2006 Car Trailer Purchase

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Ok, here is a story on why trying to save a few dollars can cost you a lot of time and aggravation. It became obvious to me that I needed a second trailer to store another car (we have seven vehicles and only six spots to store them).The justifications went something like this. I rent outside storage for my trailer and I can put a car in it and there is no increase in the cost. The trailer can be resold at a later date to recoup most of the cost. I wanted a longer trailer for hauling vehicles.So………. I watched E-bay for a long time. It turns out that a good (name brand, nice condition) 24 foot 10,000 pound GVW trailer goes for around $7,000I did not want to spend that money on another trailer.I found a 24 foot 7,000 pound GVW trailer on e-bay located in NC. This trailer was a one year old trade in with what appeared to be some slight damage to the right rear corner. I had some pictures sent and agreed on a price and went down to pick it up. See the pictures below


So I got down there and upon examination it was found that where the trailer had been “grounded” on the right rear corner (kind of a normal occurrence for these trailers as they are very low to the ground)The cross member was actually bent and the weld was broken. The dealer was taking delivery of two brand new trailers from an off-brand manufacturer. There was both a 7,000 and 10,000 pound trailer. I chose to purchase the 10,000 pound trailer as the price was right. I got it home (after driving 1,400 miles) and it was found that once loaded with only a 3,600 pound car the tires were hitting the fender wells See the pictures below.


I placed a call to the dealer; he placed a call to the manufacturer who blamed the problem on the axle manufacturer. Dexter sent me new springs and a higher pivot point. These were taken to Brad’s Trailer and installed.The original springs were sent back to Dexter for testing. Dexter’s determination was that the springs were NOT Soft. The trailer did sit a little higher but with the car loaded (3,600 pounds) and additional 1,000 pounds of gravel in bags loaded on the trailer the tires still touched the fender wells. The owner of Freedom Trailers said he thought that was enough clearance. Don’t buy a trailer from Freedom Trailers, they do not stand behind their warranty http://www.freedomtrailerllc.com/ they look good but ……..The dealership handled it well in that they agreed to take the trailer back and sell me a name brand trailer. This process took two months.A deal was struck, a new trailer was ordered. After seven weeks it was delivered to the dealer.I drove back to North Carolina the evening of 12/7/2008 through a snow storm in Erie, PA and temperatures of 10 degrees. See below the cleanliness of the trailer upon arrival in NC


But not a scratch on it, oh but I might be giving something away.You guessed it the new replacement trailer had been damaged between the manufacturer and the dealer. The dealer had notified me of the problem before I left home, but upon examination the damage was more then what I had thought.The pictures do not really show all the scratches, but the top two feet of the right side of the trailer was heavily scratched. A lot of it could have been rubbed out, but it was supposed to be a new trailer.


Ok, so now I am into my second trip to NC (2,800 miles), traveled through a snow storm, and have attempted to purchase two different trailers.Pretty bad huh? And I have left a lot out just to make this a shorter story that it really is.Sitting next to this new trailer is a used trailer. See below.



This is a two year old trade in but in my opinion was in better condition the new trailer. It was not without scratches.

But they were over a much smaller area and this trailer had many more features, some which include the 60″ extended tongue, the Eliminator exterior package, the Eliminator interior package, Aluminum tandem axle package, 110 volt racer package, braced and wired for A/C, “L” shaped base W/straight overhead cabinet combination, and seal enclosed generator compartment. So I had the dealer sharpen his pencil and the below shot tells the story. (Sorry I did not take any shots of the inside but will soon and add them here.

The final chapter to this story is that the trip back was a challenge! I ran into freezing rain in Pa. I was following a tractor trailer and two cars were following me. The road flashed to ice, the tractor trailer when in the ditch in front of me on the right, the two cars in back of me split, one went in the ditch on the right and the other went in the ditch on the left. I slid down 95 sideways and came to rest not having touched anything. When I got to Rochester it was snowing. So, the summary is: I left for NC Sunday night at 10:30 PM and was back home in Rochester with this trailer (not the one I went down for) Tuesday morning at 2:30 AM..

This story has been shortened and many details have been left out. One detail that I do not want to leave out is the dealer http://www.hickoryenclosed.com/ has been helpful and supportive through this whole mess. If you are ever in the mood for a good deal and are not afraid to travel, talk to them