[fzust]

The net result with the Haulmark is that I bought a 2007 Tundra with the 5.7L V8. This in my opinion is a fantastic gas tow vehicle. Diesels undoubtedly tow better, but I didn't want an F250 truck as a daily driver. If Chevy didn't cancel their 4.5L diesel for the Silverado 1500..... but that is another discussion for another day.

Anyway, I also got a Reese Anti-Sway/weight distributing hitch system, which is really awesome, helping the vehicle in the wind and leveling the load.

With the haulmark I would have to drive without cruise control. If you use the cruise it will not hold 6th gear and pop into 5th, killing mileage. If I had no wind, I could manually hold 65mph and get, at best 11mpg. Up hills I would have to slow down to 45-55mph to maintain decent mileage. If I hold the speed, mileage would suffer to about 8-9mpg. Going to nationals the last 2 years I got 9-10mpg. In the wind, the sway control helps, but you still feel the "tail wagging the dog". Semis passing, suck you into their lane etc. Lastly, just from a stability standpoint 70mph is the limit of how fast you want to go straight and level in 0 wind. Once the wind kicks up or the hills start 60mph or less.

Last year at nationals the Haulmark was about 7700lbs towing 1200 miles. Logically it made no sense to haul an 1800lb car in a 4200lb trailer. So I was looking for a solution.

First place I looked was Trailex. I looked very long and very hard at this trailer. It is less than half of the weight as the Haulmark and has a V-nose. I actually test towed one with my street lotus in it. It is very nice. The aluminum extrusion construction is top notch and it is the lightest thing on the market.

The downsides as I saw them were the lack of a loading door on the rear. You have to pull out the ramps and fit them every time. One thing I noticed getting to and from an event is that minimizing the loading and unloading time makes it much less painful. The other thing is that it doesn't use a sprung hub axle, but a leaf that is shared between each wheel on 1 side. This doesn't handle as well or give you true independence if you lose a tire i.e. with a sprung hub you can run on 1 tire. Additionally it puts the trailer floor up very high and thus a higher CG and long ramps needed to load a low car like mine.

When I towed it, it towed very well, but you still seemed to hit an aerodynamic wall at about 70mph. A V-nose is better than a box, but not much. Lastly, Trailex knows they have a good product and they charge for it. By the time I got the options I needed, it would be north of $20k for the trailer.

So what to do?