Anyone aware of a decent Brian James tilt bed for sale?

[overrun]

I am after a twin axle affair in good order. Prices vary wildly, too.

 

My mate has one, a Clubman, and it is a great trailer, so given spares availability, ease of use, weight, familiarity etc etc I plan to buy the same.

[Fabergé Greggs]

I remember looking at these at one point and being surprised at them costing about twice as much as any car I could feasibly afford to put on it.

[overrun]

ITRO £1500 should get one in good order and ready to work. It depends what you plan for it. I buy and sell a few cars and have projects scattered about etc, so that, plus doing jobs for people on occasion would make it a worthwhile purchase.

 

Plus, you will always get your money back if and when you decide to sell.

[garbaldy]

Do you use one enough to justify buying a new one because the price of second hand trailers that have done loads of work is ridiculous,

Ifor Williams car trailer that I borrow from a mate was two grand new as he couldn't find a good second hand one.

[dave21478]

Yes, I got lucky with mine (not a Brian James, but similar)but while I was looking there were loads of used ones up for sale at about 500 less than a new one, but needing 4 tyres and brakes "adjusted". ie new shoes and cables all round.

[overrun]

Well I don't know what price the model I am after is new. I plan to look into it, but I guess closer to 3 grand.

It would get a fair bit of use, though.

 

This one is a right honey! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252596085968 But the price is getting a bit daft for me. If I have to shell out £2K, I want it to come with intermediate ramps and hopefully some straps!

 

I know what you mean about buying one that needs a new winch, tyres, brakes 'serviced', new lights etc etc. Usually a false economy, and something I plan to avoid.

[Dead_E23]

Looking at eBay, the starting price for anything that wouldn't make a VOSA man's eyes come out on stalks seems to be £800. Seems a lot to me.

 

Trailers much below that all look like they were built by the people that do ebay trike projects.

[overrun]

There's some proper horror shows that look like they'd bow under the weight of a fuckin 50cc ped!

[gordonbennet]

Its not a tilter, but if you pop onto Ifor Williams site, there's a very decent looking low runner Ifor twin axle jobbie in Billingshurst at £1500.

[Mally]

The ebay one seems reasonable ish for a tilt bed. Check the new price and ask if he will throw a set of straps in. You never know.

He has a Woodford slightly cheaper, but tilt bed is preferable.

We use Woodfords with single axle, easier to move when empty, but won't carry as much weight.

Check the tyres for wear on the inside edge, tends to happen with indespension units.

Later models should have a certificate of manufacture, not sure when it came in though, 4? years ago maybe.

[Mally]

Ifor Williams one seems fine, a little old but serviced so should be ok.

Most spares are available on the net for any manufacturer, they only bolt the bits together anyway.

[dave21478]

That ebay one looks nice at first glance, but the wheels and tyres look to be swimming in Hammerite and tyre paint. I would be checking the date codes on those very carefully. The spare looks well scrubbed on the inside edge too......

 

Same spec as mine though....nice and light when unladen.

Best thing I did to mine was invest a hundred euros or so in a set of galvanised mesh walkway things which I bolted into the gap between the ramps so it can carry other stuff too.

 

[panhard65]

I had a really nice Brian James with a tilt bed that was 16ft long. They tow really well and with the tilt I could even get a Broken down Citroen CX safari on it. I bought it for £900 had it about 5 years and sold it for £1200. It had got through a few sets of tyres and brakes in that time mind. One slight word of warning is that if you are shifting cars for other people you will need the correct insurance which is bloody expensive and hard to find. You will probably also need a tacho. Vosa can seize the whole combo if they suspect you are using it for business.

[Junkman]

Since trailers are made by the devil and thus should be avoided like the clap, this is likely the biggest one I'll ever own:

 

[Captain Furious]

I always thought a car trailer would be a useful thing to own, but storage is an issue and there is a place a couple of miles from here that hires them out for around £70 a day

 

Number of times I've actually hired one in the last 5 years = 0 so maybe they're not as useful to own as I first thought, for me at least.

 

Plus I don't really have a car that's man enough or rated highly enough to tow one, I think I'd sooner go down the route of hiring a beaver tail transporter because that can be done reasonably cheaply now too.

[garbaldy]

I've looked at these a few times as they are pretty reasonably priced even though they have risen a bit lately.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/boro-adam-car-transporter-trailer-/282228667148?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE

[dollywobbler]

I've probably spent less than £400 on trailer hire over the years. Definitely better than owning one. I did buy my own straps though.

[Mally]

The Boro Adam looks good value, I like wheels under, gives you width without the width!

Makes the load height higher though, can affect stability.

Trailers are a pain to store, wife can't get to the washing line.

[Dead_E23]

I have an ancient single axle car transporter that was made years ago from a really heavy duty boat trailer by welding really heavy duty bits of box section to it then plating the top.  It looks like it would transport a tank.

 

Anyway, the thing weighs as much as the Moon and it's weight is very noticeable when going up hills, even unladen and behind a 110.   It would probably be quite noticeable on a weighbridge too - I bet it wouldn't take much of a payload to bring it up to 3.5t.

 

I bought it as an insurance policy years ago, and haven't used it once.  Looking at those shitheaps on ebay, it might turn out to have been a better investment than it was as an insurance policy!   Hmmmm.

[pompei]

Brian James was the original guitarist in The Damned.  But not this one I suppose.

[scruff]

I had a really nice Brian James with a tilt bed that was 16ft long. They tow really well and with the tilt I could even get a Broken down Citroen CX safari on it. I bought it for £900 had it about 5 years and sold it for £1200. It had got through a few sets of tyres and brakes in that time mind. 

 

That's the thing with good trailers, keep it up together and they always hold their money. Just make sure it's well insured though if you do buy one.

[mat_the_cat]

I've probably spent less than £400 on trailer hire over the years. Definitely better than owning one. I did buy my own straps though.

 

Well...you'd be doing badly for a say £1500 trailer to lose £400 over a few years. Although a set of tyres would eat well into that I guess, and you need the available cash in the first place which usually rules it out for me!

[garbaldy]

Two tyres and a brake service cost £640 on a flatbed ifor Williams, it has done shitloads of work though in three years he's owned it.

[panhard65]

When I sold mine I had been paying 25 quid a week to store it securely and I could hire a trailer for £30 a day. As I only used it about once a month max selling it seemed a good idea. Not having a trailer does stop me bidding on stuff mind so has probably saved me a fortune in poor car purchases.

[davidfowler2000]

Since trailers are made by the devil and thus should be avoided like the clap, this is likely the biggest one I'll ever own:

 

 

PAH!

 

Trailoring was one of the best bits of my old work...

 

megabus plus megatrailer by David Fowler, on Flickr

 

Nowadays I've got no choice...

 

Class 380 EMU by Samson Ng . D201@EAL, on Flickr

[vaughant]

I've owned a car trailer since the days of my garage and can pretty much echo the sentiments of those above in that I'm paying £30 a month to store something I haven't used in years. Did get me out of some serious binds though but I would whole heartedly recommended a good winch, I pulled cars on with three wheels and no suspension a few times, no problems at all. You can get a good little strap kit from machine mart for £40 iirc, wheel protectors the lot.

Mine is a twin axle Eastern European thing that would carry your car and a Brian James trailer on the back of it no bother, downside is it's a tad heavy but I've pulled it with a Passat tdi (probably not legally) before with no issues. Upgraded to LED lights as that solved a lot of wiring issues.

[Mally]

Two tyres and a brake service cost £640 on a flatbed ifor Williams, it has done shitloads of work though in three years he's owned it.

 

Sounds expensive.

2 Tyres, 1 Pair brake shoe kits, 2 Cables, Woodford around £160 DIY.

Had it 10 years, weekend use only.

Probably still worth what we paid.

[garbaldy]

Two tyres at £100 each, brake cables at £18 each times four, brake shoes £70 per axle times two sets,

The rest labour and vat,

one sure thing is anything trailer is expensive,

[Mr_Bo11ox]

My trailer turned out to be a right crock, everything on it completely and utterly worn out!

[dave21478]

Two tyres at £100 each, brake cables at £18 each times four, brake shoes £70 per axle times two sets,

The rest labour and vat,

one sure thing is anything trailer is expensive,

 

aye, proper trailer parts cost an absolute fortune for what they are, hence so many for sale with badly neglected brakes and running old car tyres with the wrong load rating.