Transport: Toy Boxes
10/01/2005
Despite the hospitality industry’s ability to provide all the comforts of home wherever your schedule may take you, it is only natural to want to take the comforts of home with you, too. Those comforts may include everything from the proverbial kitchen sink to vintage racers, from hot rods to Harleys, snowmobiles to ultralights. If it belongs to you and it must be transported, then it deserves the best treatment.Call them what you will—toy boxes, toy haulers, or SURVs (sport-utility
recreational vehicles)—these transport trucks offer the combination of living
quarters and garage in the same portable unit. They run the gamut from
mass-produced, 18-foot-long inexpensive trailers to 60-foot trucks or trailers
custom made to your specifications.
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Dynamax’s Grand Sport. (Click image to enlarge.)One Box or Two?
Thanks to motorhomes, trailers, and transporters, you can take it all with you. With a motorhome, everything is contained within one box, although most offer the ability to tow another vehicle or trailer. The “trailer” descriptor applies to those units that must be towed behind a large or medium-duty truck, while “transporter” is most frequently applied to commercial-sized rigs that need a Peterbilt or Kenworth tractor to tug them along.
Transporters populate the paddocks at most major motorsports events, and one
of the largest builders is Featherlite. With living or conference quarters in
the forward section and a full-function garage aft, transporters are capable of
keeping a multi-car race team and crew running over a long weekend, while also
impressing sponsors with the latest technology and places of respite.
Advantages of such rigs include massive payload capacities that would be
difficult to overload even with Snap-on’s biggest tool chests and a brace of
4.5-liter Blower Bentleys. These behemoths have the ability to carry multiple
cars over the working deck, and 53 feet of room designed to your specs. The
drawbacks of such carriers include limited parking or storage space and the need
for specially licensed drivers for the semi-tractor that move them.
The Renegade line by Kibbi does not include trailers with living quarters;
rather, these models feature dedicated garage-style trailers matched to a
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Dynamax’s Grand Sport offers the comforts of a home or office, including
bed, bath, and boardroom. (Click image to enlarge.)
Most toy boxes are constructed like small RVs, often quickly put together to
meet a price point and satisfy the weekend adventurer or occasional user. Most
are pulled by fifth wheels, some by conventional hitches (like those under the
rear bumper of a pickup truck), and a few by goosenecks, named after the narrow
vertical post at the front of many horse and construction-equipment
trailers.
Of course, you can purchase vehicle-specific trailers without living quarters, and again, Featherlite and Renegade are leading manufacturers. They also build both conventional-hitch and gooseneck-style toy boxes with living quarters forward.
At the top of the RV-oriented spectrum is New Horizons, a high-end
fifth-wheel and travel trailer builder that recently launched the MotoMover
series of garage-equipped trailers. New Horizons builds to order, so floor plans
and garage sizes are flexible. The company employs a labor-intensive production
schedule, which is reflected in the price. If you want a unit with a warm and
luxurious interior that can stand up to full-time use, New Horizons deserves
consideration.
With any trailer design, you will need an appropriate truck to pull it, and
many toy boxes are simply beyond the capabilities of most pickup trucks.
However, there are Ford Super Duty trucks rated for such loads that drive just
like pickups, and GM, International, Freightliner, and Peterbilt all make
medium-duty truck chassis that various niche manufacturers modify specifically
for trailer pulling. If you can operate a manual transmission, you have all the
physical coordination needed to operate a medium-duty truck with an automatic or
clutchless gearbox.
Garage Motorhomes
There are two types of motorhomes currently being
produced with garages, although the Prevost-chassis road palaces are not among
them. One style looks like a typical big-box motorhome, the other like a truck
cab with a moving van on the back.
Both garage motorhomes from Teschner and Travel Supreme use a Spartan
mid-engine chassis, where the Cummins 8.9-liter diesel sits just ahead of the
rear axle and does the same for road manners that a mid-engine does in a car. It
also frees the back of the coach for the garage, and in the case of Travel
Supreme’s Me2, that space has a deck 10 feet long and almost 8 feet wide that
lowers to ground level. Designed primarily for motorcycles, the space will fit a
small car (no larger than an original Mini) of one ton or less. And with years
of experience manufacturing luxury RVs, Travel Supreme’s Me2 offers a very
comfortable interior with roughly the same floor space as other 41-foot
motorhomes.
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The mid-engine Travel Supreme can carry a pair of motorcycles. (Click image to enlarge.)The other growing garage motorhome segment caters to weight and longevity, sharing components with semi-tractors designed for high mileage and hill-flattening climbing power.
By starting with a Freightliner, Kenworth, Peterbilt, or Volvo cab, the
coachbuilders have all the driver interface and automotive engineering done by
automotive experts. Their 12.7- to 15-liter engines deliver more than 1,650 ft
lbs of torque and good mileage relative to weight. Buyers can specify every
component from the air filter to the batteries.
Naturally you have to think big with vehicles like these, as you will need
two or three times the space of a large sedan to execute a U-turn, but the
automatic gearboxes and big brakes work easily, and you can see for miles ahead.
Twelve gallons of engine oil might be more than your average oil change
requires, but intervals are long, service establishments are often open around
the clock, and parts are easy to find.
Manufacturers of such coaches include Kingsley, Powerhouse, and Renegade.
Lengths range from less than 40 to more than 50 feet, and the garages reach up
to 18 feet long. Motorhome manufacturer Dynamax, an established builder of truck
chassis–based coaches, will debut a garage version in December. And while a
typical diesel-powered motorhome (including the Travel Supreme Me2) will tow
10,000 pounds, and a bus-style coach tows up to 20,000, most big truck-based
coaches will tow 40,000 pounds and have provisions for air-braked trailers.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Featherlite even offers garage space. (Click image to enlarge.)
These larger, high-end toy boxes offer load capacity that allows freedom in
design for space, features, and tankage. You are the architect working with the
builder to meet your requirements, much like a custom car shop that can handle
anything that does not compromise safety.
However, there are things to keep in mind as you conjure up that concours weekend hideaway. Placement of weight is critical to proper driving and handling dynamics, so don’t plan on hanging a heavy car well off the back of a short-wheelbase coach. Be realistic with floor plans. As anyone familiar with motorsports can attest, you will be spending more time in the garage than you think; living areas can be kept compact and still full-featured (washer/ dryer, dishwasher, satellite/plasma) without being rudimentary. Finally, ensure that the environmental and power systems are suited to your plans—a long day on snowmobiles gets disagreeably longer when your shower water is frozen solid.
The Rules of the Road
While most modern coaches and truck-trailer combinations can be driven
without extensive training, you will have to remember to look up and around
more, paying particular attention to truck-specific road signs. Many states have
their own regulations about who can drive what and where it can go, although
there are books and guides that can provide advance warning for trips to
unfamiliar territory.
Common restrictions include vertical clearances, gross vehicle weights,
length maximums, and to a lesser extent width maximums. Some roads carry a
“kingpin-to-axle” length limit for truck/trailer rigs, and this is a primary
reason why you see many transporters with the rear axles separated by a couple
of yards. Finally, if your rig has an LPG/propane supply on board, it may be
prohibited from certain bridges or tunnels.
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(Click image to enlarge.)
Driver licensing requirements vary by state as well, with some requiring little more than a health certificate or air brake endorsement and others requiring almost the equivalent of a commercial operator’s license. In general, motorhomes have less-stringent requirements than truck/trailer setups, but the fine print is inherently vague and should be examined ahead of time.
Regardless of which style you prefer, having a toy box lets you take your car or bike to the track and, freed of worries concerning reservations and security of your pride and joy, enjoy the weekend. Isn’t that why you bought a classic car in the first place?
Dynamax Corp., 888.295.7859, www.dynamaxcorp.com;
Featherlite,
800.800.1230, www.fthr.com;
New Horizons,
800.235.3140, www.horizonsrv.com;
Kingsley Coach,
800.445.2918, www.kingsleycoach.com;
Powerhouse
Coach, www.powerhousecoach.com;
Renegade/Kibbi,
888.522.1126, www.kibbi.com;
Travel
Supreme, 574.862.4484, www.travelsupreme.com