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What do you recommend: save $$ and buy a van or a trailer? What do you use for transporting it all?

Posted by Claudia & Sergio Olivos on August 10, 2011 at 6:34pm in Questions & Answers for New Members

We have our pro panels ready to go.... but now need to shop for a tent (Trimline seems to be the winner here?)....and a vehicle???? Who knew?

Lucky for us, it is only 20 mins away...because we will have to make two trips. Our panels and art don't fit into our Honda CRV. That is something we def. were not thinking about when we decided to go into this.... a new car (currently we only own one as one of us uses metro for work).

We never imagined all the expense in this artventure! First the panels-

which now don't fit into our EZup tent....now a vehicle?? Newbies indeed! :P

What do you recommend: saving money to buy a van or a trailer? For now, we will have to stay around the Washington DC area .... unless we win that jackpot! But we want to know the pros and cons of tugging a trailer behind vs van/truck...what do you recommend?

Thank you!

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art, fair, fairfax, newbies, trailer, transportation, van

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Replies

B. David Kay October 31, 2012 at 11:55pm

Hi,

We use a trailer. We do have an SUV to pull it so a new vehicle was not necessary. The reason we went to a trailer is because you can buy them very reasonably. Depending on size, usually under 2000.00 for a 6X10 which you can tow with a regular auto. A van or truck, would have cost a lot more. gets a lot less gas mileage and costs more to insure.

Plus we store a lot of our fixtures in the trailer between shows. Although you could do that with a van or truck. When we are at a show, and after set up, we diconnect the trailer and lock it in the parking lot, then have our SUV to run around in. For us it is just more convenient.

B. David Kruser
Richard L. Sherer October 30, 2012 at 1:25pm

Just something else about trailers that came to mind. I used to pull boats. I remember researching vehicles to pull trailers and it was important to know weight of trailer,weight of contents. New vehicles had trailer towing packages which included larger radiator, heavier rear springs and tow bar connected to rear frame. Be carefule with bumper hitches on plastic bumpers.
Richard L. Sherer October 30, 2012 at 12:01pm

For what it is worth,I use my '88 Suburban. Back seat folds down and I built a plywood/ steel cargo barrier. Floor space is a little over 4x 8 inside wheel wells. Ceiling height is about 3' plus. I load it to the top and still have room for a couple more boxes of inventory. 350V 8 still handles CO mountains well. I plan to keep it. Doing some rust repair body work and sometime I will put a new engine in it. Over 200K now but still running well. Just have to take care of them over the long haul. You know you are a "plugger" when guys come up to you in rest areas to talk about your old Suburban "wow what year is that? it's in great shape" LOL there are some Facebook pages of it partly loaded from last summer.
Elle Heiligenstein October 30, 2012 at 11:39am

I just bought a van. I researched renting vans from various places and it was just too much money. I bought a 2012 Ford Transit Connect. I got a really good deal on it because it was a 2012 and they were making room for the 2013's. I traded in my old car toward it and now drive the van for everyday use and will of course use it for shows. I plan to do a lot of shows (hopefully, juries willing), so it just made sense to me to buy something.
David Olday September 18, 2012 at 4:00pm

I outgrew my VW TDI wagon a couple of years back and considered getting a trailer but hated the idea of towing it up and down the mountains. I asked a friend of mine who is a car nut what he'd buy and one of his suggestions was the Ford Transit Connect. It's a smaller van but still has loads of cargo space. You can get it in a regular van configuration which seats two and will allow you to haul items up to about 6 foot in length. If you get the wagon version there's a split back seat for hauling people around. You can either fold the seats up or remove them if you need the full six feet. I actually run with one seat in and one seat out most of the time. The only painful part of it was going from the VW's 50 MPG to the Ford's 25.
Brian Billings September 18, 2012 at 12:45pm

Hi there, I am also a newbie and yes the start up expenses add up quickly! I invested in a quality EZ-UP tent, the horror stories about the cheaper ones made me realize it was worth the money. I made my own knock down pro panels, very close to the real ones. And of course I ran into the same problem as you, where do I put all this stuff?! I can not afford to buy a new vehicle or a enclosed trailer, besides we don't have room to store a trailer. I ended up buying a flatbed trailer that folds up from Harbor Freight for about $200. I put down plywood on the bottom and it works perfect for hauling my panels, tents, weights, ect. Then I store my paintings in my Jeep Wrangler. I wrap the panels in a tarp to protect them from weather. It's not the ideal way to haul but if your limited on space & money, this was a perfect solution!
- Claudia & Sergio Olivos > Brian Billings September 18, 2012 at 1:01pm
  
  Thanks for your input Brian!
  
  After a tornado passed over us and our EZ up tent... we are happy to have a Trimline...well worth the money!
  
  Our tent and all of the other EZ ups were mangled and destroyed....
  
  :P
Morgan Johnson Norwood April 21, 2012 at 3:18pm

Hi Claudia and Sergio!

Do you have an update? What did you get? I'm also in the DC area (Reston). I'll look for you at a show soon.

If you're around town on Saturday mornings I'm getting my feet wet showing my art at the Reston farmer's market at Lake Anne. I'm excited because we managed to squeeze my whole set-up in my Mazda 5 just now. But I don't have propanels-- yet! Looking forward to hearing what you ended up doing.

Cheers,

Morgan
- Claudia & Sergio Olivos > Morgan Johnson Norwood September 18, 2012 at 10:45am
  
  Morgan,
  
  HELLO! I am sure you see Sergio at Reston, where he goes once or twice a month!
  
  We don't have anything yet... but are leaning towards a trailer...
  
  Best,
  
  Claudia
Claudia & Sergio Olivos March 13, 2012 at 10:05pm

Thank you for the input Dennis! Don't think we are ready for a motor home yet....but def. have plans to get one in the future! :)