U-Haul’s Newest Car Trailer Finally Hits The Rental Fleet And It’s A Game-Changer

Late last year, U-Haul teased the Internet with the announcement of a new rental trailer. The new U-Haul Toy Hauler rental trailer appeared to be the ultimate evolution of U-Haul’s already excellent car-hauling equipment. Now, U-Haul finally has a trailer that can haul just about any car, off-road toy, or even three-wheeled vehicle. These trailers are finally hitting the U-Haul rental fleet, and the company has finally announced full specs and pricing.

I’ve long been a fan of U-Haul equipment. I’m the kind of weirdo who can tell you the length of your U-Haul truck not by looking at the box, but by looking at the fleet code. I’ve owned one of U-Haul’s rare CT13 fiberglass camper trailers, and I desperately want to slap U-Haul decals on one of my Smarts just for the giggles.

For years, my family had darkened the doors of U-Haul rental facilities nearly as often as one might go to a grocery store. I’ve ridden in and driven more U-Haul trucks in my life than I’ve had press cars in my career thus far. That’s dozens of trucks, if you’re curious. I’ve rented nearly an equal number of trailers. I haven’t been this excited about a car hauler in perhaps ever.

U-Haul’s Previous Car Trailer Is Great, But Has Limitations

U-Haul’s Auto Transport, or AT for you fleet code nerds, is a fine piece of engineering. These trailers were purpose-built for the task of getting a car from one place to another as easily as possible. They have self-actuated surge brakes, a track for you to drive your vehicle onto, and a ridiculously simple strapping system. It’s so easy that I was able to teach my elderly mother how to use one of these trailers.

I also love how ridiculously overbuilt the ATs are. U-Haul built these things to withstand decades of torture from the elements, from people who don’t know what they’re doing, and from people who might be a bit cavalier in towing home their Chevy Cavalier.

However, the U-Haul AT is great, but it’s not perfect. Its design requires you to pull your vehicle to the front of the trailer. Depending on the vehicle, you’ll be putting way too much weight on the front of the trailer. However, reversing your vehicle may not be possible, be it because of your vehicle’s inability to clear the front lip of the trailer or the fact that the trailer’s tall wheel wells might trap you in the vehicle.

If you’re hauling a pickup truck, van, or SUV, you might not be able to reverse onto the trailer because of your vehicle’s rear overhang interfering with the front of the trailer. But hey, the trailer still gets the job done, even when it’s loaded too much up front.

Sadly, there are other ways the U-Haul AT can fail you. The AT has two rails rather than a full deck. If you try to load something really tiny, like a first-generation Smart Fortwo or a Japanese Kei car, you’ll find that the gap between the rails is so wide that you have only an inch or two for a margin of error before your car falls through the hole.

The AT is also not great for off-road vehicles, cannot be used to haul a load of motorcycles, and cannot carry three-wheel vehicles. The AT further sucks for low vehicles and racecars. Finally, U-Haul’s AT doesn’t easily permit you to carry spare parts because of its lack of a real deck and a lack of tie-down spots.

Thankfully, the engineers at the U-Haul Technical Center took note of all of these complaints and more.

Before I continue, I want to highlight the work that happens in the U-Haul Technical Center. U-Haul’s engineers aren’t just slapping wheels onto trailers here, but they engineer trailers to be as easy to use as possible, as stable as possible, and as durable as possible. For an example of how this works, look no further than my old CT13. When U-Haul wanted to get into building its own camper trailers, it bought a Scamp, a Burro, and other popular fiberglass campers. Engineers then tore those campers down, recorded their favorite features, and then blended all of them together for an overbuilt camper made for rental service.

It’s really neat stuff and, incredibly, U-Haul’s engineers get to evaluate their equipment on a test track.

U-Haul’s Hot New Toy Hauler

Here’s what Lewin reported in December about the new Toy Hauler “TH” trailer:

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.

[…]

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.

All of this alone is game-changing. Now it doesn’t matter if your car is too narrow because the trailer now has a full deck. You can now haul three-wheel vehicles because there are three decently wide ramps. I also love how there are now proper tie-down points and no need to park the vehicle in a specific place, so you can properly load your vehicle as you need to and then use the wonderful array of hard points to lash it down.

The open deck also expands the trailer’s hauling abilities. If you’re careful, you can use the TH to carry multiple motorcycles, ATVs, or really anything you might want to plop down on the deck.

Now, U-Haul has published a fresh press release indicating some awesome news:

Initial production runs are occurring now in Tempe, Ariz., Pomona, Calif., Novi, Mich., and Warrington, Pa. The first 1,000 trailers will be manufactured by mid-summer. Plans call for 5,000 to be ready by the end of 2025.Toy Haulers are already available for rent at some U-Haul locations for in-town and one-way use, with one-way rentals fueling distribution across the U.S. and Canada.

With certain limitations and exceptions, here is a sampling of the vehicles that can be accommodated by the U-Haul Toy Hauler that would not fit on its Auto Transport: BMW X7, Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Avalanche, Chevy Silverado 1500-3500, Chevy Suburban, Chevy Tahoe, Dodge Durango, Ford F150-F350, GMC Sierra 1500-3500, GMC Yukon, Jeep Gladiator, Lamborghini Urus, Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Range Rover, Mercury Park Lane, Nissan Armada, Pontiac Star Chief, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Macan, Rolls Royce Phantom, Tesla Model X, Tesla Cybertruck, Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Tundra, and Vinfast VF9.

Even a Mercury Park Lane, eh? Nice!

Final specifications have also been released, and the new Toy Hauler trailers weigh 3,165 pounds empty and carry 6,834 pounds of weight. For those of you math nerds, that tallies up to a nice 9,999 pounds. For comparison’s sake, the old Auto Transport weighs 2,210 pounds, carries 5,290 pounds, and has a gross weight of 7,500 pounds.

U-Haul notes that in addition to what I wrote above, the trailers should fit the “vast majority” of trucks and SUVs on the road today, including a huge swath of modified ones. Jasmine Spencer, U-Haul Towing Program manager, admits that U-Haul expects customers to use these trailers to carry more than just road vehicles:

“With more people needing to move large items like side-by-sides, tractors, building supplies and even hot tubs, the Toy Hauler is a game-changer. Looking at the number of SUVs and trucks that families own, we saw a clear need for trailers that can handle these bigger loads.”

U-Haul says to expect the trailers to show up near racing communities in Arizona, California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania first, then Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas later. Eventually, the rest of us will get a chance to take it for a spin. U-Haul says the trailers are renting right now for $89.95 a day, which is not that bad of an upcharge over the $54.99 Auto Transport. Also, this trailer will not be replacing the Auto Transport, so you can still rent that one if you want to save $35.

U-Haul is launching the Toy Hauler in time to celebrate the company’s 80th anniversary. The trailer also marks U-Haul’s first new rental trailer since the 5×9 Ramp Trailer launched in 2002. So, U-Haul is treating this new ride as a pretty big deal, and I think it is, too. I can’t wait to try one out. I would say that I would rent one of these trailers to pick up my Honda Life this summer, but Illinois is not on the early rollout list. Drat.