Smallest engine for Laser Trailing

Which do you prefer for the title of this thread?

  • Trailing

    Votes: 6 40.0%

  • Trailering

    Votes: 9 60.0%
  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .
S

steerrolldash

New Member
I'm thinking about downsizing my car and was wondering what people would consider to be the smallest practical size engine for towing a Laser. I'm thinking about a 1.4 but I'm not sure it would handle the 12% hills on the way to some of my favourite venues.
 
Re: Laser Trailing

Laser plus trailer plus dolly plus gear is still under 400lbs, in other words, the weight of two or three adults filling the other seats in the car.

I would let the manufacturer's info in the owners manual be my guide.
 
Re: Laser Trailing

No problem. I drive a 1.6 and have trailed my Laser around the Highlands of Scotland. You hardly notice you are trailing at all. I don't think there will be much difference with a 1.4.
 
Re: Laser Trailing

you can tow with anything - a laser doesn't weight much.

We've had a double behind a toyota starlet 1.6 doing 90 up the m1...

Errr, I mean 60 :p
 
Re: Laser Trailing

We have a guy in our district that tows his behind his motorcycle. I think it's a Honda road bike.
 
Re: Laser Trailing

a team did the UK National circuit towing their 5o5 behind an 1100 cc mini some years ago and reported no problems including doing the Scottish events - a laser shouldn't be an issue
 
Re: Laser Trailing

shouldn't this thread be correctly named "Laser Trailering", or maybe "Correctly Towing A Laser", or "Practical Ways to Tow A Laser While Downsizing Ones Car"?
 
Re: Laser Trailing

Ross B said:
shouldn't this thread be correctly named "Laser Trailering", or maybe "Correctly Towing A Laser", or "Practical Ways to Tow A Laser While Downsizing Ones Car"?
Click to expand...

ahhhaaaaahhhaa

...

but seriously, my car is 1358cc, by memory.

boat and trailer:130kg approx.
Kayak on roof rack: 25kg approx.
Wife and me: 140kg approx
Lunch and gear: 35kg approx. :p

330kg. No problems.
 
I've cartopped numerous lasers on top of my wife's 1991 Honda Civic hatchback. It had a pretty small 4 cylinder engine as I recall and I don't recall any major issues. It was pretty humorous as the Laser is longer than the car! Probably the hardest problem with using a small car to tow is getting a trailer hitch installed since they don't seem to make many options (or make it easy to install with the new fangled plastic fairings where they used to have bumpers).

"Trailing" is what guys like me do when racing; we "trail" the leaders around the race course (and hope we make it back in before they drink all the free beer!).

"Trailering" is what you do when towing your boat behind your vehicle or what you do if you apply George Bush ("The Decider") strategery on the race course (see above) . . . ;-)
 
We had sailors in the end of the 70ties, that used "GM/Opel Kadett" or "Renault R4" cars, to carry their Lasers (cartopped or behind with a dinghy-roadtrailer). Those cars only had 1000 ccm or 1200 ccm engins with only few horsepowers.
Only restiction I see, is the maximum allowed weight to carry on top the the roof of the car (see manual of the car). Sure a Fiat 500 ( the former famous "Topolino") is able to carry your Laser with a small roadtrailer to the Laser races.

I wouldn't wonder, if in future some Laserites use the new car from India "Nano" (made by Tata/Jaguar) to carry their Lasers to Laserraces. Let's see what our Laserites of India in future say about the Tata-Nano (costs new only 1700Euro, but unfortunately not will exported out of India, they say)...

sorosz said:
... what you do if you apply George Bush ("The Decider") strategery on the race course ...
Click to expand...

Haha, I allways thought he only "sails" aircraft carriers ... If he is a Laserite, perhaps one of his last decisions in the posotion as president is to rename an aircraft carrier to "USS Kirby"... who knows....

Cheers
LooserLu
 
(I'm not an engineer or anything but) I wonder if one restricting factor for "car topping" is the strengths of modern roof racks and their attachments to the car roof. When I last car topped my Laser (previous one many years ago) I had a really strong generic roof rack (from Laser) which attached to the car small gutter that most hars had in those days and was really strong. these days the small gutter is not trendy and so there are loads of different methods of attaching a car model specific roof rack some of which do not look particularly strong for heavier loads.

I have a small Peugeot 205 (European hatch back) and the manufacturer rates the roof capable of a max load of 50Kg.

Ian
 
Deimos said:
I have a small Peugeot 205 (European hatch back) and the manufacturer rates the roof capable of a max load of 50Kg. Ian
Click to expand...

If you drive through GER, your Laser cartopped upon your 205 and the police probaly decides to control the load, you may have a big problem with them (and aft that an empty wallet...). But for usually trips in the city a cartopped Laser ins't much dangerous, I guess. If you have to slow down quick during your velocity is high (f.e. at the autobahn), the initiated forces probably cause an accident.


Michelle said:
Isn't Bruce Kirby a Canadian, eh? I don't know if that is allowed....
Click to expand...
Yup, I think so, sorry, I made a mistake. Maybe GWB takes the name "USS Angie" till he met our "Angie" last summer at the German coastal-village Heiligendamm (at the shore of the East Sea here), I heard they both are big friends now... ;)

Ciao
LooserLu
 
Deimos said:
(I'm not an engineer or anything but) I wonder if one restricting factor for "car topping" is the strengths of modern roof racks and their attachments to the car roof. Ian
Click to expand...

FWIW, I used a surfboard "soft rack" for cartopping the lasers. Basically it is an adjustable strap made of nylon webbing passed through a tube of closed cell foam (similar to pipe insulation you can buy at the hardware store or even a pool noodle). The "rack" did nothing more than cushion and distribute the load of the boat on the roof.

What kept the boat from becoming a projectile in a sudden stop was having it tied to the car itself. I would use a bow line to the frame under the front fender and a line around the hull at the stern (passed through the traveller on its way around the hull) and for good measure, a line doubled through the centerboard trunk and around the car (often just around the roof through the windows) and back around the boat to keep it from going sideways in a high speed turn. I think no matter what kind of roof rack you have, securing the boat to car itself would be a reasonable precaution.
 
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