I’m going to need a trailer. I was on the verge of buying one a couple of times, a couple of years ago, but put it off. Then COVID happened. Now here I am with leathers arriving soon but no trailer for going to the track.
Why a trailer?
Not a hard requirement like helmet and leathers (you could ride to your track day and back) but a practical necessity because:
- Track days are tiring. I don’t want to ride several hours to the event, play hard all day, and then ride several hours back. It can be done, but…
- There are a lot of things I’ll need at the track: tools, canopy, food and water, etc. and bringing them on the bike isn’t practical.
- If I break the bike—even something relatively small like a broken clutch lever—I can’t ride it home, and I’ll be stuck in wherever.
There are alternatives, like renting a big pickup… but that’s very hard to load by myself. Or renting a U-Haul motorcycle trailer… but they won’t let me pull it with my Explorer. Overall, it will be much better workflow to set up my own trailer.
What kind of trailer?
Life is full of compromises. Ideal for track days would be an enclosed trailer, maybe 6×14 or so. But that won’t be ideal at home.
I have limited space at my place. There’s no room in the driveway, and keeping a trailer parked out front year-round will be obnoxious to my neighbors, and especially to my wife. So a folding trailer should work. Yeah, a folding trailer. I should be able to squeeze it into the back of the carport…
Which folding trailer?
There are some bike-specific folding trailers, but I think a more general-purpose utility trailer would serve me better. When I’m not using it to go trackside, I can make runs to the dump, help family and friends move stuff, and so on.
There are a number of premium brands, but two cheap ones stand out: Harbor Freight (there are stores near me) and Northern Tool (thousands of miles away). Both are relatively inexpensive assemble-it-yourself kits, and a lot of people swear by them.
So I decide to get the Harbor freight trailer.
You can’t order these trailers online from HF, so I call the local store to order one. The HF employee tells me they don’t do phone orders: I need to come into the store to buy it, and then it will probably take a week or so to arrive at the store in boxes. So last Saturday I go to my local HF, try to buy the trailer, and finally am told yes I can buy it but deliveries are currently around October. OCTOBER?!?! That’s like 3 months after my leathers arrive. IF October is even real.
Denied!
Freaking out about my lack of trailer possibilities, I drive straight from HF to the nearest trailer dealer. He has some great trailers, but nothing like as small or folding as I want. In chatting to the guy about trying Home Depot, Lowes, etc. he says NOBODY will have trailers, they’re all sold out everywhere. Apparently COVID has hurt the supply chain…
I drive through several auto rows looking for trailer dealers. I try Craigslist, Trailer Trader, eBay: no joy. Nothing in small folding trailers anywhere.
But finally…
I haven’t ordered from Northern Tool before—shipping across the US can get expensive—but I give it a go. That 1170lb-rate trailer is in stock. It’s well over $200 for delivery, making the “cheap trailer” idea rather less cheap, but it will get me there. And it carries less load than the 1720lb-rated HF trailer I was looking at, but it will get me there.
Sold. Paid and booked. The delivery date (which I’ll believe when it is on my driveway) is June 4. That means I’ll be able to have it all sorted and set up by the time my leathers arrive. Woot!
So now I wait.
Stay tuned for further developments in the arrival (fingers crossed) and setup of my trackday trailer.