Well Jim....................it's like anything else in life.............you get what you pay for. If you're looking at a trailer....................I've seen very few that have an angle of approach that will accomodate a lowered GMMG car. Before I purchased the trailer I have now....................I took my '97 Camaro SS down to the manufacturer's factory and loaded it up on a trailer like the one I eventually purchased. My '97 Camaro SS has been lowered and sits and inch closer to the ground than my GMMG ZL-1 Supercar. I wanted to make sure that my car(s) would "load-up" without "scraping" and that the doors would open up over the trailer fenders. Before I did this though, I borrowed a friends trailer for one summer and used it which gave me a lot of insight as to what I would be looking for in a trailer when I purchased one. It was a manual lift trailer with a wooden deck and the guys in my shop had to fabricate a stone shield/protector for the front of the trailer and ramps for me to "ramp up" to the trailer to decrease the angle of approach and be able to get a lowered GMMG car on the trailer....................so I had to carry these heavy metal ramps around in the bed of my pickup taking up even more room in the bed of my pickup truck. We also had to install D-Rings (tie down rings) into the frame of the trailer deck to properly anchor the car down so that it wouldn't move around while bouncing down the road. You'll eventually figure out that you will need to carry other things with you as well (see fourth to the last picture below). Not included in this picture is my rolling hydraulic jack which I carry with me too in the event of a flat. In the box is a torque wrench (important particularily for aluminum wheels), a breaker bar, socket, flashlight, etc. On the side of a busy interstate highway..............you had better treat this situation like a NASCAR pit stop. Throw the jack under the trailer, rip the flat wheel/tire combination off, mount the spare wheel/tire, get the trailer lowered and get to someplace safer to double check your work like an off ramp, etc. After having had a blow out on the trailer on the Interstate (see picture below with Dennis Gage & Nancy and you'll notice that I have my spare on the trailer), you'll figure out that maybe just one spare tire mounted on a rim isn't enough because when you mount that one up, you have no spare tire. Having owned a tire shop myself, I know that "most" tire shops don't carry actual trailer tires so sometimes finding one is hard. The next question you'll ask is...............won't just any tire work? The answer is "NO". Trailer tires are load rated. A "B" load rated tire has a 4 ply rating, a "C" load rated tire is a 6 ply tire and a "D" load rated tire is an 8 ply tire. Therefore since my trailer uses a ST205/75R15 "C" load rated tire, I carry two mounted trailer tires on rims and an extra actual trailer tire that I can have mounted on my nice aluminum rim when I get somewhere to have it done. Also...................more than likely a trailer with a wooden deck won't have the "E tracking system" so instead of wheel nets over the wheels you will have tie down rings. With tie-down rings..................you will have to get underneath the car and throw an axle strap around the differential in the rear on each side and around a control arm on each side of the front to properly strap your car down for transport. I know you're a bit older than I am Jim and even at my age..................after being at a car show all day and sweating........the last thing I want to do is to lie down on a dirty trailer deck and lie underneath a car to strap it down. After almost ruining a couple of shirts and occasionally getting a splinter in my back, you'll wish you had a metal deck (even though it gets hotter in the summer which really doesn't matter) especially if you have a trailer with the E Tracking System and don't have to lay on the hot deck underneath the car anyways. Keep in mind............a wooden deck will weather thereby holding moisture and dirt in it and will eventullay start to split out, warp and discolor too. I have never regretted what I paid for my trailer ! ! ! ! ! You personally have watched me load up my car and seen that Nancy and I can load-up, strap down and be ready to rock and roll in about 10 minutes. As for the wheel nets, I did an internet search and ordered mine from a place I believe in Washington or Oregon when I orginally purchased them. Also.............equally important....................if you purchase an open trailer.............you will want to be sure that it has a stone shield/protector on the front of it because your tow vehicle WILL pick up debris off of the highway and throw it back at your car. Oh..............and another thing..................since your GMMG cars have been lowered, you will want to make sure that you can open your car door over the trailer fender or you'll be crawling in and out through the window.
When you select a trailer, you want to be conscious of the weight of the trailer and the weight of the car you're going to haul on it so that you don't overload the towing capacity of your tow vehicle. My trailer empty weighs 2,200 lbs. and a Camaro weighs around 3,750 lbs. with a full tank of gas. I took my Dodge Dakota to the local grain elevator one day with my ZL-1 on the trailer and my truck bed fully loaded with everything I carry with me. My combined rig weighed in at 10,800 lbs. Keep in mind that that was without anyone sitting in the pickup truck too ! ! ! ! ! I then took my pickup truck back to the grain elevator another day to see what my pickup truck weighed without the gear in the bed of the truck and my Dodge Dakota weighed in at 4,700 lbs. It doesn't take a "rocket scientist" to figure out that my little pickup was towing almost 1 1/2 times it's own weight ! ! ! Another important thing you will want to make sure the trailer you purchase has is electric brakes on BOTH axles because the trailer behind you loaded with a car on it will overpower the brakes on the tow vehicle especially if you have to stop in an emergency ! ! ! ! If the vehicle you are going to tow this trailer with isn't set up currently for electric trailer brakes, you will have to purchase a trailer brake controller and intall it in your vehicle PLUS if the vehicle isn't set up for trailer lights..................you will have to have wiring installed in your vehicle to accomodate that too. Most newer pickup trucks and S.U.V.'s are set up for trailer towing but MOST don't come with a trailer brake controller already installed. You will also want to make sure that hitch of your tow vehicle can handle the "tongue weight" of the trailer "loaded" too ! ! !
Obiviously.................the best way to go is with an enclosed trailer. When I purchased the trailer below, I didn't have a pickup truck that was either "horse enough" to pull an enclosed trailer or big enough to be safe to pull an enclosed trailer. I had (an still have) a Dodge Dakota SLT extended cab 4X4 that has 5.2 liter engine (318 c.i.) with a 4 speed automatic transmission and 3.42 rear gears that pulled the open trailer just fine. It has the heavy duty trailering package from Dodge. I still have my Dodge Dakota (and use it as a daily driver) but the trailer duties now are carried out by my 2010 Chevrolet Silverado LT four door 4X4 that has a 6.2 liter engine (379 c.i.) with a 6 speed automatic transmission and 3.73 rear gears and the heavy duty trailering package that I purchased new two years ago.
****NOTE E-TRACKING SYSTEM THAT WHEEL NETS LOCK INTO IN PICTURE ABOVE AS WELL AS ANGLE OF APPROACH.
****AGAIN.....................NOTE ANGLE OF APPROACH ! ! ! !
****AGAIN............NOTE E-TRACKING SYSTEM THAT WHEEL NETS LOCK INTO IN PICTURE ABOVE.
****ALL LOCKED DOWN AND READY TO ROLL. IN THE PICTURE ABOVE YOU WILL ALSO NOTE THAT AN 18' DECK WORKS NEAT SO THAT IF FOR SOME REASON YOU WANT TO GET INTO THE BACK OF YOUR CAR, YOU CAN STEP UP ON THE BACK OF THE TRAILER AND LIFT THE HATCH AND HAVE ACCESSABILITY TO THE REAR COMPARTMENT OF YOUR CAR.
****EXTRA "STUFF" YOU SHOULD BE CARRYING WITH YOU.
****NOTE SPARE RIM/TIRE ON TRAILER
****MY 1997 DODGE DAKOTA THAT ORIGINALLY HANDLED MY TRAILERING DUTIES.
****MY 2010 CHEVROLET SILVERADO THAT NOW HANDLES MY TRAILERING DUTIES.
My friend Eric is below strapping down his 1999 Z/28 on his wooden deck flatbed H & H Trailer with axle straps which he hooks into D-rings bolted into the frame of the trailer's deck. Notice the ramps in both the first and the third picture that he has to carry with him to "ramp-up" to his trailer to decrease the angle of approach.
You will also notice that Eric fabricated a stone shield/protector for the front of his trailer out of aluminum backed up with a metal frame too. Also notice that Eric's car has been lowered (with the GMMG Eibach lowering springs that Matt Murphy sold me for Eric's car and these are the same springs on ALL of the GMMG cars) and that Eric made sure that his doors would open up over the trailer fenders before he purchased the trailer (just like me
) - see the last picture below.
and found this video of a trailer just like mine.
. Even though his rig has some drawbacks as compared to yours JD, like you say, "you get what you pay for" and if you have a tighter budget his seems to suit the purpose.