Erde 234

[shezzar]

Hello guys,
I am in the process of looking for a trailer. I have been looking at an erde 234
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...5526|cgn:Trailers+&+Accessories/Trailers#tab3

I have found reviews for other erde trailers but none for the one i am looking at. Has anyone ever used this trailer before?
Can anyone suggest a trailer with similar specs, that can be upended for storage

would a towing vehicle of a Hyundia I30 be good enough if fully laiden? or should we use a smaller trailer?
thanks

 

[Avocet]

I haven't used one, but it seems a very odd sort of trailer! It's unbraked, so there won't be very many cars that will be able to tow it with the full half a ton in it, yet it has twin axles! It isn't QUITE long enough to put a typical 8' x 4' sheet of wood in it either. I'd have thought it would be a bit heavy to stand upright too. Quite why it has twin axles when there are plenty of trailers that can carry half a ton even though they only have one axle, is somewhat beyond me.

Anyway, if you go on this site:

http://www.uktow.com/towing capacity.asp

It seems to quote towing capabilities of most sorts of car, but there's more than one I30 listed. BY FAR the best bet is to get this information from your handbook though. There will be two figures. The lower of the two will be the maximum weight of UNBRAKED trailer that you can tow (which might only be half a ton including the trailer AND the payload) and the larger number will be the maximum it can tow if the trailer has brakes.

Depending on when you passed your driving test, there might be other restrictions on you towing trailers too.

 

[shezzar]

thanks for your help. I never thought that maybe only some cars could take an unbraked trailer of that size. I guess my car wont be able to.
Just looking at the weight of the trailer, I suppose it could be a too heavy to lift, but it does say on there website that it would be able to.

Ill have a look in the handbook and see what it says.

What trailers have you had? can you recommend any of them?

Thanks for your help

 

[Mursal]

We were looking for a lightweight trailer recently and the best we could find was here. If you contact them they will tell you their nearest agent.

http://www.murphytowbars.com/trailers/trailers.htm

Sorry haven't seen that Erde trailer before

 

[Avocet]

Difficult really. All my trailers have always been "home made"!

It really depends what you want it for. If it's just general household and DIY, it's worth checking with your local Council - some of them won't allow twin axle trailers into the household waste disposal tip. Others won't allow trailers above a certain length.

I tend to do a fair bit of quite large DIY, so for me, it was important to have something that could carry an 8' x 4' sheet flat. That said, I'm not stuck for storage space. That Erde one weighs over quarter of a ton empty, so I wouldn't fancy my chances of standing it up on its end without damaging either me or it!

In general terms, I'd always go for a single axle trailer if possible, unless I wanted to carry a lot of weight. They're just so much easier to manhandle and set up to tow correctly. It's hard getting both axles on a twin axle on to share the weight evenly and still get a reasonable nose weight on the car's towball. They're also a lot cheaper (both for initial purchase and maintenance).

Most cars can tow up to about half a ton (combined weight of trailer and load) unbraked. After that, it tends (though not always) to be the bigger vehicles and vans that can tow up to 750kg without brakes. If you can manage without brakes, it makes the trailer cheaper to buy and maintain. They tend to be left standing for long periods and the brakes can seize. a good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't tow more than 85% of the car's kerb weight (i.e. the weight of the empty car but with driver and a full tank of fuel). That's NOT a legal requirement, but it's a good rule of thumb for comfortable towing.

Some good advice on this site:

http://www.ntta.co.uk/

Lots of places sell ready-made trailers:

http://www.autow.com/trailers/

http://www.towsure.com/category/Caddy_Trailers

etc.

In general, I think you probably get what you pay for, but if it's not going to be used a lot, a cheapie might be OK.

 

[shezzar]

initially it is going to be used to help move some stuff to france and then to go to the tip quite alot.
Than I will be taking it over to use with my property renovating business so it will be used alot.

i have now found this

http://www.chester-towbars.co.uk/c_trailers/bjt_shifter.html

looking at the first two, which one would you recommend. i wouldnt have though the loads would always be low but they also wont be heavy all the time.....

thanks for you help guys

 

[Avocet]

Be careful in France. I've heard the police there are really hot on trailers. They'll unhitch it and stick the jockey wheel on a pair of (glorified) bathroom scales. If the nose weight is more than is permitted for either the trailer or your car, it's a hefty on-the-spot fine.

Anyway, back to your original question, the starting point REALLY needs to be what your car is capable of towing. I'd go for the first - the second one is WAY too heavy for your car - it can weigh up to 2.6 tonnes fully loaded and there's no way your car will be able to tow that (braked or not) - that's big 4x4 territory!

Check and double check your handbook. If the car came with an EC Certificate of Conformity (single bit of A4 paper with loads of tech data on it) that will tell you what it can tow (braked and unbraked). If they've bothered filling it in, you registration document (item O.1 and O.2) should have both figures as well, BUT for any kind of prosecution, it's the data on the certificate of conformity that is used for legal purposes.

I'd have said that even the first trailer was borderline for your car (in terms of weight) but I honestly don't know. Other than that, the first one looks nice - load bed just a couple of inches bigger than an 8 x 4 sheet.

 

[shezzar]

just checked the manual and the trailer is 300kg over the weight when fully laiden. but what we will be taking in our car i dont think it will be much

 

[Avocet]

OK. There's a lot of confusion around about legal requirements for towing. Some people suggest that if the trailer's MAXIMUM permitted weight (even if it's empty!) as marked on its chassis plate, is greater than the weight your vehicle is allowed to tow, an offence is being committed. Personally, I think that's only true for a driver who took their test after 1997, but I'm not sure. Certainly, I've towed trailers that were plated as being heavier than my car was allowed to tow (empty or partially loaded) and have never been stopped.