Must haves for the truck/trailer???

New-Skin, for patching up inevitable cuts at the track. Keeps the blood off of the firesuit!
 
A full size pad of paper that's clipped to the interior wall of the trailer! You use this everytime you go out and find something you need missing! Write it down and add it before the next outing.
 
Diesel Tech said:
A full size pad of paper that's clipped to the interior wall of the trailer! You use this everytime you go out and find something you need missing! Write it down and add it before the next outing.
Click to expand...
Mine has a dry marker board as a "permanent" version of this, but the kids end up using it to scribble on instead ;)
 
That's a problem with the dry marker board. I found that it seemed that someone always brushed just enough off of the board that I could not read it and damn sure could not remember what it was once home.
 
tylenol/advil and sunscreen. The rest has pretty much been covered. Inner tubes if you are running slicks.
 
Pat@BD said:
tylenol/advil and sunscreen. The rest has pretty much been covered. Inner tubes if you are running slicks.
Click to expand...

At least a patch kit, and a few hand tools for breaking beads and pulling the bead to the outside. We were able to patch a hole in a slick on DirtyMax at the Douglas, WY race this year. Back when I ran frequently at Renegade Raceway in Washington, I got flats all the time from "goatheads" that grow there and are all over the ground.
 
After a couple of races with my enclosed trailer (which I have owned for almost 15 years but never took to the races with me until last week)...

Wheel chocks, for either the trailer or the race car.
A sturdy ramp, for pulling one trailer tire onto to change the other (hard as heck to jack up a loaded trailer). Mine is carved out of a 8" x 10" beam.
This one will sound weird - a hydraulic press. I used it with a mini valvespring tester to check my old and new valvesprings this past weekend, then also used it to straighten my home-made valvespring compressor once I bent it! I have one of the Harbor Freight stand-up models. I think I'll pick up one of the bench-top models and just keep it in the cabinet until needed.
I use a compact air compressor (has a tiny tank on it but a decent sized compressor), when I'm doing anything with air tools I connect up my portable air tank for additional storage space.

For those of you with lower vehicles (2wd especially if tube chassis), get taller than stock rubber bumpers for the ramp door, and extended ramp flaps. It is much nicer to be able to load & unload without jacking up the tongue.

A big set of batteries with a 1000W or larger inverter is handy for running microwave, power tools, etc.
 
I've had good luck with the Snap On 3/8 and 1/2 cordless impacts. The 3/8 gun is awesome, and has lots of torque. Good for removing wheels if needed.
 
Big12Valve said:
I've had good luck with the Snap On 3/8 and 1/2 cordless impacts. The 3/8 gun is awesome, and has lots of torque. Good for removing wheels if needed.
Click to expand...

I never had a cordless impact until this past week, and it was a lifesaver! I managed to find an older Milwaukee (made in USA!) 18V impact in great shape on craigslist. At a gasser race this weekend I had to swap my front tires over, then managed to break the rearend. That impact wrench put in some hard time! A few weeks before I would have loved to have it, as I blew a trailer tire on the way to the track. That brings up another item (not sure if it has been mentioned yet), but I make sure to have two good spares for the trailer, as well as 2 for the truck.

Another weird item that seems to come in handy is an angle grinder with both grinding and cutoff wheels. Lots of weird miscellaneous tasks can be accomplished with it.
 
One more expansion/clarification on an earlier post: have both an enclosed oil drain pan (the kind that has a drain and storage volume with a cap), as well as a conventional open pan (although you can use the top part of the enclosed drain pan as well). The open pan is for draining when you want to check out the parts coming out of the pan or rearend. In my case I was retrieving my distributor cap screw that had fallen in, and also checking the roller lifter parts, trying to do a post-mortem to figure out which part failed first. The enclosed pan is nice for transporting the drained oil to the track's oil dump tank, or home if the track does not have one.

I am planning to make a bunch of racks for the walls of my trailer, to hold lightweight but bulky items (like the aforementioned drain pans) up near the roof and out of the way.

A couple other plans - running 12V landscape lighting, with inside and outside mounts and plugs so that I can move the lights outside. They have some pretty bright ones available as well as LED bulbs that are almost as bright at a fraction of the wattage. Also planning to add a heavy-current circuit to an accessory socket (cigarette lighter) near the back of the trailer, both for using 12V devices (like a small air compressor for topping off the slicks without getting out the big compressor), and for topping off the battery charge on the drive to the track. Currently working on wiring in a bunch of AC outlets inside and outside the trailer, getting tired of always tripping over extension cords!

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but a broom and dustpan also come in handy!
 
One more thing that we added to the trailer last year and sure is nice to have is a Pit Matt. http://www.pitmatusa.com This way you arent having to lie on the ground. They can be bought fairly inexpensively. Folding Plastic tables are always nice to have as well. They fold away fairly small and is great for putting things on while you work on stuff.
 
Yes blocks for sure under the jack if not and trailer moves away from jack and no block under jack your jack is toast. So put a board under jack and will save you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top