Be careful strapping a car to a trailer by the wheels only. That allows the sprung weight to move on the suspension. Towing north from Baker to LVMS I was following a friend who had his M3 strapped down to his trailer by the wheels (claimed to have been doing it for years without a problem). We hit a series of short whoops on the road that exactly matched the natural frequency combination of the suspension on his M3 and the trailer suspension. That car topped and bottomed hard on the suspension a few times before he could get things stopped. It broke both JRZ rear shocks off the LCAs and blew a top seal on one of his front JRZs.

At a minimum I would add an additional strap to dampen this kind of occurrence if you strap only by the wheels.

 

^^Excellent point!^^

 

Man, what a nightmare.. I have always strapped via wheels but I might switch to the subframe now.. It's just as easy anyways.

 

I'm glad you told this story. That is what I was trying to express.

 

My friend and I were told by a bunch of people, after the fact, that what happened should have never happened. His springs and shocks put his natural suspension frequency in the 2.5hz range which should have avoided this. My reply was, "Well, how does that frequency change when you add the weight of the trailer to the unsprung weight of the M3 by strapping the trailer to the wheels? Doesn't increasing unsprung rate reduce the natural frequency of the suspension?" The reply was, "Oh..."

 

true true.......alot.....I mean alot of car transportors just strap the tires.
the odds are super super rare.....probably more likely to wreck than have what you had occur.

I like doing it because it keeps the car from moving around as well.
At work, we use an enclosed Featherlite trailer for some stuff. As with alot of enclosed aluminum trailers, the strap connects are fixed into the floor, 2 front, 2 rear. If we drive the cars into the trailer, I often park it closer on the right than the left so I get get out easier of the car. I've always had this fear that the car will move while traveling and hit the side. I like strapping to the body so that the car will move less.

.........to change the subject, for the dude that trailers with his Nissan Titan, it does cost more trailering than just driving........but if you are tracking with "track" tires, it saves from bringing a set of wheels/tires with you and is always a lot easier to get home.......if something breaks on the track car.

 

PSA Announcement: SLOW DOWN when towing

 

There are a lot of autocrossers who also trailer to distance events. Several used to tie down by the tires but after a few had complete shock failures due to the body being not strapped down, most strap down the body as well.

 

BTW: I have never had a damper or suspension or wheel failure in the last 5 years related to "trailering with the wheels strapped down".

Maybe I am just lucky

And for that matter I have never had a damper failure even after regularly jumping curbs 10 times a lap times 15 laps per race, times 3 sessions a day and a 2 day race weekend times 5 years...and even while driving 2 wheels off thru the dirt at high speed, and with the occasional spin thru the grass and bumps.

again...Maybe I am just lucky

 

I have personally witnessed this...several times.

 

Very true...up close and personal

 

This is a bit off-topic but I've done a fair amount of trailering with horse trailers and utility trailers with a 5000 lb tractor on it. All of these trailers belong to other people and get so-so maintenance. It seems that the wiring on all these trailers looks like it was an afterthought. Cheap connectors, exposed wiring, constant problem getting all lights to work, sometimes even problems with trailer brake.

What do I look for in a new (or even used) trailer to avoid constant problems with lights and trailer brake? Is there a certain type of wiring, connector, etc that I should look for?

 

It doesn't exist. Where I work, we have some nice Featherlite trailers and some so-so brand trailers.

I own a couple car haulers and some toy haulers, some from local places, some not, some from Tractor Supply. I even have a high end aluminum trailer from Dalton Enterprises (Adam is the brand). I have 3 boat trailers.

All of them, all of them require maintenence. Sometimes, maintenence is tapping a light with your hand.......and it turns on........sometimes it rewiring something.

I had a brand new car hauler behind me one time.......with a convertible Sentra on the back on my way to Hilton Head Island for vacation...........who ever wired it, put the wiring over the axle........and apparently I hit a bump and broke the trailer brake wire...... had to fix that.

It seems like there is virtually no standard or DOT for trailer wiring.

 

Okay, my friend has agreed to let me use his trailer and he says he has a pretty complete set of straps.

My plan is this:

Strap through the wheels on all four corners. Will cross the straps coming from the rear wheels.

I can only find one tie down spot on the rear and it is on the left hand side. I will also run a strap down from there and one from the screw on tie down on the front. These should help prevent too much suspension travel.

Another question: I have pulled my 5000# tractor on an old flatbed equipment trailer and with my 03 F150 SuperCrew (7500# towing capacity) everything seemed fine. But when I pull a two horse horse trailer it seems hard to pull even when empty. Is that just the wind resistance? I don't notice it when starting off but accelerating on the highway or climbing hills it feels like I've got an anchor back there.

 

yea, there is a huge difference between and low open trailer and a tall enclosed. I remember the first time I towed an enclosed, and despite being lighter than my old iron horse open, speed over 60 MPH really showed the difference.

 

I've heard some horror stories about thru the wheel straps bending wheels over time.
I strapped my z down for the first short trip lately. I chose to go around the lower control arms at the inner most point also crossing the straps at the front and straight out back.
Seemed very secure.

 

I took my Z by his house and we loaded it up on the trailer (it is 18'). It rolled on with no problem. He has a hand winch which makes for slow, but easy and controlled loading and unloading.

We strapped through the wheels on the front. Straight ahead.

Used and axle strap around the lower control arms on the rear and crossed the straps.

Drove it around for a while and everything was great. Soooooooooo much better and easier to pull than a two horse bumper pull horse trailer. In addition to the horse trailer being a huge wind drag I think it never has enough weight on the tongue and is constantly bucking which is miserable on long trips.

 

I own an auto transport company and move cars daily, from **** boxes to an Enzo I delivered to California 3 weeks ago. I always use wheel straps only. Done correctly it is safe. When ratcheting down the straps IF you do cross them, do not go nuts on making it so tight. Its hard to say how tight to go. But just "tight" is enough.

 

I've got it on the trailer right now getting ready to head to Roebling Road. And I was wondering just how tight but I think you can feel where it is just enough and one more click would be too tight. In addition to straps on front and rear wheels I've got one strap through front tow hook and one strap through the rear tow hole. Hopefully these will eliminate suspension oscillation to avoid damage as mentioned in some of the posts above.

 

BTW, Have fun at Roebling