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So, this is the build thread for my trailer for the trip mentioned in this thread: http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...of-a-Lifetime!
As I said in the intro thread, this is not something I have experience with, so i am hoping for help and suggestions. I decided on a 5 foot wide trailer because the festiva rear bumper is 5 feet wide. Kind of keeps the wind drag down a bit and I won't have to think so hard about where the trailer is while driving and sightseeing. Looked at 8 foot long ones and liked them for their size and weight. Then looked at it more and realized that there isn't enough room for 2 kids to sleep in there with us or enough room for what we want to bring. So we have to go with 5x10. I am a bit worried about that attracting more attention than an 8 foot from dot or police, but I will do my best to keep everything kosher. I had an idea to make a trailer where the roofline was even with the festiva roofline to cut down on wind drag and have it pop up quick from inside to use when stopped. Thats a lot of building, bit heavy, and takes time to set up and take down every time. Also less storage space. So I rented a covered u-haul trailer that was 8ft long, 5 feet wide and 5ft high inside, 6ft6in high from ground to roof. I did that to see how the festiva would pull a covered trailer, as there is a lot of wind drag. Most covered trailers are taller than that though, so this has less drag than what I would end up buying- However most regular trailers are lighter than the u-haul. The 5x8x 6.5 tall inside dimension ones i looked at were 800 pounds and this shorter u-haul is 900 pounds empty.
I figured I had better pick it up with my 2002 honda civic to avoid any issues with u-haul. The civic hated it. I had an hour drive home with it from the rental shop and with a headwind the civic couldn't do 70mph in 5th. Not even close, it was half throttle in 4th gear. My oil temperature in it usually levels off at 210f after 20 min of freeway driving in that car at the ambient temperature it was. As soon as I got on the freeway it did a steady and fast climb to 250f, eventually hitting 260f. My mechanical temperature gauge recently broke and the ones on the dash of that gen of civic don't work, so I don't know what that was at. With a crosswind i could do 62mph in 5th almost floored, With a tailwind it was like the trailer wasn't there. I went home and put another 7-800 pounds in it and went for a drive. It affected the speeding up and braking slightly, but not how much throttle was needed while cruising at all, thats all wind drag. When i got back home from that I think the head gasket blew in my civic. It blew all the coolant out of the radiator and filled the overflow bottle. Took another gallon of coolant plus what was in the reservoir to fill the rad back up. So I parked it and hooked up the Festiva thinking there is no way this is going to work. I filled my festiva up with weight, 5 gallon jugs of water, a transmission, all sorts of tools, steel rims... and hooked up the 900 pound trailer. To my suprise the festiva pulled it almost as well as the civic! In the same headwind it was also in 4th gear at just over half throttle, crosswind was almost floored in 5th and tailwind was like it almost wasnt there. I was shocked, the civic has 115 hp, almost double my festiva! Yet the Festiva pulled almost as well and it is happy to rev high all day whereas the civic hates to work. Coolant temperature never went up with the fan off (its on a switch) and I used an IR temperature gun on the oil and it was not hot. Then I got my bigger suprise, I believe it stops the trailer faster than the civic! At the very least just as fast. And i have all brand new drums, rotors, pads and shoes on the civic. Couldn't believe it... Both cars were quite stable if i jerked the wheel around or swerved at 60mph. I drove quite a ways to find some big hills, 4th gear is adequite up most, keeps it above 52-54mph, but on the steepest ones it runs out of steam pretty quick in 4th. If i shift into 3rd at 50mph I could still speed up up any hill I found, even if just slightly, I was still speeding up. I went a couple hundred kilometers, then brought it back to u-haul with my festiva because i didnt have time to figure out what was up with the civic. That went well, does 70mph no problem, u-haul guys- they just thought it was funny.
So, the festiva normally gets me 50mpg at those temperatures (52-54 in summer) and it dropped to 30.25mpg with the u-haul. Thats pretty good considering I had it floored most of the time in 5th and had it in 4th and 3rd a lot just doing the biggest hills we have within an hour radius around here. That is a 40% drop in fuel milage. My civic however only towed it home on the flat and it normally gets 44mpg and that dropped to about 21.5mpg, a 50% drop! I may as well drive a pickup with an extended bed for that kind of fuel milage... Anyway, I also took my 4x6 trailer with short sides and loaded it up with about 900 pounds total. then i put a piece of plywood on the front that was 5 feet wide and as high as the roofline of the festiva. It was harder to tow than the u-haul, I got 29.6mpg with it.
That day wasnt too warm, only 17 celcius and sunny, thats 63f. So a few days later it was +31c out (88f) so I quickly came home from work and headed out with my trailer which was still loaded up to test out the cooling system of the festiva. It got hotter than I was comfortable with and I presumed I would need a bigger radiator, but after that on +30 days my temperature would run in the same spot as when towing just driving empty to work. My conclusion was that the problem is the thermostat, I have a hot one installed. I will order a dual element one and re-test. The one I have always runs the temp over half even in -35c. With the fan on in third gear floored going up long steep hills the temperature never got above where it now sits while I drive empty- though it was 2/3 of the way up. With my IR temp gun my best guess of coolant temperature was 220f with the needle 2/3 of the way up, 195f with the needle just a hair over half. Oil pan temperature matched coolant temperature very well, it never went over, I pulled over lots to check temps, especially at the tops of long hills. So I dont think I have to worry about an oil cooler on the car. I have an oil temperature gauge on my civic and compared its readings to the IR gun on its oil pan and they seem to match pretty close. There was a noticable power loss going from +17 air to +30 degree air. Like very noticable, lol. On the way home I pulled over and removed the plywood from the front of the trailer. After that it was still noticable that I had the trailer to speed up and slow down but cruising was exactly the same as with no trailer, exact same reading on the vaccum gauge as empty driving to work. So all that was slowing me down before was wind drag, just a piece of wood sticking up like that is worse than a long box.
I read some about trailer aerodynamics, looked at how to build them better a bit and decided we had to go with a shorter trailer, it will be way easier on the car and myself while driving on this trip. Also at 30mpg and fuel at $1/L its $2900 on gas. If I get it up to 40mpg that saves me $800 in fuel as well as being easier on the car and my attention, noise level is lower with less time spent in 4th and 3rd gear... I think I could pull a full size enclosed 5x10 but I don't think i want to. It would be so nice for no set up or take down time, but I don't think that outweighs the disadvantage of drivability. Also it would catch more crosswind. So I had been looking at trailers back in december and they were fairly plentiful and cheap. Now there are not very many and they are pretty pricey. Not many people selling them for much less than new price, so I haven't bought one yet. Also I want one that is as light as possible, lots of heavy ones out there.
As I said in the intro thread, this is not something I have experience with, so i am hoping for help and suggestions. I decided on a 5 foot wide trailer because the festiva rear bumper is 5 feet wide. Kind of keeps the wind drag down a bit and I won't have to think so hard about where the trailer is while driving and sightseeing. Looked at 8 foot long ones and liked them for their size and weight. Then looked at it more and realized that there isn't enough room for 2 kids to sleep in there with us or enough room for what we want to bring. So we have to go with 5x10. I am a bit worried about that attracting more attention than an 8 foot from dot or police, but I will do my best to keep everything kosher. I had an idea to make a trailer where the roofline was even with the festiva roofline to cut down on wind drag and have it pop up quick from inside to use when stopped. Thats a lot of building, bit heavy, and takes time to set up and take down every time. Also less storage space. So I rented a covered u-haul trailer that was 8ft long, 5 feet wide and 5ft high inside, 6ft6in high from ground to roof. I did that to see how the festiva would pull a covered trailer, as there is a lot of wind drag. Most covered trailers are taller than that though, so this has less drag than what I would end up buying- However most regular trailers are lighter than the u-haul. The 5x8x 6.5 tall inside dimension ones i looked at were 800 pounds and this shorter u-haul is 900 pounds empty.
I figured I had better pick it up with my 2002 honda civic to avoid any issues with u-haul. The civic hated it. I had an hour drive home with it from the rental shop and with a headwind the civic couldn't do 70mph in 5th. Not even close, it was half throttle in 4th gear. My oil temperature in it usually levels off at 210f after 20 min of freeway driving in that car at the ambient temperature it was. As soon as I got on the freeway it did a steady and fast climb to 250f, eventually hitting 260f. My mechanical temperature gauge recently broke and the ones on the dash of that gen of civic don't work, so I don't know what that was at. With a crosswind i could do 62mph in 5th almost floored, With a tailwind it was like the trailer wasn't there. I went home and put another 7-800 pounds in it and went for a drive. It affected the speeding up and braking slightly, but not how much throttle was needed while cruising at all, thats all wind drag. When i got back home from that I think the head gasket blew in my civic. It blew all the coolant out of the radiator and filled the overflow bottle. Took another gallon of coolant plus what was in the reservoir to fill the rad back up. So I parked it and hooked up the Festiva thinking there is no way this is going to work. I filled my festiva up with weight, 5 gallon jugs of water, a transmission, all sorts of tools, steel rims... and hooked up the 900 pound trailer. To my suprise the festiva pulled it almost as well as the civic! In the same headwind it was also in 4th gear at just over half throttle, crosswind was almost floored in 5th and tailwind was like it almost wasnt there. I was shocked, the civic has 115 hp, almost double my festiva! Yet the Festiva pulled almost as well and it is happy to rev high all day whereas the civic hates to work. Coolant temperature never went up with the fan off (its on a switch) and I used an IR temperature gun on the oil and it was not hot. Then I got my bigger suprise, I believe it stops the trailer faster than the civic! At the very least just as fast. And i have all brand new drums, rotors, pads and shoes on the civic. Couldn't believe it... Both cars were quite stable if i jerked the wheel around or swerved at 60mph. I drove quite a ways to find some big hills, 4th gear is adequite up most, keeps it above 52-54mph, but on the steepest ones it runs out of steam pretty quick in 4th. If i shift into 3rd at 50mph I could still speed up up any hill I found, even if just slightly, I was still speeding up. I went a couple hundred kilometers, then brought it back to u-haul with my festiva because i didnt have time to figure out what was up with the civic. That went well, does 70mph no problem, u-haul guys- they just thought it was funny.
So, the festiva normally gets me 50mpg at those temperatures (52-54 in summer) and it dropped to 30.25mpg with the u-haul. Thats pretty good considering I had it floored most of the time in 5th and had it in 4th and 3rd a lot just doing the biggest hills we have within an hour radius around here. That is a 40% drop in fuel milage. My civic however only towed it home on the flat and it normally gets 44mpg and that dropped to about 21.5mpg, a 50% drop! I may as well drive a pickup with an extended bed for that kind of fuel milage... Anyway, I also took my 4x6 trailer with short sides and loaded it up with about 900 pounds total. then i put a piece of plywood on the front that was 5 feet wide and as high as the roofline of the festiva. It was harder to tow than the u-haul, I got 29.6mpg with it.
That day wasnt too warm, only 17 celcius and sunny, thats 63f. So a few days later it was +31c out (88f) so I quickly came home from work and headed out with my trailer which was still loaded up to test out the cooling system of the festiva. It got hotter than I was comfortable with and I presumed I would need a bigger radiator, but after that on +30 days my temperature would run in the same spot as when towing just driving empty to work. My conclusion was that the problem is the thermostat, I have a hot one installed. I will order a dual element one and re-test. The one I have always runs the temp over half even in -35c. With the fan on in third gear floored going up long steep hills the temperature never got above where it now sits while I drive empty- though it was 2/3 of the way up. With my IR temp gun my best guess of coolant temperature was 220f with the needle 2/3 of the way up, 195f with the needle just a hair over half. Oil pan temperature matched coolant temperature very well, it never went over, I pulled over lots to check temps, especially at the tops of long hills. So I dont think I have to worry about an oil cooler on the car. I have an oil temperature gauge on my civic and compared its readings to the IR gun on its oil pan and they seem to match pretty close. There was a noticable power loss going from +17 air to +30 degree air. Like very noticable, lol. On the way home I pulled over and removed the plywood from the front of the trailer. After that it was still noticable that I had the trailer to speed up and slow down but cruising was exactly the same as with no trailer, exact same reading on the vaccum gauge as empty driving to work. So all that was slowing me down before was wind drag, just a piece of wood sticking up like that is worse than a long box.
I read some about trailer aerodynamics, looked at how to build them better a bit and decided we had to go with a shorter trailer, it will be way easier on the car and myself while driving on this trip. Also at 30mpg and fuel at $1/L its $2900 on gas. If I get it up to 40mpg that saves me $800 in fuel as well as being easier on the car and my attention, noise level is lower with less time spent in 4th and 3rd gear... I think I could pull a full size enclosed 5x10 but I don't think i want to. It would be so nice for no set up or take down time, but I don't think that outweighs the disadvantage of drivability. Also it would catch more crosswind. So I had been looking at trailers back in december and they were fairly plentiful and cheap. Now there are not very many and they are pretty pricey. Not many people selling them for much less than new price, so I haven't bought one yet. Also I want one that is as light as possible, lots of heavy ones out there.
Clothes for all of us, enough for a week including warm clothes, raingear... (temperatures can range from 32f to 105f, snow, rain, sun wind and bugs over these 3 months where we are travelling). Inflatable boat, motor, lifejackets and paddles. 25 pound Propane, 20 litre gerry can of gasoline. Air matress, sheets, matress topper, pillows, kids matresses, electric air pump. Folding chairs, kids toys, towels and soap for showering. Thats a fair bit of stuff...
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