A trailer for your race car is a major expense, especially when you’re starting out. U-Haul just made our lives a whole lot easier.
We’re major proponents of low-cost racing here at RacingJunk, but even we acknowledge that the cost of the race car itself is only the beginning. There’s dozens of ancillary costs, from tires and spares to hotels and travel. One of the largest barriers to entry is the need for a tow rig and a trailer. While many would-be racers already have a truck (or ready access to one), trailers are a different story entirely.
For many years, the U-Haul car hauler was the only choice, and it was less than ideal. These trailers may be relatively inexpensive to rent for a day or a weekend, but they only work if your vehicle has enough ground clearance and fall within a specific range of track width. As it turns out, some folks at U-Haul are enthusiasts like us, and they came up with a solution.
According to Road & Track, U-Haul is offering a new “Toy Hauler” that’s designed to accommodate a wider range of needs. With a low, flat floor, it’s ideal to haul a race car and spares. The floor contains a grid of tie-down locations, and the loading ramps can be spaced as wide or as narrow as required.
The trailer is around 23 feet long in total, with a deck length of roughly 16 feet. It measures eight and a half feet wide, with drive-over fenders that will make loading and unloading substantially easier. The new U-Haul toy hauler also boasts a substantially upgraded load capacity of 6,800 pounds, compared to the traditional car hauler’s 5,290 pound limit.
Production of these trailers is expected to begin early next year, so they should be available by the middle of the next racing season. While they will likely be more expensive to rent than the current car hauler (which costs about $55 a day), we expect that its expanded usefulness to racers will make it worth every penny.
We’re always happy to see new developments that make racing more approachable and affordable to regular folks like us. Being able to easily and affordably rent an appropriate trailer is a big step in the right direction. Of course, when you’re ready to buy a trailer of your own, there are plenty of new and used trailers to be found right here on RacingJunk.com.
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