Is it me or has trailer prices gotten insane?

Good deal

 

Yeah, I was referring to what’s known as a Container chassis that semi trucks pull. They have them in longer lengths as well. Today there ocean containers well over 40’. I see 45’s, 48’s and 53’ foot containers so there are longer chassis out there to move them. Sometimes you’ll see them going through auctions like iron planet, Richie Bros, Taylor Martin etc. I’ve seen them sell for as little as $250.00. On average though, they go for around $1,000.00.

I’ve entertained buying one and basically just using most of the frame work as a base to build off of.

hope that helps.

 

Most effective cheap 3 car hauler would be a Kaufman low profile 3 car hauler. Step deck style car haulers have trouble with low vehicles.
I like my current trailer, expensive but sturdy. If I could load low cars it would be perfect but they bottom out on the front ramp to the step deck and often scrape the bumpers getting past the loading ramps.

Was considering finding a person to modify my trailer but I think it would cost me way too much. If I can get Kaufman to customize their 50 ft low profile to a 53 tandem 10/12k axles with a 24k gvwr i would consider swapping my trailer for it.

 

I hate wedge type trailers. Unstable at best. Be sure to have a single pivot 5th wheel and not an rv dual pivot or gooseneck for those.

Yea I've had my trailer for about 35k miles so far. Its almost perfect but it being the first of its kind that Buckeye built meant they would be guestimating.
I sent Buckeye a pic of a custom made Kaufman that looks like a shipshe and told him thats what I want. He built the "stepdeck" too high and had to weld a 6" box between trailer and kingpin so it would sit level on my truck and the angle going to the step deck is too steep so low cars are bottoming out getting on there. The tail of the trailer is too high off the ground so some low cars are scraping their front or back bumpers while getting on the 8ft loading ramps.

To fix this i would need to break the angles on front ramp and reweld them at less of an angle, remove the 6" box between the kingpin and trailer and either install HD dexter torsion axles or find lower profile tires to drop the rear a little bit.

Buckeye said that according to their models and measurements a dodge challenger would load no problem. I tried loading a challenger and couldn't get past the loading ramps even with ramp extensions.

I specifically had this built to be able to take 3 high top sprinters and stay under 13'6" but can only put a mid roof on top deck. A high top puts me at 13'10" on top deck.

Apart from those problems trailer is sturdy as hell. No flex, no electrical problems and not a drop of oil has leaked from axles. Im in no hurry to sell or swap the trailer. I might sell the whole setup in 6-12 months and either get my dream setup or leave the business. We will see.

 

Single pivot 5th wheel will limit how much a wedge will lean with a car uptop. I can carry a 4500 lb car ontop without issue.

This is what I sent buckeye to base the build off of:

 

Look for one of these, if they came in a 53 ft i'd jump on it. They are cheap. can find them for about $10k and easy to resell.