Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Is there any appreciable difference between a Cargo Trailer and an enclosed Car Hauler?

I need to be able to haul a car one-way about 2,000 miles and then convert the trailer for camping. As long as it has tie downs is there anything different between the two types, particularly with regard to the conversion?

I may be a little wrong but what I found was with a Car Hauler it was wider, normally 8.5' wide and it had more height. Some of the cargo trailers had a lower rating axle than the Car Hauler, at least on the ones I saw. One more thing I did notice also was the ride height on the car hauler vs the cargo trailer. It seemed that the car hauler sat just a little lower, but again that may have just been the way I was looking at it. I as initially planning on using a Car hauler for my build but went with a Custom ordered Snowmobile trailer instead. It has a lot more ground clearance for heading up in the mountains.

Car hauler will have a much heavier main frame in most cases which makes them much better trailers overall. Not all but most. It also makes them considerably heavier. My 7X14 has that heavy duty 10 inch frame.

Isn't a car hauler just a specialized cargo trailer? Probably 8.5 wide more often than 8 foot wide from what I have seen.

Just a guess, but besides the width, I would bet the biggest difference is in the floor structure. 3500# of cargo distributed on the floor is a lot different than 3500# on four point loads (at wheels/tires.)

Howdy All;

Perhaps the floor joists are closer together?

After all didn't he mention the base frame is heaver?
Just my best guess.

hank

It probably depends on who is making it. I looked at the frame specs for a cargo trailer and a car carrier from Continental. Same width, length, dual axles, GVW. Both used the same size main frame rails and both had crossmembers on 24" centers. A deluxe car carrier version used same size main frame but has the crossmembers on 16" centers. I'd ask the manufacturer for details.

I'm going to guess that a car hauler also comes with a 2' hidden dovetail whereas a cargo trailer will be flat. They will look identical from the outside but a 20' car hauler will really be an 18' + 2'. Great for loading cars but could/would be a little cumbersome for camping.