After being in the car towing the trailer to racing on sunday, and experiencing a real tank slapper at 50, I realised what trauma we must be putting Jim, Paul and Rick (and others who have towed it) thru every race meeting!. I don't know what it was like after having the tyres pumped back up, but due to this, and the fact we seem to be collecting more and more gear for the track, thats all being strapped precariously ontop I'd like to propose considering replacing the old girl for something larger, safer and tidier. I had a very quick look on the net, and there are plenty of good second hand trailers availiable at not unrealistic prices. Perhaps look for something that would fit the mower in too? The only issue I can see arising from getting a larger trailer is the weight limit - of the towing cars, and for those of us limited to what we can tow.

Discuss.

I was gonna suggest we put the club funds towards a hot tub, but actually thinking about it a trailer makes far more sense.

I don't really know much about towing limits, I'm sure bigger and more substantial would be the way to go though. As for putting the lawn mower in, this makes some sense, but I guess we would want to avoid putting much high value stuff in there.

I dont want to be a bringer of bad news but my dad gave away a trailer not so long back and it was in realy good condition, but yes it is a good idea spending the money on somthing the club needs.
I will see if i can find one for sale round here, would a small caravan be to much? would keep race control nice and dry, maybe john would make us all a brew

I think it would be a good idea, especially for the lawn mower. It is likely that my new car will not be suitable or capable of taking the mower. Good idea Ste me boy.

it might have been ok on the way back, but i just went extremely slow!
we'd have issues storing a caravan, we've not got a very big space at the farm. Also the trailer and rostrum are all part of the same thing, so what would we do about a rostrum, modify another trailer, or make a new rostrum that would fit inside it?
for the steamfair i think i'll ditch most of the stuff off the top, apart from the jumps, hopefully that will make it safer to tow, i'll get some of it inside the car though

I was just thinking coz u can get pretty small caravan's and would be better for john instead of the toilet tent and could store what we need inside but i overlooked the rostrum and parking space.

i think johns planning to get an new tent too, i think it's safe to say we've got the most out of that one must be 15 years since i started racing at the club, and they had it then!

Another thing to keep in mind, not sure about the rest of you, but my driving licence only allows me to tow 750kg

I had a look a the DVLA site, towing seems a bit complicated. Anyone with a license before 1997 can tow just about anything. After that you are limited to 750kg if you car is up to 3500kg, or you are allowed more than 750kg so long as the combined weight is less than 3500kg and the trailer is less than the unlaiden weight of the car. The combined weight is taken as the gross weight of the vehicle and trailer. See this link:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Dr ... G_10013073

Anyway I think most of us with licenses after 1997 would be okay with weights of around 1000-1250kgs.

Any guesses as to how much our trailer actually weighs?

Ive got HGV licence but no towbar lol

i passed 2 weeks after the rules changed so i've got the low weight restriction, the police are of the opinion that the limit is 750kg, Andy got stopped towing the racing car, driving the 2ton volvo, but we managed to convince them it was under 750.
i'd guess our trailer is less than 500 when filled

I expect it's well under 750 kg. I can tow anything because I'm old so a caravan would not be a problem.....a towbar would be however. I believe I can drive any other car with my insurance but as I don't own the car I think I'm third party only. Not really a problem I know but you need to know.

What rules do you mean Rick? I thought the only change was in 1997, weren't you a few years after that?

If you've got a Category B on the back of your license you should be able to tow over 750kg so long as the combined gross weight of the car and trailer is less than 3.5 tons and the trailer is less than 85% of the car's unlaiden weight.

I have got B, B1, F, K, L, N & P.

But no towbar

Yea, but you're old like me.

In the 'good' old days at E-port, they had a small caravan which doubled as track storage and race control during meeting. The way they got round the rostrum was this: also stored in the caravan was some lightweight aluminium scaffold that was put together to build the rostrum.

Downsides: storage of caravan and cash for said caravan and scaffold (although Im sure Chris will have a mate...).