Our lives were greatly simplified the day we picked up our new bright red, 18-foot dovetail trailer from Carson Trailer. Standard features include four 205/75-15 tires, a 2 5/16-inch ball coupler, adjustable crank-down tongue support, disc brakes, leaf-spring suspension, slide-and-hide steel ramps, and recessed waterproof lighting.
When it comes to getting your junk to and from the trail, nothing beats a sturdy trailer behind a dependable tow rig. This is especially true when your 4x4 borders on the fringe of street-legality, such as the case of our Mega Titan project truck. Few things offer better peace of mind during outback adventures like a surefire way to return home. A trailer can be a real lifesaver when your trail rig's mechanical state needs improvement-not to mention how handy trailers are during a four-by buildup, transporting bulky items such as axles and engine blocks. As such, we found ourselves borrowing trailers from others all the time to move various trucks around town and to the events. As one might expect, "Hey buddy, can I use your trailer again?" gets old faster than a rerun of Gilligan's Island. So, after a little convincing session with boss-man McColloch, we were granted permission to go shopping. First, our staff took a good hard look at what we actually needed in a trailer.
Our Needs:
1. Capable of carrying a fullsize longbed truck
2 Load capacity up to 14,000 pounds
3 Wide enough for the Mega Titan (7.5 feet)
4 Small enough to store in the crowded confines of Los Angeles, California
5 High-quality all-steel construction capable of providing 20+ years of service.
Our search led to Carson Trailer of Carson, California. Carson is a well-known leader among trailer manufacturers. We like that they have a proven track record with many years in the business. Carson builds all types of trailers from small utility units to full-blown, enclosed toy-boxes with integrated living quarters. In the end, however, it was a simple flatbed trailer that best matched our criteria. We ordered ours just the way we wanted it, complete with a pair of 7,000-pound GAWR axles, electric brakes, drive-over steel fenders, and provisions to mount a winch.
Day 2 of our trailer's hard-working life consisted of a trip from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City to retrieve our beloved Teal-J from our friends at Tera Manufacturing. We were impressed to see how well Teal-J fit, along with a new Road Armor front bumper for our Everyday Titan. Later that same day, we left Salt Lake City headed back out west to Seaside, California, where the Mega Titan was waiting-armed and ready-to tackle the infamous Rubicon Trail near Lake Tahoe, California. Did we forget to mention we really needed a trailer? Our first week racked up some 2,400 miles. Overall, we were very pleased with the trailer's performance, showing impressive stability with the 6,500-pound Mega Titan aboard.
Week 3 proved that the factory license-plate mount wouldn't hold up to one editor's use. (Yeah, one member of our staff is pretty hard on things.) Good thing we still had a paper permit taped above the original mounting arrangement. | 
Next, we decided to add a receiver mount up front, on the tongue, to allow fitment of a multimount-style winch. Again, relying on the welding skills of Toby Lavender, we combined a simple section of 2x6-inch rectangular steel tubing and a foot-long receiver tube sourced from our local trailer supply store. Once coupled together, this arrangement provided a secure platform for a removable winch. | 
We came up with a simple solution for our tail-dragging license-plate issue. Two heavy-duty stainless steel door hinges would allow the low-hanging license plate an easy escape route when miscalculated encounters with terra firma occurred. A sweet LED perimeter light strip was fitted with a license-plate light and secured to the middle of the trailer's tail end. |
Our next modification involved adding large D-ring-style anchor points to the trailer's load deck. These would enable us to use high-grade DOT-approved chains in addition to traditional nylon ratcheting-style straps to secure project vehicles with more confidence. We like this because it also allows us options in case we needed to use multiple anchoring points to secure miscellaneous awkward loads. We purchased these D-rings from a local trailer supply shop for $10 each. Toby Lavender of XXX-Traction in Seaside, California, laid down some beautiful beads, securing one anchor to each corner. | 
Well into our third month, we discovered that the latching system for the hidden loading ramps needed some added security. So we purchased two theft-resistant combination-style Master Locks from our local hardware store. These would ensure that our ramps wouldn't suddenly disappear on us while unattended. | 
We scored a simple high-density polyethylene battery hold-down from West Marine, a supplier of boating products and corrosion-resistant stainless steel nautical essentials. We fitted this mount with a standard lead-acid, Interstate light-truck battery to provide a theft-deterrent power source for a multimount winch. In a future segment, we'll showcase our winch selection, as well as other modifications we have planned to improve our hauler's ability to handle any towing tasks we can throw at it. |