Looking at buying my first trailer. What do you think?

[rascal]

Others will say that you have to have electric brakes but the reasons are because the owners don't normally put their cars in the same place each time which can cause the trailer to misbehave. If you set things up properly you don't normally have any troubles..

For me the biggest advantage of electric brakes is having brakes in reverse.
Having seen a guy towing a race car behind a swb patrol up the steep back entrance to Bathurst, and having it roll backwards with all four wheels on the patrol locked and ending up jackknifed into the gutter was scary enough for me to get electric brakes on any trailer I bought new.

[rascal]

Just to steal your thread for a minute...

Any tips for getting the mxer onto and off the trailer on your own, without someone to guide up and off the ramps? Grow a really long neck?

Practice!
It's all about knowing where your wheels are, and once you have done it enough times, you will be able to drive it on every time without issue.

A easy unaided way to practice (and avoid up and down on your trailer all the time) is to lay two planks on the ground and set them apart the width of your ramps. Then just keep driving up onto them until you can get the tyres centered on them every time.

[mazmad]

Good tip thanks!

[manga_blue]

x2 for practice. Get a mate to guide you on and off a few times and then you're right after that. A couple of pieces of 4x2 hardwood bolted near the front of trailer helps me stop in the right place.

Never, ever try to put the car on or off without hitching it up properly to the tow car.

[mazmad]

We did have a drama in that the planks for the hire trailer were just marginally shorter than the wheelbase so as the front wheels were backing onto the planks the back wheels were sitting on the very end of the planks - which pivoted the planks up at the front and out of the slot they connected onto.

The green machine was left sitting on the planks - which were now lying flat on the ground- with its nose resting on the back of the trailer

Careful jacking of the front released it. Next time we secured the rear end of the planks