New Year, New Home: How to Pick the Right Trailer for Your Worldly Possessions

Moving to, from or around Sydney this year?

Make your DIY move easier by choosing the right sized trailer.

It seems that most house moves happen at the start of a new, taking the earth’s full rotation around the sun as a sign that it’s time to start afresh. Moving home is a great time to rid yourself of old junk that has been weighing you down, but often times there are a lot of things you just can’t let go of. If you decide to tackle the task of moving your worldly possessions from the old to the new abode, you’ll need to first decide which sized trailer is going to fit your belongings best. We’ve come up with a few questions to ask yourself before you make that crucial decision.

What are you hauling?
This is important to ask yourself as the type of trailer you hire has everything to do with what you plan to haul with it. You can hire a cargo trailer, which is entirely enclosed and provides the most protection for your haul – especially household goods. This kind of trailer is especially useful for moves where you may be stopping and leaving the haul behind for extended periods of time as it can be locked up. Cargo trailers are also ideal for traveling through adverse weather conditions such as storms or snow.

On the other side of the coin is the utility trailer, which features an open top half, providing a greater amount of flexibility for transporting bulky or large items such as furniture or lawn equipment. Utility trailers are best for shorter trips as you do not have the ability to lock it safely.

What is your vehicle’s hauling capacity?
After you’ve chosen the kind of trailer that best suits your moving needs, you will need to then determine the hauling capacity of your vehicle before you settle on a trailer size. You can find your maximum towing capacity in the vehicle’s owner manual or in the door jamb. After finding the maximum capacity for your vehicle, you will also need to find the maximum capacity for your tow bar – in some cases it will be more or less than your vehicle’s capacity. In the case of one capacity being lower than the other, you should always consider the lowest weight to be the maximum towing capacity of the trailer and tow bar combination.

How much do you need to transport?
Once you’ve determined the type of trailer you want to use and the hauling capacity of your vehicle and tow bar (keep in mind that the trailer itself needs to be included for the total weight that your vehicle will be carrying and should never exceed the maximum capacity under any circumstances) you will need to get an idea of how much your belongings will weigh so you can determine the kinds of loads your vehicle can transport.

In order to get an idea of how much your belongings weigh, you should go through the house room-by-room and make a list of the large pieces of furniture you will be transporting. After you’ve made this list you can get an estimated weight by using this calculator to input the general weights of various pieces of furniture: http://www.movers.com/moving-guides/tools/moving-estimate-weight-cost-calculator.aspx

After considering the above aspects, you will then have a good idea of what size trailer you should hire. If your vehicle has a high maximum towing capacity and is able to carry a large trailer and all of your belongings at once, then you may get lucky by only having to do one trip with a large trailer. However, if your towing capacity is lower, you may need to rent a smaller trailer and make more than one trip.

Liked what you saw here? Check out our post on why you should have a towbar installed when you buy a new car here: http://www.carasel.com.au/blog/three-reasons-to-have-a-towbar-fitted-when-purchasing-a-new-car/

This blog was posted in Trailers and tagged in trailer, trailers