Car Hauler Trailers for Sale

Start from payload, not the number on the rating sticker. A car hauler's GVWR counts the trailer itself. An 18-foot steel deck weighs about 2,000 to 2,500 lbs empty. So a 7,000-lb-rated trailer really carries 4,500 to 5,000 lbs of car.

That's a Miata twice over, at about 2,350 lbs each. Nearly every sedan and sports car rides the same math. A modern muscle car runs 3,800 to 4,400 lbs, so it fits with less room to spare. Want more margin under it? Move up to a 10k deck. It's the same shelf, one rating over.

A crew-cab half-ton pickup runs around 5,500 lbs. That load belongs on the 14,000-lb decks, which carry a full-size truck with weight left over. Our shelf clusters at those two answers. Ratings of 7,000 to 10,000 lbs handle cars, and 14,000 lbs handles trucks and heavy iron. Buy for the heaviest thing you'll ever load, not the car in this weekend's plan. If that heaviest thing is a truck, you're shopping the 14k decks, and they're on the grid above.

Both do the work. They just age differently.

Treated wood gives tires bite in the rain. It soaks up a leaky oil pan instead of turning slick. And when a board finally gives out, you replace the board, not the deck.

Steel takes what wood can't. A dead car dragged up on a winch cable. A chain hook dropped from waist height. A muddy day that ends with a hose. If the trailer earns money every week, steel is the one. If it hauls your own cars a dozen times a year, wood is easy to live with.

Aluminum is the third path. No rust, hundreds of pounds less trailer to tow, more money up front. That trade pays when the trailer lives outside year-round, or when the tow vehicle is a half-ton and every pound counts. Aluma builds most of the aluminum car haulers we stock. And if the car needs to travel out of the weather, think fresh paint or an open winter route, that's an enclosed hauler. Those live with our enclosed cargo trailers.

The gap between the plainest car hauler on the lot and the most expensive one isn't the frame. It's the equipment. A dovetail, a winch-mount plate, heavier axles, extra deck length, steel or wood. Each one moves the number. So a bare 7k wood deck and a loaded 14k steel deck are different tools at honestly different prices.

Across the shelf the range is $3,400 to $17,900, and most of it sits in the lower half. Which end you land on comes down to the car and how often you'll haul it. The store will walk the add-ons with you and say what each one is really worth on your trailer.

Financing and rent-to-own both work here. The paperwork does its math in the open: full term, real rate, and what you'll have paid when the note ends. All of it is on paper before you sign. If the trailer is a tool for making money, judge the note's total against the work, not the payment against the month.

Prices on this page are cash prices, before tax, title, and the doc fee. Your state has a say in those three lines. So have the store quote the trailer out the door before you settle on a number. That's the honest bottom line.

A lowered car loads clean when the approach is long enough. Ramp angle is the whole problem. Short ramps meeting a flat deck make a breakover a lowered nose can't clear. Creeping up slower doesn't change the geometry.

Two things do. A dovetail angles the tail of the deck down toward the ground. Longer ramps stretch the same climb over more distance. Together they flatten the approach enough for the front lip and the exhaust to arrive whole. Planks under the ramp feet buy a few more degrees for the truly low stuff.

And a tilt trailer deletes the ramps altogether. The deck itself pivots into one long slope. That's why lowered-car owners keep ending up on our tilt trailers page. Bring us the ride height and we'll walk you to a deck that clears it.

A dead car is a loading problem, not a hauling problem. Once it's strapped down, the trailer neither knows nor cares.

The tool is a winch bolted to the trailer's mount plate. Put the transmission in neutral. Run the cable to the frame or a tow hook. Then walk the car up the ramps with somebody in the seat to steer.

Tie-down works the same either way. Four points, one at each corner, pulling against each other. Check every strap at the first fuel stop, because new straps stretch. Planning on flips or recovery work? Order the winch mount on the trailer from day one and put it on a steel deck. Say so when you order and it arrives ready to work.