Multi-car haulers

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HiTempguy

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Creech
As, I have done a few "rough figures" on several cars, and with pros and cons for each - it all comes out someplace-near the same. As to "higher fun quotient" - that may be subjective, and I'll grant that, of course.....

Costs involved to rally are the same up to a certain point. John doesn't like to acknowledge the fact that $25k buys you my STi or Grant's Merkur, both equally aggravating and costly to work on (and race) in their own way

Yep 3 differentials and a diff controller cost the same $35 as the Supra diff with a nice LSD and a 4.3 ratio I paid.

And a realaible gearbox costs the same as the $200 Borg Warner T5 sitting right there... which has virtually the same ratios----except 5th..

And those Subie engines are so durable, they never break rods or melt pistons, ever...

And people just give away the shells to start with, or maybe ask $400..


One day, if you live to see 40, you might look back and think, "well that was cool but really I just bought the car....same as hundreds of others....and it was fun, but I wonder if it was worth it? "

less (stuff) is more. (fun). And the more you do the more satisfaction you'll have and the better memories you'll have.

It doesn't cost the same, Grant was a spendthrift and was tossing money around cause he wanted to, not because he needed to..
Running costs are not the same....
(And how would you know what build and running costs for a good car are?)

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Here's my E450 box van pulling Blake Yoon's 2 car hauler from CA to TN. It towed fine but the van was a bit overloaded with at least as many more wheels in the box as seen on the tire rack plus a couple barrels of fuel. You definitely need load range E tires when hauling a load like this as I found out. Blew a couple of rear tires on the van. As for retrieving crashed cars from stage that was always a given with Blake but he got towed back to service by sweep on this one so it was no big deal.

The tire thing is critical. Seems to be a bit of a plague going on with blow outs these days. Most of the RV forums have several threads about new tires blowing out on both trailers and motorhomes. Many different brands with the same issue. Some with less than 5-600 miles.

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NoCoast
Or you buy a 10-15k truck and plan on $3-5k per year maintenance. Or you buy a $2-3k one and hope for the best... Any way I look at it I don't like it.

Or you buy a 10K cargo van and drive the shit out of it.

I think I've had two maintenance bills on my tow vehicle in six years of ownership (~30K miles). One for brakes all around, one for AC replacement. Plus one set of tires and a new battery.

The issue comes into who's going to be the 2nd car? Bushore and I keep talking about getting 2 and 3 car trailers for moving Michigan guys, since we have a lot of guys around here. However, someone first needs to make the initial investment in the "haul everything" truck and claim ownership of that and the trailer. But how does it work with other teams? Ideally, I'd love to live near Art with his whole logistics towing company and tag along with the Polish express since he's got any sort of truck/trailer you could imagine. Because you really can't just go halves on something like that, because who the fuck knows when someone will drop out and want their half back too.

What you really need, is like the one above. Big ass truck that's classed as an RV. Box truck, add some running water and a stove and class it as an RV. Enough room in back to squeeze a car and all your spares. In a pinch, tow a car behind it on a trailer. Pretty much this:
http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/id/2425/the-ultimate-no-budget-racecar-transporter.aspx

The only issue with the above or a similar box truck setup is lack of space for bodies to ride along. You're looking at 2-3 in the truck which is just driver/co-driver and 1 crew. In a way you'd want everything as a one stop shop for towing. Put all the crew in there, pull the car. Get a rental for recce/city driving if the rig is too big. You're likely to spend more than the $60/day car rental fee on gas to drive out there anyway so there's no reason to tow or drive out a rental car on a long haul.

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john vanlandingham
Small is beautiful...
Ford Transit Long wheelbase and 2.5 turbo intercoolded diesel with the nice 5 speed. times two.

Really the way to go. Get an Aluminum trailer so you're pulling less weight too.

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BillyElliot
The only issue with the above or a similar box truck setup is lack of space for bodies to ride along. You're looking at 2-3 in the truck which is just driver/co-driver and 1 crew. In a way you'd want everything as a one stop shop for towing. Put all the crew in there, pull the car.

One of the reasons I bought the red truck with the sleeper cab was that it had a fold down bench seat in the back that held 3 people. So, that red truck up above can haul 5 no problem. I actually measured it out one time and if you pull the bench you can fit 2 captains chairs on each side facing the middle and it would haul 6 total.

One thing I was afraid of when I got that class of truck was the maintenance. It never materialized though. Yes, I couldn't really work on it myself, but the service life for a lot of parts are a lot longer than a standard pickup/box van type unit. Yeah it's more than a pickup to do a set of brakes, but with what we are doing with them they will probably never need it. You've got a brake system designed for 50k pounds and even with 2 cars you aren't much over 30k.

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Thanks,

Kevin Wesley

Which is why it's a good thing to over do what you're towing with. Less stress on brakes/transmission/engine if, like you said, you're pulling 30k with a vehicle that was designed to pull 50k.

I don't have the luxury of a large space to store a bunch of shit (i.e. giant truck like that and trailer) so an ideal situation for me would be getting a diesel truck with a crew cab and either a box already on it, or make up my own. Then towing the car behind, ideally on an aluminum trailer for less weight.

I've had buddies who have towed with V6 pickups. Just because your max towing is 6000lbs and you're barely meeting it, is not a good thing to do all the time and you should be doing that. I'd just love to have a brand new truck, but for something that I do 2-4 times a year I can't justify the cost and it would need to be a daily driver replacement if I did that.

So what did you end up getting Grant?

There is also the cost of insurance, tags. And then you need somewhere to park the flipping land yacht. That said I wish I had the funds and a REALLY good excuse to convince the wife we need that hauler in our fleet. The whole we can use it for camping too just isn't working. SHucks.

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Brent Dacres
Cincinnati,Oh

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DaveK
So what did you end up getting Grant?

Ha. Nothing.
I might actually look into a used Class B or C motorhome with just a regular flat bed eventually. Figure if I end up mostly doing local stuff, it'd be nicer to have a place to sleep and a place for the wife and kid to hang out in comfort.

I am still undecided on what the best option for a multi-car hauler would be. Everything is a compromise or sacrifice in one way or another. Gooseneck multi-car requires more truck, flat bed is potentially more dangerous and gets really long. Honestly I like the box with a flat bed behind it but then you have a vehicle with pretty much one use and for the expense, I'd rather have a boat.
I think the best solution for me would be either a small motorhome or single cab nicest turbo diesel truck I can find and a single car open tag along. That is plenty sufficient for local events and with Chump Car's new section 4.9 rule about E36 BMWs I could do 5-8 local events and have plenty of fun on the cheap for the next few years. If I want to do any big out of state rally events I can rent a Penske truck, but I honestly don't see that happening anytime soon.

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Grant Hughes

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NoCoast

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DaveK
So what did you end up getting Grant?

I am still undecided on what the best option for a multi-car hauler would be. Everything is a compromise or sacrifice in one way or another. Gooseneck multi-car requires more truck, flat bed is potentially more dangerous and gets really long. Honestly I like the box with a flat bed behind it but then you have a vehicle with pretty much one use and for the expense, I'd rather have a boat.

You're turning into those Rally America guys...didn't JB go sailing?

In all seriousness...we've got a truck already that could handle a multi-car hauler. I might need to do some transmission upgrades to the d-max, but I've already got a 5th wheel hitch in the bed. Truck can haul 4 people comfortably over 1,000 miles...unsure how 5 would work out.

Those weird things you posted up actually looked pretty interesting. Get the 3 car wedge version which is as long as a two car trailer (40') and on the odd circumstance where 3 people had their act together to go to one event...bam, you've got room. Sure we wouldn't be towing anywhere quickly but that's ok. If you get the low rise wedge, you could probably box in some of that area with flooring and hatch doors which would make getting a parts pretty easy.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2013 12:28PM by DaveK.

From a monetary standpoint, a dually 1-ton and a 3-car gooseneck trailer might be the cheapest. I picked up my f350 diesel crewcab ('89 w 100k) for $2900. A quick CL search yielded 3+ trailers starting around $3500.
Once again, the hardest issue is storing it. Driving around a full sized 1-ton sucks.

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Robert Culbertson
Once again, the hardest issue is storing it. Driving around a full sized 1-ton sucks.

Enter fully paid off 2500 D-max, sure its not a 1-ton or a dually, but I think if we're ok with towing slowly that'd probably be ok. Mitch has a dually, but I can't remember if its a 250 or 350...and it for sure has a Ford transmission, so that might be out. LOL

The CRG shop that 4 of us share has plenty of space and my truck sits down there 90% of the year now that I've got a partially well running legacy wagon beater. Hardest part of storing the trailer is probably backing in to our lot...and paying for said trailer.

Dave

3 cars at 3000 pounds each is 9000 pounds... one of those 3 car trailers is minimum 3500 pounds (more like 4500+ as my father's 5th wheel 20' goose is 4500). So you are at 13,500. Add in another 1500 pounds of bodies (people plus their gear if we are talking 5 people), we're talking three cars, so a minimum of 500 pounds of spares/tools (more than that honestly) I don't know what kind of road regulations you need to follow, but even with the highest tow rating dually diesel, you are getting close to what they will stop allowing around here in private vehicle.

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HiTempguy
3 cars at 3000 pounds each is 9000 pounds... one of those 3 car trailers is minimum 3500 pounds (more like 4500+ as my father's 5th wheel 20' goose is 4500). So you are at 13,500. Add in another 1500 pounds of bodies (people plus their gear if we are talking 5 people), we're talking three cars, so a minimum of 500 pounds of spares/tools (more than that honestly) I don't know what kind of road regulations you need to follow, but even with the highest tow rating dually diesel, you are getting close to what they will stop allowing around here in private vehicle.

You said it right a long time ago: this is too much organisational nightmare to get 3 people to all commit, all be ready, all be ON TIME and all divvy up all the costs..

Smaller is better... simple is better...
LIGHTER is better.

Convoy....

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.