Towing Tearing up Your Trailer and your budget ?

If you tow with a motor home or have downsized your tow vehicle we may have a solution that can help both.  

First just to be perfectly clear I am the owner of Trailer Toad and a guy who was looking for something, anything that would make my towing life easier before I saw the first Trailer Toad. JK

efore I get into the Trailer Toad let’s look into how towing your race car has changed. When drag racing first got started most of the cars were driven to the track. The ones that weren’t driven were usually flat towed with a homemade tow bar. That made for some very interesting accidents and you can imagine the problems trying to flat tow a broken race car back to the shop.

This is the first Trailer Toad I purchased. It came with 10" tires and a 2000 lb axle. New Trailer Toads are coming with either 12" or 15" tires and all come with the 3500 lb torsion axle.

Then came a wide array of open car trailers. These have evolved from being built with trailer home axles, no brakes and no suspension. Still it was a major improvement over flat towing. Open car trailers are still a very popular means of getting your car to the track, especially if you race locally. The new generation open car trailers now have torsion suspension, 4-wheel brakes, storage boxes, LED lights and are no doubt the easiest way to get a car to the track.

The next trend is still with us and that is the enclosed car trailer. It started out as a fairly crude unit that did not hold up very well. Over the years these trailer have been improved upon many times over. Options like screwless outer side panels, aluminum cabinets, winches, rubber floors, tire storage racks, etc, etc. You can literally outfit one of these and end up a beautiful shop on wheels.

During the changes in trailers we watched tow vehicles change as well. It started with family sedans to station wagons to pickup trucks and SUVs. The latest growth in tow vehicles has been motor homes of every size and design. Some are Class C models that are based on 1-ton Van chassis. The most common is the Class A gasoline-powered motor homes. As trailers grew bigger and bigger the diesel pusher motor homes became the tow vehicle of choice for thousands of racers.

If you own a motor home or are looking at a used one (now might be the time to take a look as prices on used motor homes have never been lower!), Class C, Class A or a Diesel Pusher and you are towing an enclosed trailer you are very likely exceeding the trailer hitch limits. Some motor homes come with a 10,000 lb-rated receiver hitch and the hitch is probably fine at that weight but the problem is the coach frame and body panels; are they OK with the stress caused by the weight of the trailers? In most cases they are not OK.

I had a Class C motor home and with my 32’ trailer and it was a handful to tow with. Between side sway and a “light front end” I was uncomfortable towing with it. So in an effort to make my life easier I found and bought a Trailer Toad in 2006 and using it with my current rig made such a difference that I almost couldn’t  believe it was the same motor home.