Nick is right everyone - for "safe" towing, you should have (as a general
"rule" I believe - if I remember correctly) 10% of the total
weight (car & trailer) on the trailer tongue - in other words, "on your rear
bumper" or hitch platform. If your tow vehicle cannot support this (a
tow -"car" will require a class III hitch and the appropriate "rigging" for
same) - then you should not tow with it. - and do not forget about the
BRAKES! It takes a real TRUCK (not just a "pickup" truck) to tow anything
without trailer brakes. Also - don't forget to "test" the trailer brakes
before you head out - I did this one time (towing my race car with the
best-tow-car-ever 71 Chrysler T & C Wagon), and as luck would have it, I
never did require any real braking until I had been on the X-way for about
an hour. I crested a small "rise", at about 75, and lo & behold, everone
was STOPPED. Imagine my surprise when I slammed on the brake pedal and it
felt like the whole rig started accelerating at an alarming rate. I think
my surprise was exceeded only by that of the people that I flew by in the
median throwing rocks, grass, & dirt at about 65 mph. Quite embarrassed, I
just exited the vehicle with the appearance of "yup, I meant to do that" -
whereupon I proceeded to repair the (electric) brake system on the trailer.
An errant ground wire had reminded me just how important those trailer
brakes were!
Regards,
DaveG.
----- Original Message -----
From: Sperduto, Nick <SperdutoN@xxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 9:59 AM
Subject: [FWDLK] Towing
> IF some of you folks look at Scott's pics of his 56 Dodge, you'll see my
> truck towing his car on a trailer. The car is loaded backwards. This is
just
> a warning. We only loaded it backwards because there was no engine in the
> car. DO NOT EVER tow a regular car on a car trailer backwards. The weight
> of the front of the car will be behind the trailers wheels and will cause
> severe uncontrollable fishtail in the trailer. My friend did this years
agao
> towing my Mom's 5th avenue and almost wrecked.
> When I bought the trailer, I went partners with a couple of friends and I
> told them the same thing, but they didn't listen and loaded a station
wagon
> backwards and came real close to wrecking. So take it from our experience,
> always load cars facing forward.
>
> Nick
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