Anyone use a 'Tracker Bar' in lieu of a full trailer?

http://www.rvsupplywarehouse.com/product/detail.cfm/nid/219/pid/206

In trying to come up with the cheapest way to get to my first rally this year, I was wondering how the RV guys do it, so a quick web search comes up with the above link/product.

Under $300 and over 5,000 lbs....sounds pretty good to me. Sure, the rally tires get a little worn on the longer trips, but shit, for saving me over $3K for a full size trailer, that's a lot of tires.

Plus, with all that extra trailer weight gone, MPG's are going to go up too.

Thoughts? downsides I'm not considering?



same price range, seems a little more beefy, and includes the safety cables.
http://www.rvsupplywarehouse.com/product/detail.cfm/nid/219/pid/882

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2009 06:44PM by Jon Burke.

I say go for it John, and get a set of crummy road tires/wheels for the trip out to the rally.

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Michael LeCompte

Only downside is if the car doesn't have all it's wheels/suspension parts at the end of the day

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-Jason

Exactly,

Remember, getting the car to the event should be the easy part, its bringing the ball home that you should worry about.



Uhaul baby. $50 a day, no questions asked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2009 07:08PM by Eddie Fiorelli.

mack73 Wrote:
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> Only downside is if the car doesn't have all it's
> wheels/suspension parts at the end of the day
>
> 94 Golf
> www.Mack73.com

Ditto.

If you want to be cheap, get a dolly. Then as long as one end rolls you can get er home.

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

I drove my car to 4 events. Though the HQ was less than 5 miles from my house...

Borrow/rent a trailer.

hudson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mack73 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Only downside is if the car doesn't have all
> it's
> > wheels/suspension parts at the end of the
> day
> >
> > 94 Golf
> > www.Mack73.com
>
> Ditto.
>
> If you want to be cheap, get a dolly. Then as
> long as one end rolls you can get er home.
>
> Andrew McNally
> Hamilton, ON
> 29


uh....good call on the 'what if'...hmmm. I don't expect to be driving that 'hard' for the first few rallies. 'Finish first' will be the motto in 2009, but I know you can't guarantee a finish.


do they make dolly's for AWD cars? I guess detaching the back of the axle (4 bolts) before/after a rally ain't too bad. The 2wd dollies I saw were pretty expensive...like, used trailer expensive.

UHaul might be the 'insurance', but I thought I heard (the last time I rented from them) they said they only rent out car trailers now if you also rent the Uhaul truck from them too. I'll have to double check.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Food for thought......some transmitions don't lubricate very well when they are coasting in neutral without the input shaft turning.

I say U-Haul.

Robert.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

Jon Burke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> UHaul might be the 'insurance', but I thought I
> heard (the last time I rented from them) they said
> they only rent out car trailers now if you also
> rent the Uhaul truck from them too. I'll have to
> double check.
>

I rent from them for every event I do so unless this changed since February they will rent trailers as long as your vehicle is approved. Full size pickups and above are fine.

I know Penske and Budget won't rent trailers unless you also get their truck.

I don't have a trailer and rented from U-Haul.

Two problems I had with U-haul :

One :

Their in house computer program "verifies" the towing vehicles capacity, adds the trailer weight, adds your trailered vehicles weight, does a magical calculation and lets you know if you're in business.

My 74 Colt is too ancient to be part of their whiz program so the pion behind the counter wouldn't take the booking... so off to another location I went and told them it was a 76 Colt and all was fine.

Two :

I should have planned to pick up the trailer a day or 2 in advance before needing it. The location I booked at had a renter not return the trailer in time. So I had to drive 140 KM on the day I needed the trailer to get a different one from another location.

Other than that... U-Haul was great, had great ramps, easy webbed tire surrounds that get racheted down holding the front tires in place.

One trailer was new another one was a worn out POS - but did the job.

Rallymech Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Food for thought......some transmitions don't
> lubricate very well when they are coasting in
> neutral without the input shaft turning.
>
> I say U-Haul.
>
> Robert.


ohh, good one. I'll have to look into that, maybe on NASIOC.

yeah, uhaul might be the answer. $50/day ads up quick though....trying to think outside the box.

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Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

You're just not going to be able to do enough events (no one can) to justify buying a $5K trailer. Do the U- Heil thing for a year anyway and see where you're at, few hundred bucks over a season, nothing in the grand scheme.

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Gone fishing

These days, looking back over 10 years of events that I've been in and at, a dolly would suffice near 99% of the time. I just looked, new is 850 (no brakes). I bet used it pretty durn cheap. Brakes are nice... but so is a fully enclosed trailer and a V10 diesel and and and...

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

i drove my rally car to the first (and only) rally I have done, where i was just there to finish. after that, i will never drive the car to an event again. just not worth the stress if wondering if a wheel is going to fall off on the interstate on the drive home from that ditch you had a close encounter with on stage.

for me u-haul/penske/ryder is the answer. i could potentially do two rallies a year that have like a 50 mile tow (mt hood & OT). i will probably always drive the car to those as the tow is about as long as a transit. since i will probably only be doing 3 or so other rallies a year at best, no reason to own a tow setup.

I drove the rally car to my first two events. 250 miles round trip to the first one, 600 miles round trip for the second one. It was ok at the time, I was young and wanted to rally so bad it was worth it. Had stock final drive, soft motor mounts, and stock seats, so it wasn't too bad on the highway, no way I'd do it now with the really low final drive, near solid motor mounts, tight fibeglass seats etc.. The third event I borrowed a truck and trailer, went off and bent the front suspension up pretty good, good thing I had a trailer. I borrowed the same rig once or twice more, then bought a $500 beater truck of my own. '91 Dodge W250 4X4, extended cab air/tilt/cruise and a canopy! Rented from a local trailer rental place for a good 5 years, have spent easily $2000+ on trailer rentals. A few weeks ago I bought a decent used 16 foot trailer with brakes for $2000. Now I don't have to worry about picking up the trailer on Friday after work, returning it Monday morning before work, yadda yadda. I can tow to rally cross or track events if I want, thinking of doing some ice racing next year, so I can use it for that too. Haul junk with it out to the lake, buy some cheap parts cars at wrecker auctions and haul them away easily. If you can find a good deal on a used one, and have a place to store it, a full trailer is tough to beat, especially in North America with all the stupid long tows we do for events.