Gooseneck trailer tips

[SSLance]

I loved having my own personal potty in the pits this weekend...and stove, and fridge, and bed...even electricity to charge all my equipment back up. Even if it took and extra half hour to pack up to head home.

Now...the 2.5 hours driving straight into a 40 mph head wind...that SUCKED...

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Che70velle

Greg, toss a couple of these in the trailer....

I found some of those in Charlie's trailer. Hopefully he finds and disposes of them when he gets home.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by SSLance

I loved having my own personal potty in the pits this weekend...and stove, and fridge, and bed...even electricity to charge all my equipment back up. Even if it took and extra half hour to pack up to head home.

Now...the 2.5 hours driving straight into a 40 mph head wind...that SUCKED...

Normally - by the time I loaded three cars up - and put all the other stuff away - I'd just pull out front of the track and spend the night - then head out the next morning. Tonight I just loaded up the one car - and headed to Reno - was in Reno in time for a shower and dinner...

The new trailer has a generator (3000 watt Honda) - so I'm able to make coffee - and charge up all the stuff.

Like most things - there's trade offs. I miss a lot of the stuff "the rig" had - and don't miss a lot of other things.

[SSLance]

Our B+ did pretty well with it's first trip towing the car trailer. It's about 18,700 #s total and on the way up it would pull most hills in Overdrive if i'd hit the bottom of them at 75 MPH. Very comfortable cruise up. I estimate it got around 7.5 mpg on the way up with me not being conservative with the go pedal at all. It typically gets 8.5 mpg without a trailer.

Yesterday coming home was a different story. Huge headwind that was sometimes a cross wind as well, 30-40 mph wind the whole 2.5 hours home. I'm guessing I was getting below 5 mpg and had two fistfuls of steering wheel the whole way home. It's no fun when you rig moves over a half lane and there is nothing you can do about it.

It would still run 60-70 MPH depending on conditions, but I used to haul mode and spent most time closer to 60 mph. The trailer wagging really wasn't an issue...in fact I pretty much didn't know the trailer was back there. It was mostly just trying to keep the 11.5 foot tall rig in my own lane. My friend with a Ram 1 ton dually pulling a toy hauler usually gets around 13 mpg pulling averaged 8.5 mpg coming home the same route. It was brutal.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to have fun at the track though. Still worth it...

[GregWeld]

I just got home here in Sun Valley about 5 MST - from our weekend at Thunderhill.... I drove thru blizzard conditions most of Nevada... and not only was it snowing to beat the band (they had the plows out!) - it was 33 and 34* for most of the way.

When I'm on a 10 hour drive - I usually try to get "comfortable" - so this morning when I got dressed in Reno at 4 AM - I put on some Nike gym shorts and a T shirt.... Well... yeah that was a mistake at every fuel stop!! LOL OMG howling wind and the snow was the wet type and it was blowing sideways.

The good news is - the truck and trailer combo is stellar! The wind was only a little bit of an issue right east of Reno (Fernley) where it was gusting, and on the side. For the most part you'd never know there was a trailer back there. The little half ton and the 6.2 tows great.

[SSLance]

6.5 mpg for the whole trip! If I was close with the 7.5 mpg on the way up, that meant around 5.5 mpg coming home. The wife was horrified when I told her that, I was pretty pleased actually. Especially considering my buddy with the 1 ton diesel was only 2 mpg better for the same trip.

Snow? WTF Greg, it's almost May already... Glad your rig is working out for you. Just think though, in your old rig, you probably wouldn't have even had to stop for fuel but once...