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Tow your smart with a bantam trailer

19 posts in this topic

Hello everyone,

I was contacted recently to see if I would be interested in helping with the distribution of the Bantam brand trailers for the smart fortwo in Canada. They appear to be a top qualtiy item and I'd be excited to work with them, but I'd like to gauge potential interest.

So - any of you out there with RVs, etc that would be interested in safely towing your smart behind?

The cost in the UK is around 1635GPB (C$3400) and the goal would probably be to sell them at more or less the same amount here, although a smaller market and other costs may result in it being a little higher.

This is nothing official yet... I have NOT come to any official arrangement with Bantam as of this time... I just want to see what the initial reaction is.

Visit Bantam's site for more info on the trailer.

- Steven

post-8-1132277975_thumb.jpg

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Ummm... so is that a, "I'll take one! Sign me up! I'm so excited I'll give you five times that amount!" or a, "If you gave me one I'd take it. But I ain't gonna pay for it."?

- Steven

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Thats a its a cool trailer but I am not really going to tow my smart car 200 km but if Santa were to drop one under the tree and save me saving up $3400 I would definetly use it.

Sorry Steve...too rich for my blood.

S

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I had planned to ask if anyone knew anything about towing smarts - for example, can they be towed flat, or is a trailer of some sort necessary - just hadn't got to it yet. Trailer seems kinda expensive, but I don't know for sure. I've got this ancient 1975 motorhome that's really easy to drive & works great (except for the 8mpg if I push the 350cu. in. over 60 mph [it's so old the speedo is in miles]) & we love it. Only problem is if you need to go to town for milk or beer or showers etc. ya gotta break camp. A smart runabout would be awesome. (second thought... if they need showers that bad, do I want them in my smart?? Maybe a roof rack or trailer...). Any towing info out there?

PS the "Boheme" s/b docking @ Halifax next Thurs - getting closer to D Day! :whoo:

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Any towing info out there?

The short answer is: DO NOT tow a smart.

Others may wish to elaborate, but that's the boiled-down answer.

Bil:) :senile:

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I'll elaborate.

He's right. :) (how's that)

The smart is not meant to be towed, unless all four wheels are immobilized - as with the Bantam trailer shown above.

Is it expensive? I was actually suprised at how low the price was really... I mean - go to the HomeDepot and you'll see a model for $1600 that is not custom designed for anything, that a million units were created, and is mostly wood. This one is twice the price, is specifically designed for a purpose (and aparantly does it well), and is destined/cursed to be a low-production model because there just aren't that many smarts out there. Everything related to the smart is expensive, but considering we pay $250 for an oilchange that is $25 on any other car... I thought a 200% markup on the trailer (markup from other trailers I mean, not from production cost which i have no idea what it is) wasn't too bad :) lol

But I get what you are saying. In any case... if you ARE going to tow your smart, be SURE its on a trailer like this one, or a flat-deck (which you will get ticketed for in BC if you don't have a tow license because its not considered a secure load) or some other method of immobilizing the wheels.

There is some speculation that the TC disabler I sell will allow for towing... but man, I wouldnt' want to chance it. They say you don't tow because it fools the Traction Control (or ESP or ABS) and damages the systems... the disabler device disables all of those items but it is definately not a chance I would want to take. The manual states it is your transmission that gets damaged during towing, so that alone would deter me from attempting anything but a complete 4-wheel stationary tow.

- Steven

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Thanks s_mack. I have no real idea what a trailer is worth. I know I can't do it with my 4'x8' light duty utility trailer, as it has a max. weight capacity of about 350lbs, but I didn't know if the car carrier dolly thingy would work (one set of vehicle wheels on the ground). I suspected it would have to be loaded fully onto a trailer. Ah, well

Thx again

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TPM in Victoria showed me a photo of a locally-made one that was expressely designed for the smart, and IIRC it was around 2 grand. Maybe it'd be worth contacting them, Steve.

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To me it is really expensive considering the amount of use it would get. For $3500 its still cheaper to drive 2 vehicles to Victoria....$3500 buys alot of gas. For someone whith an RV that needs their car with them it would pay off in the short run to tow their smartie along.

S

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It was about 8 months ago I think. I can't remember for sure if the MFR was in BC or Canada, but it was for sure Canadian-made (hence my "local" comment).

I believe it was Trish, the former sales lady, or Wayne (ditto) who showed me the photo. Someone local (a TPM customer) apparently had bought it, custom ordered but the design would be easily replicated. That's all I have.

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Mike I think the one you are talking about is the fellow in Ontario that had a trailer made for the smart to be towed behind his motorhome. The car also went on sideways. Which would be great for us islanders who travel off the island with our RVs on ferries. I have spoken to TPM today and they are sending me the info which I will then post.

Elaine

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For obvious reasons, I'd appreciate it if you posted that info and continued the discussions about the other trailer(s) elsewhere. I was trying to gauge interest in the Bantam trailer.

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You asked Mike for more info....Molly is looking to get that info from the dealer....I guess you are no longer interested?

Hopefully she posts it in buyers guide then.

S

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Actually no, I suppose I'm not really interested either way now. I have no need to tow my own smart and there wasn't any serious interest so its not something I'm going to persue at this time regardless of who makes it.

It would make more sense to put it in the buyers guide so that people don't get confused and think it is related to me.

This topic should be considered finished (not like it ever really started)

- Steven

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steve, good deal! actually i would never buy one because i have no use for it, but thats me. HOWEVER, of the 45 somewhat smarts i've had the pleasure to order, 2 have been custom ordered to match their motor home in which it was to be towed behind on some sort of trailer. they both wanted to know how to tow one. i reffered both to the bantam trailers as an example, but saying i didn't know of any canadian distributors. one gentleman ended up contracting his own design of a smart trailer to a local trailer manufacturor and the other still didn't know what he was going to do. so yes i think there is a market for them, but you will have heavy competition from small local builders and rv centres, especially if shipping them from the u.k. to b.c. and then to ontario. as a side note, both these customers have unfortunately had their fortunes turn and neither can now buy their custom ordered smarts. i don't know if any of this helps, but there you go.

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Its all interesting!

I wouldn't be shipping them from the UK, no... they'd be licensed and built here using their design. Which sounds all too expensive and troublesome to me and it would lose focus of the core of what I do. For every trailer I build, that's a lot of stock I won't be able to carry! Plus there's warehousing, delivery.... a whole whack of crap I'm not prepared to deal with at this point I think. It might have been different if I had a response that indicated people would be beating a path to my door... but it doesn't look that way.

- Steven

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