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Seeking Advice on Car Hauler - Real World Towing Feel

pMak26

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I'm making the jump from an open car hauler to an enclosed setup. My open trailer was a scant 1200# and I tow a 3300# car on it. I barely noticed the car back there and I loved that. Heck I still got ~15mpg towing. However, I'm stepping up to an enclosed trailer and I'm having a hard time understanding what the real world feel differences will be. I wish I could take several trailers out on a test drives hooked up to my truck to get a feel, but that won't happen. So before I make this big purchase I'm looking for advice from those of you who have done something similar.

Trailer option 1 is the lightweight option. Fully enclosed aluminum Vnose 8.5x20' trailer that will weigh a svelte 2600#.

Trailer option 2 is 8.5x24' non-Vnose box, still aluminum, but decked out bringing the weight up to 3600#.

The 1000# difference in towing, or the vnose vs flat front trailer, will I even feel or notice these differences? Or should I just pick the trailer I like better then forget it because the 1000# and/or Vnose vs non-Vnose isn't enough to make any discernable difference?

Would I even expect any MPG gain (assume 65mph towing speed) with the lightweight trailer because it is 1000# lighter?

What would you choose!?
 
My experience is there is a huge difference in MPG going from open to enclosed. Enclosed trailers really kill mpg.

I have a 1900# all aluminum 7.5x16 with v nose and 6” of extra height enclosed trailer that I pull a 2000# car in with some gear. I get about 9 to 10 mpg pulling. I get basically the same mpg whether the trailer is empty or loaded.

So you may find mpg will be the same with either trailer. Also in my research, v nose vs flat made little difference for those that went from one to the other.

Hope this helps
 
No personal experience, but everyone I know that went from an open trailer to an enclosed trailer also stepped up to a heavy duty truck for pulling duty as the enclosed trailer really stressed the light duty trucks.
 

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