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I need to trailer my car to its first autox event next weekend. I have a steel 18' open trailer with a beavertail. My car is lowered on stock bolts. I already have Vulcan thru the wheel tie downs, all set there.
I'm curious about tricks to get this up onto the trailer without ripping anything off. I saw at a previous event somebody had the back of the tow rig on rhino ramps to lift the tongue and drop the back. Good idea and I have the ramps. Do you think I need to have 2x10 boards or something to put halfway up the steel ramps to help cut down the angle? For those with the same style trailer am I overthinking it?
My fenders don't remove and doubt the door will clear. Hopefully a 2x10 under the tires bolted to the trailer lifts it enough.....
My car isn’t lowered but I’ve hauled it on a UHaul a few times. I do pull the rear wheels of my truck onto two stacked 2x boards to decrease the load angle. In your case maybe look at setting the trailer ramps on top of some boards as well.
I have a set of ramps that is too short and is also 2-3" below the level of the dovetail on my trailer so I have a set of wood planks I use to soften the approach angle of my ramps and extend it further out. I also have a set of blocks I made to let the car bridge the gap at the top of the ramps. Since I have a wood floor I can screw in some small ramps at the front to stop the nose of my drift car from being impaled on my winch and it also raises the nose of my drift car JUST enough to let the doors open... Unfortunately my Corvette is not so lucky so I exit and enter through the hatch.
I don't tow my Corvette almost ever so my trailer is setup for the drift car but it works. I can't recommend enough installing wheel stops/chocks/whatever at the front of your trailer after you figure out where they should go. It gives you SO much more confidence loading solo ESPECIALLY in the dark. Look under the front wheel here and you can see. I started with just a wheel stop and then realized if I added another 3/4" of height the front doors would clear the fenders
Last edited by gtrslngrchris; May 9, 2025 at 02:13 PM.
I suppose I could get in thru the hatch to pull the e brake lever once winched in place. No way I'm fitting between the wings on the Corbeau's.
If you strap it down properly you dont need to set anything. I have towing cars for 20+ years and never leave it in gear or set the parking brake.
When I had an open trailer I would leave the window down so I could steer if needed as it goes up with the winch. Then right before the door got to the trailer fender I would open it and roll it back up. Then just winch it the last little bit and strap it down.
I just picked up a C5Z race car a couple of weeks ago (this is my first post!), and it has a 9 lives splitter and about 3 inches ground clearance. I was able to load onto my dovetail trailer using the longest race ramps extending the trailer ramps, lifting the front of the trailer a bit by pumping up the rear air bags on my truck, and by using horse stall mats to level out low spots in the ramp approach. I took the fender off of the trailer (2 bolts) so I could use the door to get in and out. It all worked fine.
Chip
Last edited by Chip G; May 13, 2025 at 09:24 AM.
Reason: added photo
well it was pretty uneventful. I started with the rear of the tow rig on rhino ramps but once the car was up the trailer ramps they went flat to the ground and actually made the bumper crash into the beaver tail. Got rid of those and it went right up. Just had to make 2x12 pads to get the door over the fender.
Loading on an open trailer
