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Can I tow a 6x12 enclosed trailer fully loaded with home goods for our move?

16K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  pdxfj 
#1 ·
Moving from Las Vegas to Texas and wondering if a fully loaded 6x12 enclosed trailer is too much weight for my 09 Frontier LE with the tow package? Would just be moving normal home items and nothing crazy heavy but will pack it to the roof.
 
#2 ·
If it's a uhaul 6x12 you'll tow it with no problems. If it's a standard 6x12, you should still be able to but depending on the amount of wind resistance will determine if it will be easy or if there will be a lot of white knuckle moments. What does the front of the trailer look like?
 
#4 · (Edited)
Uhaul trailers are kind of short. Regular cargo trailers are taller and give you a lot more space inside. Try to make sure that the front has a V shape. The flat front cargo trailers can get sketchy because of the wind resistance from what I've been told. If you have a camper top it should help with the air flow. The most I've towed was a 6x12 with a v shaped front full of everything from my one bedroom apartment with my washer and dryer in the bed of the truck. Pulled everything with no issues. Plus the 4 people adding about 1000 pounds of weight. But still no problem. Just leave a lot of space in front, I feel like the brakes are weak if you are towing near the limits of the truck.
 
#5 ·
I would suggest a integrated trailer brake, and Firestone ride-rite air bags so your headlights are not pointed towards the sky. If the trailer is over 2500lbs the brake is required per the manual, and if you look at the state laws you are going through you might find out more strict laws.
 
#7 ·
I towed the 6x12 uhaul enclosed trailer fully loaded, plus bed and cab filled with mine ( pretty sure I was within manufacturer limits haha ) through the prairies up and over the Rockies last year, and down to the west coast last year, flat ground running was plenty good, plenty of power when dropping a gear or two, at the expensive of fuel burn though, climbing up into the Rockies was good, rocked along at speed limit most of the time, just gotta remeber that going into the valleys to keep the momentum up if there's a uphill on the other side, once you get used to the truck and trailer you'll forget it's back there for the most part, into the twisty valley river running it was plenty happy. Trailer brakes are a must with that much weight back there, uhaul uses surge brakes, which I found on the long downhills did their job good, for the most part, even on some of the longer steeper grades I was on gas more then the brake( when the cars ahead seemed to ride the brakes all the way down )as the surge brakes were slightly engaged due to the trailer pushing on the tongue. If you've ever seen the show "Highway through Hell" I got to experience that road, though thankfully not in winter, just the dark and the rain, the long long uphills, you'll feel the trailer, and won't be the fastest rig out there, but not the slowest either, again all depends on how much fuel you wish to burn, that V6 is plenty powerful when you stomp on it. The long twisty downhills will build momentum up, but I found the combination of trailer brakes and the truck brakes to be plenty good ( truck was less then 6 months old though ) enough to get it stopped if need be, but once you get used to the trailer you tend to automatically start leaving copious amounts of room for stopping. The one thing I will say is, beware of how the trailer is loaded, and what induces sway, gentle turns at speed on downhills are important. If you are buying the trailer I'd suggest going with electric brakes as you have more control, and can activate the trailer brakes independent of the truck to bring sway under control quicker and easier. ( I had the trailer sway once, due to a combination of excess speed, downhill, darkness, and an unplanned lane change to avoid a chunk of blown tire ) and it was pretty terrifying to be swung across three lanes like a rag-doll. With the uhaul trailers, don't take the attendents word it's safe to use. Inspect it super carefully yourself. The one i picked up ended up need major work before i could continue using. Noticed a weird vibration while driving, found 3/4 of the tires cupped on the inside, and then noticed one brake line just dangling, which had drained all brake fluid from the trailer. The shop then found a second brake line broken and 2 leaf springs cracked. It was shown to me later that near the hitch had a sight glass( which on this one was really hard to see into ) that you can check the fluid with, and I believe me, every gas stop after that I was checking that sight glass and everything else on the trailer pretty religiously.

Hope this helps ??
 
#8 ·
Uhaul gets stupid money for a one way rental. I wanted to pull a 4x6 enclosed trailer from NJ to Florida and would be there in a day, two days tops and it's priced at $25 per day but if I dropped it off down there it was almost $700, I told the guy it would be cheaper to keep it for the week to ten days and drag it back home for a third of the price but bought a new trailer instead.

Clint
 
#9 ·
I have one of these, https://www.trailersplus.com/Nevada/Las_Vegas/6-Wide-Cargo-Trailers/trailer/4RALS1016HK062182 that I hauled from the bay area to vegas 9 times to move over here then used it to move from the rental to the place we bought. It was bought in November 2015 and is still in great shape. I bought it because of the price of the one way U-haul. I was able to haul it fine with the 4 cyl Frontier except for going up that grade coming into Vegas where I was in 3rd gear, but it made it 5 times. To make it easier I took my Xterra the rest of the trips and it hauled it no issue.
If you are looking to buy and would consider this size hit me up and we can make a deal.
 
#12 ·
One thing to remember is U-Haul trailers are way over built and quite heavy because of it.

I towed my P-car on a U-Haul "auto transport" with my old Frontier ('06 v6). It did fine, but it was not fun. The combined weight of the two was well over 5,000lbs. Trip was about 200 miles of interstate, hilly secondary highways and back roads. Once I reached my destination I let the truck idle for about 10 minutes to cool down before shutting it off. The electric fans were on high and it felt like it took forever for them to turn off.

Needless to say I wouldn't do it again with the U-Haul setup. Although I would do it again with one of the "lighter" versions listed at the Trailers Plus website.
 
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