May not be a good idea if you live in a hot/sunny climate. The trailer will act like an oven on hot days.

My dad kept his black Dodge in a black enclosed trailer. The heat damaged the paint by causing the body filler to crack.

The heat is also not good on plastic parts.

 

I agree, it gets pretty hot in a trailer. I wouldn't do it.

 

I bought a 48 foot insulated ship cargo container (they are more expensive then an old trailer, sell for about $3,000.00 CDN) but I can drive the car right in without a problem. It holds all 3 cars for winter storage. I put in a dehumidifier and electric heat to keep the temperature above freezing. It works very well with the going rate of winter parking where I live the pay back is about 3 years. In this neck of the woods I could only wish extreme heat was an issue.

 

Trailers make stealing a car very, very easy. Forget about having to break in and hotwire it--just back your truck up to the trailer and haul it all away in about thirty seconds.

About ninety percent of hitch locks are worthless, by the way--so you can't rely on them. Overall, not a good idea, IMHO.

 

Living here in NH I use my 20' enclosed trailer for storing my car in the winter. In the summer it goes inside my under house garage. Been doing this for three years now NO problems. I had some of the same concerns as mentioned. As far as temps. I purposely went with a white Wells Cargo trailer with two roof vents. I payed $10K for paint job and have had no issues. As far as stealing it, I padlock the hitch, heavy chain thru trailer wheel spokes, and a car parked in front of it. Plus it's location in my yard. A couple other pluses, a stand alone garage you pay a tax on, but a trailer at least here you don't. Mice sometimes get into garages, my trailer is tight NO mice get in. This frees up my house garage in winter for my wifes car.

 

I use a 20' trailer for storage also. The car is out of it almost every day in the good weather and the roof has a vent. Haven't seen any problems pop up. The truck is parked in front of the trailer and when the truck is gone a car takes its place. I agree with 67gtconv, excise tax is cheaper than property assessment and the critters should not be able to get in.

 

I'm so glad I found this forum....So much info..........Been thinking of doing this since we live at a condo and have no room to park cars.....Read on another thread about Wells Cargo trailer with left side door for opening of car door when the car is inside....Makes sense......Thanks to all for the info........

 

I saw a guy here in Phoenix who outfitted a 26 foot Uhaul truck with ramps and a winch to hold and transport his race car. You can but these trucks from Uhaul for around $3500dollars. I don't know about keeping that much weight on the tires all the time though.

 

I store my '69 Mach I in a 24' Featherlite trailer that I call my "mobile garage". So far,after 3 years of outside storage, it looks like the day I put it in! Not even dusty. Some trailers are not sealed up quite as well as this one. This has aluminum floors,sides,top,etc and is very high quality. Security is supplied by a well protected area that serves " Southern Justice" and a neighbor protection system.Some trailers with wood floors allow moisture to enter and create a problem. Just my experience,not a recommendation.

 

I would think storing in a trailer would be better than the alternative of storing outside or outside with a car cover.

 

Pretty much all the responses dealt with using the trailer as storage. I think the OP was asking about using a trailer as a garage to work on the car inside of.

You don't have much room inside of one along the walls (the sides of the car). If what I believe your question was aimed it is correct, I'd have to steer you clear from using it for that. As an alternative suggestion, have you thought about looking into a storage rental space? I had several in the past that were plenty large enough to store my car in and were roomy enough to have a car wide open if I wished to work on it. The high dollar places probably wouldn't let you do that, but the cheaper facilities usually don't care (as long as you're not screwing up their facility with a big mess). Several of the places I've had storage rentals with also had a 110v outlet available (though most don't). Just a thought!

 

I'm so glad I found this thread. I'm struggling to find a decent contractor to build my car palace so at the moment I have one car in a public storage area (enclosed and locked of course) and the Mustang in an enclosed car hauler.

The only problem is... You can't drive the car in or out of the trailer without being hitched to the tow vehicle without tipping the trailer which I discovered the hard way this weekend. It was quite a surprise to carefully back out and have my entire universe tip towards the back. Fortunately nothing was damaged, but I don't want to repeat this experience.

I'm struggling to find a solution that I can move out of the way when I actually want to tow the trailer again.

The hauler is 16 foot. You guys using trailers as garages, how do you solve this problem? No idea how much weight I need, I didn't think it would tip at all being a 2 axle trailer.

 

Jack the front all the up and put floor jacks under each rear frame corner and it wont need to be hitched to a vehicle. You could also use a jack stand under each rear frame corner and then jack the front up so there is weight on the jack stands and that will also keep it from see-sawing.

 

I store my car in the trailer all the time. No issues yet. My trailer is white but a black trailer would get hot in the summer.

 

If your trailer has vents on the roof open them and it will stay cooler. Mustangs sit in 120 deg heat in los angeles in the open. Also the comment about making the car easier to steal means you have not locked you trailer down. Nobody can steal my 2 trailers unless they bring an oxy/acet cutting torch, a large chop say and a silencer. And no cutting the locks on the rear ramp door will not open the door either. And if you put your car in a hot trailer after painting it the heat will kinda sorta help bake the paint on.

 

^ + 1.
Also chock the wheels of the trailer.

 

Did I forget to type that ? duh, I musta been sleepin.

 

This thread is 15 years old but some topics never go completely away. (lol)

Since storage was contemplated in some of the posts in this thread, consider the possibility of humidity inside the trailer and the micro climate created within the trailer due to heating and cooling that humidity. I have seen with my own eyes a stunning Boss2 turn into a mildew infested corroded mess while stored inside an enclosed trailer for an extended period. In that example, that car would have been in better shape if it had been parked in the driveway uncovered.

My son has a vintage muscle car that was parked in the open with a weatherproof cover. Again the microclimate inside the cover baked much of the clear coat off the car over a period of time.

Air circulation and desiccant should be considered mandatory in any close-quartered shelter arrangement.

 

You'll need to look into laws regarding trailers parked on your property as well. A friend here from work got a letter from the city that said it was illegal to park his camper trailer on his property if it wasn't fully covered underneath with concrete- not just pads under the tires, but the full area of the trailer. He spent several grand on concrete (gravel and black top no bueno) only to find out after words that the city also had a covenant regarding trailers parked on private property. It had never been enforced before, but apparently a few neighbors 'new' to the area squeaked about it, so the city enforced it. Now he's got a nice patio area.... on the far side of his yard!
Assuming you can have the trailer, you'll probably need to have it licensed and insured as well. My city won't allow unlicensed trailers on private property, nor will it allow 'company marked' equipment on the properties. always something, right? Hope this helps you a decade later... lol

 

wow ! well california aint so bad after all. you can park a trailer of any kind and or an rv on your property and it doesnt have to be licensed. you can park any trailer or rv on the street but they need a license plate and the rv needs the minimum liability insurance required under cali law. also cali had to get rid of the 72 hour parking law several years ago.

 

Revival of another old thread due to new interest. I purchased my 24' trailer around September of 2016. Upgrades included Torsion suspension, tire upgrade, and E-Track on the floor and walls. it was bare wood when I got it, and I finished it off myself. I have a thread going on here that talks about it. I paid just over $7k for it.

http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/g...ang.com/general-discussion-non-vintage-mustang/945122-enclosed-car-trailer.html

I have 2 locks on the tongue and a pair of wheel locks that I put on one side of the trailer. That way they cant just take one wheel off and drive off. I also have a GPS tracker/alarm in the trailer.

Its 24' long plus a 2' V nose. Interior width is right about 8'1". I believe outside measurements can not be wider than 8'6". Thus you are going to have the wheel wells inside the trailer that you have to deal with. With out any doors on the sides, you do not have much room next to he car. With the door (usually just the one for the driver to get in and out) that will help you in the area of being able to open the driver's door, but not help where you might want to get under the car from the side. There is a trailer where a large section of the driver's side opens and the wheel well cover removes but that is a very expensive option, and it only allows access to the middle of one side of the car. As long as what you want to do involves working in front of the car or behind, and not from the side, I'd say you can do that. Otherwise as you go down the side of the car you are rubbing the inner wall of the trailer on one side and the car on the other. It's that close.

As for driving in and out with out being hitched up, you can buy some stands or jacks that you either manually place under the back of the trailer, or that are permanently attached like those of the smaller RV's. I have a pair of the manual type I keep in the trailer that I use for leveling, or supporting the rear if I am un-hitched and want to load/unload the car.

Mine is an "inexpensive" trailer. I've had to do a lot to it and still have some stuff to do to make it nice. I've built a front cabinet/workbench area, added 110v wiring and a portable AC unit, mini fridge, a group 27 battery for all the internal lighting, 12v toung jack, 9000lb winch, and other 12v uses.

I'd not consider it a garage. Car storage would work. But your also adding more weight to the trailer tires and making them sit in one spot for long periods of time. Just something else to think about.

My Trailer photo gallery

 

I have a one car garage under house and in summer time that's where my '67 GT stang sits.
But in winter, I let wife have the garage because of winter snow & cold. For the last 15 yrs I park my '67 in my 20' Wells Cargo enclosed trailer. It's chained, locked and a car sits in front. NO MICE can get inside my trailer. They do get in my garage once in awhile. In all the years I've done it, NO negative affects to my car. Even in the coldest weather.
Summer time is why I ordered my trailer in White with 2 vents. but only junk sits in it then.

 

I got a front row seat at a car show one day ,guy was backing his car out of the unhitched trailer and as he gets to the bottom of the ramp the nose picked up in the air and the trailer rolled forward and poked the tongue into the passenger door of a 64.5 coupe !
EDIT--I just realized that it happened at the show of my sig pic--about 50 feet away from my car !

 

For anyone concerned about width if you dont have a Tucker you dont need to worry. I hauled this !ucker in a 102" wide Haulmark and it had 1" of clearance Clarence on each side of the wheel wells and the guy that was steering it in got out just fine. I was operating the winch.< ! 102" outside body to outside body is the maximum width permitted by law.