I'm debating on whether to fab up my own car hauler or buy one. I priced out steel from a few suppliers and came up with about 2500-2600 $$ for steel and parts for a 10k unit. I also called a few random places out of the phone and got qouted for 2900 all the way up to 3800 depending on the brand. I eventually will add a winch, toolbox and various tie down mounts on to the trailer regardless of which one i go with. I thought i would get some opinions on what others have done and what to do....

PM trailer guy. He's back.

i think trailer guy is in redding correct???? thats nor cal...

i think trailer guy is in redding correct???? thats nor cal...

hell, I'm 2500 miles away, ain't got a clue whats nor cal or socal...I just know he's a member and vendor here and like to support the locals first. :flipoff2: he builds quality trailers and might be worth the drive.

anyone else care to chime in on this???

I don't know of any good dealers in SoCal. I haven't even heard of any positive dealings. Personally, I'd call Aaron (Trailerguy) at MP Trailers. Yeah, it's a long haul to go pick it up, but you get top quality without getting screwed.

Aaron's got a good reputation for taking care of his customers, a lot of people make the drive to buy from him.

I don't know of any good dealers in SoCal. I haven't even heard of any positive dealings. Personally, I'd call Aaron (Trailerguy) at MP Trailers. Yeah, it's a long haul to go pick it up, but you get top quality without getting screwed.

i wonder if he ships trailers out....

I don't know about shipping, but I'm sure there are people here that could help you out. I'm up near Fresno a several times a year. If somebody could get it that far, I'd be happy to bring it down here for you.

Aaron's got a good reputation for taking care of his customers, a lot of people make the drive to buy from him.

Aaron takes care of more than just his customers.


I was at my wits end trying to find a simple little $3 part. Nobody stocked it, everyone would order (in bulk, that I would have to buy all of them), and I needed it now. On a whim, I called him and he found one in his shop. I had it in two days so I could take care of my customer. Fucker wouldn't even take any money for it!

Big thumbs up to Aaron.

Aaron is definetly the way to go! :smokin:

I can get it down to Fremont for you. :mr-t:

is aaron (trailer guy) back i have seen him here on the board lately???

He responded to a PM of mine the day before yesterday. I'd try and call him.

Go with trailer guy.. yes, its a haul to pickup the trailer, but its worth it. If I was looking to buy another trailer, there wouldn't be anywhere I would go, besides trailer guy, and he's about 8-9 hours from me.
Scott

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I feel obligated to jump on this wagon and tell you the same thing everybody else has....

There's a hell of a lot more goes into a quality trailer than a glossy black paint job. One look at the pictures of his work from before the black gloss goes on shows just how much care and planning goes into his work and we've been reading the bragging of new trailer owners who bought from him for a long time now.

Word-of-mouth advertising always has been and always will be the absolute best method out there. I'm not saying that other trailers are inferior, because there are a LOT of good builders out there that probably do comparable work. I'm just saying that we (PBB in general) have seen a lot of very satisfied customers and Aaron has earned his reputation by doing outstanding work at a fair price and providing good old fashioned customer service better than anybody in the business.

Now, I've never actually met the guy and I've never knowingly examined any of his work. However, with as much as the PBB members love to nit-pick and poke fun at inferior workmanship there is no way that he'd get referal business from PBB if he didn't have his game on every time. If I ever need a sweet custom trailer built I will seriously consider having him build it for me even though I live 2000 miles away. You have no excuse not to drive to the other end of your state! And besides, you've already got other PBB members offering to take care of the delivery for you! Now send him a PM and get to dealing. :smokin:

Edit: Let Aaron mount the winch, toolboxes, and tiedowns as part of the deal. It will be cheaper in the long run and it will be totally integrated into the trailer rather than looking patched on as an afterthought.

thanks aeronutt...I think the best thing is that i need to contact him and give him my ideas and go from there.

I ordered my Prodigy from Aaron. He sent it out as soon as I called him, telling him when I needed it. It came, as promised, much cheaper than I found it anywhere else

Like everyone else has said give Aaron a call.

He is a long term customer of mine and has been there to answer all my trailer questions and when the time actually comes for me to purchase I WILL be making a drive up to Redding to see him and give him my business.

He has also been a supporter of Zach Yost and my annual Berryessa BBQ by donating products to each and helping support the cause.


Again I don't see how you can go wrong with Aaron (he also runs a 4x4 shop w/ some pretty cool items, check them out also).

Dirk

Word-of-mouth advertising always has been and always will be the absolute best method out there. I'm not saying that other trailers are inferior, because there are a LOT of good builders out there that probably do comparable work. I'm just saying that we (PBB in general) have seen a lot of very satisfied customers and Aaron has earned his reputation by doing outstanding work at a fair price and providing good old fashioned customer service better than anybody in the business.



I would be a prime example of this.

I have contributed alot of tech to this forum. If you do a search on some basic, commonly asked hitch/wire questions on google, several of my threads from here pop up.

What kills me is no yellow star (beyond my control. I'm not the parts guy yet, so I can't justify the money spent), and because of my location, shipping kills me. I could not deliver on a hitch to Lance himself, because shipping killed the deal. He bought local far cheaper than I could have shipped one to him at my cost.

By all means, if you are in north central Oregon, and you have issues, please contact me. I will do my best to bend over backwards for you, but until then, Aaron is your guy.

I hear you Fyrman.. I've seen the way you have contributed here bro.. I feel it too.. I can't compete with a lot of the other Amsoil dealers, because they have been dealers for longer, and have a more established customer base.
Scott

I hear you Fyrman.. I've seen the way you have contributed here bro.. I feel it too.. I can't compete with a lot of the other Amsoil dealers, because they have been dealers for longer, and have a more established customer base.
Scott

But, we have the same first name, so I'm gonna buy my stuff from you. :goofball:

Bwahaha.. thats good stuff.. I will welcome it.. Im runnig a cost+10 bucks sale on everything right now... bring it on.. I gotta say though, the other Amsoil vendors on this site are good people too!
Scott

need some more input on this....

do you guys thinks for a 10k or 12k trailer what material would you use for the main frame of a trailer???

2x4x3/16 sq tube

or

2x4x1/4 sq tube

or

5" channel

????

i'm trying to cut down on weight w/o reducing strength

bump....

Trailer Guy is an easy choice, you can't go wrong. That being said I am really happy with my Universal Trailers hauler.

Trailer guy is awesome but if you can't go down that road for whatever reason I have some suggestions. I have owned a few trailers and after building two earlier this year and not being happy to the point that I built a third one, here's what I found.

MOst of the trailers I found in CAlifornia are total crap. The ONLY car hauler I found that was up the same standard I knew I could build was Big Tex. HAving said that, I would never buy a trailer again.
The third one I built I am into for 2300. It has brakes on both 3500 lb axles and I made the deck and lights EXACTLY the way I wanted. I got aluminum wheels and great tires for that price, too, not the cast offs or used tires that sometimes end up on trailers.
The last one I built weighed 1780 lbs with aluminum ramps and a full (16' x 7')steel deck. Use 2"x5"x.120" MINIMUM for your main frame rails. The first two would not handle the load of driving my truck up without using ramps and I hate using ramps.
Don't try to save weight by using aluminum for the deck. It will work but you need to upsize everything else to make up for the tension lost by welding a steel deck down.
I am willing to bet that if you cut a few corners from what I did, and made it capable of 10k(I fully think my deck will support that) you can be into it for $2500 or so and under 2200 lbs.

yeah i priced roughly what a 20 ft 10k car hauler would cost me approximately to build...around 2700$. thats with 5" channel all the way around, 2x3x1/4 angle for the cross members,wood deck, axles/wheels, complete wiring and ramps. i wonder if 5" channel is enough handle 12k gvw if i had 6k lbs axles on it instead of the 5k axles???

My 20' trailer has 5" channel and it didn't bend with a 7K Bobcat and 5K of busted concrete on it. In fact, I don't think it even flexed much. The tires didn't last very long and my 1/2 ton truck didn't much care for it, but that's a whole different story that ends in me buying a D-Max 2500! :grinpimp:

your 7k bobcat and 5k of concrete were on the trailer all at once???