U-Haul Just Made Moving Your Racecar A Whole Lot Easier

Every track car or off-road build eventually reaches a critical juncture. You have to make the call—is this thing staying road-legal, or will I commit to trailering it around in the future? That decision might be easier in said future, thanks to U-Haul’s new enthusiast-focused trailer offering.

Meet the Toy Hauler. It’s a new, larger car trailer, that aims to make it easier to get your project cars and fun weekend rides where they need to go. As covered by Road & Track, the new trailer was specifically developed by the U-Haul Technical Center to serve enthusiasts and their unique needs. “Reviewing our customers’ demands, we recognized that many need to haul a race car,” Jeff Korman, director of the U-Haul Technical Center, told the outlet.

If you’ve dreamed of owning a hardcore project car, but you’ve sweated about buying a trailer, this is good news indeed. Let’s take a look at what makes this new hauler such a nice upgrade.

Key to the Toy Hauler’s appeal is its size and capacity. The company had realized that the ever-increasing weight of modern vehicles was posing challenges for its existing car trailers, which have a rated load capacity of 5,290 pounds. The Toy Hauler ups that to a mighty 6,800 pounds. It’s also much larger, measuring 23 feet long, while the usable deck size is a healthy 16 feet. That’s over a 30% upgrade versus the existing Auto Transport trailer, which has a much shorter deck of just 12.25 feet by comparison.

U-Haul has also paid attention to practical concerns around width, too. The new trailer is 8.5 feet wide, which is only an inch wider than the existing Auto Transport trailer. However, the Toy Hauler has stepped “drive-over” fenders over the wheels. Depending on the vehicle in question, this can allow a wider vehicle to make full use of the trailer’s deck. In contrast, the older trailer design has vertical fenders which make it very difficult to load anything that measures wider than 6.5 feet at the tires.

Owners of more oddball vehicles will appreciate the Toy Hauler, too. U-Haul specifically fitted the vehicle with three ramps instead of the usual two. This is a huge boon for owners of three-wheeled vehicles like old-school ATVs or the Polaris Slingshot. Simply pull out the three ramps and drive straight up—no weird maneuvers needed.

The trailer may seem overly large for some applications, particularly if your race car is on the smaller side. However, having more room to play with is often a boon when you’re headed to the track. That abundant space can easily come in handy if you want to throw on a few sets of tires or other supporting gear that won’t fit in your tow vehicle. The trailer is equipped with enough tie down points that it should easily accommodate this.

The new trailers are due to arrive in 2025, and will be available in the US and Canada alike. It’s worth noting that the Toy Hauler is an addition to the U-Haul fleet, not a replacement. “The U-Haul Toy Hauler (or “TH”) is designed to complement the existing offerings rather than replace them,” Jasmine Spencer, manager of U-Haul’s towing program, told Road & Track.

[Mercedes Note: Time to add TH to the list of U-Haul fleet codes.]

The brand’s existing Auto Transport trailers will continue to be available, which currently rent for $54.95 a day. Pricing for the new trailers isn’t available yet, but expect it to start at a small premium given the extra capability.

As an Australian, I haven’t had a lot of experience with U-Haul’s own trailers, but I’ve used similar trailers before. They can be a bit clumsy and difficult to use. Meanwhile, our own Mercedes Streeter has used U-Haul’s existing offering, and she’s unwaveringly in support of the new design. In her own words:

It’ll be good to note that U-Haul car haulers currently suck at some things.

1. You have no real control over load distribution as the trailer’s only tie-down spot is at the very front. This may result in far too much frontal weight depending on the vehicle you’re carrying.
2. Narrow vehicles, like Kei cars and Smarts, require absolute precision to load because they almost don’t fit in the rails of the current trailers.
3. Some vehicles cannot be loaded in reverse (which might help with the tongue weight problem) because you’ll either get stuck inside of the vehicle due to the right trailer fender not being able to fold down or the rear overhang of the car interferes with the front of the trailer.
4. You cannot load any trikes.
5. You cannot really carry large items, like a set of wheels, with your car on the trailer.

These new trailers will be total game changers. Getting rid of the big hole in the middle of these trailers will be so great. I mean yeah, they won’t be as stupid easy for amateurs to load, but the variety of vehicles that could now be hauled goes up exponentially. Thankfully, U-Haul is still keeping the old style trailer around if that’s your jam.

Hauling cars around can be daunting if it’s something you don’t do often. U-Haul’s new offering of a bigger, better-equipped trailer should ease the job, particularly for those with larger or stranger vehicles. Ultimately, if you’re only going to tow your project car a few times a year, you might find the new Toy Hauler the perfect solution to getting your car out to have some fun.

Image credits: U-Haul, Mercedes Streeter