Mis-marketing of WHAT an off-road trailer IS?

[Tucker]

I've been shopping around for an offroad trailer and this morning YouTube decided to show me this video. Now I'm going to voice my opinion here and something that gets me about the rhetoric some manufactures use regarding their trailers. If you watch this video from Colorado Trailers, she opens up the tour by calling this a "offroad trailer". I think this term is getting abused these days. This isn't what I would consider as something to take off road.

 

[smritte]

I've used trailers off road for years. When I say off road, I don't mean cruising down an improved dirt road. My M-100 saw quite a bit of black diamond runs and my Teardrop has seen it's share of "harder" trails but not extreme. Until recently, you didn't see "off road" trailers and the ones you did were horrible. With the surge of people going off road with trailers, the normal trailer manufactures started jumping in. What they would do is, throw some dirt tires on, raise it two inch's and call it "off road". Lets not get into the new gimmicks they tell you need to have to go off road either.

About a dozen years ago, one of my buddies bought an "off-road" tent trailer made by a major motor home manufacture. This thing was a huge POS. It disintegrated on slow graded dirt roads. Most of these companies make motor homes and travel trailers. They don't know how to make something hold up to the vibrations from wash board roads. Another friend bought a two year old teardrop recently. First trip out, the cabinets vibrated loose, screws fell out of the couch and the spring rate was so high, it literally was bouncing off the ground, side to side at 10mph on a moderate dirt road.

UGH

 

[smritte]

Didn't finish my post because I had to leave.

An off road trailer needs to be built like an off road vehicle. Smooth travel springs and shocks. Trailers are built to haul weight, not have smooth suspension. Trailer manufactures build trailers for that then add on dirt tires. "If" they do put shocks on, the shocks are small "trailer" shocks which overheat quickly off road. The springs need to match the application which in our case is absorb. Trailers are not designed with this in mind. Also, most "rules" about trailer building don't apply to what we want it to do.

Sorry for the rant. It makes me sad that manufactures can put out something that really doesn't work and the average person doesn't know that.

 

[WranglerGuy]

LOL that trailer above while nice for gingerly dirt roads. However anything of serious offroad in nature is going to have that trailers owner up a creek without paddle!

 

[Sid Clayton]

Agree, that trailer isn't something I would take offroad, OFFROAD. Perhaps dirt trails, but nothing beyond that.

 

[Pro Drywall]

Kind of like how some automakers sell their cars and trucks. Some will mismanage consumer expectations.

 

[Jared McDaniel]

Yeah, some trailer companies toss on all season tires onto a trailer and then try to pawn off the trailer as offroad. Nope. Not on my watch.

 

[Frank Vos]

I've been shopping around for an offroad trailer and this morning YouTube decided to show me this video. Now I'm going to voice my opinion here and something that gets me about the rhetoric some manufactures use regarding their trailers. If you watch this video from Colorado Trailers, she opens up the tour by calling this a "offroad trailer". I think this term is getting abused these days. This isn't what I would consider as something to take off road.

So annoying to see stuff like this. There are people who will buy this thinking they can tog this offroad. I wouldn't.