In the market for a enclosed trailer. Have a few questions first.

So I'm going to be getting a enclosed trailer. I currently have a old school 302 f150 and am wondering about opinions. I'm wanting a 24' foot enclosed, and I have a fox body that I'd be using the trailer for primarily. So here's my questions. Is a 24' 10k gvw trailer too much for the old long box, or is it going to pull ok at 55mph? I have towed with the truck of course, but always been with a 20' open trailer. I did haul a 4x4 dodge 1500 extended cab once on the expressway on the 20' trailer and at 55 it wasn't exactly ideal, but it didn't haul too bad either.

I'm hoping someone on here has pulled something similar before and has some feed back on it before I jump in head first. I'm wanting a larger trailer so I not only have enough room while I'm hauling the car, but as most people do with enclosed trailers, I'll also be using it for storage, lawn mowers other stuff. You know how it goes. I figured for 6500 I can haul my shed with me, instead of buying a shed, and I'll get a free trailer for the car and other stuff as well.

Thanks in advance for any opinions or experience motown.

I’m gonna guess the trailer is around 4,500 empty if it’s not finished inside. Add 3,000lbs? for the fox body. Plus tools, spare tires/wheels and spare parts maybe? Compressor? Generator? Gas? I’d guess that trailer loaded with the car and parts will push 8,000+lbs. I personally think it’s a little too much weight for the older f150.

Yeah, they're saying even a 351 truck is low on capacity. I was just hoping someone had real world experience. I'd be towing all back roads with it to the track as I live close. I am just brain storming for the most part. I knew I shoulda kept my diesel.

I'd be weary of an old F150 with a 302 being able to pull/ handle a 24' car trailer all that great. My 03 Sierra 2500 with the 6.0 didn't really like a 27' travel trailer that weighed like 5k lbs. I think camaroman is pretty spot on for weight so it would be 8k+ lbs in a giant kite that catches all the wind

Are you the guy I sold the gray expedition too? If so is that thing still kickin'?

expect to burn up transmission in no time way over weight

Yeah, that's me, and yeah it's still kickin! I sold it to my cousin about a year ago and they have it up to 240,000 now. It's starting to act up a little bit on them, but I sold it to them for the same price I bought it from you for, so they were happy too. They were looking at 7500 f150's and stuff, and I told them I'd hook them up instead so they didn't get ripped. Sure enough, I sold them the expedition, then 2 months later he just had to have a crew cab 06 f150.... he had it 2 weeks before it crapped on him. Needless to say, the expedition has been their life saver. A starter just got put in it, and the electronics are going (I've been telling him I think the gems going on it) but it still starts and drives every day so they keep driving it.

And yeah, I was figuring it was a big trailer for a small f150. I probably won't get one. It was just a idea for the day.

Can't thank you enough for the expedition either man. I enjoyed it while I had it, and I know they love it.

Pulling 8000lbs at 55mph is easy enough for most trucks. Getting up hills will be a struggle, a sad struggle! My 2015 5.0 struggles bad towing 7000-1000lbs. It wants to grab second gear and 5000+rpm. The bad part is getting passed constantly by semis doing 70+. You get pushed all over the road. Combat that with a proper weight distribution hitch and some friction sway bars...

Time to lease a new truck with modern horsepower/brakes/chassis. Keep the old 302 for nice days(or bad days).. keep miles off of the rental tow pig. 20ft enclosed hauls a car well too, you don't always need 24ft. Nothing wrong with daydreaming!

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I have a well built steel full deck open trailer (Sure Trac) that i pull my 85 with. My car weighs 2760. Add tools and other incidentals and it starts to add up. I have a 2001 F150 4 door/ 4wd/ short box with a 5.4 Triton. It pulls OK around town and goes down the freeway pretty well. I towed to a race in PA and the area was very hilly. There were times that my truck labored to get up some of those steep back road hills. Had to turn off the OD or it wouldn’t have made it up the next hill IMO. I was definitely wishing I had more power.

The key to any heavy hauling is the proper stuff to do it with, make sure you have tires rated to haul the weight on the truck, air bags help to, trans coolers help, weight distribution hitch’s etc. I used to just hook up trailers and go till I almost lost a trailer with a bobcat lol.

I bought a 22' non-V nose enclosed trailer to haul my oval track car around. I had the 5.4 (?) in my Ford truck and it hauled it fine. The trailer weighed in at about 3500#, according to the paperwork. I built a workbench at the front with 2 lower tool boxes and one upper tool box. We carried a large nitrogen tank, generator, 2 floor jacks, 20 gallons of fuel, winch, 8 tires and rims and a 3,200# car.

The Ford truck pulled the trailer just fine. I then bought a 2004 Chev with a 5.3 and that hauled it a little better. Both the Ford and Chev had 100K + miles on them. The transmission went in the Ford after the first season...

When I was racing in the late 1990's and early 2000's, we had a 27' enclosed trailer and an old Ford stepside with a new 302 in it. That truck would pull our 2400# race car and tools, etc. We could go 65ish but, it wasn't fast and took a while to get there. My racing partner ended up getting a new Ford truck with the V10 in it and that worked a lot better.

FWIW - I Bought my trailer brand new and decided on the 22' because it was a bit lighter. Even with the workbench up front, and a full sized race car in the trailer, there was plenty of room in the front, between the car and work bench. We used this every week and never regretted getting a 22' over a 24' or larger. Even when it rained at the track and we pulled the car into the trailer, there was still room for the lawn chairs and us to sit in the trailer.

Just my .02.....grr

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Originally Posted by slow96hater

Yeah, that's me, and yeah it's still kickin! I sold it to my cousin about a year ago and they have it up to 240,000 now. It's starting to act up a little bit on them, but I sold it to them for the same price I bought it from you for, so they were happy too. They were looking at 7500 f150's and stuff, and I told them I'd hook them up instead so they didn't get ripped. Sure enough, I sold them the expedition, then 2 months later he just had to have a crew cab 06 f150.... he had it 2 weeks before it crapped on him. Needless to say, the expedition has been their life saver. A starter just got put in it, and the electronics are going (I've been telling him I think the gems going on it) but it still starts and drives every day so they keep driving it.

And yeah, I was figuring it was a big trailer for a small f150. I probably won't get one. It was just a idea for the day.

Can't thank you enough for the expedition either man. I enjoyed it while I had it, and I know they love it.

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Good to hear. It was a really good vehicle for me. I know the 5.4 3 valves get a bad rep but it didn't give me any issues other than coil packs

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Originally Posted by grr456

I bought a 22' non-V nose enclosed trailer to haul my oval track car around. I had the 5.4 (?) in my Ford truck and it hauled it fine. The trailer weighed in at about 3500#, according to the paperwork. I built a workbench at the front with 2 lower tool boxes and one upper tool box. We carried a large nitrogen tank, generator, 2 floor jacks, 20 gallons of fuel, winch, 8 tires and rims and a 3,200# car.

The Ford truck pulled the trailer just fine. I then bought a 2004 Chev with a 5.3 and that hauled it a little better. Both the Ford and Chev had 100K + miles on them. The transmission went in the Ford after the first season...

When I was racing in the late 1990's and early 2000's, we had a 27' enclosed trailer and an old Ford stepside with a new 302 in it. That truck would pull our 2400# race car and tools, etc. We could go 65ish but, it wasn't fast and took a while to get there. My racing partner ended up getting a new Ford truck with the V10 in it and that worked a lot better.

FWIW - I Bought my trailer brand new and decided on the 22' because it was a bit lighter. Even with the workbench up front, and a full sized race car in the trailer, there was plenty of room in the front, between the car and work bench. We used this every week and never regretted getting a 22' over a 24' or larger. Even when it rained at the track and we pulled the car into the trailer, there was still room for the lawn chairs and us to sit in the trailer.

Just my .02.....grr

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So is that vote for a 20'-22' trailer?? I'll literally be pulling to Milan from bemis and rawsonville area. I'd be taking Tuttle hill most of the way. All dirt back road for the most part. I won't be hauling a ton of stuff with me either, I'm just a test and tuner and the car only runs 12's so it doesn't break anything at all ever either. I figure a winch at most will be all there ever is. I'll be usually driving the car there too once it gets closer to being completely done as a cruiser, but for now, it'll be lawn mowers and junk being pulled for the most part. No more weight than the mustang would be.

Slow back roads are very doable. My little plastic H3 Hummer pulled a loaded 30ft enclosed a few miles down slow back roads when we had no other options that weekend. That is a little more extreme than what you are proposing.

You need to make sure you have a class 3 or 4 hitch. Something solid not a rusty old class 2. Airbags might be needed.

I used to use a 1984 Chevy 4x4 1/2 ton pickup to tow comparable. The truck was heavily modified though, 4wheel disc and everything, and weighed a little under 3700lbs. The 305 (technically 315) was OK with it but it was always in 3rd or less. The loading of the trailer was critical though, especially after 8k.

Knew plenty of people towing similar setups with 302 powered F150s.

When I towed with my 84 I would swap out the rear leaf springs and put on a set of LRE tires when I was going to tow something more than an empty trailer. Without those two things the trailer would push the back of the truck around and it made you nervous. This was expressway travel and the part that made me nervous was reducing radius exit ramps. So I'd put in the heavier springs and the tires so I could use more tongue weight (about 1400lbs instead of 750) which made it a lot more enjoyable to drive. I got pretty good at swapping leaf springs.

Later I got a GMT800 (99 NBS Silverado) and it was about as comparable to drive (at low RPM, the 315 made way more power), except the leaf springs were a foot longer which caused weird handling issues when towing. So I ended up getting airbags and a rear sway bar to help with the pushing and the pogo-stick behavior. It was fine after that and I no longer swapped leaf springs or tires. Later ended up dumping the factory hitch for a Curt hitch that was more rigid. I'm still using the same airbags and sway bar 3 trucks later.

If you put bags on it, a rear sway bar, good shocks, a good brake controller, a anti-sway bar for the hitch at which point I highly recommend a weight distributing one, and good stiff tires it will be fine and tow like a newer truck but missing about 200hp. Unless it has airplane gears in it (numerically lower than the 3.55 those trucks usually had) you won't mind. It will be a struggle to get going but it's a Ford truck so you're probably used to that. That generation Ford pickup had garbage rear springs that resemble W-shaped wet noodles after a couple cycles so I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with a broken eye or cracks around the center pin. I'm assuming the AOD is all-original and in that case it will probably smoke itself the first time you put the hitch pin in the receiver since they hate heat as much as a 700R4.

Firestone used to make a bag kit called SportRite that fit that generation of Ford. They also made a kit to put bags in the coils in the front. Both are very nice.

Some excellent feedback & info guys!

This has turned out to be a good post. I do already have air bags, but as mentioned, the factory leaf springs on the 2wd's were garbage, and only a little bit better if you got the 5 pack leaf instead of the 4 pack leaf. My truck does have the 5 pack, and a large transmission cooler. It's the 95 e4od that's in it too, so the stronger of the weak gas motor e4od's. We'll see what I do, I would be getting a weight distribution hitch at the same time I bought the trailer. I'm a big fan of trans temp gauges too, there's a perfect spot for a 2 1/16 gauge right in the dash too. Had one in my old 4x4 truck I put in after I put 38's on it. I do think I'm gonna go look at trailers and get a weight on a few different ones and go from there.


The only thing I keep thinking about is that back in the day, these truck were primarily what everyone was using, and they always towed weight back then, so why not now?

25 years ago it took a performance car to stop as fast as a modern half ton pickup. I think back in the early 90s they measured stopping with trucks in minutes. People knew this and there was less asshattery on the road.

25 years ago you just had to worry about Billy bob trying to merge onto the expressway with a clutchless shift his clapped out 1991 S10 pickup while smoking a Marlboro Red with a beer between his legs and adjusting his Kenwood radio. Now every idiot on the road is texting and giving as much asshattery as they can muster and won't give you an inch.

My work has a 24' enclosed trailer that I have been kinda poking upper management to sell since we never use it anymore and it just sits. Its prolly about 10 years old but has been stored indoors 99.9% of the time since the one before it got stolen. I'll find out if upper management has considered getting rid of it yet and let ya know.

One of the trailers I have is a bare bones 24' enclosed. I've towed it with a 2016 F150 with max tow and a 2019 RAM (1500) with a hemi, and a 2005 2500hd chevy. All trucks towed it just fine, even with a 4200# demon inside. We always make sure the trailer brakes are working and use load bars if the load sags the truck. I've never tried it with an older truck....a 302 with an auto might not work out for that. If you do it, don't use overdrive and drive slow.

I have also been looking at enclosed trailers but more for storage since our HOA wont allow sheds. I was originally looking from something used but it seems like everything is listed pretty close to the price of a new one.

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Originally Posted by CruisnCobra

My work has a 24' enclosed trailer that I have been kinda poking upper management to sell since we never use it anymore and it just sits. Its prolly about 10 years old but has been stored indoors 99.9% of the time since the one before it got stolen. I'll find out if upper management has considered getting rid of it yet and let ya know.

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That could work out. I seen a 24' 7k one the other day for 4500, wasn't bad, but I'm hopeful for a 10k trailer. We have a jeep on Dana 60's with a small block that we may use in the trailer too now that we're kinda looking more. Might even be in the market for a v10 crew cab ford, or if I find a 6.2 truck cheap enough. But for now, it'll be storage and mustang only. Himmin and hawwin.