How to secure your vehicle on your trailer

Save yourself some grief, adding brakes to a trailer isn't an expensive job nor hard. In fact you can even get self adjusting trailer brakes now

 

Several years ago I was told to 'hook' two tie down straps to the rear axle (one to each side) then criscross them to tie down to the "D" hooks. Repeat ths procedure for the front. By crisscrossing the tie down straps it helps to secure the car to the trailer so that in any unexpected side to side maneuvers the car will not slide off.

 

Amen. I have taken the back seat out of my hatchback and hauled motors.trans.rearends whatever I have needed for a project. Can't wait to be able to afford my own car hauler. Great info on this thread, I've got it filed for the future.

 

I like it. I insulated walls in the area over the 5th wheel in mine. A couple layers of moving quilts, an air matress, some comfy heavy blankys, I stay nice n cozy at Hershey. I did add an indoor type propane heater this year, and a good thing I did. Thursday morning was freakin c-c-c-cold!

 

You really need to use the smiley faces when making a joke,,and if it's not a joke you are an idiot! HRP

 

straps do have ratings to them and are sewn into the strap. the different colors sewn in give the spec for that strap. i dont have a chart on me to give specifics. i also cross all four straps and never had a problem. i do take things one step farther when towing and it saved me big time. i borrowed a bike trailer to haul my indian motorcycle with a side car on it. i had used this trailer a few times prior with no problems. prior to me using it this time someone else used it and messed with the hitch. im loaded up to my 40 dodge pickup flying south bound i-43 at 60 and the trailer comes unhitched. lucky for me i used my bike cable to teather the trailer to the truck. the trailer came around so hard it hit the right rear corner of the box. the truck and trailer were whipping around and as i slowed down never hitting the brakes hard i came to a stop with my bike safe. i fixed the hitch and went on my way. with out the cable my bike would have been totaled. also check your straps and load every time you get gas walk around your rig and look for anything amiss. dont forget your pin or lock through the hitch its the law. i have had many troopers over the years pull up beside me looking to see if i had a pin. and dont tow with a vehicle that is not rated to do the job. these would include tires; suspension;cooling;hitch and a spare tire. you will crap yourself the first time you go around a corner with a light tow rig and the heavier trailer continues to go straight jack knifing everything.

 

As mentioned above, always make sure you have trailer brakes, and a breakaway switch. When I finally got my brain screwed on right, it onlytook a day to rewire the truck and trailer.

 

I woke up to a blizzard in Neb 4 years ago, but I was warm. I got a motel room that day as I was snowed in and didn't care to spend a whole day cooped up in the sleeper. There was no way out of town I have about an 8" foam mattress and I always have my good sleeping bag with me. I don't have a heater as it's quite a close/small area and body heat does a pretty good job. I thought of using a small heater that I have but it was too close to the wood under my bed to safely use

 

Tie Downs:
I use Mac's Tie Downs. http://www.macscustomtiedowns.com/ Made, rated and tested in the USA. Check out their website, there are tons of videos, including tests showing how some store bought straps break long before reaching their load rating. Mac's straps have extra stitching where the hardware is attached to ensure they reach or exceed their load rating. Since damn near everything at most stores is made in China or Taiwan, it wasn't a tough decision to spend a little extra for good quality straps. They also sell ATV, motorcycle and just about any other kind of tie down straps. It's overkill, but for trailering cars, I use 4 straps rated for 10,000 lbs.

Axle straps:
Mac's Axle straps have full length cordura nylon protective sleeves. The sleeves protect the rated strap underneath. I had a set of Tractor Supply axle straps, but he sleeves were really short and would sometimes allow the strap to rub against the axle. I also have a set of velcro fleece sleeve covers which help protect the paint on the axle.

Price:
I bought everything in a package deal, so I saved some money. If I take good care of them, my straps should last many years. Yeah, they cost more than Home Depot or Tractor Supply straps, but I consider it an INVESTMENT. What's your car worth? What's you peace of mind worth???

Chafing:
Here's another strap tip I haven't seen in this thread:
Whether you run straps straight or crossed, make sure the webbing doesn't rub against anything. For some reason, I've never trusted the rating on those spinner D-rings...that pin in the middle never looks strong enough. So, I always tie down to the trailer frame or fully welded stake pockets running down both sides of the trailer. If you do it this way, the strap WILL rub against the trailer... SO, Mac's offers a tie down with chain at the ratcheting end and strap at the other. I attach the chain end to the trailer and attach the other end to an axle strap. The chain runs up over the edge of the trailer, so the strap webbing never rubs against anything.

Rigging:
When I show up with my car or to haul a friend's car, my rigging looks professional. I take my time to ensure I'm not crushing brake lines or creating tension against body panels. My straps are stored in a black nylon bag which protects them from UV damage. I lay them all out first, then systematically connect and tighten each component. When everything is tight, I go back around and double check everything. Finally, I fold up any excess strap and use velcro tie backs to cinch down the excess. This kind of attention to detail makes me feel better and it inspires confidence in my friends (It also makes them want your help when it comes time to move, haul, etc., so be warned). Once unloaded, I take the time to roll up all my straps and store them back in their nylon bag. Believe it or not, most friends want to help roll up straps...they learn something and I get to feel like I know something by showing them how.

Straight or crossed:
This seems like one of those arguements that may never be settled. I can see advantages to both ways, but I tend to prefer the straight method. As someone pointed out, when the straps are crossed, their load rating in a forward or rearward direction is reduced. Each situation is different and almost none are ideal unless your car has purpose built tie-down points. I want the best possible chance of the load not moving during a panic stop, since that's really the worst case scenario. If the trailer sways or I hit a big enough overpass bump, I'll be stopping soon after to make sure everything is still tight. I like the insurance of keeping the winch connected, but I've never relied on it to keep the car on the trailer.

Story:
With all this said, I have a friend who is getting married next year. His grandpa has a 1968 Cadillac convertible. He wants to drive the car in his wedding, but it doesn't run. We live near Chicago. His grandpa lives in Nashville, Tennesee. He offered gas money, I offered to help. I wasn't prepared for the sheer size of a 1968 Cadillac. And when we arrived, I found out their driveway runs downhill on a steep grade and makes a 180 degree turn into the garage at the rear of the house. No room for a trailer. I dropped the trailer in the street. After pushing the car out of the garage, I pulled it up the driveway with a logging chain and wheel chocks...SLOWLY. With everything on level ground, I reconnected the trailer and proceeded to load the car. Long story short, I have a 1/2 ton plain jane, regular cab Chevy work truck with a 4.8L V-8. No towing package. No towing gears. I maintain my truck and trailer regularly. I checked and adjusted all 4 trailer brakes before leaving home. I have an expensive aftermarket brake controller with multiple settings. I carefully positioned the car on the trailer to avoid excess tongue weight, but I also wanted everything to ride level. Strapped down using everything I had as outlined above. We left Nashville, took our time and made multiple stops to check rigging (which is convenient for bathroom and drinks). I knew I was overweight, but I wasn't sure by how much. We continued CAREFULLY but never had any surprises or pucker situations, even running up through the mountains in Tennesee and Kentucky. I maintained 50 -55 on the highway. I pulled into a truck stop about 15 miles from home and worked up the courage to run the whole thing across the scales. It cost about $12, but I was proud to find out how well my truck and trailer had done. According to the chart in my owner's manual, the gross combined vehicle weight for my truck and trailer should never exceed 10,000 lbs. Wanna take a guess? The truck stop scale showed 12,300 lbs. I figured it all out later, but here's the break down:
Truck: 4700 lbs
Trailer: 2500 lbs
Cadillac: 5100 lbs
I used common sense, careful driving, frequent monitoring of the car and trailer, watched the truck's transmission temperature and used all the features on my brake controller. I would never recommend exceeding a vehicle's manufacturer ratings. I could either turn around and waste the whole trip or give it a shot. We made it home safe. The return trip took a lot longer, but we made it. I don't ever plan on doing anything like that again, but now I have great confidence in ALL of my equipment.

 

Anyone have any good tips for avoiding crushing rear brake lines when using axle straps?

 

I use 5500lb tiedowns front and rear to tie down my 2500lb T bucket when I take it drag racing. Trailer weights 1700 lbs empty, and tows dead straight even at high speed and has good tyres and good brakes. The trailer has been modified so its easy to tie down cars with suicide front ends as it usually tows the bucket, or somebody elses one. Tiedown points are where they work well on a T bucket like my one....

I would suggest that the quality of the trailer and its ongoing maintenance, plus using an appropriate tow vehicle is about as important as the methods we use to tie our cars down.

I am sure we have all seen crazy stuff on the roads - poorly balanced trailers and tow cars half the size of what they are towing. Its a jungle out there

 

We welded a loop on the bottom of the diff on my bucket, as its a regular to the drag strip and when we built it, it was a 160 mile trip to the nearest strip.

 

When tying down for every "unit" (ie foot, metre) up you attach to go out 2. So if you attach one foot up attach other end 2 feet out for the best for downward force and front rear. Also remember that you need to provide at least twice the mass of the vehicle in restraint in the forward direction. Ie if car weights 1t you need to use 2t of restraint forward direction.

 

I can offer some logic. If the brake lines "crush" from a nylon loop you may have some shitty lines. If it's possible, I tend to run my strap under the line since the tie down area is near enough to the wheel, and there should be enough slack to slip a 1/4 metal loop behind. If your axle strap is padded, like a protector for show car stuff, it won't hurt the line but it will leave an impression on the pads. Just sayin...

 

I'm from the school of thought that there's no such thing as too many tie-downs. I have 28 heavy D rings on mine, some straight and some angled as I haul many different loads. One time it might be a car/truck, another time sheet metal, truck cab only, cpe/roadster body only or an engine. Here are pictures of three different loads from my western parts hunting trips. Also as someone said trailer and tow vehicle maintenance. In this regard I also changed my trailer over to self adjusting brakes. The reason being the long trips and through the mountains sometimes the brakes needed adjustment before I got back home. With these I don't have that problem, the brakes are always right up there.

 

With an axle strap, you should be able go under the brake line. That's what I've always done.

 

WTF? And if you strap the right side to the right, and left side to the left and one strap breaks, it wont pull the other way? Did you really think not crossing them makes them not pull if one breaks?
And if one strap breaks you've got bad straps, or a bigger problem than how it was strapped down1

 

I raced an OT car with 14-32x15 Goodyears on the back. I always used two parallel chains and boomers in the back with crossed straps in the front. I'd pull everything tight with the ratchet straps then really tighten the chains with the boomers. Even after airing up those big old Goodyears some before towing you would still get some squishy bouncing from them with some slight vehicle movement if I was traveling some rough roads. I finally came up with the idea to use oak 4x6x12" sawn to the perfect thickness to place under the rear axle tubes so that when I would tighten the binders the chains would pull down against a positive stop to take the tire squishiness out of the equation.

 

I just drive them, problem solved

 

I just went and cleaned up a wreck where a truck and trailer like this t-boned someone else. There was a dirt track race car inside. Both rear 2" straps ripped and the car almost blasted thru the front wall of the trailer. I was shocked to see the straps broke. I trailer cars with 4 straps all the time.

Rob

 

As an interesting side note on straps; this weekend I loaded up the four wheeler to take out to the "Duck Drags" here in Tulsa and heard a strange faint stretching sound. I checked the straps closely and found that two of the four were actually ripping. Now, granted these aren't car tie down straps but fairly decent 1" ATV ratchet straps rated at 1000lbs and were only about a year and a half old. The problem I think was my lack of care by just leaving them on the front seat of my dually where the west summer sun went to work on them. Now that I think about it, I have been guilty of leaving my race car strapped to the trailer between races at times leaving the sun to have the same effect on them as well. So just a reminder, take better care of all your straps than I have in the past so maybe you weren't learn a tougher lesson than I did.

 

Hauling '40's? Yesterday. Looks pretty Beverley Hillbillies here, as they're not tied down yet. And yes, hauled many a D8, excavators, backhoes etc. up in the hills for many years. Quality and strong equipment is first- a great source for reasonably-priced ratchet straps is Tractor Supply- you can get good quality heavy straps for the price of "auto" straps.
First the frames were chained down, with true transport chains & binders- wasn't worried about scratching the paint. There's a 2x12 under the front crossmember of the front truck, solid to the trailer, chain through the holes in the frame, pulling slightly forward. Second chain at rear of frame, pulling slightly rearward- tires are flat, pulled down tight. Chain over front beam axle of the second truck, flat tires again. Chain over rear crossmember, tires boxed into the ramps. Heavy constuction straps (TSC) through the doors of both trucks as backup and as the doors don't close well at this point. Third cab has a pallet and 8x12 blocks bracing it to the truck frame, two heavy straps crossed through the windows securing it to the truck frame. Bed on top of the bed fits down inside the lower bed flares with two heavy straps over the top. Good small straps securing all the sheet metal in the second bed and over the hood/fenders of the second truck. Checked every 30 miles, nothing loose. Actually sat in front of a CHP waiting at a side street for a couple minutes about two miles out, he looked everything over from about 10 ft., smiled and waved. I have axle straps and such for my open and enclosed car trailers, used with the heavy ratchet straps, and e-track all the way around in the enclosed- better to be overkill than under-killed. If you're breaking straps, your straps are too small, too cheap, too old, or not applied correctly

 

A few years ago I bought an 18 foot tilt bead trailer. Having not owned a car trailer before I wasn't sure the correct way to tie down a car. What I found that works for me is I chain the front and strap the back in 4 places. Maybe a little ober kill but I like to ratchet the frame down to keep the bounce out. After loading the vehicle I have a chain that has large links that I run across the back of my trailer from side to side and attach to the stake pockets. This gives me many different points to hook my straps and get the angles I need. The chains in the front go from whatever frame attachment that works to either the d-ring or the stake pocket and this is done on both sides. Next I strap the axle with loopstraps and tiedowns hooked into the chain and crank both tight. These can be angled in or out, crossed, or straight back depending on the vehicle. Then I attach ratchet straps to the rear frame and hook them into the chain angled out and crank them down. It works for me and the cars I move seam to ride good and don't move. I also will chech mt tiedowns after pulling out after a mile or so and then each time I stop for any reason. My trailer has storage boxes on each side in front of the fenders that I have chaines and frame hooks on one side and straps in the other. Also a friend showed me to take the extra strap and fold or roll it into a 10-12 inch roll and duct tape it to the tight strap to keep it from flaping loose. Duct tape could work on chain binders too.

 

I've been dragging cars around for 40+ years...never had a problem with a loose load or anything sitting on the trailer BUT I have had problems with the trailer ball coming loose from the stinger. About 20 years ago I sold a 32 3 window I had built to a guy in Albuquerque (spelling?). Hooked up my trailer to the pickup, loaded the car and down the road we go. Stopped a couple of times in the first 100 miles or so just to check and make sure all was ok. No problems.

I live north of Seattle so the tow to New Mexico is a fairly long pull. I pull into the guys road to unload the car. The nut/lockwasher holding the ball on the stinger was loose...had about a 1/2 turn until it would have fallen off. CRAP!! Now I TIG weld the ball onto the top side of the stinger and the nut to the bottom side. I have a small collection of different drop stingers and balls but I am confident that the ball and stinger will not come loose. All kinds of other stuff can still happen. Scared the poop outa me. I could have lost a valuable car, trailer and pickup with that stunt.

 

I use a single chain looped over the rear axle, which is attached to the anchor points at the rear corners of the trailer. I also use a pair or three-inch-wide tie-down straps with axle loops, between each rear spring and the brake backing plate, for a total of three separate straps/chain combo.

Up front, my winch cable holds at the center point of the front suspension, usually anchored around the crossmember on an IFS or the middle of the straight axle on such a vehicle. The outboard straps are anchored in the same manner as the rear straps for a straight-axle, or around the lower A-arms on an IFS. Total of three anchor points up front, and six holding the car down total. Works every time.

The one time I nearly lost a car was when I was hauling my '56 Hudson Super Wasp back from North Dakota to Oklahoma. It was minus -5* F when I picked the car up, so I was cold and not thinking right. I strapped the car to the four factory tie-down points on the car, but with the car not strapped down by the axles/lower A-arms, it bounced as I was driving. After my second stop to check the straps, it all looked good as I was heading South towards a pretty fair snowstorm. Maybe 20 miles later, I see the Hudson sitting a bit sideways in my mirrors! AAAGH! The road was icy as hell, so I made my way up the next exit ramp to a truck stop. The right rear tire of the car was halfway off the deck, and all four straps had either come loose or snapped! So, after using the come-along to slide the car back straight on the deck, and grabbing four other straps I had, I strapped the car down the right way and proceeded home. THAT was an eye-opener! All that was keeping the car from sliding off the deck was one strap in the front, the transmission in First, and the parking brake engaged.

A reminder on tow straps and tie-down straps - If they are ripped at all, DO NOT use them! If you leave them outside often, or do not store them properly all the time, DO NOT use them! Be smart and buy new straps, they really are cheap insurance.

 

I use chains and straps two of both per axle. I block the wheels and set the e brake. If the trail or has a wench I leave it wrapped to the axle. It ain't going no where.

 

The last car I trailered I used one long chain around through loops on the trailer frame up to the axle on both sides and cranked the front down tight with the big old mechanical winch on the trailer.

It went okay except the whole car shifted a bit to one side when I went over some railroad tracks and I had to crank it down tighter again. Next time, doing a chain or strap in the front too.

 

Towed alot,

heavy rachet straps on all 4 corners the rear crossed. On a froam and axle

and i use strap over the front hood have seen hoods fly open,

strap over the roof to hold the doors shut,

and 4 smaller straps at each corner to minimize bouncing.

Also have to watch tire pressure if th etires loose air during the trip the axle straps will loosen

the ems guy

 

you sir have a good eye for trucks with beautiful lines