brandonppr

iTrader: (9)

I am just doing a little planning ahead. For you guys that travel out of state alot what do you suggest for transportation/trailer/sleeping. I am thinking about traveling to different tracks for races in a few years. Would you suggest a motorhome with enclosed trailer, big truck with sleeping quarters and trailer, or something else? I currently have only 1 car, I may get another but that would be a while probley.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (23)

enclosed trailer and a 3/4 ton suburban or diesel dually and an air mattress on the cheaper side of things.

brandonppr

iTrader: (9)

So do you sleep in the trailer?

kp

iTrader: (34)

I used to have a big motorhome/enclosed. Its great if you have some people to help you out but taking care of a trailer, motorhome AND a race car yourself sucks ***. Every two weeks something was going bad on the motorhome, not to mention terrible gas mileage and having to store the thing since its useless for anything else.

Air mattress in the trailer and a pickup you can at least daily drive for me when I go alone, plenty of room to sleep in the trailer even with the car in it. Generator, TV, fan, open the vents and you are all set.

But most of the time I end up leaving the car at the track and staying at a hotel when the family comes with for a multi day event. Internet, free breakfast at most, clean place to **** and take a shower is a lot nicer then the trailer/air mattress. If you figure what a decent motorhome costs you can stay in a lot of hotels

Now if you have a crew, a big lot at home to store everything and you are touring around the country a motorhome/toter or 50' LQ trailer makes sense - if you have the money anyhow

brandonppr

iTrader: (9)

That does sound like a good idea.

kp

iTrader: (34)

Trailer deal isnt bad, I even have one of those fold up cardboard toilets in case the track's facilities are too nasty lol. But if you have a wife/kids, or a buddy you prefer not to sleep next to, the hotel wins out.

Downside is if you have gasoline, a battery and whatever chemicals in the trailer dont fall asleep without the vents open, otherwise you may not wake up the next morning..

Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

Um yeah, what KP says

Quite a few friends do the divisional circuit and use an enclosed to crash in. Figure 6-8 races away from home, 2-3 nights each and that $$$ starts adding up when you don't stay in a hotel. There are trade-offs, but nothing like waking up in the morning and already being at the track and not having to do the drive out.

Derek

kp

iTrader: (34)

I agree, if you are out that long away from home I'd do a motorhome probably or an LQ trailer. But I have did the trailer/air mattress thing a lot and it isnt so bad really. You can also do a tent if the weather is decent but I cant sleep in them things..

K9Kev

iTrader: (28)

Kev,
I did the same debate w/ myself when putting together my plans for travel. I ended up finding a really good deal on a 40 ft. gooseneck, bought the dually (which I can drive to the hardware store when needed) and I'm planning on putting a LQ in it. I did alot of shopping around on the prices for a pro install of the LQ....they are not cheap but, I found a trailer/motorhome dealer in DFW that would do a complete LQ for 3500.00.

I figured that w/ the cost of a hotel, the time it takes to get to and from the track, and the relaxation factor of not leaving my stuff locked up and alone for the evenings beat out the other options. I almost went for the motorhome but like you mentioned, between the mileage, the p.i.t.a. maintaining it, and the lack of use when not racing, it just didn't make sense.

Sounds like your on the right track, just gotta pull the trigger on the deal.

Good Luck,
The other 'Kev

Hrod382

We have a motorhome and enclosed trailer, it's kind of a bitch. We're probably going to sell the motorhome because it's another vehicle to take care of, to me it's not that much better than sleeping in the trailer and a motorhome/enclosed really gets sucked into big rigs which sucks.

I would personally prefer a truck, 32ish ft. enclosed with a rigged up shower... That's the one sweet part about a motorhome is getting a nice warm shower. If I had cash and the ***** to drive around something big it would be a 45+ ft. 5th wheel with LQ and a duramax but with my house it's hard to park something that big.

I know several people with either 30+ ft. stackers hooked to toter homes or 30 ft. trailers hooked to 40 ft. motorhomes and it just seems like it takes the fun out of it. None of them race every weekend like we do. I like nice comfortable stuff but I like racing a whole lot more.

kp

iTrader: (34)

Its a 50/50 really. With a full living quarter trailer you more or less have another house to maintain. Blackwater, grey water, keeping it clean etc. Then you have a long trailer that is hard to get in and out and even park in some of the smaller tracks and also you are moving up to dually to pull it and I hate driving around dually pickups.

Even if costs 3500 to do the conversion lets say you spend 70.00 on a room, thats 50 nights in a hotel. Figure 3 day average stay is 15-16 race weekends a year. Thast good for two years for me, if you stay in 40.00 motels then its even more. Plus at a hotel you never have to fix a bed

Now the leaving the car behind thing is another story, honestly after a day at a 100 degree track sometimes I feel like leaving it behind and not coming back to get it. Its insured along with the trailer so if something happens it happens, I'm way past caring about the car.

Really depends on so many factors, storage, money, work load you are comfortable with and number of people coming along and how often you are racing. No right or wrong answer on this one, except I bet all will agree draining the black water sucks

brandonppr

iTrader: (9)

Good points. This is really helping me out.

I'm really liking the idea of a big truck and a trailer with LQ. Staying in a hotel sounds good too. The only thing I hate is leaving the car at the track. Even if its insured, you put a lot of work in your car and I just hate the thought of leaving it at the track by itself.
As far as motorhome vs truck I defintly don't want to go with motorhome. You guys brung up good points on that. I don't need another expense like that plus I am selling my little 4.8 silverado next week hopefully and I won't have a truck. My grandfather double enters the local races with me and he pulls the car to the track now so I don't need a truck right now. I do plan to get a boat in a few years and having a truck for pulling the boat and pulling the race car would be a lot better than having a truck for the boat and a motorhome for the race car. That wouldn't make sense plus that seems like a waste. I think it would be different if you had a couple people going in together helping out with it all.

kp

iTrader: (34)

Its a good subject and really doesnt get discussed much, I have used everything from a '72 grand prix towing an open trailer to a 40' pusher motorhome with a 32' tag.

I seen a real nice 30' tag with LQ that was trick as hell at an RV show, it wasnt pretty inside but very functional. If these cars werent so long it would have been perfect. Ufortunately 30' overall is as long as I can for the storage I have. Plus I dont mind driving the SRW dmax pickup around, not much different then a 1500 crew cab.

I dont mind staying at the track, its the wife that hates it I even held off on the A/C on this trailer, got sick of big generator and the noise. But it doesnt matter these days I guess since everyone at the track has generators blasting now..

Navy David SS

iTrader: (13)

I personally enjoy my truck and trailer rig. GMC 2500HD; 32' trailer with A/C and heat. Big enough to sleep 6 (we did at Thunder Shootout in 2005). Your own traveling sleeping quarters. I have a generator in case there is not power available.

Now this is what I would like. This about the most reasonable set-up I have found recently.

http://www.racingjunk.com/post/77906...-44-Trail.html

David

brandonppr

iTrader: (9)

That looks like what I was thinking about when I wrote the title as a rig with LQ and an enclosed trailer.
This is the one I had seen on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1994-...QQcmdZViewItem

I didn't know there were trailers with LQ when I was writing the question.
I think thats what I will get. either that or get a trailer that has room for LQ and get that put in later and just rough it for the first year.

promod1955

iTrader: (44)

This is a tough one. No matter which way you go, something is going to be a PITA. We've done it all. lets step back in time and go to the present.

from 91-95 we had a dually with a 36ft gooseneck. It was great and we had the trailer space we needed, but we still had to deal with the hotel, price of room, having to wake up extra early just to wait inline outside of the gate because were the first ones going down the track at 8 a.m.

got burnt out then started again in 97 and had another dully and a 24ft tag. just 1 day bracket racing mostly. it worked but the trailer was to small so we got a 28. If we did travel, still had to deal with the hotels.

In 99 we sold the dully and built a motor home on a new kodiak chassis. It was great, once your in the track you don't have to leave, so you dont have to wake up super early on checkout day. No waiting in the line outside. I can be ready to go before the hotel guys even get in the gate. With the motor home though came added maintenance. My personal opinon, it was so worth not having to deal with the hotels like we did for 8 years. Plus think of all the money we could have used to put towards a motorhome instead of the $100 per night hotel rooms at the national events.

The kodiak was great, but the 300hp cat motor was preventing my dad from hauling ***. our 28 ft trailer was to small. And our personal needs didnt require a 26ft long motorhome box.

In 2000 we bought a fl70 freghtliner 13 ft toter built by renegade and a 40ft stacker built by renegade as well. it was perfect for us..... but the truck was slow as hell in the mountains going to bristol with a stacker. the 5th wheel setup pulls 10x better then the tag as well. The motorhome was just a touch to small however.

In 2003 we bought a fl112 freightliner toter with the 420hp motor with a 16ft box and a slide out built by renegade. Great truck but the clutch was rough on my dads leg due to a previous injury of his. this was the only problem with it for us. Not to long after this the colombia series trucks came out.

In 2006 we bought a colombia freightliner toter with the mercedes benz diesel and fully automatic allison due to my dads condition. The box is a 17ft with slide out. Its perfect for us, as were all the time 5-6 people. we still pull the same 2000 40ft stacker and its great. I only wish it was about 2 ft longer however. The lift gate would be nice too, but we dont need it for the money it cost.



In my opinon, if your willing to do the extra maintanence, get a motorhome and a 28-30ft tag. 30 ft minimum if you have a golf cart. Later on if you want to put out the money get a toter and 5th wheel. For US , a trailer with living quarters eats to much trailer space up, and to fix that, you end up with a 48 ft long trailer thats a PITA in intersections. Go on racingjunk.com and look under towing. theres some pretty good deals and you can figure out real quick what works in your budget.

kp

iTrader: (34)

Just watch out on the older big diesel stuff, it will eat you alive unless you can fix it yourself - been there.

Hrod382

Yeah I must say I don't like staying at hotels because we bracket race and if you do well sometimes you don't get done until 1 or 2 in the morning (one time got done at 4) then have to get back up at 8 the next morning and it just wears on you. That is the big difference between having the motorhome is you get better sleep.

1BADAIR

iTrader: (1)

ask harlan

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Hot ticket around here is a 28-32ft enclosed with bathroom and a crew cab Duramax with a few upgrades. Still spendy. Figure d-max and upgrades $20-30k. Figure $12-24k for the trailer.

I spent $25k for the My D-max and $1,500 in upgrades(to 400hp 600+TQ). That got me
MBRP 4in exhaust
Banks CAI
Kennedy Boost valve
MSD Pyro/Boost gauge
S-kit Jr
HP Tuners
Rapid hitch
Trailer brake controler and a Truxedo Bed cover


I am still looking and saving for the 28ft Enclosed trailer