The American Beagler Forum

You would think with the price of gas now, that there would be a good market for a small dog trailer (maybe 4 x 4) that has offroad capabilities. I have gone on-line to look for offroad trailers & there are a few but not many & they're not dog trailers. What are your thoughts on this & does anyone know if someone is making trailers like this? I'm thinking of selling my truck & buying something with better gas mileage. A real small dog trailer that can go down trails might be the way to go.
???

I'd stick to pickup truck dogboxes, mine is 4'x3' deep but a lot are 4'x4'. I can fit 8 in my box fairly comfortably, but wouldn't do this on a real long trip. IMO, unless you drive REALLY long distances and do it often, a trailer isn't a necessity.

if your talking about putting a trailer on a car.... just about any trailer out there will go where a car can go...

Put a pencil to the gas prices and your gas mileage... Unless your driving 25,000 miles a year, your not looking at much difference.

2.50 a gallon, 20 miles per gallon = .125 a mile
3.00 a gallon, 20 miles per gallon = .15 a mile

60 mile trip costs 7.50 at 2.50 a gallon
same trip costs 9.00 at 3.00 a gallon

1.50 per 60 miles difference... Unless your doing some serious driving, its hard to justify $2000 trailer, and excess wear and tear on a car.

I believe your looking at the math the wrong way. The difference between the gas milage of a car and a full sized pick up is where the cost per mile is different. My pick up, gets 17 on the highway, granted its older. But even if it got 20, you can find smaller cars that get better than 30.

You might be right anyhow. The cost of the trailer would offset any gas savings for quite awhile.

In any case, Turn Left Beagles, makes trailers, that I would imagine a car could easily pull. I've seen one in person, looks like a good idea for a hunter too. Could take road trips and have a portable kennel for the dogs.

I can save at the very least $1,600 a year in gas between my truck & a smaller vehicle that gets better gas mileage. I do put 26,000 miles a year on my vehicles. This doesn't take into consideration the lower monthly payments I could get. I'm not talking about a one time change. With gas at $3.25 a gallon and going up, this will probably be a way of life change. I know what the costs & savings are for me. I just want to find a trailer that handles the ruts & 2-tracks well without falling apart or shaking up the dogs too much.

I just had to downsize vehicles last month too. I put a minimum of 300 miles a week on my car. Had to get the first oil service at 6 weeks.....
I too could use a small trailer. I looked at the turn left beagles page. Minimum $2000. Can anyone come up with a more affordable model?

I sold my V8 Silverado primarily because gas was killing me. Between work and play, I drive about 30,000 miles a year. The truck I sold was a 04, and between city and highway driving, I was getting about 13 or 14 miles per gallon on average.
Gas in my area of MI right now is $3.50 per gallon.

That equals about $8,000 per year for GAS!!!!!!!!

Now if I drive my truck for 5 years, that works out to $40,000.

Seems to me that the gasoline cost more than the truck itself!

I used to tow a trailer with my car. When I added my trailer my gas mileage went from 27 mpg to 19 mpg. You can verify this with BrewerMO, he has made a few trips with me pulling our dogs with my trailer.

You need to consider how much MPG you are going to lose when you add a trailer. I suppose that that a 6 cylinder may not be so drastic, but most cars on the market are engineered for their gas mileage with 1 person onboard and cruising at hwy speed. I know my wife's car with a 3.5L V6 has the same tow capacity as did my 4 cylinder did. Go figure! Now you add an extra couple hundred pounds of trailer, plus dogs and loss of aerodynamics... I would bet your mileage would go down drastically as did mine.

There is, however, a convience factor that goes along with having a trailer. I made mine with a run on it so they could stay there all weekend without having to be let out for potty stops. I could feed them in there as well.

Just some food for thought.
Emery

Give Adam (Turnleft Beagles) a call, i'm sure if you tell him what your looking for he can come up with something for you. i'm very good friends with him and he's a good guy to deal with. he's very fair on his products. and he does his very best to produce a great product. give him a call and see what he has to offer.

Turnleft Beagles

164 Pilltown Rd.
Boswell, PA 15531
To contact us:
Phone: (814) 525-0282
E-mail: turnleftbeagles@verizon.net

I was thinking about a 4 x 4 trailer. I wouldn't think this could cause the gas mileage to go down that much, but I may be wrong. But most of the mileage a person would put on their vehicle I would think wouldn't be due to running dogs.

I sell chevy's...
we have several cars that get 30+ per gallon
hollar at me and i can give you some price idea's
Bill Woods

A Colorado gets around 30 to the gallon and you can still fit a dog box in the back. Get a box custom built and you can probably fit all the dogs you care to take anywhere with you.

Guys, I just have to throw my two cents out here. I have a diesel truck, more horsepower and tourque than nescasary to pull a dog trailer, size don't matter. The trailer will affect your fuel milage, don't matter how small or light it is it will drop your MPG. My truck drops and average of 2mpg. on the highway towing my dog trailers, don't matter which size they are. It's product of the drag and friction of towing the extra axle behind you. Once I go to heavier trailer 5,000+ lbs. it drops even more. Just giving you guys a heads up that if your car gets 30 mpg. on the hwy. it won't still get 30 mpg. towing a trailer.

I too am in the auto industry, I am a sales trainer for one of the domestics.

The problem I see with all this debate is:

The cost savings arent even justified spending $5000 more on a hybrid vehicle, and you get a tax writeoff with them! 10mpg more and .30 a gallon makes a slight difference ($300 a Year at 10,000 miles a year).

Someone earlier said they would save $1600 a year and didnt drive 25000 miles? Do the math.

Now, yes, you can save some money buy purchasing a Tacoma, Colorado, Dakota etc.. vs a full size, V8/Hemi/Supercharger. And yes you can lower your monthly nut. (cheaper vehicle, and better mileage) But a trailer... they dont handle rocky trails very well, and yes they have a negative impact on gas mileage, on any vehicle. Turn off the a/c and you'll save a couple mpg as well. And no heat in the winter

Well where you would definately get the savings no matter what size of rig you drove is if you had passenger room and could carpool to the trials especailly with a dog trailer. This is where if you even kept the same rig, but had room for others to ride and share gas and maybe even a room at a motel is where you might be able to save some money on trials and travel.[/u][/list]