Long, long ago, I inherited my parents' trailer, which, for most of it's life, had been a pop-up camper. After it's demise as a camper, I inherited the base which our family used for many camping trips, hay bale retrievals, and cargo hauling of all kinds. But after a number of years we got tired of having to tarp everything, every... stinking... time. Especially not fun when setting up, or tearing down camp in the rain.
So, chapter two of this adventure brought us to a 12' long, single axle, Haulmark, enclosed cargo trailer. This trailer has served us well for darn near everything (except hay, only because we don't have our farm anymore). But, in recent years, I've been wanting something a little bigger. The dog kennel *barely* fits, we've stuffed the 12 footer full more times than I can count for all manner of reasons, and the year before last we made two trips with the trailer to our mission project (Canton, Ohio to Western Kentucky, about a five hour drive one-way) because so much stuff was donated. Last year, we filled the trailer once, but another person on the same trip drove a commercial cargo van and filled most of it too. Six months ago, we bought a new freezer, but since the freezer was six feet tall and the trailer isn't we had to lay the freezer down, which means we couldn't plug it in for 24-48 hours.
Now we're moving and are hauling stuff from our home to storage near our new home, and, eventually, we'll have to get it out of storage and back to our new house. Last month I finally traded in my Ford Explorer, and returned to driving a full sized half-ton pickup truck (GMC 1500) with tow package.
With all that in mind, I am shopping for a new trailer as an addition to our little fleet. I want something taller (7 ft), with a full-width ramp door, but I'm not sure how long.
24 foot car haulers seem a bit too wide and a bit too long, and most of those are really 10,000 lbs, GVR and my truck is tow rated at a shade over 8,000 lbs.
So what I'm stuck on is whether I want a 16' trailer or a 20' trailer. Both typically have 3500 lb axles and are rated near 7000 lb GVW.
16' doesn't seem much bigger than what I have, but being taller should make a difference too shouldn't it?
So I'm asking the hivemind, what is your experience with these size trailers?
Is one better than the other? Is the difference in cargo capacity significant?
Is the 20' significantly harder to maneuver in traffic? Is one easier/harder to back?
What are your opinions?
So, chapter two of this adventure brought us to a 12' long, single axle, Haulmark, enclosed cargo trailer. This trailer has served us well for darn near everything (except hay, only because we don't have our farm anymore). But, in recent years, I've been wanting something a little bigger. The dog kennel *barely* fits, we've stuffed the 12 footer full more times than I can count for all manner of reasons, and the year before last we made two trips with the trailer to our mission project (Canton, Ohio to Western Kentucky, about a five hour drive one-way) because so much stuff was donated. Last year, we filled the trailer once, but another person on the same trip drove a commercial cargo van and filled most of it too. Six months ago, we bought a new freezer, but since the freezer was six feet tall and the trailer isn't we had to lay the freezer down, which means we couldn't plug it in for 24-48 hours.
Now we're moving and are hauling stuff from our home to storage near our new home, and, eventually, we'll have to get it out of storage and back to our new house. Last month I finally traded in my Ford Explorer, and returned to driving a full sized half-ton pickup truck (GMC 1500) with tow package.
With all that in mind, I am shopping for a new trailer as an addition to our little fleet. I want something taller (7 ft), with a full-width ramp door, but I'm not sure how long.
24 foot car haulers seem a bit too wide and a bit too long, and most of those are really 10,000 lbs, GVR and my truck is tow rated at a shade over 8,000 lbs.
So what I'm stuck on is whether I want a 16' trailer or a 20' trailer. Both typically have 3500 lb axles and are rated near 7000 lb GVW.
16' doesn't seem much bigger than what I have, but being taller should make a difference too shouldn't it?
So I'm asking the hivemind, what is your experience with these size trailers?
Is one better than the other? Is the difference in cargo capacity significant?
Is the 20' significantly harder to maneuver in traffic? Is one easier/harder to back?
What are your opinions?