ATC Aluminum Race Trailer- 8.5 X 20

Ultimate Race Car Trailer

This all-aluminum trailer from the Aluminum Trailer Co is surely the Ultimate Legends, Miata, Porsche or similar sports car Trailer. I've only used it for my Legends car, but I have pulled in both my Audi B5 S4 and a Porsche Boxster S, and they fit.

What makes it special?

One reason is low weight. Because it is made entirely of aluminum, it weighs about 1000 pounds less than an equal-length steel trailer. That means it is easier to tow with just a SUV or F150-class pickup. No need for a big diesel or duallie to tow---your existing SUV works just fine. I have towed this with an F150 Supercrew (5.4 engine) and a VW Touareg SUV.

Because it is lighter, your fuel mileage is better than with a steel trailer- I get about 10-14 MPG towing with my SUV. And because the trailer weighs so little compared to a similarly configured steel trailer, you have much more effective load capacity should you ever need it.
But there is more- This trailer was custom-ordered to be the ultimate Legends car trailer.

It is just the right length for a single Legends car, Miata, etc, with plenty of room for everything else the successful racer needs.

It starts with an all-aluminum floor in bright aluminum tread plate. This makes cleanup a snap, makes the interior brighter (as it reflects light very well), can't rust or stain, and looks great. The same aluminum tread plate even covers the rear fold down door and flap.

The entire trailer uses LED lights for fast response, lifetime bulb life and the cool look you need in the pits to stand out.

Looking above, you can also see the Observation Deck atop the trailer. Access to the fold-down deck is either from an internal, locking port on the drivers side of the trailer or through the external ladder that can be mounted on the front of the trailer. The observation deck is a great way to unwind after a race, and it makes a great place to watch the racing action from high above the crowd in your own private space. There is plenty of room for chairs, and even tables to enjoy the setting. Note the special screen door which can be used when the outside temp is just right and all you need is a breeze- but without the bugs, please! Just open the aluminum RV-style door, latch it and enjoy the screen door. The side door, and the door to the generator compartment, both have FMVSS safety locks with a locking handle, and locking deadbolt for extra convenience and security. And for times when it is just too hot to be outside, you don't have to sweat like the rest of the people in the pits as this trailer has a 15,000 BTU air conditioner. Because the trailer is relatively well insulated by all-aluminum sides on the interior and exterior, and is well-sealed, the AC unit keeps the trailer interior quite cool, even in the hottest days. Most days you can even leave the rear door open and just use the included strip doors. If you haven't seen strip doors, they are comprised of long, overlapping plastic strips that can be pushed aside for entry and exit, and hang back in place to keep most of the conditioned air just where it should be. There is a picture that shows the rear of the trailer with the strip doors down. The amber strips at the side help locate the trailer edge when you are in a hurry, so you don't run into the side of the trailer. So the trailer is pretty comfy- what else is special?

Every race team needs to carry spare wheels and tires. Most of the time they are just strapped to the side of the trailer, or thrown up to the front in a heap. This trailer has a custom aluminum tire rack, hand-fabricated using round-corner square tubing, and TIG welded for superior strength, light weight and good looks. It was custom designed to hold four mounted wheels and tires, and even has a rod to hold the included car rear tie-downs, as shown in the pictures. It's mounted on the right side of the trailer and leaves plenty of room to walk around when the car is loaded.

Though our car was pretty thrifty on gas, you still need to carry fuel. Instead of having fuel cans rattling around, or trying to tie them down in transit, we designed (yeah, you guessed it) a custom aluminum fuel can rack. The top of the rack stores two fuel cans included with the trailer), along with their associated caps, spouts, etc. in the center compartment. The bottom contains storage for up to three rear end gears (not included, but many are available). The center gear carrier has handles, is removable, and makes a great portable carrier when swapping gears in the pits. This is a great way to always quickly see which gears you have on board, keep them clean and yet readily accessible. To the left of the gear carrier is the internal ladder, leading to the locking roof access port pictured earlier. Just to the left of that is a set of custom Aluminum tread plate brackets to hold a tent (not included, but available). Just strap your EZ-Up or similar tent bag here and stop worrying about getting it lost, dirty, tipped over in transit, etc.

Between race sessions, the car needs to be kept clean and maintained. We made that easy by adding an aluminum Pit-Pal cabinet that holds 2 rolls of paper towels, plenty of oil, cleaning supplies, a toe gauge, a stagger gauge and more. It is mounted on the left trailer wall near the back door for quick, easy access when working on the car. The cabinet door (where the paper towels are mounted) flips down to expose more storage, and to make a nice workspace for working on small, delicate projects. The turned-up edges of the work surface make it impossible to lose small parts from rolling off, so it's a great place to check out a set of carbs, for example. The rectangular object mounted below is a removable trash bag holder that uses any popular plastic trash bag, and holds it for keeping trash where it belongs. Helps keep everything neat and tidy. Of course, storage is always in short supply in most trailers. But the Ultimate Race Trailer has lots of storage, and all of it useful. The front of the trailer has the upgraded ATC factory cabinets, including upper cabinets and deep lower cabinets. One way to check out the quality of these cabinets is to note the wide openings- the door frames are very small, so access to things even in the back is easy and painless. We stored spares, tools and other things in plastic containers that we purchased to exactly match the cabinet sizes- these are not included but are available. One of the pictures below shows one of the cabinets, with some of the doors open to show the excellent condition, wide openings and cavernous space. The latches are quality pieces that allow quick access combined with positive locking. The black object in the lower right part of that picture is the deep-cycle battery that operates the two 12-V ceiling lights (great for loading at night when the generator is off, of just checking things during a quick stop on the road home at night), and the electric trailer jack in front.

The cabinets are in a "L" shape to account for the internal, insulated generator cabinet (which is accessible from the outside from a separate door). Note also two of the four 110V doubletube fluorescent lamp fixtures, each mounted at a 45 degree angle. Mounting them at 45 degrees makes the light so much more useful, and actually helps you see under the car---it is assisted by a pretty reflective floor which is great when working on the car at night in the trailer- everything is so much easier to work on when you can see!

The cabinets are topped with an aluminum counter top. The top is easy to clean and looks great. Just over the "L" part of the cabinets is a white board- great for making quick notes, keeping track of track conditions and generally communicating with the rest of the team. It comes with several markers, an eraser and a bracket to hold them so they are right where you need them when you need to jot down a quick note. There is an included 6-outlet adapter for plugging in radio battery chargers, cell phone chargers, laptop computers, etc. Notice the smooth aluminum interior walls. If you've ever owned a trailer with wooden or even vinyl walls, you'll immediately notice the difference. These walls make the interior brighter, are a snap to keep clean, and are the same quality material in professional race team trailers. No rivets to snag clothes, rust and look unsightly.

The powerful AC Unit is visible in one of the roof photos. It's the top of the line Carrier Air V unit, rated at 15,000 BTU (compared to the usual 13,500 BTU units).

Electrically, the trailer has the 4 double-tube 110V lights, the two 12V ceiling lights, outlets at the rear door (high and low) and a powerful halogen 500W loading light. (In the pictures, the light is unplugged, but the outlet is visible just above the top yellow bar). There is also a distribution block for the AC unit, and of course, the trailer deep-cell battery. Every trailer should have a fire extinguisher, and this one does, mounted right by the rear door, for ready access in case of an emergency. We've never needed one, but it is comforting to know there is one at hand if there ever was a need.

If you are a Legends racer, just under the loading light is another unique feature of this trailer, a custom aluminum bumper rack for Legends cars. In oval racing, bumpers are consumables- you just use them up because the cars are so close. Even in road racing, bump drafting can take its share of bumpers. The Ultimate Race Trailer has you covered, though, with space for up to 5 front and 5 rear bumpers (rears on the left, fronts at right) stored on the wall-mounted rack, with included bungee cords to keep them in place during transit. The result: you never leave home without knowing your bumper situation, they are always stored neatly, access is quick and easy, and you can see at a glance when you are running out of fronts, for example. There is even a place for spare bumper bolts, and a dedicated storage space for the right size wrenches to take them on and off in a hurry. Bumper stored this way don't rattle, and they don't mar the trailer walls. And they don't fall off and hit people on the head (I saw this once in another racer's trailer!).

The Ultimate Race Trailer also has a spare tire well in the floor (accessible even with a car loaded) so you are never without a spare. The trailer comes with 5 wheels and tires, including the spare in the well. Storing the spare in a dedicated spare tire well is a great idea- it keeps the spare from exposure to fuel, oil, dirt and sunlight, so it will be as good when you need it as when you put it in the storage well. Hey- what about the tires? Well, the trailer has less than 5000 miles. Most of them have been local runs of 15 to 70 minutes, though the trailer has been on several 400-mile tows. The tires have plenty of tread, have no oxidation issues, and will likely run for many more years. They are real trailer tires, made by Goodyear for trailer use and loads, not re-purposed passenger car tires I've seen on some lesser trailers. The spare is new, as I replaced one tire when I cut a small piece of the sidewall. Brakes are still fine, have plenty of lining, and brake straight and true.

The axles are the standard 3500-lb Torflex ones used in all quality trailers. They combine for a total all-up maximum trailer weight of 7000 lbs. I estimate that this trailer is under 4000 lbs fully laden, including the Legends car, tools, fuel, spares, etc, so there is a lot of capacity to carry more if needed. Remember, this trailer weighs about 1000 lbs less than a steel trailer, so your effective load capacity is about 1000 lbs over the same size steel trailer with the same axles. Above each pair of tires is an aluminum fender. These cannot rust, and are unmarked with no dents, dings or other defects.

The exterior is in very good shape. This trailer has the upgraded .040 aluminum exterior walls that aren't riveted, but use the same high performance mounting techniques used in 18-wheel trailers to get a smooth, rivetless exterior. No rivets on the exterior (or interior) mean no rust stains, a smooth surface for graphics or a trailer wrap, and a much better looking trailer. Every trailer I've ever seen with the cheaper riveted walls ended up with stains on the walls, as the steel rivet studs (even with some "aluminum" rivets) rusted and started to discolor the walls. The exterior has one small ding, about the size of a quarter, high up on the left side . The trailer has bogey wheels to help keep the rear from dragging. These are essential if you want to keep the corners looking good.

The trailer also has a built-in generator compartment (also with the aluminum tread plate floor). The trailer comes complete with a 5000 watt generator (6250 Watt surge), and even an air compressor! The compressor is perfect for filling up a portable tire tank, or for running small air tools. Rated at 135 PSI, it runs off the included generator. The air compressor has about 20' of coiled hose, and standard air hose ends that can be connected to fill tanks, the included tire filler, or any standard auto air hose. The gen compartment has the same FMVSS double locking door with a deadbolt and two keys for security.
The generator is held down using an included ratcheting system with properly placed eyebolts in the floor.
The gen compartment door is ventilated. The gen compartment also stores the trailer power cord, about 15' long. When you are at a track with power poles and don't need to run the generator, just plug the cord into the power pole. The same power cord connects to the generator. The included generator easily runs the AC unit, 110V lights and Legends double-fan engine cooling systems.

On the Ultimate Race Trailer, pretty much everything is aluminum to prevent rust. This includes even the door hinges, and door lock hardware. Take a look at the pictures and check out the beautiful aluminum hardware used to lock and secure the rear door. Even the rear door hinges are aluminum. There is almost nothing on this trailer that can rust. In fact, take a look at the undercarriage of any steel trailer you see- they all rust, and eventually rot from the bottom up. This will never happen with the Ultimate Race Trailer.

The included electric jack easily raises and lowers the trailer for connecting to the towing vehicle. It has a 3000 lb capacity, though the tongue weight is only about 600 lbs, so it has plenty of reserve. It's hard to see, but there is ¼" aluminum tread plate on the front A-frame chassis tubes. This makes it easy and safe to get on the removable ladder when going onto the roof-top observation deck from the front of the trailer. The ladder is removed and stored inside the trailer above the tire rack where it sits on specialized brackets to store it out of the way in a safe and efficient manner. Note that the exterior also has a 24" high aluminum tread plate rock guard. This keeps the front of the trailer from getting rock rash from debris thrown up from the rear tires. It does a great job! Also note the smooth polished corners- in addition to making the trailer more aerodynamic, they look good and improve fuel mileage slightly.
Even the bolts that hold the front ladder brackets on the trailer frame are stainless steel, so they can't rust and stain the trailer. All the LED lights work and have never needed a bulb replacement. They probably never will, as they are rated for more than 50,000 hours each--- that's about 3 million miles at 60 MPH!

The trailer is completely water tight and has never leaked. This is in part to the superior method by which ATC makes and installs the one-piece aluminum roof. The roof has extra-cost reinforcement, designed to support people walking on it. We've had a dozen or so people on the observation deck at once with no ill effects. The AC unit is mounted in a braced, reinforced structure.

In addition to the AC unit and the internal, locking access port, the trailer also has a manual vent that can be opened to vent air when needed. When we raced in cold weather, we usually opened this vent when we had a small propane heater running.

This has been a great trailer for our race team. We've never had a problem with it, never had an accident with it, and it has never let us down. Why are we selling our Ultimate Race Trailer? We are only selling it because we are taking a break from racing to take our car hobby in a different direction.
You rarely see pre-owned ATC trailers for sale, mostly because the original owners tend to be very satisfied with them. Ours is probably the rare trailer that has been maintained in a cost-no-object basis that is now for sale to a fortunate buyer who understands the value that the best aluminum trailers retain, and appreciates the special things this trailer has compared to others. Price is $15,500 as it sits. Price a new ATC trailer configured like this one, add in the things we've done, and you will see the value in this one.
Delivery from ZIP 20124 can be arranged for $1.25 per mile, round trip, or you can pick it up.

Also available is a Trailer Tug. This is a ½ HP electric trailer tug which can move the trailer around and into close spaces. Pics on request. Asking $999- paid $1500. Newish battery, perfect shape, permanent trickle charger built-in.

Contact Will Campbell at 703 303 6803 (days) or 703 266-4015 (nights and weekends). Leave a message if I can't get to the phone- I'll call back!

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Item Location: CLIFTON, VA Get Directions

Instructions for buyer:  I can deliver the trailer locally (<100 miles) free, after that there will be a $1.50/mile (round trip) fee.

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