Advice re attaching Traveller to trailer, for long journey!

Hi. I have a Minor Traveller which is five hundred miles away, and needs to be moved. Just acquired a trailer, which is a caravan conversion - the trailer bed is just flat wood. How best to attach the Traveller, for a journey from Hertfordshire to Aberdeenshire?

My idea is to coach bolt a couple of four by four fence posts to the trailer bed, one hard up against the front wheels, the other ditto the rear wheels, then a couple of ratchet straps, one over the rear axle, the other through the vehicle doors. Does that sound safe enough? The Traveller hand brake works!

Thanks.

Graeme ( snipped-for-privacy@nospam.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ewww.

Pull 'em tight enough to stop the car going for a walk, and you may well bend the sills.

First port of call is always something unsprung - then the suspension can go for a bounce. So a live axle - sorted.

Next will be something SOLID. Suspension, tie-points etc.

First: is the trailer up to the job? What are the suspension, tow hitch, brakes and tyres rated at? The trailer probably weighs around

350-500kg, and the Traveller about 825kg, so the tyres are carrying, say, 1300kg between them, assuming it's a single-axle caravan chassis. Nothing less than a 93 rated tyre, such as a 175R13 6 ply rated, will do. Using the original caravan tyres is really asking for trouble. Is the towing car rated to tow this weight?

You need lateral restraint as well as longitudinal. You might be able to bolt timbers to the deck once the car is loaded, but don't bother using damn great coachbolts to a bit of thin wood that's only nailed down in the first place.

Don't strap to anything above the traveller's suspension. Under some conditions, the traveller will bounce down on its suspension, the straps may well come unhooked, and if they don't they'll either break or damage something when the traveller bounces back up. Don't expect it to have working shock absorbers. Ideally, secure the wheels with something like

To picture the degree of restraint you need, try picturing the trailer bed tilted forwards by say 40 degrees. Do you think the car will stay where it is? Now imagine it tilted sideways by 30 degrees. Still OK? These will give longitudinal and lateral forces well within the range of emergency braking and swerving.

If you do go ahead with such a risky journey, at least make sure the weight distribution is correct - i.e. a download on the towball within the range the car maker quotes, probably around 75kg. Too little weight and it will be very unstable at speeds possibly as low as 35 mile/h - too much weight you'll bugger the car, towbar, or trailer drawbar.

Please don't make the journey this coming Sunday: I'll be on the M1 and A1 then.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Jesus H Christ, you NEVER EVER put ratchet straps over anything that is supported by the suspension because as the car bounces up and down as you drive down the road, they slacken off and part company.

You should place the ratchet straps over the tyres.

I'm in haulage f****it. I know more about securing loads than you ever will.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Kyle" saying something like:

Morphed again, eh? You're the one that knows f*ck all in this instance.

OK, I get the message :-)

Thank you. I'd like to do the job properly (and safely) - any advice on exactly how to secure the straps over the tyres would be appreciated. Should I have special straps to go over the wheels/tyres?

You can get special loops that you feed over ratchet straps, just look at what any of the professional recovery boys use. Try googling for "recovery equipment direct", they have an excellent online catalogue. The ratchet strap itself goes behind the tyre (over the top of the wheel), with the strap being fed through one end of the loop before passing behind the tyre, then back through the other end of the loop as it emerges at the other side of the tyre, so that the short loop strap sits across the front face of the tyre. Fit 4 of these strap/loop combinations and it ain't going nowhere. In my opinion (I do a lot of recovery type work, and am qualified via the MSA for motorsport recovery) this is the ONLY safe way to do it. NEVER apply the handbrake or put an auto in Park on any vehicle being transported on a trailer, secure using only the straps mentioned above. Badger.

What he said.

No guarantee as to quality but I believe Machine Mart supply these tie down straps

PhilC

All the above is excellent advice. However, in addition to all that you need a sound trailer to attach all that kit to. Is a converted caravan chassis up to the job? Has the conversion been done 'properly'? Or did they just cut off the cravan body and leave the floor as it was? Could be well dodgy...

Simon H

In message , Badger writes

Thanks to EVERYONE who commented. All comments were noted, and a visit to the above site explained exactly what I needed.

Drove down to collect the car Thursday, loaded yesterday and returned today. 475 miles each way. Long journeys, particularly the return (M11, A14, A1, A68, A720, M8, M90, A93), and I am glad it is over! What did I overlook? Yes, the rear brakes were seized, which was a pain, but remedied.

Noted - but would be interested to know why.

: In message , Badger : writes

: > NEVER apply the : >handbrake or put an auto in Park on any vehicle being transported on a : >trailer, secure using only the straps mentioned above. : : Noted - but would be interested to know why.

I'd be interested too. My DS has done it's fair share of transporter-borne miles, and on every occasion the recovery chap has asked me to make sure that she is in gear with the handbrake on.

Ian

Ian Johnston ( snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

When I trailered the Ami up to an event a couple of months ago, I *forgot* to put the handbrake on and leave it in gear - and even with all four wheels securely ratchet-strapped using proper wheel straps, it moved about on the trailer far too much for my liking.

On the way back, it was handbrake/gear, and stayed firmly put.

I've never come across the advice not to put the handbrake on, and I always do so when there's a working handbrake. The only reference I've ever seen to auto box cars on trailers was in the handbook for an XJS, which warned against putting it in "Park", without giving a reason. I can only guess it's something to do with the car shuffling backwards and forwards and thus subjecting the parking pawl to repeated loads, but that doesn't sound very convincing. IIRC on some Shadows the Park position engages automatically when you stop the engine, so it's a good job I've never been asked to shift one of them.

Difficult to see how it could move, if the straps were being used properly. Possible if the attachment points for both ends of each strap are too close to the wheel, I suppose. I do find the Bateson trailer reassuring, though: it has sides, a tailgate, and adjustable scotches, so there's a backup system in place.

Maybe with all the to-ing and fro-ing the transmission can get stuck in "Park"?

Ron Robinson

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Autolycus" saying something like:

Makes sense to me, having once stripped a parking pawl on an XJ12 by slinging it into P just as it rolled to a stop.