Club Launch Trailer

G'day Everyone!

We here at TRA Australia are looking getting a club trailer to haul all of our launch equipment (rails, rods, towers etc) to and from our launch site. We are looking for a good design and were wondering if anyone out there would like to share their design with us or provide tips on what makes a really great launch trailer.

Let us know from your experience what worked and also what seemed like a good idea at the time but didn't work well.


Looking forward to hearing from you!

Nat
TRA 14024

I'll be watching this thread too. I'm about ready to start building a large launch trailer. It'll have about 18 feet of tower that will raise with a winch.

Tonimus said:

I'll be watching this thread too. I'm about ready to start building a large launch trailer. It'll have about 18 feet of tower that will raise with a winch.

Click to expand...

I think he's looking for a trailer to haul equipment in, not one to be a launch pad.

The only equipment trailer we have is one with a 4' x 8' bed and 2' high plywood front and sides. There is a 2' high slide-in rear panel to keep things from bouncing out the back. We only use this on-site to haul from our sea-container storage to the field. Between the trailer and a pick-up truck, we usually get away with one trip from storage to the field.

Not sure that's much help.

Our club has gone through three since 1999.

The first one was a home-built design, that was quite nice, had a slot or cubby for everything that was intuitive as to where everything went and was easy to use and tow. The top doubled as the RSO table. Problem it was painted plywood and started to deteriorate.

The second one was a tandem axle former power generator trailer. Weighed too much for most members to tow. Even I felt it back there with my truck. The nice part about it was that it had small 3'x3' compartment doors on the sides at the front. One side was a shallow compartment for the PA system, the other safety equipment. Everything else piled in the back. It was tough as nails.

Our current one is a standard 12x6 enclosed cargo trailer like you can buy at Home Depot. We bought it new, and outfitted it with shelves and brackets to hold everything, but made it easy to also use to transport extra stuff. At a launch, when empty, can also be used as a place for whomever hauls it out to sleep in overnight if we are camping. It is a single axle, but again, is too large/heavy for smaller vehicles to pull it. The guy who bought it opted for rear doors instead of a ramp. Get the rear ramp door option. We have two Harbor freight garden wagons for heavy items, such as the base for the club tower, but have to lift them out or use little ramps The tower sections hang on the wall.

My recommendation after all of this, get a 5x8 single axle with drop ramp and side door, and if your tower sections are too long, put them on a roof rack.

We also rewired it, as the in-line, pierce the insulation crimp wire connectors pretty much suck. We also coated the whole interior with grip coating. I'd not do this again. A few good coats of clearcoat varnish will do just as good and look nicer.

It has no brakes. Not a problem, as it is not heavy, and a lot of the target pullers don't have controllers anyway...