Enclosed Gooseneck Crawler Hauler / Race Trailer - Input Requested

[GLTHFJ60]

The Situation:
I've got a 20' deckover trailer I got a couple of years ago to tow around my land cruisier behind my F550. It works great, but I want to add a camper to my setup.

Last year I bought a cheap slide-in camper to go on the truck with the intent of fixing it up, but it ended up being a basket case. That turned into building a slide-in camper from scratch, but I'm rapidly realizing that to make it nice enough to be worthwhile, I'm going to be in it 4 grand or so. From the market, it seems that buying a used slide-in that's not a pile of shit is somewhere around 4-6k as well.

A slide-in camper plus the deckover, DIY camper or not, is going to be 9 grand invested. I've already got the deckover, and it's paid off, but I still have no camper. I'm going to ditch the DIY camper setup, because I should spend less time working on shit so I can actually get out and enjoy it. Current setup for reference:

The Dilemma:
I'm re-evaluating things that are taking up my time and preventing me from doing the things I want. Building a slide-in camper from scratch seems less and less attractive because it's taking time away from camping and wheeling trips. Moving forward, it's one of two options:

1. Buy a slide-in camper, stick it on the Ford, and be done with it. Out of pocket cost would be 3-5k.

Pros: Already have the trailer, slide-in can be used without the car trailer at all.
Cons: Camper and trailer need to be stored separately, can't tow cars on the deckover

2. Sell the deckover, buy an enclosed gooseneck in the ~32' tip to tail range. Out of pocket cost would be 1-2k, because I'd be selling my deckover for ~4-5k.

Pros: Living quarters in front in already-dried in shell, single trailer to store instead of trailer+camper, more stable towing (?), can tow cars and trucks, possibility of future SCCA car
Cons: Larger trailer = less manuverable, using the camper is more difficult as it'd be much longer than just the truck with slide-in

Something like this, although this is a bit longer than I think I'd want:
https://greensboro.craigslist.org/hv...231648225.html

The Question:

Those of you who have had either of these setups, what did you like/dislike about them? I'm particularly interested in the enclosed gooseneck route. Are they a pain in the balls to tow and get into campgrounds or wheeling spots?

I'm leaning towards selling my deckover and picking up an enclosed gooseneck. For me, I've already got the license to tow something in this capacity range, would make storage easy, and allow me to tow cars as needed.

Give me your thoughts/experiences on doing something like this!

 

[Ghetto Fab.]

I haven't done either setup your talking about, so take this with a grain of salt, but I have looked into both of them and also the motorhome towing a trailer route.

I'm settling on the slide in camper option. It really boils down to how you will use it. The big issue I ran into was being able to use it at National Park campgrounds. Spots allowing something greater than 25ft are really limited in most parks. Also, you are only allowed to have two vehicles in each spot, the trailer counts as one, so that limits your ability to take anything else with you besides the tow rig. The motorhome idea kinda fails because I can't imagine having that much money tied up in something I don't use everyday and my wife drives a subaru that can't be flat towed.

Depending on your location and desired place to go to, either option could be just fine.

Kevin

 

[thedirtman]

I have a 40' gooseneck race car hauler the is 20' living with a king size bed over the gooseneck and 20' garage with cabinets, air compressor and tool boxes. It's nice to be able to store and carry spare parts on long trips. Tows fine with my Ram 3500. You will find some camp grounds have a total length limit and you will be looking at pull thru sites which seem to be plenty out there. I have camped at Moab, Sand Hollow, and take it to hammers. I think your pricing is a bit low on a 36' enclosed gooseneck. 36' is hard to find and you typically see them in the 10-20k range without any living quarters. Make sure you check your rigs width and height so it will fit in the trailer either between the fenders or build ramps over the fenders. I have to run small rollers on the rear of my crawler to get it inside and have to swap tires when I get to the trail.
Good luck.

 

[BustedCrank]

Easiest way to get out there and use your toys instead of working on them...
Throw a camper on the truck. Buy a cheap car trailer for hauling your scca car if you ever get around to it.

Or sell the deck over and buy a buggy hauler type trailer that can haul a wheeler on full widths or an scca car

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Easiest way to get out there and use your toys instead of working on them...
Throw a camper on the truck. Buy a cheap car trailer for hauling your scca car if you ever get around to it.

Or sell the deck over and buy a buggy hauler type trailer that can haul a wheeler on full widths or an scca car

Two problems with the first option; 1. multiple trailers (storage), 2. more cost.

Buying a buggy hauler and a slide-in is another option I hadn't considered, that's a good call.

 

[ridered3]

Here’s my thoughts.

I have no ownership experience with the slide-in camper option. But one of our wheeling buddies has one permanently mounted on the front of his 40’ open gooseneck wheeling trailer. Since it is a dedicated wheeling trailer, the slide-in never comes off and they have enough room to haul their two rigs on the open part of the trailer. They love that setup.

Another wheeling buddy had a slide-in that he’d put in/take off from the truck for trips and hated all the labor involved to do so. Plus, that step from the slide-in door to the ground was a doozy! Without buying a dedicated wheeling trailer he could not mount the slide-in to a gooseneck.

Personally, I have owned two enclosed goosenecks over the last 2.5 years. I love having an enclosed gooseneck since all my stuff (totes, camping stuff, spare tires, spare parts, etc) stays inside and stays dry during transit.

Had a 38’ follow me home from Indiana to Tennessee back in July 2019. Bought the trailer for $8,000 and sold it for $10,000 in October 2020. Spent 8 nights and 4 trips with it from July 19’ to June 20’. The 38’ had some Pros and Cons.
Pros:
*Wide rear door (93”-95”)
*3” Lift kit/blocks to make sure the ass end didn’t drag.
*Separate garage (20’) and living quarter (18’) areas.
*Nice enough inside and out to stay in but also not too nice to worry about muddy boots, spills, fluids, etc.

Cons:
*Short ceiling at (76”). Rig is too wide (87”) to squeeze in between the trailer fenders (84”) but not wide enough to fit on both trailer fenders. Had to build some wooden drive-over fenders and suck the rig all the way down (74” ride height) to fit inside the trailer and it still scraped the ceiling of the enclosed.
*Minimal to no storage setup inside. Everything was in Totes, so finding stuff was a pain.
*Ease of use. Due to axle placement/garage layout the rig had to pull all the way forward to the garage door, which meant no storage in front of the rig. So, all Totes/firepits/spare tires etc had to get loaded and unloaded every time the rig came in/out. Even with a system it took both of us 30 minutes to load/unload the rig.
*Maneuverability. I did not have much experience with a gooseneck trailer and had zero experience with an enclosed gooseneck so I never felt really comfortable with maneuverability. Now that I have more experience with an enclosed gooseneck, I’d feel more comfortable.
*Trailer axles. Had 5,200 pound axles, which meant that fully loaded I was within 500 pounds of axle capacity, although I had 14k pounds worth of tire capacity.

 

[ridered3]

In June 2020 we bought a 28’ enclosed gooseneck in Knoxville, TN. Bought it for less than the 38’ trailer and have spent 21 nights and 8 trips with it in 6 months. Absolutely love this trailer. The 28’ has some Pros and Cons.
Pros:
*Wide rear door (93”-95”)
*3” Lift kit/blocks to make sure the ass end didn’t drag.
*Tall ceiling (93” inside).
*Ease of use. Tons of inside storage. Only have one Tote now, and everything else has cabinet space etc. All firepits/spare tires etc fit under the rig so I can park right on top of them. Takes 5-10 minutes total for one of us to load/unload the rig.
*Maneuverability. Trailer is 8’ shorter in the rear, so easier to maneuver. Plus, now I can pull up to one pump for truck fuel, drop the rear gate and fill the rig up from the other pump.
*Nice enough inside and out to stay in but also not too nice to worry about muddy boots, spills, fluids, etc.

Cons:
*There is not a separation between the garage and living quarter area. I honestly do not mind this for the most part, since the rig doesn’t leak/smell too much, but would be a con for others.
*There is not a separation between the garage and living quarter area. Only time this is an issue is when people stay with us. I can't just close the door and give them the 20' garage and we have the 18' living area like in the 38' trailer.
*Trailer axles. Currently has 5,200-pound axles, which means that fully loaded I am within 500 pounds of axle capacity, although I have 14k pounds worth of tire capacity. If I keep this trailer, I’ll eventually swap to bigger axles, but not been a problem so far.

 

[ridered3]

All that to say, if you go enclosed gooseneck, you’d need a wide rear door (90% of enclosed trailers with the taillights mounted on the rear gate will be the wide trailers) and the tall ceiling option to fit your FJ.

I’d highly recommend lifting the trailer with either lift blocks or flip the leaf springs from spring under to spring over to make sure the ass end didn’t drag.

All that to say, everyone has personal preferences and reasons one works and one doesn’t work for them.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

In June 2020 we bought a 28’ enclosed gooseneck in Knoxville, TN. Bought it for less than the 38’ trailer and have spent 21 nights and 8 trips with it in 6 months. Absolutely love this trailer. The 28’ has some Pros and Cons.
Pros:
*Wide rear door (93”-95”)
*3” Lift kit/blocks to make sure the ass end didn’t drag.
*Tall ceiling (93” inside).
*Ease of use. Tons of inside storage. Only have one Tote now, and everything else has cabinet space etc. All firepits/spare tires etc fit under the rig so I can park right on top of them. Takes 5-10 minutes total for one of us to load/unload the rig.
*Maneuverability. Trailer is 8’ shorter in the rear, so easier to maneuver. Plus, now I can pull up to one pump for truck fuel, drop the rear gate and fill the rig up from the other pump.
*Nice enough inside and out to stay in but also not too nice to worry about muddy boots, spills, fluids, etc.

Cons:
*There is not a separation between the garage and living quarter area. I honestly do not mind this for the most part, since the rig doesn’t leak/smell too much, but would be a con for others.
*There is not a separation between the garage and living quarter area. Only time this is an issue is when people stay with us. I can't just close the door and give them the 20' garage and we have the 18' living area like in the 38' trailer.
*Trailer axles. Currently has 5,200-pound axles, which means that fully loaded I am within 500 pounds of axle capacity, although I have 14k pounds worth of tire capacity. If I keep this trailer, I’ll eventually swap to bigger axles, but not been a problem so far.

Love it. A smaller enclosed goose like this 28'er is kinda what I had in mind. Glad to hear you like it so much. Thanks for creating an account to share your opinions!!!

 

[ridered3]

Love it. A smaller enclosed goose like this 28'er is kinda what I had in mind. Glad to hear you like it so much. Thanks for creating an account to share your opinions!!!

No problem. If you go looking for one partially to fully finished out, I've had good luck using "living quarters" as my keyword search for Craigslist and FaceSpace Marketplace. It brings up tons of horse trailers, but will have a handful of enclosed as well.

My 28' is not for sale, but if you want to send me dimensions of your FJ I can see how/if it would fit in my 28' to give you an idea of what size trailer you'd need.

Knowing what I've learned over the last few trailers, I'd love to start with a clean slate and build an enclosed gooseneck exactly how I want, but like you, I value my time to go riding/camping more than building something to go relax some.

Trying to find an enclosed gooseneck in the 28'-38' length is kinda tough, especially with wide rear door and tall ceiling heights. What seems backassward to me is more often than not you can buy a larger trailer (40'+ trailer with full living quarters) cheaper than you can buy a shorter trailer (28'-38' length).

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Big thanks to all that contributed, especially ridered3 ,who humored my questions via pm and text! Brought this home today. Will start a build thread on it this week.

 

[montrose818]

How much did it run you? nice truck, is it 4x4?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

How much did it run you? nice truck, is it 4x4?

Trailer was 8k cash. Good deal considering the extras. I'll detail it out in a build thread this week.

Also thanks! Truck is 2wd. Read my "project mayhem" thread for all the deets.

 

[Crashhawk]

Gonna be watching for the build on your trailer. I'm trying to decide whether build out the front of mine or box in the international if I end up with it.

 

[ridered3]

Big thanks to all that contributed, especially ridered3 ,who humored my questions via pm and text! Brought this home today. Will start a build thread on it this week.

Glad to be able to give some assistance to you and that's a good looking combo setup. Purely because I'm a numbers/weight guy, you should weigh the trailer and truck as is, weigh it again stripped down, and again once you've made your changes to have a before, during, and after comparisons.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

That's a lot of doors ​​​​​​

This is my bucket list set up. I'd like a ~28' floor length. My neighbor has a 40' and it looks like a pain in the ass.

 

[ridered3]

That's a lot of doors ​​​​​​

This is my bucket list set up. I'd like a ~28' floor length. My neighbor has a 40' and it looks like a pain in the ass.

My 38' overall trailer wasn't too bad to maneuver once I figured it out, but I am so much more comfortable with my 28' trailer. Ideally I'd have another 2'-4' between the axles and the side door so I could have a wall/partition separating garage from living area.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

My 38' overall trailer wasn't too bad to maneuver once I figured it out, but I am so much more comfortable with my 28' trailer. Ideally I'd have another 2'-4' between the axles and the side door so I could have a wall/partition separating garage from living area.

I think his is 40' floor. 38' overall is what? 30' floor? Not bad at all.

 

[ridered3]

I think his is 40' floor. 38' overall is what? 30' floor? Not bad at all.

Our old 38' was right at 29.5' floor and 8.5' goose. It wasn't too bad to maneuver around overall.