I have an 9,000 GVW, 18' deck (16' w/ 2' dovetail), brakes on both axles, steel deck, car hauler built by Kaufman Trailers out of North Carolina. My tow rig is an '03 Chevy 2500HD (CC, SB, 6.0 gas, auto, 4.10).
Overall I'm pretty happy with the trailer. It appears to be well-built and had a good price......under $2k out the door....but I did drive from Ohio to NC to buy it directly from the company. The exact same trailer from a local trailer dealership was going to cost around $800 more and would take a couple of weeks to get. I put probably 3-4,000 miles on it so far hauling my 6,000 lb. 1-ton K5 with no problems. The empty trailer weighs close to 2,500 lbs. as is beefy. The 2500HD handles great and the 6.0L does an adequate job of handling hills (the Dmax would be nice to have, but I didn't have the $$$$). The only thing I would change is to put higher capacity tires on the trailer, the stock ones are a "P" rated 235/75R15 that show quite a bit of sidewall flex when loaded but have held up fine so far.
The dovetail is nice, but look at how much clearance the tail has. My trailer has quite a bit more clearance under the dovetail than most of my friends 7k trailer and therefore rarely drags when pulling into driveways or gas stations, or just the rougher trail parking areas or camping spots.
The deck width is always an issue with a fullsize rig on wider tires. I overcame the problem by simply stacking three wood 4x4's on top of each other, cutting them to the shape of the fender, and then bolting them together and to the stock fenders. The initial idea was to be temporary to see if I wanted to stay with drive over fenders, but it has worked well and is still in service. The only disadvantage is that it would be more difficult to load a fully or partially disabled rig on the trailer since the front tires are climbing up a 10"+ high steep ramp over the fenders while the rear tires are climbing up the rear ramps.....I always use 4-low but it's no problem for me (38" tires and locked f&r). I also loaded it without any problems in 3wd and no steering after breaking a front axleshaft and steering arm (bad day!), but had problems unloading it in the rain with the slick deck (lack of steering was part of the problem). Trying to load in 2wd only could be a problem so I'm going to look into some modifications to the ramps just in case.
Weight distrubition on the trailer seems just about perfect when pulling the rear tires right up against the fender ramps.
Even with the 4x4 wood fenders ramps with 2x4 braces (so about 5" wide on each side) a Jeep or other smaller vehicle will fit easily on the trailer. If not, the wood ramps can be removed with 2 bolts on each side..........for either hauling something of yours, or one of your buddies off the trail.
The deck over trailers are obviously another option, but I didn't like the idea of a higher CG, possible issues loading low riding cars, and the price tag was a good bit more for the ones I looked at.
I'm also happy with the 18' total deck length. With a K5 loaded properly, the rear bumper on the truck is just inside the rear lip of the trailer and there is several extra feet at the front of the deck. You should be able to haul a LWB truck without issues.
For ramps, I originally liked the idea of fold-up ramps but settled for the slide in style and am happy. With a longer load the fold-ups might be an issue and the slide-in style are pretty quick and easy to setup. My ramps slide straight out the back which are easier than the style you have to carry around and slide in from the side.
scary thought!!
