Aerovault

Frontal Area and the Myth of the “V”

One of the most important aspects of aerodynamic efficiency is frontal area. Some trailer manufacturers make an attempt at reducing drag by simply angling the nose of their trailers into a V shape or incorporating a slope nose. Those tricks don’t reduce frontal area however. It’s an uneducated guess, or at best an attempt in reducing the CD (co-efficient of drag), but, believe me… sharp angles don’t help much.

If you’ve ever towed a trailer in the rain you may have noticed the rain doesn’t hit the front of a trailer straight on. It’s actually deflected towards the sides… the reason being that the trailer is always being towed behind something. The air that hits the trailer has to go around the towing vehicle first. It is only when the air finally clears the tow vehicle and starts to fill in the void just behind it, that it hits the trailer. Unless you have a 10 foot tongue, the air won’t fill in around your tow vehicle efficiently enough to even hit the center of a V-nose trailer.

More important to reducing frontal area than a V-shape is the height and shape of the nose of a trailer. If a trailer’s nose is higher than your tow vehicle it’s sticking up into the oncoming flow of air like a huge air brake. Even if it’s lower than your tow vehicle’s cab, the air is still hitting the top forward edge of the trailer. Designing the whole trailer as low and smoothly shaped as possible, so the air can flow over the forward end and around the sides is critical. Keeping air attached to the surface as it flows over the entire form, is key to efficient aerodynamic design and to gain the rewards of reduced fuel consumption and good handling.

Aerovault’s Reduced Frontal Area

A rounded roof, from all sides, makes for a great handling trailer. Here’s why… the front of the Aerovault is rounded and smooth so wherever the air comes in contact with it, it stays attached and follows the shape of the trailer. Smooth air flow (boundary layer), as opposed to turbulent air flow, is what contributes to a vehicle’s efficiency. You might also notice that this reduced frontal area flows back along the top and sides of the trailer. When air comes over the top of the tow vehicle it strikes the trailer in such a way that it flows smoothly over and around the top and upper sides. It’s the angled sides of the roof that really help reduce frontal area while greatly increasing stability in crosswinds.

Crosswinds

With the Aerovault’s low profile it naturally does well in cross flows. Another factor is the angled sides of the roof. In addition to significantly improving air flow from the front, they give a gusty crosswind another way to easily make its way over the top of the trailer from the side. Better handling and that lack of turbulence is also what minimizes fuel consumption.

Aerodynamic Details

Flush Mounted Side Doors! Everything on the front and sides of the Aerovault is as flush as possible. That beautiful curved nose at the front dictates custom made, curved aluminum side doors, formed in place on the trailer to be the perfect shape, including high quality flush mounted locking handles.

The Oft-Forgotten Underside

Making the underside of a vehicle aerodynamically efficient is an integral component of successful racing. With trailers however it appears a seldom given thought. Objects dangling down or exposed below the structure make it difficult for air to make its way to the rear.

One of the worst “performance thieves” is a bare axle shaft hanging in the breeze. Some trailers even store ramps underneath. Such unrefined details all have a cost in terms of fuel efficiency and handling. The underside of an Aerovault is covered, flush and fully skinned in aluminum. The difference in handling and fuel efficiency is amazing. Just think how much material and labor this requires… not a chance you’ll find it on another trailer! We do it because it makes that large of a difference. Peter Brock wouldn’t accept anything less on his personal trailer so why should you?

Breakthrough Semi-Monocoque Design and a Brilliant Roof

The Aerovault has a semi-monocoque chassis and body so the structure is its own frame. This eliminates the need for the numerous and heavy, internal braces and framing systems typically seen on other trailers. We also use 1/8″ thick aircraft/marine grade 6061 T6 aluminum which is almost indestructible. The construction methods and materials of other trailers are the same as used with mobile homes. That’s why when you see a typical trailer crashed on the highway, the debris resembles a mobile home that’s been hit by a tornado.

In addition to eliminating a lot of weight, our semi-monocoque design gives the interior as much headroom as possible with no obstructions on which to hit your head (or elbows). Peter Brock is seen here standing in between the original, standard height Aerovault and a T-Model Aerovault that is 10″ taller (6′ 4″ of headroom inside).

The Raw Materials are as Beautiful as the Finished Trailers

The Aerovault MKII is made completely of lightweight, strong (6061 T6 aircraft/marine grade), sheet and tubular aluminum and composite materials (with the exception of the steel Dexter torsion flex axles). It’s practically indestructible yet the standard Aerovault weighs in at an impressively light 2,340 pounds!

PVC Wrap Keeps It Perfect

We go to the extra time and expense of having all of our flat sheet aluminum shipped to our facility PVC-wrapped which protects it against marring. This wrap is pulled off only after your Aerovault is completed.

USABILITY

Venting The top rear “inset” area of the roof contains vents which allow interior heat and gases to exchange with outside fresh air. Ever put your freshly run car into a trailer to open it later to find a layer of wet condensation on everything? That won’t happen with an Aerovault.

Angled Driveways

Ever had that terrible experience of pulling into a highly angled driveway or parking lot and hearing the back of your trailer scrape across the pavement? Or couldn’t back into a sloped driveway without jamming the back of your trailer into it? The Aerovault comes with two industrial strength dolly wheels on each corner of its backside. These wheels contact the pavement and glide the trailer’s underside of your Aerovault across without a scratch (or sound)!

110v Power Port

You’ve seen how the Aerovault is built. It’s tight! If you want to run an outside power source into your Aerovault to power something inside, you won’t be able to close the door you’re running the power through.

The solution is this wonderful 110V power port. We install it in a waterproof manner into the wall of your Aerovault. On the outside of the port there is a cover you flip open which exposes the three prongs you will plug your 110v power source onto. Each Aerovault comes with one STANDARD in front of the driver’s side door.

Wiring Harness Plug

At Aerovault we pay attention to all the details, including keeping your wiring harness plug off the ground and covered with this convenient plug holder/protector. This keeps your plug free of damage, debris and corrosion when it’s not connected to your tow vehicle.

Battery Status Indicator Panel

We love to make things special, efficient and functional. By having this CTEK indicator panel installed under the shelf of your trailer, it gives you the current status of how charged your battery is with colored lights indicating charge at either 0%, 50%, or 100%. We hardwire the indicator panel out the back of the shelf to the battery so when you want to connect your CTEK battery charger, with indicator panel adaptor, you just plug the charger’s orange connector into the orange slot in the panel and you’re charging. There’s no guessing as to the state of your battery. No clips or wires to struggle with every time you want to charge. STANDARD.

The Aerovault’s exterior lights are state-of-the-art LED “Glo-Lights”. Their beautiful rings of color are seen as you drive your trailer through the dark (the picture shown here does not have the brakes on. This is how impressive the lights are with just the running lights).

The amber and red fender lights are “PC” lights meaning they throw their light in an arc which can not only be seen by traffic in front and behind the trailer but they also cast a great light downward (as seen in the photo above) so you can see where your trailer is in conjunction with the lines on the road while driving.

A bonus is that a switch inside the driver’s side front door of the trailer turns on the white backup lights manually for night work. Twin interior lights (one aft, one fore) provide plenty of light with the reflective aluminum interior. This is not a doctored photo. The front interior light is on and the back-up lights are on manually via the switch inside the driver’s door of the Aerovault.

We’re very happy with these state-of-the-art lights and trust you will be too.

Loading And Unloading

Each Aerovault comes equipped with a commercial grade, remote controlled winch with synthetic cable. Simply attach the winch’s hook to your car (shown here hooked to an axle strap on the car) and walk it in, one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the wireless remote to control speed. It’s that easy. Once in, it’s a simple matter of using the four flush-mounted “D” rings in the floor to secure your car with ratchet tie-downs. The two front side doors give easy access to the front of your car so you don’t have to be on your knees inside a trailer to tie it down. The rear is wide open through the tailgate.

In addition to everything else, the Aerovault is a comfortable place to be if you want to escape the sun, wind, rain, or noise. Just pull out those chairs and table you stowed in the side channels or sit on the front shelf and relax inside a car lover’s dream, surrounded by beautiful aluminum and a work of art over your head.

And notice the head room? The standard Aerovault is a comfortable 5’8″ tall inside and our T models are 6’4″ inside! They are comfortable heights and still not as tall as a one story building filled mostly with air to tow like most trailers!

Battery

The Aerovault comes standard with its own battery to operate the winch and to be a backup to the trailer’s electric brakes should the trailer somehow become disconnected from your tow vehicle. The battery is automatically charged by your tow vehicle through the wiring harness.

The Aerovault is made standard with the highest quality components and it’s built easy-to-use because that’s how we built our own Aerovault*

Connecting It The Right Way

The Aerovault comes with a Bulldog hitch. It’s a heavy duty 2 5/16” ball Bulldog (rated at 12,500 pounds even though you’ll never tow more than 7000 or 8000 pounds with our optional upgrade). The sliding collar ensures a solid lock onto the ball of your tow vehicle. The design also makes it easy to see when it’s locked down, and when it isn’t, so you’re never surprised.

Also provided standard are: “coiled” safety cables so they are always the right length. You don’t have to worry about what to do with any slack. EACH cable is rated at 7000 pounds or 8000 pounds with our optional upgrade. That means that if your trailer becomes attached to your tow vehicle by only one cable, it will still hold!

Next up is a brake safety cable. If your Aerovault ever becomes entirely disconnected from your tow vehicle, the brake safety cable will signal the trailer to engage all four of its electric brakes and automatically bring it to a smooth stop by itself.

Standard 7-Pin Flat Plug

The last component to the Aerovault hitch is a standard 7 flat pin plug that connects brakes and lights to your tow vehicle. It also allows your tow vehicle to charge the battery that comes with your Aerovault trailer.

Best* Jack

We’ve tried a lot of Jacks over many years and this Fulton double wheeled unit is the best by far. The extended range, smooth movement and adjustable mounting allow you to increase the height of the front of the trailer for easier unloading if you wish.

Pull on the mounting handle and the jack swivels out of the way when not in use. A rubber clip on the handle secures the handle to the jack when towing.

Let’s Take Some Space To Talk Tires And Wheels

We’ve learned a lot about trailer tires the last several years. In talking with numerous trailer tire and wheel manufacturers the most shocking finding was that they don’t balance trailer tires and wheels. Even the high-end companies that had thousands of dollars invested in balancing equipment sold it all because no manufacturer that ordered tires and wheels from them wanted them balanced. Why? Cost was obvious but wouldn’t owners complain? It took a while to find out but ultimately we were told that manufacturers justify it by saying: “No one can tow the average trailer fast enough to know their wheels/tires aren’t balanced”.

Why do us enthusiasts that know vehicles and have them tuned-up and turned-out to the max put up with this? Probably because we can’t imagine this is happening. The good news is we take care of this with our Aerovaults.

First, we start with some very impressive wheels and tires. Carlisle tires are considered the best trailer tires available and your Aerovault comes with Radial 6-ply Carlisle N speed-rated (87mph) 205/75R15 tires on 5 stud, steel modular wheels. These are the best N speed-rated trailer tires in the World!

Now that we have the right wheels and tires chosen for your Aerovault, we have them balanced! We took our Aerovault on the road with unbalanced wheels and tires. At 70mph the trailer was stable but we started to experience a vibration in the steering wheel. Nothing serious but noticeable and it got stronger as our speed increased.

We had the wheels and tires balanced and took the trailer back out. No vibration at 70mph, or 75 or 80 or 85! Hands off the steering wheel our truck and Aerovault tracked true and straight down the road with absolutely no vibration! This is how your Aerovault will be setup as well.

We then add a 5th of these great wheels and tires to your trailer for the spare, at no additional charge, it’s STANDARD. It’s included because everyone should have a spare. Why should you have to order it extra? This full size 15” spare is positioned just inside the passenger side trailer door for easy access. What could be better? How about a “100% NO HASSLE TIRE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY, INCLUDING ROAD HAZARDS” for the first year you own your Aerovault!

Yes, those great looking moon wheel covers also come standard on your Aerovault.

*When we use the word “best” this is our opinion after being in the trailer business for over 15 years.

The Aerovault is focused on the task at hand, hauling your car with the tools and equipment a person may need for a weekend of fun.

The Aerovault is smart about space. Instead of hauling a lot of air and some plywood cabinets down the road, you’ll find every space inside the Aerovault is sleek, lightweight and useful.

Let’s start with those beautiful curved front side doors. Open them up and you will find a composite storage structure perfectly formed against the curve of the doors. The two shelves (three shelves in the T and LT models) inside these deep storage compartments can hold numerous cans, bottles, rags, tools, etc.

Next are convenient side channels (seen below) on the floor along the inside walls in front and behind the wheel wells. With four channels at almost 4’ long each you can easily secure and strap in those difficult to store items such as jacks, bottles, tables, chairs, brooms, etc. We use a variety of commercial grade tarp straps (available as an optional accessory) to secure items to the numerous attachment rings on the walls and channel uprights.

A 24” deep shelf at the front of the Aerovault accommodates a full set of spare wheels and tires (massive wheels/tires for a GT3 as seen here at right) as well as a jack, jack stands, parts boxes, tools, fuel bottles. Just place what you want on the floor and shelf and use those handy hooks on each side to strap things down as appropriate.

Customer Mods

Another advantage to having a well-built trailer made of sturdy 1/8” thick aluminum is that custom brackets can be made and installed uniquely for your personal equipment. Many Aerovault owners have gathered together their equipment and taken it to their local fabricator.

We’ve seen some really cool custom ideas implemented such as this under-the-shelf jack stand holder with jack held in place beneath with floor brackets (shown at left).

Note: in an effort to get your Aerovault made in a timely manner we do not make these custom brackets. Channels and wall hooks are included as seen above.

Because the Aerovault has an aerodynamically low profile, it is often thought as only being able to fit small cars. Most people have gotten so used to seeing those typically tall trailers going down the road they have forgotten that the car inside isn’t very tall and the person is often towing more air down the road than car.

A couple of quick points to consider: A standing person can see over most cars which is a good indication they’ll fit inside a standard Aerovault. And for tall vehicles, like a pre-war Bentley, we have two different tall models to choose from. And width? The Aerovault has the widest interior space possible for a superior handling torsion flex axle trailer (80” inches in-between the wheel wells).

Our original, standard Aerovault, accommodated some pretty large cars such as a 4 door Porsche Panamera and Bentley GT. However, we saw the advantage of having more length as well as a taller version to handle vehicles like a pre-war Bentley. The “quiet” time we had during the pandemic allowed us to pursue the new models Gayle had been drawing on her white board for a few years. 1) A Short (S) model, 3′ shorter than the standard, for motorcycles and small racers. 2) the original standard. 3) A Tall (T) model for tall vehicles like a pre-war Bentley, same length as the standard Aerovault. 4) A Long (L) model that has 16″ more length than a standard. 5) A Long and Tall (LT) model that has the extra 16″ of length and the 10″ taller height of a T model. You can see all dimensions and specifications in the documents below.

Yes, 15 inch wheels and N speed rated tires, jacking point between the wheels, rear dolly wheels, a full size spare, battery, winch WITH remote control fob, LED lights inside and out, a fully skinned underside, locking side doors with shelves, and wheeled swivel jack. Most of these items are additional cost options on most trailers, if they’re offered at all.