Hi, we've just picked up a 2nd hand polycotton kampa studland tent and vestibule. We looked at the pack sizes before and the measurements weren't much greater than our old polyester vango aspen 700 so thought we were OK. It was a bit of a shock getting the tent and the boot of our grand picasso was pretty much full just with the tent, poles, carpet and vestibule!!
I know even with our roofbox we'll struggle to get it all fitting in. So think we need a trailer and trying to roughly cost it out.
I've had a quote for £300 to fit a detachable tow bar (our car has parking sensors so advised detachable was best).
As already spent a fair bit I would quite like to know what is a good value and safe to tow trailer. I've seen the Caddy range from Towsure looks cheapest. I guess 2nd hand would be cheapest but am just a bit wary of getting stung and buying something not totally road worthy.
For a first time trailer what is a good value make to get and is it advisable to buy new? Another important thing is storage - we don't have a drive or off road parking. We're in a terraced house so would be able to turn it on it's side and carry it down the guinnel and then store on it's end in the garden under a tarp.
Buy a galvanised trailer 2nd hand. If you get a popular brand eg Erde/daxara/brenderup spares are easily available. If it's in good condition it probably won't have seen a high mileage and if lights all working then probably the only other consideration is tyres might need replacing due to age.
For not much more than the price of a new trailer eg Erde 142 - you can get one with abs lid, load bars etc....
BTW I have c3 Picasso with parking sensors and have a swan neck towbar fitted. It doesn't interfere with sensors so it might be a cheaper option although £300 is a good price for a detachable.
We bought a Lider Trailer back in 2009, a robust trailer that we tow to the South of France each year.
As for your towbar, if you have the pukka cambus type electrics fitted, then your parking sensors are automatically disabled when the Trailer is hitched, the electrics will also integrate your Trailer to the car alarm system, which will sound when the electric plug is detached when the car is unattended.
We have a fixed Swan Neck (Westfailia) towbar, the Swan Neck type are better suited should you ever need to use a tow-ball mounted bike carrier when not towing the Trailer.
Go for a 13 pin plug, all pins need not be wired if just for Trailer towing, the 13 pin plug is a more secure bayonet connection, far better than the older style 7 pin plugs.
Cheers for all the advice. It sounds like I'm best to get the towbar fitted then keep an eye on second hand listings.
What benefit does an ABS lid give over a tarp? We wouldn't be leaving anything in the trailer whilst stored at home and could imagine an ABS lid making it that much wider when on it side for fitting down the guinnel. But I wouldn't mind having bike racks on the trailer.
The advantage of the abs is lid over a tarp is that because they are raised you get extra storage space in the trailer and they are more secure (if you stopover anywhere). The Erde/daxars design of lid makes it easy to remove when storing (remove nut connecting to gas strut/lid support, open 180 degrees and it should unhook).
The ABS lids are £300 to £400 new and £100 to £200 second hand so if you think you will need a lid best to look for trailer and lid as a package.
For a trailer 1m by 1.5m with lid you're probably looking at £400 to £600. Brands to look out for are Brenderup, Erde/Daxara, Lider, Caddy, Franc. Don't buy a trailer with the ID plate (usually rivetted to front of the frame) missing as it probably means its stolen.
One thing that is a bit unclear to me is how many bikes you can get on a trailer. I've seen comments on here that some smaller Erde trailers can only carry two (due to the stress on the pin at the front) but never found anything to confirm this.
My vote goes to Brenderup trailers, and they appear from time to time on the likes of eBay and Gumtree pre-owned.
Mine was bought from new, and I am happy with it.
DK
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We bought our old Caddy 530 trailer which the previous owner had put castors on the rear for moving in the upright position and have done quite a few miles with it.
Last year it got a noisy bearing but found that the hubs weren't serviceable and advised to replace the whole axle! to my surprise the axle (which just bolts on) was only around £70, we did have to wait a while for Caddy to get stock but we now have serviceable hubs if the bearings do wear again although I'm not as confident to do that as I was bolting the new axle on.
We bought a Daxara 198 plus ABS lid plus lots of extras. Got the whole set up for £600 off Ebay. It was virtually brand new. It is a great trailer but really don't think you would be able to flip it on its side due to the weight and size.
------------- August 2013 - Kingsbridge, Devon
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We've just bought a Daxara 198, with ABS lid.. its currently in our garage on its side, minus the draw bar and wheels. For safety we've strapped it to the wall so its not going anywhere.
Hubby made a dolly to go on the end of our Erde 142 so we could wheel the trailer around into storage, and we'll get the same made for the Daxara when we have chance.
Just keep storage in mind - as we ve bought new, we desperately want to keep it in the garage so it doesn't get too weathered. Luckily we can strap the lid to roof of the garage, but the one we had on our Erde 142 had clearly been left outside when we bought it, so we had to do some repairs on it and respray it to make it watertight and smart looking again.
We have just bought a Brenderup one which we have not used (only had it 2 weeks). We are selling our Erde 122 with ABS hard top and roof bars and 3 cycle racks (on ebay and the UKC free ads section) - probably too far for you as we are in North Hampshire.
We have a detachable tow bar and it is great. Though I must let Mr Frazzle pop it on and off and put the little ball cover on or you will get black grease into your clothes and it does not wash out (I've done this twice now - silly billy).
We use the trailer to store our camping stuff in the garage and also to transport it to the campsite. As you do not have any storage what about one of the storage place (yes you will have to pay) or pay a mate to keep it in his/her garage (and maybe even let them use it to go on holiday!).
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Topic: good value trailers?
