[2023maple]

Does anyone have advice/experience on using a tow dolly instead of a trailer for getting the car to events? Do to what I have available to me and $$ a new featherlite is not in the picture right now.
Also, What intercom would you suggest for a begginers intercom? Looking for voice activation and again $$ is the dictating factor. anyone have a used system avail?
Thanks,
Bryan

 

[mattjohnston]

Get the cheap peltor for your intercom, it will make you happy.

Dolly's are ok, I used one.. I also drove to an event. You gotta do what you gotta do. Although when you bend it bad, you might not get it home easily

 

[randyzimmer]

RE: Need advice

If you mean an enclosed Featherlight, you haven't been to a rally.
Enclosed trailers don't easily get down the road to the service park much less the stage road to pick up the debris.
Rally intercoms are best for this sport and more affordable than you may be aware.
Go to an event to see what's happening - it'll be good background and save you time and money.
---
New idea for the new recruits!
Must drive car to and from event.
That'd keep 'em grounded.
GM used this for the Camaro series in Canada - anyone caught trailering within a couple hundred miles of the event was banned from the series.
rz

 

[Walter Clark]

Econo-Trailers, made in PA has been building a 7000 capacity open trailer that retails for under $2000 for years. Around New England they can be found second hand for $1000 or less depending on condition.

I have one and found it a good value, carrys well and is easy to customize to my needs. I have added tie-down D-rings, manual cable winch and a tirerack. I also replaced the OEM incandecent tail lights with some LED units from Cabelas because I had constant bulb failures - probably due to patched road surfaces and loading the trailer to less than half capacity.


Intercom. Go Peltor. The FMT-100/110 isnt that expensive and the products are bullet-proof.

 

[2023maple]

RE: Need advice

No, I was referring to an open trailer. I have a 16' steel trailer, but with a car on it it is a load for my 1/2 ton p/u.
I am familiar with most common rally intercoms by name but no actual usage. Most people have said to go with Peltor, but the price point for a Terraphone is much more manageable.
If I have never tried a Peltor, will I find the Terraphone acceptable?
Bryan

 

[steviez66]

So as not to hopefuly let MERPHY'S law obtain a hold on your rally effort. Yes,I spelled it in-correctly on purpose,so MERPHY won't find this team.
There are also intercoms from J.C.****** and you can go to motorcycle and snowmobile shops too. But I agree with the masses ,peltor and terra phone stuff is excellent. Also because of the affore Mr Merphy,this can bring up the age old debate of whether to have your co-driver in a open face or a closed face helmet. We all have our opinions on this subject. IF you ever have a failure on your intercom its obviously easier to be heard by a co-driver with an open face helmet till you can get to a service to either fix or replace anything that may have broke.
Again, I'm setting aside the safety factor of a closed face helmet. Also the cost of having a second back-yup system in the service vehicle. I've heard of VERY FEW intercom problems,but that does not mean they can't happen.
To further address the trailer / dolly issue, I know of rock crawlers and off road jeep guys that flat tow their vehicles with a tow bar and a rear light bar,which can be made cheaper than a dolly. Again there are obvious draw backs if and when you bend your car badly.
Welcome to our sport, Ignore the internal stuff and run events and HAVE FUN . StevieZ66

 

[John Vanlandingham]

RE: Need advice

>No, I was referring to an open trailer. I have a 16' steel
>trailer, but with a car on it it is a load for my 1/2 ton
>p/u.

Tow dollys are fine.
keep a close eye on wheel bearing condition and grease them before and after every trip. You only have two wheels so they better work (I have had 3 bearing failures over the years till i started really greasing them up INNER AND OUTER!!) Towed with a tired 1/2 ton Chev w 5 liter.

>I am familiar with most common rally intercoms by name but
>no actual usage. Most people have said to go with Peltor,
>but the price point for a Terraphone is much more
>manageable.
>If I have never tried a Peltor, will I find the Terraphone
>acceptable?

Peltors are the industry HIGH end standard.
Terror-phones are a copy of an early Greytronics intercom and have the same fault in the amp circuit as that early model.
They're popular but not too nice.
Greytronics is the CLUBMAN standard product in the UK.
Send a note for details, I have supplied a stack to guys for the Chinese Rally Championship cause they like the price/quality balance.

>Bryan





John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

janvanvurpa (at) f4 (dot) ca

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat!
Vive Le Groupe F!

 

[Adrian Wintle]

RE: Need advice

>No, I was referring to an open trailer. I have a 16' steel
>trailer, but with a car on it it is a load for my 1/2 ton
>p/u.

A tow dolly will work, but if you do sufficient damage to the car that you don't have two good wheels on one end, you will be in trouble. However, in circumstances like that you will often find that other competitors will help you.

>I am familiar with most common rally intercoms by name but
>no actual usage. Most people have said to go with Peltor,
>but the price point for a Terraphone is much more
>manageable.
>If I have never tried a Peltor, will I find the Terraphone
>acceptable?

Yes, you will find it acceptable.

Adrian

 

[igor]

FWIW, I used a Terraphone Pro open-face for my first rally; my driver could hear me no problem, I could hear him no problem, and gave us no issues at all.

It was an easy install in my helmet, courtesy of that uber-sticky foam tape stuff, and was nice and cheap.

I'm sure Peltor stuff is better, because it's pricier and people say it is, but I'm quite satisfied with the Terraphone stuff.

-jeff

 

[joeg]

I rented a U_Haul tow dolly for years to drag the rally car to and from events--No Problems.

Forget driving the rally car to an event; been there / done that. Forget it. You will crash and have a hell of an adventure getting home.

I used a flat-tow tow bar for my ice-racer. Bent it in half once when I jack-knifed on an on-ramp.

Never used it again.

As for intercoms, go with what the budget allows even if it means a JC Whitney Motorcycle set-up.

Regards.

 

[starion887]

A dolly is not as good a a trailer but sure is better than flat towing; at least the wheels on one end can be bugered all to heck and you still can get home.

Pay attention to bearing lube, tow hitch condition, and your truck's condition; spend some extra $$ keeping the tow truck in top condition; you don't need that problem on top of a bad rally weekend!

Terraphones are OK and work well for the price. Beats yelling all the time.

Mark B.

 

[matt b]

if you are missing a font wheel or even just break a ball joint, dollies can be difficult to use.

I've had no real problems with my Terraphone Pro. It's clear, although not always loud enough. The volume problem is a direct result of me burying the ear piece behind the foam in the helmet.


We've been towing the Jetta on a 16 ft dual axle trailer behind my brother's 1984 vintage Econoline 150. The van is a pooch and has trouble on hills. We just take our time and downshift out of overdrive when we need to.


I have access to both dollies and the trailer, and went with the trailer. Dollies also have issues with backing up because they are articulated. If you are only planning on a few events, you might be just as well off to rent a U-haul trailer.

 

[Mad Mike]

After many decades of rally involvement I've learned the hard way, too many times, that pinching pennies is false economy. I'll share the following and then you may make of it what you will:

- I never wear intercoms when I'm towing. Ever ... ;-)

- Tow dollies are OK, I suppose, as long as you keep track of which way all the wheels start pointing if you ever need to back up. I've used them in the past and would again if in a big enough pinch ...

- Tow dollies are better than flat towing or driving the rally car to events. I got to drive a near-totalled Peugeot 504 rally car home twice after rolling a total of 540 degrees at two different events. The first return trip included 150 miles with a busted tie rod that was splint with a green tree branch secured by a bag full of hose clamps and a roll of duct tape. It wasn't pretty, or even very smart, but it worked that one time ...

- Trailers are better than any of the above after roll overs and other major shunts, even when towed by a puny 1/2 ton pickup. I towed a 2-axle trailer with a BMW 2002 road race car aboard all over MiDiv behind a 4 cylinder Toyota 4Runner so if you're not in a rush going up hills or bucking headwinds your heavy trailer and that pickup really should suffice. I also did a mess of miles towing trailered rally cars across the country using a 6-banger Ford 1/2 ton pickup with a 3-speed on the tree, no cruise and no a/c. Of course, I have to admit that Rally Distributing has forever spoiled me for tow rigs with the hotted-up Cummins Dodge dually Don Stehphens keeps loaning me. Accelerating uphill into a headwind on the cruise control towing a rally car that weighs near twice what that Bimmer did is kind of a rush, actually. Now, if it only had a CD player ...

- Twin-axle trailers are WAY better than single axle trailers. The comment about the rally family helping when a team is down on their luck certainly rings true. On the way to Big Bend Bash in the 70s one of the rims on a loaner single axle trailer split. Without a spare and pressed for time we chained the trailer to something concrete in a culvert outside Ft. Stockton and drove the rally car to Alpine. Of course, we blew up the car that weekend so Tommy French was kind enough to tow our car while his crew drove the SAAB to where we'd abandoned the trailer. A freindly Ft. Stockton junk yard owner set us up with rims for the trip home and didn't even bankrupt me ...

- Terraphones are OK until you use a Peltor. I don't know how many times I told Rebecca Greek, "It's a Peltor, stop yelling" on Colorado Cog. She was used to Terraphones. Search eBay ever day for "Peltor" and you can probably score an intercom and headsets reasonably enough ...

- Mostly, you just need to count on Murphy being proven an optimist any time the words, "That'll be good enough for this trip" are uttered prepping for an event.

Halley ...
RWD and normally-aspirated ROCKS, let's get it on in Group F!
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[steviez66]

I think everyone did a masterful job in clueing you in.
But I did remember one thing that may be worth the watching. One or two times I've seen good stuff also for sale on,..... bensrallypage.com on his equipment for sale page.
Hey have fun....just write the check...As Alfred E Neuman says, "What Me Worry ?"

 

[headofdog]

U-Haul trailers aren't too bad. We've used one last year, something around 50.00 a day. They are HEAVY though. The one we rented was a solid steel battering ram that weighed about 2400 lbs by itself.

 

[derek]

Intercoms:

I have had a number of Teraphones over the years and found some to be very good and some to be worthless. I think the reason you have some people say they are good and so say they are bad is because there is inconsistancy in the units them selves.

I swithced to Graytronics and am very happy with the product. It was $125 incuding shipping amp and 2 helmet setups. It has a radio/video out put, came with a mount (Teraphone does not) and was supper easy to set up. Your cost will be higher today as the excange rate has sifted.

http://www.graytronics.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

PS I use the Clubman 120 and the booms clamp onto the hemet rather than hope to be held with dubble sided tape, much nicer.

Derek

 

[Don Kennedy]

Here's a decent trailer (from a decent guy ).

http://www.specialstage.com/forum/cgi-bin/DCForumID14/1924.html

 

[jandreini]

Want to know which way the road goes next? Peltor.

 

[Flyboy]

At some point you will want a Peltor. Of course you'll also want HIDs, a dogbox, etc.... So that being the case, buy a Peltor if you can afford it. IF not, then I'd stick with terra. They work ok for beginners, especially if you aren't on notes, and there is at least a dozen at every rally so parts and know how is in supply. Plus when you get sick of it and upgrade to a Peltor you can sell it here for more than half what you paid for it.

If you have a full trailer at home, USE IT! Who cares if it dogs your pick up. So what. My cube van dogs it up the hills and barely makes 70mph, but the convenience of it far outweighs that. The piece of mind you'll get from having a full trailer "just in case" will be worth it alone.

BTW, there is no way you trailer is worse than mine. I have the ugliest, heaviest, most POS trailer to ever show up at rally. If I can use that thing for five years, you can use what you have.

Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845