didn't buy that trailer!

SP500 in NS

 

I have an Xplorer 400 & if the trailer has sides on it, it won't fit width wise, and I would be leery about it hanging over length-wise as well. It takes about 4 ft 3 inches to fit an Xplorer without scraping on one side or the other (or both) MINIMUM, this is just to fit a sheet of paper between the hub & trailer wall. I strongly recommend a 5 by 8