Putting a beavertail to a car hauler trailer.

[STINEY]

My buddy built this, and its a bit too low to load on his trailer without major contortions of the raise-the-truck-bumper dig-a-hole-for-the-trailer-tires type.

Well, if you don't want to drag the headers that is.



Anyways, after showing it for a season, he has changed it up some with cal-tracs, lighter drag wheels and drag radials, nitrous, etc.

He likes to trailer it to the drags just to eliminate the drama in case of breakage. To each his own, right.

So we are going to use the tie-downs in the barn-shop floor to do some creative cutting, heating, and jacking to do a controlled bend and add a beavertail to his trailer to improve the breakover angle and make it easier to load. The trailer needs refreshed anyways, so shorter wheels/tires and dropping the floor on on the "soon" list too.

But first we are deciding the amount (or degrees) of bend to add.

My green trailer has 5 degrees. It sits on 14" ranger wheels with ST tires with torsion axles and 4' ramps. Its low and easy to load.





The yellow trailer has 12 degrees (subtract one for the deck being 1 degree off level). It is a converted boat trailer with leafs and 15" ST tires, and 5' ramps Somewhat taller but still easy to load.





(Don't mind the coon poop on the trailer deck....I'm addressing THAT particular problem.)


So he just needs to decide how many degrees he wants to add. I'm thinking 12 might be a bit much, his ramps are 5', his trailer sits higher too.

[Loren]

My thought tends to be, put in the most you can without dragging the rr of the trailer too hard on steeper driveways. In my case there is not a lot of angle but I've still gouged up some concrete a time or two. The important measuring points are, I guess, the ground between the trailer wheels and the rr lower edge height/distance back and what angle that makes, not so much the angle of the actual bend.

By-the-way that Camaro is bad-ass.

[squirrel]

Probably want the tail to start as far forward as possible, with a shallow angle. If you want to get fancy, you could make a scale drawing of the trailer, and the car, and play "paper dolls" to see how the car moves onto the trailer with different tail lengths/angles

[Loren]

Says the guy who can probably drive his Chevy II off the trailer without even using ramps...

Actually, good point... I do that "paper dolly" thing myself any time I really want the best chance of getting something right.

[squirrel]

My trailer is low, and flexible, and I can get low cars on it pretty easily without using any tricks. But I can't open the doors on anything except my Chevy II when it's on the trailer.

[STINEY]

We plan on bending right behind the fender to get the most length realistically possible. The cutout playtime is a good idea, thanks.

I've drug the rear of the yellow trailer lots of times pulling in gas stations. Never drug the green one, so maybe measuring the different clearances between the two and using that as a minimum/maximum guideline...........thanks for that thought too.

And I agree, that Camaro is indeed bad-ass. He was aiming for exactly that. Runs low 12s right now and he drives it everywhere.

[OldMachinist]

This looks like the car with the engine balance problem. Did he ever get it figured out?

[STINEY]

Good memory. Nope, it didn't get worse (or better) so he just focused on enjoying driving it finally (after building it for 5 years).

I've driven it and witnessed the vibration, its weird and intermittent. The RPM range is narrow where it does it, and its not normal cruising speed.

I'm fairly certain it is a 350 with a 305 rebuilder crankshaft issue.

EDIT: the vibration issue is solved. Aftermarket harmonic balancer was replaced with a better aftermarket harmonic balancer and presto - no more weird vibration.

Glad I was wrong on the 305 crank guess.

[nickleone]

Have you given thought to building longer ramps for the trailer?

Nick

[STINEY]

Yes, but much longer and they get darn heavy and difficult to store on the trailer.

He needs to be able to manhandle them for years to come.

[nickleone]

Aluminum ramps ?

Nick

[STINEY]

Good point and suggestion. He has a cheap-by-necessity streak, but I'll run that one past him anyways.

[Mike Copeland]

Get a set of Race Ramps. We use them all the time.

http://www.raceramps.com/trailer-ramps-loading-and-hauling-extensions.aspx

[squirrel]

My trailer came without ramps, I built two sets, the second set that I'm using now is as long as the deck of the trailer is wide...they store sideways, across the front of the trailer, under the deck. They are made of 1x2x1/8" rectangular tubing sides, with a long 2x12 in the center. Kind of heavy, but they work great, and not having the normal cross bar construction means the car doesn't sink into them as it travels up the ramp.

btw posting pictures of the current setup would help us figure out how to make more useful suggestions.

[Deaf Bob]

Low profile 14" tires on the rear axle and large 15's on front axle instant slant deck..