It's not too bad of a job depending on your car. Most of the companies like Reese, Hidden, etc. make their hitches very easy to install.

Even with the wiring/brakes too. For instance, I have a Tekonsha Envoy brake controller (very common). You can buy the wiring harness for your particular vehicle so it's basically plug and play. They didn't make one for my Touareg, but they supplied me with the diagrams and part #'s from VW to make my own.

The alternative, if you're going to be renting off U-Haul, is to just take your vehicle to them and have them set it up, they do all that stuff in house as well.

Dave

 

I think you will find that cost of buying a trailer, will be much more effective than renting. I know plenty of people who bought the 4 X 8 trailers that fold for storage, and use them for their track days.

Reese is a good brand for the hitch (it is actually called a receiver), and if you cannot find one for your particular vehicle, call around and I am sure you will find someone who will do a custom application for a reasonable price. If there is an application for your car, then installing it yourself should be fairly easy. I would personally avoid using uhaul for anything, they screwed my dad's wiring up so bad, that I to remove everything they did and start from scratch. I have heard several people with the same problems after using them. Someone else I know else for the standard 2 plug plug, and ended up with the old school wires running from his tailights on each side.

 

I think you will find that cost of buying a trailer, will be much more effective than renting. I know plenty of people who bought the 4 X 8 trailers that fold for storage, and use them for their track days.

Reese is a good brand for the hitch (it is actually called a receiver), and if you cannot find one for your particular vehicle, call around and I am sure you will find someone who will do a custom application for a reasonable price. If there is an application for your car, then installing it yourself should be fairly easy. I would personally avoid using uhaul for anything, they screwed my dad's wiring up so bad, that I to remove everything they did and start from scratch. I have heard several people with the same problems after using them. Someone else I know else for the standard 2 plug plug, and ended up with the old school wires running from his tailights on each side.

Not all of us have that kind of cash laying around to put out a couple grand toward a trailer. You can't beat $18/day from Uhaul. I will however do the wiring myself

 

i got one for my infiniti i30, same platform as yours. i think it's a class 1 tho. it's enough to pull one bike on one of those heavy uhaul trailers.. u can get uhaul to even install you a hitch if u don't want to bother. it's all bolt on. i didn't want to bother so i bought a kit online for about $100 for everything and a local place did it for me for about $40. u can get a cheap 4x8 trailer for a few hundred. ur probably better off with this so u can use it whenever and not worry about the hassle of picking up and returning the trailer.

 

I would visit www.etrailer.com and you can type in all your cars information and it will pop up the correct applications for your vehicle (all class types too). It will show you what wiring harness you need and all. I ordered mine from for a 2002 Ford Taurus that I have used to trailer my R6 a few times. The trailer is an old jet ski trailer with a wood bed on it. Works out great.

 

i just had one installed on my car this weekend. Only cost an extra $50 for wiring and labor at U-Haul and it was worth it. Its a pain in the ass to try and install it on my car. I also got one of the folding 4x8 trailers. Hardly makes a difference on my crappy 3.1L V6

 

i just had one installed on my car this weekend. Only cost an extra $50 for wiring and labor at U-Haul and it was worth it. Its a pain in the ass to try and install it on my car. I also got one of the folding 4x8 trailers. Hardly makes a difference on my crappy 3.1L V6

does Uhaul supply the wiring and materials that you need for that $50?

 

I have a 4x8 from Home Depot. It was like 500 bucks and very useful. Not only for hauling the bike(s), but for other stuff as well. I am pulling it with a Golf TDI, so the Maxima will have no problem at all. I can put 2 sportbikes on it no problem. Get one, you will not regret it. Get one with a ramp on the back, the kind landscapers use, so you wont have a problem loading the bike(s). the manufacturer is Snowbear

 

I'm putting one on my little 02 Lancer 4-banger here this spring. Most vehicals will pull just about anything...people seem to think they need some full sized Chevy to pull 600 lbs of weight. Shit...fully loaded road trip with four grown men and gear will be a hell of a lot more than that.

Used to drive a 98 Maxima SE with a 5-speed...loved that car...had balls more power than my Lancer...you won't have any problem...especially if you have a 2k or newer. (Larger engine and more horses)

 

I'm a little 4-banger Lancer here. Four grown men will be a hell of a lot of fun ...had more balls than my Lancer. I also like larger horses

:scared Whatever works for you :scared :lol


Back on topic, I have seen Hyundai's at the lake, pulling out the large 5 person SUV waverunners :yesnod They put a bunch of people and hood and bounce up and down to create traction :yesnod

 

do any or you happen to have any pics of the trailors that you are using. Just like PCB122, I don't want to have to depend on help from friends when need to get my bike moved.

 

I picked up a Shoreland motorcycle trailer for $850 new and hauled all my bikes (R1 and two dirt bikes) cross country last month. Worked great and it has 8 inch rails so you can haul your road bikes without any modifications.

http://www.shorelandr.com/pages/t_utility_1200mc.html

Mark
99 R1

 

Trailers:

http://www.sportutilitytrailers.com/LongChih/749TE.htm

http://www.whiskey-rock.com/product/CP48T

EBAY FOR AS LOW AS $199

http://search.ebay.com/8-utility-trailer_W0QQfkrZ1QQfnuZ1

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90154

add some plywood flooring, tire chock and tie-downs and youre set

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90154

add some plywood flooring, tire chock and tie-downs and youre set

I have a factory Nissan hitch on my 06 Frontier :chair:

 

has any1 added a mount to a car for a Joe hauler type set up on a car

that's what I want to do

?

 

Thos ethings scare the crap out of me. That's a lot of ****n weight to be swinging around on the back of a vehical. If though you are comfortable wiht it...my only concern woudl be that much tounge weight behind the axel of a car. Rear suspension isn't designed to carry that load.

 

Good info here..

 

For a dirtbike the hand on the back mounts are fine, I seen them at the track for years, but I wouldn't use them for a sport bike. My wife used to take the kids the track with the trailer, she just could not back up, I would show up after work and drive the truck home :lol We would kid around say that if I ever got held up, she would be stuck there, or at minimum get real embarassed asking someone to back up for her :lol

My boys learned to back up with a trailer with no problem, I guess from all of the years of watching me :dunno This past year they wanted to take the waverunners out, I told them that they would need to hook up the trailer, and move the ski's to the other side of the garage. I thought this would be a good crash couse :lol They had it done in less time than I could have done it it :lol

For years I used for 4X8 trailer from Sam's Club to drap to small dirtbikes, and a 250, plus gear, tools boxes, ez up, gas, etc. to the mx track. When I was done with it, my brother used it for another several years :yesnod

 

Damn!! They even make a trailor for my 2004 Cavalier!! :scared Not sure I would try to pull anything with that little 4 cyl. :no

 

Damn!! They even make a trailor for my 2004 Cavalier!! :scared Not sure I would try to pull anything with that little 4 cyl. :no

I bet it's purple, huh?

 

The pulling isn't the problem, the suspension is what becomes the problem :yesnod

 

True...I'm really not concerned even with having enough power. I would be concerned with Tranny and Breaks if you were pulling any hills!! :fact

 

It is a link to another forum, but you will be able to see the pics.

http://www.r6messagenet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54494&highlight=trailer

 

I bought a hitch from www.etrailer.com for about $130 I think. Free shipping too. I have a Dodge Magnum with a towing package, so It was kind of designed for a hitch. I'm not sure about your car though. They have a wiring kit that is about $70 that plugs into the stock wire harness for the taillights, and the only wires you have to hook up are the ground and power.

I bought my trailer from Harbor Freight, and I only paid $230 for it. I noticed they went up in price now though, to about $300. I have a 4x8 folding trailer that came with everything you need except decking material. They have some with 8 inch rims, but I opted for the 12 inch because it'll do better on the highway. You have to put it together yourself, but it's all bolt-together. I piece of 3/4" plywood is about $40 to fit on the trailer, and you might need about $20 worth of carriage pins to bolt that on. For the chocks, my wife's uncle took a piece of 4 inch channel iron (U-shaped bar) and cut the ends at an angle and welded them together, forming the front chock. Then he just used a piece of 8" channel iron for the rear as a guide for the rear tire. They both fit the tires so perfect. I can put the bike on there and they will hold it up without tiedowns. (I wouldn't let go of the bike until you put straps on though!)

The trailer itself might be about 300lbs max, so with the bike, you could easily be under 1000lbs, which your car should easily be able to tow. If you are interested, I could make a set of chocks for you. I'll try to go get some pics of mine. I have no idea how much material would be, but shipping won't be cheap. I bet I could do it for less than $50 total though.

 

I would check out Harbor freight for a trailer you probbly have a store localy. If you wait for a sale you can get a 4X8 really cheep

 

Here are some pics:
I don't have time to pull the trailer out and open it up, but you get the jist of it. The ramp I made is just a 2x8 that I bought a $20 ramp kit for that included the end piece and two pins that hold it to the deck. It actually came with two end pieces, but obviously I only needed one. One of the pics shows the threaded inserts I installed all over the deck. All you do is drill the appropirate sized hole in the deck, and you hammer these in from the bottom. I never bothered hammering them in all the way, I just pulled them in from the other side with an eye bolt and washer. I can install an eyebolt into any of the holes to bungee extra stuff like tool boxes and crap. For the tie down points, I installed some pretty thick eyebolts in the sides of the frame, and I have them screwed through some scrap steel plate (I think 3/8") for support. I keep the chocks on the deck by pins that have multiple holes through which a cotter pin slides through. I wanted to be able to deconfigure the trailer down as easy as possible so I can fold it.

I'm pretty sure I went the most cost effective way you can probably find to get your own set up. If anyone wants any more info, let me know. I can weld and have access to misc scrap metal sometimes.

 

Whoops, here are the pics:

 

So....I've got a small car, and a few bikes, and a trailer.....let me tell you about it.

The car's a v6 camaro.... not at all big or high-powered.

The hitch I bought from U-haul and installed myself. Actually, I was on a road trip, and needed a trailer to bring some things home. So we bought the hitch at a U-Haul in Chicago. As far as the skill level of the installation, we drove to a hardware store and bought the required wrenches (i think all we needed was 2 11/16 wrenches, or something close). Installed the hitch in the hardware store parking lot, then took the wrenches back inside and returned them for beer money. On a car with seperate turn signals and brake lights, you need a turn signal integrator to make the taillights function. Well, to keep more money in the beer fund, we drove to radio shack and bought 4 diodes instead, and made the integrator ourselves (we wired that up in the parking lot of a beer store). We drove back to U-Haul, picked up a rather large trailer, and drove it back to Dallas the next day.

Since then, I decided to build a trailer to tow a few dirtbikes. And yes, 2 250cc dirtbikes plus tools and gear weigh as much as an R1 and whatever else you take to the track. I built the trailer out of one of those kits like harbor freight has (mine came from northern tool, but it's the same thing). I used the plain frame kit like that, but buy the one with the bigger wheels for like 40 bucks more. After I stuck a plywood deck and some rails on it, I was at around $300 in the trailer. My only recommendation would be to pack the wheel bearings really well with good grease, then to lube them regularly. The bearings with the kit seemed to come with a really cheap shit grease, and not much of it, so just be sure to pack them well.

All in all, the trailer tows great. It fits in the garage easily, with the bikes on it, so when I wanna ride I can just hitch it up and go. I definately recommend it as a way to get to the track, and your car really isn't as small as ya think. Although, I would toss a small transmission cooler on the car, in front of the radiator of course, to be safe (plumb it in after the factory cooler, in the return line to the trans, but mount it in front of the radiator. this will give you the best cooling)

 

i use to have a 98 camry 4cyl....i towed a 5x8 with it.......2 dirtbikes or 1 sportbike. power wasn't the real problem, suspension and brakes were. i could def feel the trailer back there.

 

Those 4x8 fold up trailers work,,, but I like the non fold 5x8 ones with ramp on the back. Check out Lowes or Home Depo I think they have them for about $500 and they are handy as heck. You can fit full sheats of plywood or drywall flat on them with the extra size if you ever need to haul that kind of stuff

I bought my trailer down in Miami FL for I think like $499 or something, I needed to haul the shell of a car home for parts so I had about 2500lbs of car in tow from FL to Chicago area behind my Dodge stealth TT The 6" high steel rails are strong as heck (I had a car sitting on them) The one across the front works perfect to put the front wheel of the bike against it so it can't roll forward. I use a "caynon dancer" strap on the clipons with some of those rachet straps just the 2 on the front are plenty but if you use 2 more on the back it's not going anywhere. I have a wheel holder but I haven't even bothered to put it on my trailer since there really is no need with the side rails.

 

I was going to go this route, I had a hitch on one of my other cars that worked pretty well. But here is my problem; Focus ZX3 3 Dr. Hatchback, Except SVT.Maybe because my SVT is lower then the standard ZX3, maybe the suspension difference, not really sure. But I've seen this same statement at every trailer hitch I've looked at. Not to mention that my car is now 1.5" lower then it was stock.

 

It probably has something to do with routing of the exhaust or some other component causing interference, more so than then the suspension. We have several places here locally who will make a custom hitch for any car. I have seen vettes pulling boats. If you cannot find a pre-fit application, look for a local hitch shop who does custom work.

 

my friend has a yaris and was looking into trailer options...regarding small cars being able to tow...here's something from the toyota yaris owner's manual....

NO towing in the USA, but somehow it's acceptable to tow 700lbs if it's in Canada.

 

saw these guys at jennings tow with a dodge neon..had two bikes on the back..lol