Trailer Tie Down Reommendations

To add to Bill's advice, maybe go to a towing company and take a looksee how they do it. I once had my Cherokee "towed" ... after it was pulled up onto the bed, the wheels were blocked and chains were used but I do not recall the configuration. No matter ... however they do it, it works.

I strapped my CJ5 to the trailer by strapping the rear axle over the pumpkin so the strap was on rounded edges that didn't cut it, then used the tow hooks on the front bumper to hold the springs down and control the swaying that you noticed.

No matter what you do, you want to be sure there are no sharp edges that can cut the straps, and you want to be sure the vehicle can not bounce enough to allow the straps to fall off. As Bill mentioned, you need to be sure the vehicle is forward on the trailer enough to prevent the trailer itself from swaying out of control.

Not that this is relevent, but I went to Home Depot to get some railroad ties for a landscape project. The ties are 9 ft long, my GI issue trailer is

6 ft long. With the tailgate down, there is plenty of room to physically hold the railroad ties, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the center of the weight is a good foot and a half behind the center line of the axles. Instead of having a positive weight on the tongue, I had a negative weight of two or three hundred pounds. The implication of this became apparent to me the instant my speed got to about 25 mph. The trailer yanked me sideways so hard that I thought my life was coming to an end. The idiot behind me thought he could get by by driving on the center median as I went from the gutter to the yellow line just to stay in front of the trailer.

I frequently load my trailer with camping gear in such a manner as to have only about 50 or 100 pounds on the tongue, but in terms of camping gear that is both light and low in the trailer, the dreaded swaying is completely unnoticable. But, the landscape logs were another matter entirely. Your Jeep on a trailer is more akin to my landscape logs than my camping gear. You need the weight of your Jeep forward on the trailer so there is sufficient weight on the tongue. A lack of sufficient weight on the tongue will lead to the trailer istelf swaying, no matter how well you have the Jeep lashed down.

You have a couple of choices: tie down the wheels or tie down frame. If you tie down the wheels/axles, the jeep suspension is in full play, it will soften the bumps to the jeep.

I personally like to have the wheels fit into some permamently mounted stops. Then get some tie down chains that loop over each axle end, mounted to the trailer, and fastened down with screw type hold downs. This setup guarantees that you have the right trailer balance plus it lets the jeep suspension work with the trailer. Or use the strap setups that you can see at a U-Haul place. These are webs that go over the wheels and ancor them down.

If you tie down the frame, you need to use 4 chains or straps, then crank things down tight enough so the jeep is not bouncing up and down, hammering on the straps.

Permanently position your hold downs so that the chains can be looped over the axles without hitting brake lines and other useful stuff. Loading your trailer in the rain after dark should be a picnic, not a panic.

Check with

under "trailer parts" - "hardware" They have lots of tie down rings: Item# 330291, Item# 127287 Screw type load binder Item# 143114 for chain, use grade 43 (high test) or grade 70 (transport), not the grade 30 (proof coil)

A few safety things: Your tongue weight should be 10% of the gross weight of the trailer and jeep. For your rig that means at least 500 pounds! You and your weight lifting friend should not be able to lift the trailer up onto the hitch ball when loaded. Faiure to do this give you the dreaded fishtail, same implications as the dreaded DEATH WOBBLE.

Get your brakes properly adjusted, check them out on each trip.

Make sure your lights are properly protected from damage and that they work properly. Especially the Left turn blinker.

Cheers.

Jerry McG wrote:

Thanks for the info.

Great feedback, thanks!

Last year a towing article in one of the 4x4 mags prompted a lot of reader mail, most all of which said DO NOT tie down at the wheels/axles, tie down at the frame.

On of the reader's letters explained the reason for this is if you tie down at the wheels and let the suspensions bounce, you run the risk of galling the axle bearing races because the suspension is bouncing without the wheels turning. I supposed doing it on a short term wouldn't hurt (like when a tow truck is involved) but if you are towing your Jeep a long way, you might be damaging your bearings that way.

Think of how new vehicles are transported. They are loaded onto the carrier and hooked down TIGHT on the frame. Those oval holes in the frame are there for a reason.

If you hook around the axle you are going to damage brake lines, etc. And if your trailer has springs, the jeep suspension doesn't have to work.

When I trailer-tow I use 4 3500# ratchet straps I got at Tractor Supply Co and hook assemblies I bought from awdirect.com. (TJ's use T-hooks.) Cross the fronts (the gas tank prevents crossing the rears on the TJ) and jam them down until there's almost no suspension movement. And CHECK THEM AT EVERY STOP. Ratchet straps can and will come loose. My tow vehicle is an F250 Superduty with the V10 gas engine, so I stop for gas pretty often. :-)

I really can't buy into the bearing galling explination. Having the suspension on the jeep softening up the jarring coming up from the trailer should LOWER the galling effects. (Less impact)

I will buy the issue of running chains over the axles, the brake lines have a nasty tendency to get in the way. (mentioned that in my original response)

The car transports have what looks like almost zero clearance, they just jam them on! They have to tie to the fram to keep down the chance of rubbing against the various trailer frame parts.

The key thing is that you have to either tie down at the wheels or really crank down the frame ties (like Matt does). The worst thing to do is have the jeep constantly doing the slack and jerk routine on the tie downs. Hard on the trailer, hard on the jeep, really hard on the chain or strap.

The other key th> Last year a towing article in one of the 4x4 mags prompted a lot of reader

Yep, except of course we are talking about trailers, not dollies. And you could chain or strap the front suspension down to the dolly and let the rear float, since it's rolling.

If my only choice was to use a dolly, I'd just flat-tow. The dolly adds about 250 pounds to a load that already has no brakes.

and hook assemblies I bought from awdirect.com. (TJ's use T-hooks.) Cross the fronts (the gas tank prevents crossing the rears on the TJ) and jam them down until there's almost no suspension movement. And CHECK THEM AT EVERY STOP. Ratchet straps can and will come loose. My tow vehicle is an F250 Superduty with the V10 gas engine, so I stop for gas pretty often. :-)>

Thanks Matt. Per a local towing outfit's advice I got some chains with hooks and adapted them to the 2" ratchet straps. I tied it down using the slotted transport holes in the frame front & rear. It towed much better this way, no suspension movement at all. Seemed really secure and the straps didn;t loosen much at all. Problem was the straps were 27' loong (only ones I could find) so I had to cut most of the excess off & toss it. Seemed like a waste, but what the Hell.

I'm towing with a new F350 6.0 Power Stroke, which really handles the load well, even on our mountain grades. Towing puts a pretty good dent in the mileage, however.