Wow - that's exactly the same setup I built to pull with my 1990 Miata for autocrossing a long time ago - except the truck box was on the rear and the tires were in front to load the hitch better. The Miata would tow that rig at 75+ all day long. One thing that was a problem then and I've heard may still be a problem today - keeping the wheel bearings on the trailer greased. The cheap stock bearings got so hot that they boiled the grease out of them. When we first started using the trailer, we used to stop every 50 miles to make sure the cap on the hub wasn't too hot to touch. We ended up going to the highest-quality bearing grease we could find, and never had to change the bearings - although a lot of guys ran them dry and did need to replace them. We also added a jack with a caster on the front, so we could wheel the trailer around and keep it flat so we could use the top of the box as a work surface (OK, lunch table).
Yep, I've read that about the bearings, I'll keep them greased and watched. I waffled back and forth on which way to set it up. There are advocates of wheels on front, and others advocate wheels on back. I decided to try it this way first. There wouldn't be room to load the 225 wheels the same way in the front with the tongue in the way. And the frame holds the box perfectly like this. Tongue weighting seems good with the box loaded as I'll have it. I'm also going to mount the spare on top of the tongue, that will add some more weight.
We finally figured out that doing two stacks of two tires flat rode better and kept the tires from moving around and trying to lean off one side of the trailer or the other, even though they were securely strapped down. We used aluminum angle as a crosspiece, and drillled holes in that to hold vertical threaded rods bolted to the aluminum; the tires were secured by generic replacement spare tire holddowns. We also mounted a flashing red LED (connected to a 9-volt battery inside) to a hole in the latch plate on the box to simulate an alarm. Other guys got their boxes broken into, but we never did. :lol:
Okay, so here's my "final version 1" setup, ready to pull to the track. Perfect tongue weight when loaded. Everything is locked down one way or another. Pulls effortlessly with the Mini. Nothing moves. Have a tarp to hide the pretty shiny things, when I need to park it overnight. Also found these cheapo motion sensor padlocks. They're crap as actual locks... but they work great as tamper detectors. Set them, and if they get jostled they scream like a banshee for 15 seconds. Then reset and wait to get jostled again. I'll loop them around the ratchet strap on the wheels, when parked at night. And I ordered a little blinky red LED setup to install in the box, as Spa2k suggested. But it probably won't arrive until next week.
Great first weekend at the track for Locutus This weekend was mostly about me getting my confidence back (after the tire wall incident on the same track, last time out), and getting acclimated to the car with all the big changes (manual transmission! LSD brakes tires). Other than breaking my flex joint (again), the car performed spectacularly. Took me a day or so to get into the groove, then made a lot of progress on the second day. Not sure why the flex joint broke... I have very little engine movement with the excellent VT mounts. But it gives me an excuse to upgrade to the RMW race header, when I install the stroker. Luckily, it really didn't impact the drivability of the car on track. Just makes it sound like a race car, and makes the tunnel hot. I need a LOT of work on my shifting (heel/toe rev matching, downshifts while braking hard). Biggest weakness right now. But that's not the car's fault. I was hoping the work I did on that in them mountains last month would be sufficient prep. It wasn't. I really love what the car can do on sticky tires. The 15" NT01/6UL setup is da bomb. I ordered a "spare" set of NT01's so I'll have some on hand whenever I need them. I should be able to get 6-8 more days out of the current set, from the looks of it. Here's my last (and best) lap of the weekend. Working on chasing down a new Stingray. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duIrY_qlTvs"]Locutus CMP 6/7/2015 THSCC - YouTube[/ame] I DO need more LSD, and I DO need more brake cooling. I was pushing the limits of the factory LSD with current power levels. Forget about it with the stroker. Was going to put a Cusco LSD in, but availability issues pushed me over the edge to order the OS Giken from Jan. Brakes did well until the last session where I was building speed and braking later, overheated them the last couple of laps, even with the BBK. Ordered brake duct brackets from Jan and will modify to fit my setup. XP10/XP8 combo performed well, I need to get smoother with my pedal action. This was my first Tar Heel Sports Car Club event (third try was the charm). I was VERY impressed by their level of organization, quality of classroom and in-car instruction, and friendliness of the people. A very diverse and inclusive group, which made for big fun all weekend. Vintage cars, Lemons cars, M3s, Corvettes, Mustangs, Porsches, Race cars, street cars... there was some of everything. I was the ONLY Mini, out of probably 70 cars. Lots of curious folks stopped by to talk. That was fun. This club does lots of autocross and rallycross events in central and eastern NC, as well as two weekends at VIR and one weekend at CMP each year. I need to make it out to an autocross soon. Will be at the VIR full course event in September, with MOAR POWER and MOAR BRAKING. Any track event you can drive home from, is a good one, in my book.
Sounds like you and a great time Paul. As for the flex joint failing I have found they don't fail because of motor mount movement and such. They fail because they get moved around excessively when swaping exhausts or motors in and out. Hummmm have you install a motor recently....:lol:
Yeah, I've pulled the engine a time or two. But I've been pretty careful with the header since the last time it was broken... More GPness arrived today... Uprated fuel pump, because I will be using more of it. Howerton meth system with custom 3gal fuel cell and AN lines. Will be a week or two before I get it plumbed. Installed the meth gauge and my Zeitronics AFR/Boost/EGT gauge in Craven pods. They don't do anything yet, but they look pretty. And my "spare" set of NT01's arrived.
Well, this arrived... RMW 1.8 stroker w/high lift Dominator cam, new rockers, LawdJeeezusMFinBootlegFireworks Head, 550cc injectors, plugs, gaskets, OS Giken LSD and RMW axles. Custom RMW race header and brake ducts are on the way.
Getting ready to take things up a notch... Ordered the MaxJax a couple of months ago, they were on backorder and had to wait for a new shipment to come across the pond. Arrived today like this: I ordered from Scott Matthews at Big Boys Garage Toys. He had a great price and great service and communications. I ordered online on a Sunday. He called me within 10 minutes (on Sunday) to let me know the unit was on backorder, gave me an ETA, and made sure that was OK. The shipment arrived when he said it would, it shipped immediately from the distributor, Scott notified me that it had shipped and provided a tracking number. The unit made it cross country in only three days via Con-Way freight. Delivered to my driveway in perfect condition. Couldn't ask for more. Really brilliant packaging, actually. 15 seconds to cut off the plastic and one plastic strap, and move one box, and you have this: One minute to cut three steel straps, move the arms, a couple of boxes, a few other large parts and some cardboard, and you have this: A few minutes to put on 4 wheels, remove 10 bolts connecting the end frames, stand things up and roll into the garage. Done with unpacking. Total time to unpack from the shipping frame: about 10 minutes. Easy Peasy. Helps to use a floor jack to lift under the uprights a bit to remove the ends. When you're done, this is all that's left over - these end frames, three steel straps, one plastic strap, 10 bolts, some cardboard and some plastic wrap turn the MaxJax system into a single shippable, stackable unit. Pretty smart. My new hammer drill won't be here until Tuesday, and I'm traveling next week, so it won't get installed until Saturday 7/18. Then I can get wrenching on Locutus again. I did enough measuring before ordering to know it would fit in the garage, but I still need to do detailed layout to decide exactly where I want to put it. I'll play around with that this weekend and get the floor marked, so I'm ready to drill. I also need to finish stripping the GP this weekend, so I can roll it out of the garage to make room for the lift install...
Looking up the price on that MaxJax, that's really not bad. Should be very handy to have once you get it setup!
Yep, about $2200 delivered. Complete, except for a couple of jugs of Dexton fluid. Which is about the same as a good portable scissor lift. In retrospect, I wish I'd done it years ago. I really could have afforded it... cheap, compared to what I've spent on mods and tires. And it would have been pretty nice to have over the past 5 years....
http://www.costco.com/.product.11731656.html I'd seriously consider this at $1999 if I wasn't already set. Might still get one of these someday depending on how it works out for you.
I've thought about getting one especially since I have 12.5 foot ceilings but the garage door opener track would still get in the way when trying to lift the car. What is the solution to this?
Most garages are deep enough for the tall part of the car to clear the opener and tracks if you back the vehicle in all the way, so the lift is set as far back into the garage as practical based on the vehicles you'll be lifting. You just have to watch whether the hood is open or closed, and what it might contact each way. In my case, I have a two car garage with a single large door, so the opener track is in the middle and I'll install the lift offset to one side, between the outer track and the middle opener track. The MaxJax only lifts up to 4', so in many cases the hood of the car would be below the opener at this height. Just takes a LOT of measuring and sketching to plan it out.