I am looking at a rainbow express 18 ft car hauler with 2 7000 lb axles. My good friends dad sells H&H trailers, but a comparable H&H is about $1500 more. He might be a good friend...... But 1500 bucks is a lot of cash. The H&H people say theirs is way heavier duty. The rainbow looked pretty good to me, but I thought I would ask the experts on here! Is the rainbow an entry level trailer? This is not an enclosed trailer.

 

I had a 16 foot Rainbow car trailer, 3500 lb axles for about 5 years. It was a basic entry level trailer. If I remember right, I paid $1999 brand new back in 1997.

Honestly, I abused the crap out of it and it never let me down. It hauled more 3/4 and 1 ton trucks than I can remember. Went back and forth to Oregon when we were desert racing about 15 times. Hauled equipment and lumber to no end and it never ever let me down. It was usually over loaded to some point most every time we used it.

All Rainbow trailers, at least back then anyways, come with Dexter axles and brakes just like every other trailer out there from whatever manufacturer. Jacks, ramps, wiring never let me down.

Only thing about them as well as most trailers is cheap tires, one of the ways of keeping the cost down to the consumer. I bought mine without tires right from the dealer. We took the wheels down to the local tire shop and I put a set of real tires on it and wore them out over the five years I had the trailer.

For a good bang for the buck trailer, you can't go wrong. I would buy another one tomorrow if I needed a car trailer (already have one right now) with no hesitation.

Also, I sold it for more than I paid for when I did get rid of it. And I only sold it because I got a good deal on a gooseneck and it ended up being a pile of crap in the end. Should have kept the Rainbow had I known

Jeff

 

7000lb axles are pretty heavy for a flat deck, thats no entry level car hauler.

 

Yeah that baby will haul.. I wouldnt be afraid of a rainbow. I had a rainbow snowmobile trailer that was great. All of my car/equipment haulers have been trailtech. They are probably the most expensive on the market, but they have lots of cool innovative things on them, and I really do think that they are better made.

As for trailer tires, that is very sage advice,, my last trailer I got over 80k on the stock tires, never a problem,, I bought this new one a couple months ago,, first run with only 4k# of lumber on it I blew a tire outside of Athabasca,, cost me over 300 bucks for the service call and a tire (didnt have a spare) then the very next run with it (Kellys F150 loaded on it) blew another tire 40k outside of Drayton Valley, $600 this time,,, I am right now fighting with the company I bought it from, trailtech, and the company that manufactured the tires. See what happens

 

I had a Rainbow 3500lb axle car hauler a few years ago, pretty well made entry level trailer I moved up to 7000lb axles on the next one though not Rainbow. I would suspect one that came with 7000lb axles would be a fair trailer.

 

Well, with the few testimonials on here I went ahead and bought it. Nobody said run away they are junk! Thanks guys. And they are Canadian made.

 

I have an 18ft H&H tilt deck trailer. Two 3500# axles. Its been good to me and I've been bad to it. Overloaded, rough roads, etc. However from what I've seen of Rainbow trailers they are better built.

My H&H used some sort of goofy offshore axles that have a weird 5 on 4.75" pattern. I had two different tire shops try to source me a rim with no luck. Ended up having to buy one direct from FOT. Also the wiring was crap. Scotch locks and open butt connectors everywhere with no heat shrink. Cheap lights too.

IT was cheap to buy, was $3200, 6 years ago, pretty good price for a 18ft tilt deck. You'll pay close to $5k for that now.