How many of you guys use a car hauler trailer to tow your ATVs? Any issues? I am looking at a 20 footer with a 4 ft beaver tail. Normally, I will only haul 3 machines so I can get them all on nose to tail. I can also easily load a couple up front from the side and pull 2 on nose to tail to get 4 on it, and load them all sideways to get 5. Plenty of load rating, bigger tires, and have brakes on all axles.

The thing that concerns me is ground clearance with the beaver tail. Any one have or know of anyone to have problems with getting stuck etc? I was considering a deck over, but the lower deck height has a lot of appeal to me as I am getting too old to be climbing up onto a taller deck. Ditto for Mrs DB.

Besides I need a car hauler too, and a beaver tail is easier to load a car with a low stance (Sports car, lowered etc).

Any thoughts?

DB

 

my buddy has a car hauler trailer, se was concirned abour being to low and bottoming-out so he put blocks on both axels. rides high but does nice. side loading is the way to go for him. he make sure to put the heaviest mechines over the axels

 

I've had a total of four trailers I've used to haul ATVs now. The first was a 16' 10,000 lb rated auto transport trailer that had side rails and rear ramps. The side rails prevented side loading, and the ramps were real heavy. Plus the ramps had to hook over slots in the back of the trailer that were the right width for loading a car on the trailer, and not the right width for loading an ATV on the trailer. I had purchased the trailer originally to haul a Jeep, and only secondarily used it to haul the ATVs. It worked "ok", but not great, and it was overkill for ATVs, with an unloaded weight of 2800 lbs.

The second was a deckover ATV trailer with side rails and a fold down full width rear ramp. It was wide enough to load two ATVs side by side, and worked the best for carrying just the ATVs. It was rated to carry 5000 lbs, but the ramp was only rated for 1500 lbs, so I could not haul the Jeep with this trailer. The durability of that trailer was less than desirable; the ramp bent on us, and the hubs needed replaced after a few years. It was a lightweight and fairly flimsy trailer, and weighed 1800 lbs empty.

The third trailer was a 20' enclosed Haulmark Race Trailer with a rated capacity of 10,000 lbs and a dry weight of 3450 lbs. It worked well, but build quality was poor, and we had some serious quality issues with this trailer. Haulmark had to rebuild the entire front half of the trailer under warranty when the front wall BLEW DOWN from towing into a head wind. They had built the trailer without including the top cap on the studs that made up the front wall, so the sheetmetal was holding the studs up, instead of the studs holding the sheetmetal up. Haulmark had refused to cover it under warranty initially, until our trailer dealer had a rep come out and look at the trailer and confirm that the key structural member I mentioned was missing. That experience really turned me off to Haulmark. The metal sheeting was also paper thin, especially the polished aluminum corner caps and roof cap on the front of the trailer, and the trailer started looking like hell in no time, even after the rebuild. It was also a little bigger than I needed, and heavier than I liked. My truck would typically get 9 mpg when towing this trailer, whether I had the Jeep inside it or the ATVs inside it (the wind frontage is what seemed to hurt fuel mileage, moreso than the weight). It really did work great though, and it was a shame I had to sell it because of such marginal build quality. Here's a picture:


The final trailer is an 18' H&H tilt bed auto transport trailer that is entirely aluminum, and weighs 1500 lbs. It is heavy duty, despite its light weight, and is rated to haul 7000 lbs. The tilt bed is nice, because no ramps are needed. My truck gets 12.5 mpg when towing this trailer with either the Jeep or the ATVs on it, and this trailer seems to be the best all around trailer we have owned. It can haul both my Jeep and the ATVs, and it is light and simple to use. An auto transport trailer works well for me, and thus far I have not had any ground clearance issues. Here's a picture:

 

Viper - Nice lookin' trailer. What powers the tilt on the H&H tilt bed? Hydraulic, electric or manual. Does it give you any problems by loading up front first?

Jaybee

 

An electric motor powers a hydraulic pump. There is a battery just like a car battery under the tongue of the trailer that is charged every time you plug in the trailer wireing to the truck. The pump has an internal interlock that locks the bed in any position it is in, so there are no latching mechanisms to mess with. The bed tilt mechnism is fast and simple, with just two buttons inside the tongue of the trailer (up, down), and it takes all of three seconds of holding the up button to fully tilt the bed. The hydraulic interlock is more than strong enough to keep the ATVs at the front of the trailer in place while loading the ATVs at the rear of the trailer, because it is designed to support the weight of a Jeep (or other automobile) on the trailer. We typically load the Can Am from the side with the tilt bed down, then tilt the bed and load the other ATvs from the back, then lower the bed and tie everything down.

DV

 

Nice! I've got a dump trailer that uses an electric/hydraulic system like that.

Jaybee

 

I went to a 14ft car hauler and never looked back. It hauls my two 4x4's front to back or all three sideways. I wish I would have got a 16ft, though, as I think I would be able to load the tail end from the side. With the 14ft, I have to load all atv's from the front side, then slide them over. No big deal since I don't do this very often and I'm still young! LOL! I haven't had clearance issues yet, but I am aware of it. I didn't get a beaver tail for that reason. I also use mine to haul my FJ, but my friends seem to use it more than me to haul their jeeps, etc.! LOL! It tows very nice and has double duty. I also haul hay with it, keeps my truck from getting all banged up!

 

Thanks everyone. I have to have the beavertail because of the need to haul a highly modified sports car with very low clearance. Without the beavertail, I am unable to get it loaded without dragging the bottom. I prefer no beavertail, but this is a compromise solution. So I am kind of stuck. The reason I am going with a 20 ft is that I can get at least 2 in the front sideways without having issues with the fenders when forced to haul 4 or more. I can get 4 on without having to muscle one ot two between the fenders. I am just too old to be doing that, especially if I am loading by myself, which I do on occasion. My actual preference would be the deck over, but I have to bow to reality that with my handicap, I just cannot continue to get up to a 30 inch deck at my age. If nobody has issues with ground clearance, I think I'll pull the trigger. thanks for the input.
Oh by the way, Haulmark and Pace American plants are side by side in GA. I can tell you some horror stories with my Pace American as well. I do not think I'd give them the pleasure of having any more of my hard earend money either. If I were a betting man, I;d bet they used the same crews to manufacture the trailers. Also I have a tolt bed aluminum Load right snowmobile trailer that I have used for 11 years, and the only thing I have done to it is grease the bearings and this past summer, I replaced the deck. Other than that, it has been great. I have had trouble loading from the side on anything less that perfect level ground. I have in fact rolled my machine once, but I blame the ramps not being wide enough. They were exactly 48 inches wide. The wheels spun and slid sideways, and over I went. I am not releshing that, but have a plan to use seperate ramps instead of a bi-fold.

 

Dragginbutt....I was just thinking.....what if you could put air bags on your beavertail, assuming ground clearance became a problem? You could air them up for the atv's, or air down for the car. I don't see why it wouldn't work. Who knows, maybe where you live you won't have clearance issues and it would all be a mute point. I still think the beavertail car hauler is a great option for hauling the atv's.

 

I used to have a 16' car hauler with a 2' beaver tail. I would only haul 2 quads but I never had any problems going "off road" with the trailer. A few times I had to throw the truck in 4wd to keep going. I found the leg for the jack on the trailer would dig in the ground at times. The places where I had problems with the tail were high and low spots on the trails close together. I think some people call them "whoops". I also tack welded emt to the inside of the frame and ran my wires in the emt so they would not get damaged. The car haulers are the only way to haul if you have more than 2 quads. Plus you are going to be everyones best friend. Get used to hearing, hey buddy can you help me move ----.