Buying Your First Trailer: A Checklist for Southeast Buyers

We sell a lot of first trailers, and the regrets are remarkably consistent. Almost nobody wishes they had bought smaller. Almost everybody who skipped the side door mentions it. And a surprising number discover on the drive home that their tow vehicle was more marginal than they thought.

Before you shop

Check the tow vehicle properly

• **Tow capacity** from the manual, not from a memory of what the model can do.
• **Payload** from the door jamb sticker — this is the number people miss, and tongue weight comes out of it along with passengers and cargo.
• **Hitch class and rating**, which may be lower than the vehicle's tow capacity.
• **Whether you have a brake controller**, if the trailer will have electric brakes.

Be honest about the load

Not what you are hauling on day one — what you will be hauling in two years. People consistently plan for the first use and then find the trailer is undersized within a season.

Choosing the trailer

1. 1**Size up rather than down.** The cost difference between a 7x14 and a 7x16 is small. The cost of trading up in eighteen months is not.
2. 2**Tandem axle** for anything that will be loaded or towed at highway speed.
3. 3**Ramp door** unless you specifically load from a dock.
4. 4**A side door.** The single most commonly skipped and most commonly regretted option.
5. 5**Interior height** if you will work inside it.
6. 6**Ventilation** — in this climate, on any trailer that sits closed up.
7. 7**Ask what the tyre rating is** and whether a spare is included.

At the lot

Ask for the out-the-door number including any fees before you commit. Check the VIN plate against the paperwork. Walk the trailer properly — all four sides, the roof edge, the floor, the doors and latches operating, the lights on every function.

Photograph the VIN plate and the whole trailer before you leave. It takes two minutes and it is the thing you will want if it is ever stolen.

The drive home

Stop at about ten miles and check the coupler, chains, lights and tyres by hand. Check again at fifty. Feel the hubs at each stop. Tow below the limit rather than at it and leave much more following distance than feels necessary.

If any of that sounds like more than you want to take on for a first trailer, take the delivery. We deliver across South Georgia, North Florida, southeast Alabama and the Lowcountry, and there is nothing to prove by towing it yourself the first time.