Aluminium car trailers

[RobertT]

These seem like a good idea to me, and are popular in the US, but nobody seems to make them in the UK.

Am i missing something?

Lightweight seems good, so single axle is also attractive. Anyone have any comments on how a single axle would compare with a twin axle for a 900kg saloon?

Ta

Rob

[Carl Austin]

the problem is welding it all together, the alumiunm adjacent to the welsd will go soft and loose a great dal of it pre weld properties, also aluminum has a poor fatigue life, you may well end up welding cracks evry now and then,

i had considdered making mmyself one but having just bought a turbo diesel mondeo , i'm not too bothered about saving a bit of weight off a trailer as it tows at ramming speed up hill and down dale now,

carl

[Bernard]

900 kgs will need 4 wheels methinks.
I had an 800kg car on a Brian James tilt bed. Perfect tow.
I also built a steel/ally box cover for it. Worked well.

[ben240z]

900kg on a single axle trailer will keep you awake while towing it unless it is behind something very big and heavy. In which case you may as well have a heavy twin axle trailer.
The police are clamping down on trailer weights so my advice would be get a trailer that is legal to drag behind the tow vehicle and then have it as strong as possible because it will probably contain a payload that has a bit of value both sentimental and financial to you and arriving at a meeting or home without the payload because the cheaper lightweight trailer has given up would be a bit of a shame

[redturner37]

Originally Posted by ben240z

900kg on a single axle trailer will keep you awake while towing it unless it is behind something very big and heavy. In which case you may as well have a heavy twin axle trailer.
The police are clamping down on trailer weights so my advice would be get a trailer that is legal to drag behind the tow vehicle and then have it as strong as possible because it will probably contain a payload that has a bit of value both sentimental and financial to you and arriving at a meeting or home without the payload because the cheaper lightweight trailer has given up would be a bit of a shame

Absolutely right, you wouldn't want you trailer and pride of joy taking over the steering with a single axle trailer. I am currently using a twin axle trailer at 750kgs (unbraked) and that is the limit allowed. It has a steel frame and ally floor with light weight sides up to the top of the wheels and tows like a dream. The main reason I use this is because it fits nicely in my garage where as my large trailer was a target waiting in a farm yard to be stolen. Whatever you run, braked or otherwise make sure you have a stout secondary anchor to the towing vehicle. I have a piece of 1/2" steel wire rope.

[Radical]

I was pulled in recently to check the axle weights etc. He admitted he saw what looked like a large box being pulled by a fairly small car and thought "I'll have him".

Of coarse, it measured under the axle and total limits and had new tyres all round and working lights and everthing else they went over, not worth risking anything!

Mine is a single axle but my radical is under 500kg the total with spare wheels and trailer is under 1 tonne, I would not fancy putting a 900kg car on a single axle trailer!