I was in town yesterday and found a car hauler for sale. It looked like it could haul 3 cars. It had a straight ramp that went up on top of the pin on an angle. It had 2- 7k axels,the tag said it is a 96 model year but I would have swore it wasn`t more than a year old by looking at it. The paint was like new and was not repainted. What would be a fair price for this trailer and could I pull 3 cars with my 2500 with single wheels? I know I have enough power but I am hesitant to have a vehical sitting right over the pin,that is a lot of weight on the rear tires.

 

A true 3 car hauler would be 3 axles (unless they were dual tandems) and about 50 ft long. or its a 41-42 ft. with front and rear flipouts. They run for about $7500 new www.take3trailers.com or www.kaufmantrailersinc.com. You can't pull 3 cars with SRW unless you get load range G tires? You need to make sure you don't go over the axle limit or tire limit on any axle (steer, drive, trailer) which you can control to a point by loading the cars in different orders. H.I.D. will know more about this.

 

Lets see here, I haul 3 cars all the time with a 3500 SRW and I have yet to over load the axle weight of truck, nor the tire weight, EVER.
SO YES IT CAN BE DONE...I DO IT EVERYDAY 365 DAYS A YEAR.....THATS RIGHT I HAVE MY OWN BUSINESS, DOT NO. AND ALL.

 

We had a hauler using a two axle trailer to haul three cars with a 3/4 ton Ford. He had nothing but trouble with the brakes. I would not do it unless they were dual axles on the trailer. 14,000 GVWR on the trailer will always be overloaded unless you have small ricers on it. Find a three axle trailer or a tandem dual wheel trailer. Used they are around $5000 and a lot newer than that one. (1996)

Kauffman owners complain of swaying with them they are built so light they have little twist control. A lot of them out there and doing well. For three cars you need 48 foot. For three pickups or suburbans you need 50 or more.

Another problem with the two axle trailer especially with the 2500 is that the GCWR of the unit will be very low and you will exceed it all the time (overweight) You need the three axles to offset the 8800 pound GVW of the truck. GCWR is determined by the addition of the GVW of the truck added to the GVW of the trailer, go over that and DOT will start writing.

 

Good post, you pretty much said it all. I generally load the lightest vehicle on the nose, heaviest in the middle. The tail car is the hardest to keep chained due to bounce. Make sure it has a good setup on the rear two winches, or it uses straps. Lost a chain this weekend on one. Many times the rear winches are cut down in size to clear the ramps and that leads to chaining problems. Ruins your day if you lose one car off the rear

 

Care to explain more? How do you do it?

Here is my guessimate scenario
8000# truck
18000# loaded car trailer... 25% of 18000 is 4500#, stock rear weight of my truck is 3500#, so that leaves you 2000# overweight on the rear tires.

 

Think your axle weight is about 1000 off. His weight should be about 2250 empty and he is running 19.5 load range H tires. Truck should weigh in at about 7500 or less empty.

 

Thanks for the replies. I learn a lot every time I come to this site. I will keep looking.

 

ive got a 50 ft appalacian trailer that i pull with my 01 dually, i could not imagine towning with a single wheel truck but to each there own, i want the name of the insurance company that is insuring it,they cringe when you have a dually,everything is owners opinion in this buisness, i like the dually more stabile in the corners,plus i blew a few tires on the rear, im not sure how far you haul but you go get em with that single,i towed both a kauffman , appalcian and take 3 and i like the take 3 and the appalacian better than the kauffman,i just bought a wally moe 4 car and a tractor so my 1999 appalacian 50 ft is for sale,and it has 3 axles, runs everday that i feel like running, id like to get like 4200 for it totally went over the trailer wireing and everything a year ago,works great, hope i helped yopu out

 

First off my truck wt 7620lbs, my trailer empty wt is 2100lbs.....thats right 2100lbs....so yes it can be done and is done everyday.
Now I dont haul duallys and 2 ton trucks....I do haul them but very rarly....they dont pay anymore than a car and they weigh twice to three times as much....so with 3 cars at 2800 ea, that 8400 for all three cars, with my empty wt that put me at 18120....well under being overloaded.
Thanks for the test of info.
Allen

 

What cars weigh 2800? And what trailer weighs 2100?

 

Toyota's, most honda cars, nissans, compact fords, chevys.....you name it. Give or take 400lbs. The trailer I had built by J&R Trailer MFG, they have a design that is very light weight, but extremely(sp) strong....it is very twisty when not loaded, but when you load a car it ....the trailer is stiffened up with the use of the car frame....so now you are not moving all that extra metal around.
Any other test questions.
Allen

 

A 3-car hauler that weighs 2100lbs? I'd like to see a pic of that

 

I too would like to see that trailer weight slip. Is this axle weight only, and you're neglecting to consider pin weight too?

 

I think he was saying the entire trailer weighs 2100# haha.