[TNEngineer]

If it was me I would just drive my new baby home.

Which you could, for an extra ~$4000 in California sales taxes. That's a darned lot of money just to drive it the distance to the nearest state border (about three hours).

 

[6TVRs+]

An excellent write up of pretty much what I did getting my Exige partway to me. (Except the backwards thing) The detail is great of what I take for granted, only because I have towed A LOT of different cars over the years on trailers. Great for a person new to the procedure. I only used the uhaul straps up front and my "Deluxe" tie downs (The premade version of what you fashioned with towels, etc. available through Summit racing or the like) on the rear. My uhaul straps rarely loosened except when the rear tires came off of my "too short" 8' long planks it was riding on.
I'm curious if the Uhaul straps not being under tension caused them to work loose?

Congrats again!

Edit to add pic with rear tie down straps I used, they have foam, felt cover pad to protect wheels.

 

[Jim Totcke]

OK, I've now done this (put an Evora on a U-Haul trailer) and want to document some things here to help others who are considering doing the same. I apologize for not having detailed photos of how the car sat on the trailer, things were a bit rushed at the dealer. I do have some "overall" shots which I'll post once I'm home (I'm actually driving the car home the rest of the way now, typing this from a hotel room).

First: It does work. But you have to be careful, as described below.

There are three sizes of U-Haul "auto transporters" (their name for the all-four-wheels-off-the-ground trailers). They are differentiated by the max load they can accommodate. There is a 6000 pound, a 7000 pound, and a 7500 pound version and that rating is marked on at least one of the wheel fenders. Either the 7000 or the 7500 will work, but the 6000 is noticeably smaller. I haven't measured it but given how tight things were on the 7000# unit we had, I wouldn't even consider a 6000#.

Next, you need some 2x10 lumber, a circular saw, some screws, and a way to drive the screws (impact driver or drill motor). You will need to cut two pieces 18 inches long each, to act as standoffs in the trailer's "front" wheel wells. You'll also need to cut two pieces 30-36 inches long, and two pieces 18-24 inches long. These latter two sets are screwed together, one of each size, to create two "ramps" that the rear wheels of the towing vehicle must back onto. Finally, you need a couple of pieces perhaps 1-2 feet long each (whatever scrap you have left over from the above) to put under the trailer's own metal ramps.

Next up are four ratchet straps. I bought four new 1.25 inch wide straps. This is VITALLY important, as you'll soon see.

Finally, you need four old hand towels, like the ones you use at your bathroom sink. Not washcloths, but the next size up - about 1x2 feet minimum.

To get started, find a place to park the truck and trailer such that they are "headed uphill" a bit, or at least no less than level. Do NOT park them "headed downhill" because this will further increase the angle of the ramps, which puts the front splitter area at risk.

Next, drive the truck's rear wheels up onto the double-high ramps you built. Raising the rear axle of the truck lowers the rear end of the trailer, which reduces the ramp angle.

Now put the 18 inch long pieces in the wheel wells on the trailer. These are at the front of the trailer; they each have a six inch tall bracket for the tire to drive forward against and a metal rod that ends up "behind" that tire. The rod is a connection point for the webbing straps that go over the tire to secure the vehicle to the tire.

Finally, put the spare scrap pieces under the ramps to further reduce their angle. That front splitter is really, really low... do everything you can to reduce the ramp angle.

Now you're ready to begin. You will be BACKING the Evora onto the trailer. Take a few minutes to get comfortable with that, because you don't have a choice. First, the Evora is a mid-engine car so its weight is predominantly on its rear axle and you MUST have the majority of the weight at the FRONT of the trailer or you risk serious stability issues when towing. Second, the rear angle of departure is about twice the front angle of approach, and there's simply no way the front splitter area will clear the various bits of metal on the front of the trailer. You will be backing the car up those ramps, period.

Before you start, lay out the trailer's webbing straps along the wheel channels. You will drive the rear wheels over them, then pull them over the tops of the rear tires and ratchet them down using the ratchets on the front of the trailer.

Get everything lined up and have at least one, preferably two, spotters since you will not be able to see ANYTHING from within the car. Backing up the ramps is difficult but not impossible, but it must be done very, VERY slowly so you can stop before something gets damaged if your alignment is off. That's pretty tricky to do with a manual transmission. My technique was to use the hand brake as my only brake, leaving my feet to operate the throttle and clutch.

Ease up the ramps a few inches at a time. Have your spotters constantly check that you're parallel and centered. Once the rear tires get up on the trailer proper, centering is CRUCIAL. There is only a few inches of clearance and you want those evenly divided on either side. Take your time, and restart if you must. It's worth it to get it right.

Once all four tires on on the trailer, continue backing up until the rears reach those metal rods and the 2x10 you placed there. Now you must get the rear tires over those rods and on top of the 2x10's. Obviously you don't want to overdo it, so this is another time for the hand brake + feet technique.

With the 2x10's in place your rear diffuser will clear the trailer's tire stops with 1-2 inches to spare. I would stop and eyeball that to confirm before actually backing the car all the way, just in case the spacing is different on your car or trailer. That's actually good advice for this whole endeavor: Go slow and double check EVERYTHING.

Eventually you'll have the rear tires up against the tire stops. Set the hand break to hold the car in position, then confirm someone lowered the trailer's left fender and climb out via the passenger door. You cannot open the driver's door when the car is loaded backwards because the trailer fender on that side isn't hinged to rotate out of the way. Lock up the car, you won't be getting back in until it's time to unload it.

Now run the trailer's webbing straps over the tires and secure them using the trailer's ratchets. You will find it difficult to get them to lay properly on the tires, because the straps were not sized with the Evora's wide rear tires in mind. In fact, you will probably find that those webbing straps COME LOOSE during towing! Ours did, multiple times, and if we had done what U-Haul expects and rely on just those two straps to hold the car in place AND in alignment, it could have been a very bad day.

Fortunately, I had expected this and brought those ratchet straps and hand towels. Lay one hand towel through the bottommost spokes of each wheel. Then, for each wheel, hook the strap's hook (not the ratchet's hook, the STRAP's hook) around the inside edge of the wheel channel and pass the strap through the spokes and on top of the towel. The towel is there to prevent abrasion of the wheel by the strap. Hook the ratchet's hook to some solid part of the trailer that is far enough down the side of the trailer that the ratchet has NO POSSIBLE CHANCE of contacting the wheel or tire. Then cinch up the strap as usual and carefully but very securely manage the loose excess strap so it doesn't flap around and hit the car in any way.

Now go back and cinch up the trailer's own webbing straps. If you secured the ratchet straps well enough, they will have slightly compressed the rear tires and the webbing straps may now be loose.

Finally, remove all the ramps and risers that you made out of 2x10's (except those that the rear tires are sitting on) and you're ready to tow. When you are ready to unload, repeat the ramps and risers setup, remove all the straps and towels, climb in via the passenger door, and have spotters watch everything as you carefully drive forward off the trailer.

Let me re-emphasize: Those four ratchet straps are not optional. They are vital to your Evora's safety. U-Haul would have you rely on just securing the front-most tires with their webbing straps, but there is enough slop in that system to permit the (totally unsecured!) rear-most end of the car to move laterally quite a bit. Given the usual bouncing and jostling that happens on every road, you can pretty much guarantee the car will want to move around on the trailer. Your Evora will not enjoy that experience, and neither will you.

The four ratchet straps work because they absolutely tie the car down to the trailer in one place. It cannot move. Even if those straps failed for some reason, as long as you had two opposite corners the car should be solidly immobile. When the trailer's own straps came loose (repeatedly) we were not worried about the car moving - we were worried that the straps might fall under the trailer's own tires and get violently ripped off, possibly damaging the car in the process. We knew the car wasn't moving because the four ratchet straps had the wheels and tires bound securely to the trailer.

That's it for now. I'll post some photos when I get home. But the bottom line is Yes, you can use a U-Haul trailer to carry an Evora. Total cost was under $75 for one 24-hour period which saved me many thousands in California sales tax... and I didn't have to worry about some casual brokerage-assigned trucker doing whatever to my brand new Lotus.

More soon... thanks!

IDEngineer, Respectfully IMO, you caused yourself a lot of unnecessary work by backing the car onto the trailer!

The "MAJORITY" of the weight should not and MUST NOT be in the front; it is extremely important that the weight is distributed properly; the tongue weight "MUST" be between 10 - 15% of the combined tow weight for safe towing (i.e. trailer weight = 1,000 lbs. - car weight = 3,175 lbs.- total weight = 4,175 thus tongue weight Must be between 417.5 lbs. - 626.25 lbs.)! Trust me, if this rule is not followed, you will be fighting with the steering, speed and braking for the entire trip.

The reason the U-Haul straps did not fit properly is because the vehicle was backed onto the trailer; U-Haul straps are designed for FRONT tires.I guarantee you if you tried loading the car this way at a U-Haul facility, they would not have rented the trailer to you.

Good luck with your trip!
Jim

 

[AustinP]

I use Race Ramps to effectively double the length (and halve the angle) of the trailer ramps so I can load my lowered Exige front-end first (I have a Mission open car hauler). They’re worth the investment if you’re going to tow with some regularity. You could make the equivalent with wood, which would be cheaper, but they’d also be a lot heavier and less durable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[brgelise]

Absolutely my case as well. It's where it will be registered, not where it's sold. I'm not in Idaho but I've purchased cars from Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and had them transported while paying SC vehicle tax (currently capped at $600 - before you get jealous, it was $300 2 years ago!) and registration. I would double check if there is a recipricol agreement or if you can get a temp tag from Idaho. It appears that California has some agreements. If I Buy A Car In Another State Where Do I Pay Sales Tax?

That explains those 2 lanes on I95....and the 30minute routine backup when enetering from Georgia.

 

[TEP1]

That explains those 2 lanes on I95....and the 30minute routine backup when enetering from Georgia.

During Bike Week at Daytona Beach hundreds of personal trucks pull their bikes in enclosed trailers going about 60-65mph up and down I-95 FL to VA.

 

[lotusquacious]

If this were me, prior to leaving I would get a temp tag from your home state DMV and insurance. I would fly to the dealer's town, uber to U-haul and rent an in town pickup and car trailer. Purchase said car and load it onto the trailer. Drive back to U-haul, unload the car, put on the temp tag and be on my way. Even if you get pulled over, how would an officer know anything about your transaction? I also don't know why any of the above would be illegal.

This sounds like the best solution to me.

Hey IDEng! I looked at most of the relevant threads to see what you bought but seem to have missed the announcement. What did you settle on? You were a fun guy to follow. You asked all the right questions and did your research but in the end everybody knows buying a Lotus is a bit of a leap of faith. Your passion will be rewarded! Congratulations!

I also bought out of state and drove the car home and reported about the experience here three years ago. It was a thrill to drive home but the tax thing was complicated by Michigan's regulations which are a variation of California's. Compounding my grief, the lady in TN who registered it was at sea about the process so there were a few moments of annoyance at the DMV but it all worked out. The drive home was epic and that's the way I'd do it again. Of course, one would only want to do this with the minimum of slab running but as a lifelong motorcyclist I'm practiced at avoiding the slabs. Thing is, the Evora is a much better highway car than anybody would guess if they didn't know better.

My car already had a few miles on it so my concern was if it had been well driven prior to collecting it but to be honest, you can break in these motors with little concern. They're certainly among the most well built and durable lumps out there. Varying load is as important as varying speed so if on the slab with a new car I tend to work the throttle a bit as well as the gear box within the parameters they recommend, but even those I don't feel need to be observed all that closely for brief forays. I'm somewhat impatient about break-in on all but the tightest motors....two strokes can be fussy about break in, actually air cooled bikes are what get the most attention from me when new. The usual sensitivity to a new vehicle in other words and generally observing the spirit of the book if not the letter. I found the actual drive took a bit of getting used to as the pedal placement didn't come naturally to me and the mid engine experience was novel. However, my Toyota felt ready to go the day I picked it up. One of the nicest motors I've ever owned all things considered and I never would have had any Toyota experience had Lotus not chosen them.

 

[TNEngineer]

If this were me, prior to leaving I would get a temp tag from your home state DMV and insurance. I would fly to the dealer's town, uber to U-haul and rent an in town pickup and car trailer. Purchase said car and load it onto the trailer. Drive back to U-haul, unload the car, put on the temp tag and be on my way. Even if you get pulled over, how would an officer know anything about your transaction? I also don't know why any of the above would be illegal.

That's a great idea - IF your home state issues temporary tags. Idaho does not. Idaho will not issue anything until the actual vehicle is driven to a DMV office and a DMV employee walks out to the parking lot and personally verifies the VIN. Then you get your actual plates on the spot (unless ordering vanity plates).

That was the problem here: The confluence of Idaho's refusal to generate a temporary permit combined with California's demand for full sales tax if you drove on their streets. The only solution was towing it out of the state.

Fun followup fact: As noted above, we have to take the Evora to the DMV for personal verification of its VIN. There's some sort of short timeframe for doing this. But our county's DMV offices are all closed but one due to "virus", and that one works by appointment only. I just tried to schedule an appointment, and the first date they offer is in late August! I may call the State Patrol tomorrow and ask them how to resolve this problem. "Please help me give the state more of my money."

 

[TNEngineer]

The "MAJORITY" of the weight should not and MUST NOT be in the front; it is extremely important that the weight is distributed properly; the tongue weight "MUST" be between 10 - 15% of the combined tow weight for safe towing (i.e. trailer weight = 1,000 lbs. - car weight = 3,175 lbs.- total weight = 4,175 thus tongue weight Must be between 417.5 lbs. - 626.25 lbs.)! Trust me, if this rule is not followed, you will be fighting with the steering, speed and braking for the entire trip.

You are absolutely correct about tongue weight being 10-15% of the total. But I must respectfully disagree with your sentiment that a mid or rear engined car would be better loaded forward, for several reasons.

First, U-Haul's own instructions repeatedly stress that vehicles must be loaded forwards: "The vehicle-in-tow MUST be loaded facing forward on the auto transport. Failure to load facing forward may result in sway or WHIPPING and lead to total loss of control." The reason given for this is because the majority of the weight of the vehicle (well, "most" vehicles) is in the front due to the engine location. They want that weight toward the front of their trailers, and they hammer and hammer and hammer this point.

Second, those U-Haul trailers have an odd geometry. I highlight this (the lever arm length) in one of my photos below. Their tongues are exceptionally long, and the hitch point is thus unusually far from the trailer's own axle centerline (the point between the two axles).

Since our cars have a different weight distribution, we must do our own analysis. Here is an annotated photo of our Evora on the trailer:

The Evora has roughly a 33/67 front/rear weight distribution. In the photo above, the car is loaded backwards and so the arrow nearest the front of the trailer is its approximate COG. Note that it's a bit forward, but not TOO forward, of the axle centerline. That's a GOOD thing, because it means some percentage of the vehicle's additional mass is applied to the tongue... the tongue weight scales with the increased total mass.

If the car were loaded forward, the arrow nearest the REAR of the trailer would be its COG. Now the weight is centered over the axles. Some might think this is ideal, but as you pointed out the tongue weight is supposed to be 10-15% of the TOTAL mass of the trailer+load. Loading the Evora forward centers its COG over the trailer's axle centerline, meaning (roughly) none of the additional weight appears on the tongue.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, a towing expert, an insurance company, etc. Anyone considering towing anything must do their own analysis and come to their own conclusions about what works for them. I can tell you that the above arrangement worked very well, was rock stable at freeway speeds for hours on California freeways, and the shipper never once felt any sway or other control issues the entire way (and I nagged him a LOT about that since I was riding in the Ford F150 with him!). He even had one semi-panic stop when freeway traffic suddenly slowed down, but everything stayed nice and straight.

Again, not trying to start an argument, just relating my analysis and how it turned out. YMMV.

 

[TNEngineer]

OK, I promised photos so here we go!

First, the side view without the annotation above:

...and then the rear view:

I'll do some closeups with strapping details in a separate message.

 

[TNEngineer]

Here's a zoomed view of the rear wheel strapping arrangement:

Most of this is discussed in my long-winded message earlier in this thread. Key points here are that the ratchet's hook is secured FAR below the wheel, so the ratchet itself cannot possibly touch the wheel nor tire. The front has area of the trailer a different arrangement but the concept is the same and we were able to find places to secure the ratchet hooks there too.

Note the towel protecting the wheel from its strap. No matter how tightly you ratchet that thing down, the vibrations from towing will scuff the wheel unless you protect it with something. I asked my wife for some old, used hand towels - which thrilled her because it gave her an excuse to run out and buy four new ones!

Finally, be certain the strap slack is tied off. Use really good knots because the wind never stops trying to untie them while you're driving. When we were avid whitewater kayakers and used ratchet straps for everything on car roofs, we learned not to just "roll them up" because those rolls always come undone. Far better to eat up the length by tying them down some distance away, as shown in the photo. The rear wheel straps ran toward the front of the car, and vice versa, and then we tied off the ends at a secure point.

 

[TNEngineer]

Hey IDEng! I looked at most of the relevant threads to see what you bought but seem to have missed the announcement. What did you settle on? You were a fun guy to follow. You asked all the right questions and did your research but in the end everybody knows buying a Lotus is a bit of a leap of faith.

I was going to start a new thread to answer that question, but I'll give a short answer here.

We are now the proud owners of a brand new 2020 Evora GT, Formula Red exterior and red-on-black interior with red trim pieces. It's absolutely stunning. To be honest, red wasn't my first choice because "red sports car" is such a cliche, there are so many of them. But once I saw how they had done such an amazing job coordinating the red accents on the interior, I was sold. Any hesitation I had disappeared.

As for the overall vehicle... we got very close to buying several others, including that 2018 Azure Blue one with just 1300 miles and two remaining years of warranty (we actually had the plane tickets and already had its VIN on our insurance). But the deals vaporized each time. It became so frustrating that we sort of tabled the idea for a while.

Then, out of nowhere on a Saturday, the former owner of the 2018 Azure Blue called. (He's a subscriber here but I'm going to respect his privacy by not identifying him.) He had conferenced in a Lotus dealer that he knew. He introduced us, then let the dealer do the talking. It turned out the dealer had just received the above 2020 Evora GT on Thursday, just three days earlier, from the Lotus warehouse in Baltimore MD and he believed a special deal was possible that would give us a brand new Evora GT for well under what other dealers had been "offering" nationwide. It was configured exactly how we would have spec'd it ourselves: Subwoofer/Amp, no excess carbon fiber, etc. It was like it had been built specifically for us. We huddled quickly and committed that afternoon.

As it turned out, buying this particular vehicle required the approval of the President of Lotus USA. Again, I must respect people's and the dealer's privacy by not saying too much, but after a couple of days the entire chain of command had signed off on the deal and all we had to do was figure out how to get it out of California. You know the rest of that story.

I just finished two days of driving it home, stopping at Lotus of Bellevue (Seattle area) to get its break-in service done and to introduce myself, since they will be our dealer now. I met Erik, the Lotus Technician there, and went on a test drive with him. He also spent some time with me going over various interesting details, including our discovery of some masking tape with assembly numbers still attached to certain components from when the vehicle was assembled ("That's what you get with hand-built cars"). He also gave me a duplicate of the ECU dump that they are required to send to Lotus, which will now be part of the file we maintain for this car. It now has ~1150 miles, and I put all but 6 of them on it myself.

I have a few comments and questions about it, but I'll put those into another thread that I'll start soon. This thread is primarily about U-Haul trailers so I don't want to confuse the two topics.

Thanks for asking, and thanks for the encouragement! It was looking pretty dark there for a while, but after looking at 2017's and 2018's our new friend found us the deal of a lifetime and it's sitting here right now... a brand-spanking-new 2020 Evora GT!!!

 

[2011 chrome orange]

Congrats on your purchase! The car looks awesome!

Glad to hear it all went smoothly in the end. Best of luck with it!!

 

[TNEngineer]

One more image, a zoomed in view of the front wheel (rear strap) detail. I want to stress the importance of hooking the ratchet end well down and away from the wheel so the ratchet itself cannot come anywhere close to the wheel or tire.

If you look at the wheel track on the trailer, you can see that its sides come up and then have a rolled edge... the inside of each track thus provides a convenient point for the hook on the strap (not ratchet) end. Just wrap the hook around the rolled edge and it is quite well secured. This works for all four straps on all four wheels, front and rear.

 

[TEP1]

I was going to start a new thread to answer that question, but I'll give a short answer here.

We are now the proud owners of a brand new 2020 Evora GT, Formula Red exterior and red-on-black interior with red trim pieces. It's absolutely stunning. To be honest, red wasn't my first choice because "red sports car" is such a cliche, there are so many of them. But once I saw how they had done such an amazing job coordinating the red accents on the interior, I was sold. Any hesitation I had disappeared.

As for the overall vehicle... we got very close to buying several others, including that 2018 Azure Blue one with just 1300 miles and two remaining years of warranty (we actually had the plane tickets and already had its VIN on our insurance). But the deals vaporized each time. It became so frustrating that we sort of tabled the idea for a while.

Then, out of nowhere on a Saturday, the former owner of the 2018 Azure Blue called. (He's a subscriber here but I'm going to respect his privacy by not identifying him.) He had conferenced in a Lotus dealer that he knew. He introduced us, then let the dealer do the talking. It turned out the dealer had just received the above 2020 Evora GT on Thursday, just three days earlier, from the Lotus warehouse in Baltimore MD and he believed a special deal was possible that would give us a brand new Evora GT for well under what other dealers had been "offering" nationwide. It was configured exactly how we would have spec'd it ourselves: Subwoofer/Amp, no excess carbon fiber, etc. It was like it had been built specifically for us. We huddled quickly and committed that afternoon.

As it turned out, buying this particular vehicle required the approval of the President of Lotus USA. Again, I must respect people's and the dealer's privacy by not saying too much, but after a couple of days the entire chain of command had signed off on the deal and all we had to do was figure out how to get it out of California. You know the rest of that story.

I just finished two days of driving it home, stopping at Lotus of Bellevue (Seattle area) to get its break-in service done and to introduce myself, since they will be our dealer now. I met Erik, the Lotus Technician there, and went on a test drive with him. He also spent some time with me going over various interesting details, including our discovery of some masking tape with assembly numbers still attached to certain components from when the vehicle was assembled ("That's what you get with hand-built cars"). He also gave me a duplicate of the ECU dump that they are required to send to Lotus, which will now be part of the file we maintain for this car. It now has ~1150 miles, and I put all but 6 of them on it myself.

I have a few comments and questions about it, but I'll put those into another thread that I'll start soon. This thread is primarily about U-Haul trailers so I don't want to confuse the two topics.

Thanks for asking, and thanks for the encouragement! It was looking pretty dark there for a while, but after looking at 2017's and 2018's our new friend found us the deal of a lifetime and it's sitting here right now... a brand-spanking-new 2020 Evora GT!!!

Sounds like you got yourself a winner! Just make sure the clutch line is well wrapped. There is a Lotus part number to get the line wrapped if it wasn't done at the factory. One can always wrap the clutch line with wrap bought at Auto Zone or Advance Auto Parts or order from the internet.

 

[TNEngineer]

Yeah, I forgot to ask the Lotus Tech about that yesterday while I was at the dealer. They're 350 miles away so I'm not going to stroll back there to get the question answered. {grin} Is there a photo somewhere showing where the line runs, so I can inspect it myself?

Thanks!

 

[agentdr8]

Is there a photo somewhere showing where the line runs, so I can inspect it myself?

This was the TSB for the S1s, but the wrap should be in the same location on the S2s.

It's sort of possible to see this from above, but definitely easier if you remove the rear under tray and look at it from below.

 

[TNEngineer]

Excellent, thanks! I'll try to scope it out from above, but it won't be long before I'm doing my first oil change and will have the tray off at that point for bottom access.

 

[greginportlandor]

Congratulations on your new car!

 

[Joshrose]

Just call AAA. Have them put it on a flatbed trailer. You get 3 miles towing for free. Just trailer it around the corner from the dealership, then take it off the flatbed, put your plates on it and drive it home. Simple as that!