MTFCA Forum

Friends, we have been going to OCF for years but this is our first time taking the car and trailer for OCF. Question for you veterans: where can we park our trailers? Is it somewhere enclosed on the grounds away from the public? Wondering if I need to buy a lock for the trailer if it has to be kept in the outside parking lots. Thanks!

The trailer parking info should come with your letter from THF in a couple of days. Trailer parking has always been offsite. It changes almost yearly, depending on what THF can arrange. I would highly recommend locks on the trailer.

Bmettli wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:09 pm

Friends, we have been going to OCF for years but this is our first time taking the car and trailer for OCF. Question for you veterans: where can we park our trailers? Is it somewhere enclosed on the grounds away from the public? Wondering if I need to buy a lock for the trailer if it has to be kept in the outside parking lots. Thanks!

Naturally I don't know where you park your trailer at home but if it's outside it should even have a lock on it there too! Not just in public places. They're sitting ducks for thieves nowadays. They make great mobile meth labs!

Thanks all. I got a giant lock for the trailer today, and will be on the lookout for the OCF email instructions. Thanks!

We've also been going to the OCF for several years. We used to pull our trailer with a motor home and could always park it in the POE lot. We would stay in the motor home and didn't need to disconnect the trailer. In the morning we would just go and unload the car and drive it into the Village. We don't have a motor home any more and so we park our trailer in the POE lot and disconnect our tow vehicle & use it to commute back and forth to the motel. Yes, you should lock your trailer securely, but the POE lot is inside a gate to the POE building area and is reasonably secure. I have never heard of any security problems in the POE lot.
As the other posters said, they do vary the parking areas a bit from year to year depending on what they can negotiate, however, the POE building is usually always available. Imagine if you have an early 1900's car with very limited lights and have to drive on public streets to get to your motel in the dark on Saturday Evening, it could be quite risky, and they understand that. That's why they always try to have close parking available.
When you get your registration materials on Thursday or Friday, those materials will tell you where you can park. Further, you cannot get into the POE lot until 5pm on Friday. Because of that most of us park in the Henry Ford Museum parking lot while waiting for the POE lot to be opened for us.

Keith

We've parked at the Fairlane mall parking provided by the Henry Ford. There's security on site but some simple locks don't hurt either. We put our TT in the trailer on Saturday night and drive the pickup back to the hotel and return Sunday morning we've not had any problems for the last 5 years or so

Fairlane parking lot has been usual for me. Not a great area, but easy access to Henry Ford. If you have an iPhone, get an Airtag and hide it in the trailer. All trailers should have a lock, even if it is in your back yard.