trailer queens, I need to see some tie downs

[CyberSniper]

Nothing at all on the frame and I've never noticed a problem with the chassis moving, and you won't get much softer than my springs.

My wheeling rig flops around like a fish out of water if I just tie the axles down. Honestly, my CB antenna moves less. You can walk up to the truck and lift the body up 6" off the frame.

My friend has a Furd with coils that weighs nearly 6,000lbs. It flops around even worse. When he put it on my trailer he thought it'd be comfortable to drive with just the axles held down. I'm convinced that if you took a corner fast the suspension would flex so much the body would roll over and touch the asphalt. As it was, with the front suspension squished 6" and the rear axle being bound only, it didn't feel very comfortable.

So, the body moving is just not a big deal as far as I can see. As far as I'm concerned, the axles MUST be tired down on these trucks specifically because of the suspension. Then, if you want to tie the body down because you feel it will somehow cause a problem, help yourself. But as others have said, for those who tie only the frame down, you are just asking to get someone killed if you don't also collapse it into the bump stops. And that's just not reasonable in most cases for these trucks given the lifts, suspension travel, and often very stiff springs. Heck, I've seen LOTS of trailer queens that don't even HAVE functional bump stops, much less something that can keep the suspension from moving when the chassis is tied down. And if it can move, it WILL move, and at best it will hammer everything from the trailer up to your truck on every hard bump, at the worst, it will break something loose, probably at the worst possible time (since that is likely when the peak loads will be delivered).

Your stuff must not move much or you don't tie it down very tight. My chain binders will pull 11" of slack. If I don't have blocks of wood to put in the suspension then I regrab and tie it down tighter. If you compress the suspension 5" chances are it's not going anywhere since that's probably 1000-1500lbs of loading. If I can jump up and down on it with my fat ass and it moves, then it's not tight enough.

My problem with using straps to the axle is:
Most people use 5,000lb or less WLL straps. My chains are the weak link at 6,600LB WLL.
Most people use cheap straps and don't take care of them on top of it. Straps have a finite lifespan, don't like sunlight, hate weather, despise mud, and will cry at the sight of the strap rubbing anything.
People use the straps improperly. The strap either rubs something or goes around something. The only thing on a strap setup that should touch anything are the hooks.
The straps aren't designed to take any dynamic forces. A set of four 3,500lb WLL straps holding down a 5,000LB rig will not like a chuck hole at 35mph. They will stretch. Since the vehicle can move independently of the trailer these forces can be amplified. Chain doesn't stretch.


One of the most amusing things about people that only tie the axles down is that they often are the ones who have their load sliding across the trailer and have to retighten every 100 miles because the vehicle "hops" because the 3500lb body is working against the thousand pounds of force that holds the thousand pounds of axle and tire to the trailer. People who move vehicles for a living use the J and T hooks that go to the frame. I suspect if a truck driver who is liable for moving vehicles and whose welfare relies on the safe transport of automobiles uses frame mounting... there must be a reason.


If you ever see a race car owner hauling off the axles let me know. Every "trailer mile" is worth four "track miles" when you don't tie the vehicle's body down.

 

[mikey_d05]

Yeah, but most auto transporters have systems that allow them to compress the vehicle's suspension to the bump stops very easily and with a chitload of force...and they're hauling 10 vehicles instead of one.

The first long haul I took my rig on was seven hours there and eight back, an hour each way being through a major metropolitan area so there were plenty of quick manuevers and opportunities for the truck to move around. I marked the tires and the trailer before I left and checked the marks periodically as well as the tension of the straps. It didn't move, at all.

If you have a super flexy buggy with ultra soft springs and blown up or lightly valved shocks, I can see the need to tie down the body. But, I see no reason to do so on most of our rigs. All I'd end up doing is breaking or bending things from the rebound caused by it and ****ing my springs over.

 

[jays68yak]

In my 5 plus years of towing crap on my car trailer I have always gone to the axles. Giving most of the stuff I tow doesnt have soft suspension. Up until about a year ago I used nothing but straps. Like mentioned above no one takes care of them, including me. They are starting to wear. I also use the heavier duty ones, IIRC 10000lbs. I have been worring about the straps so I now run 4 straps, and 2 chain binders. 1 binder on each axle. I dont have a problem with it moving at all. A couple years back when I was towing a front wheel drive buick the only place to go on the front was off the frame, it came loose. But a practice that I have been using since I started towing, every time I stop I check to make sure its all tight still.

 

[BadDog]

I see mine moving in the rear view too, so? The truck's suspension is built to soak up bumps, on the trailer, off the trailer, what's the difference as far as the suspension is concerned? But shocks control most of the movement to prevent oscillating and a bit of lean or single jounce is no big deal as far as I can see. I can't imagine driving anything on the trail that "flops around" as bad you say yours does on the trailer going down the road. How do you manage side hills, high speed whoops, "J" turns and other common activities with a rig that "flops around" on a trailer like you say yours does?

And as for wear, adding trailer miles and trail miles together, I'll never reach the wear out point on my shocks or springs, so why worry about that? My daily driver (the tow rig) will see several hundred times the wear, even if you do decide to multiply trailer miles by four (which makes no sense to me anyway). And if you tie it down, everything that was soaked up by the truck suspension is now transmitted to the trailer frame and suspension.

And I still don't know where all you guys get the not "comfortable to drive" stuff. I've towed my pig with 1/2 ton and my current 2500HD on a relatively light trailer (it's fully loaded according to it's rating much of the time) and have never been particularly uncomfortable with it. If I were, I would change my mind… <shrug> And that includes lots of miles including a couple of cross country (East/West) trips.

For tying the body down, I agree that if it moves when you jump on it, it's no where near tight enough to tow. But setting rock solid when you jump on it does not imply "solid" by any means. So it's only a useful test for "reject", not for "pass". We are talking many times over a person's weight, and then add in inertia to increase it far more. I've literally seen/heard a truck that was tied by the axles AND body was pulled down "tight" (it would easily have passed your test) that emitted a huge "BANG" when we hit a dip in the road as the suspension compressed, the chains got slack, and the suspension hammered them back tight.

And I also agree on improper use of straps. Mine are kept out of the sun and in a clean storage when not on the trailer and in use. They are inspected before and after each use for abrasion damage (none yet). And I have dedicated double thick axle loops with wear sleeves. This is the same basic setup used by circle trackers, desert racers, and many others who tow far more than I do. In fact, mine came from a company that supplies desert race and circle trackers specifically, as well as road and rally racers too.

Oh, and with the way you feel about straps, I guess you only run wire rope too? Because winch rope sees much more abuse and suffers from the same potential problems.

On stretching and readjusting, the ONLY time I've had it shift was when I was using chains before the straps. I always check it shortly after pulling out, and at every stop. I have grabbed another notch on the ratchet a few times, but that was just a precaution more than anything because I seemed to feel a bit of slack.

And the major win for straps, they are easier and faster to secure than wrestling heavy chains into place and then booming them down (frequently followed by repeatedly "rebooming" to get it "right"). I can have my straps on and tight, rolling down the road, in about 1/10 the time it took to get my chains in place (and that was without cranking down the body to add even more time). And I did use chains for MANY years (including a car hauler) before I switched, so I'm not fumbling around cluelessly with them.

Oh well, the debate ranges on and after all is said and done, there are still going to be people on each side. For those who have trouble deciding for yourself which way is "safe", I would suggest running both to be safe. Because in the end, that is all that any of this is about anyway…

 

[CyberSniper]

The wheeling rig is really unstable when it has the skinny tires on it. You don't notice it with the big tires as much. I mean, when you're driving it you still feel like it's going to fall over but you can burn donuts in it on dry asphalt. The truck is a foot wider with the big tires.

I tried tying it down by the axles once and it just flopped around. It sucks going down the road and have the oscillation of the rig on the trailer causing the trailer to sway. Probably wouldn't be noticed by a heavy 3/4 ton truck with Load Range E superstiff tires.

By the time I get the 5 chains (use one as a safety chain that goes to the front of the trailer from the bumper... in reality I do it so it doesn't roll off the trailer if I forget to put it in gear... haha.) and 6 binders out... tie it down, and take a nap... it takes about 45 minutes. I hang all the chains first. I then go to the front and use my two lever-type binders to squish the front of the rig down and take the slack out of the rear chains. I then put my ratchet binders on in the front and remove the lever-type binders. I then to go the rear and put two more ratchet chain binders on. Currently, I just squish the front down until it buries itself in the bumpstops. In the rear I squish it down onto blocks of wood between the frame and axle. I keep squishing until either my 20' car hauler starts to bend or the tires are squished. My junk has never moved, not even the last time I took it home and the trailer was covered with ice.

I hauled my friend's YJ one time that has 4.5" spring under leaf springs on it... he tied it via the axle... it towed fine... but the suspension didn't flex like mine does and there was a lot less mass flopping around.

I, personally, would like to use straps if I could afford ones with 6,000lb WLL (18,000lb test) and they lasted longer. But, I'd still go to the frame. If it weren't such a nuissance for me to hook to the axles I'd probably go both to the axles and the frame... use the axles for the main attachment and use something to the frame to keep it from swaying in the breeze. But, going to the axle means I'd have to rethink brakelines and I'd have to buy new stuff. Right now all my chains are the right length for the wheeling rig.

 

[beater_k20]

I think its important to stop and recheck the straps after driving about 10 - 15 miles to make sure everything is still secure. Better safe than sorry. I almost lost my riding mower because a strap had shifted.

agreed. i dropped my '73 C20 off the trailer sideways specifically because i didnt stop to check the chains. fortunately, it didnt come all the way off the trailer. the chain was apparently loose, and shifted somehow. i hit a bump and the drivers side rear chain lost its hold. truck slid off the passenger side of the trailer, resting on the axle tube on the side rail of the trailer. with a little creative jack work (scissor jack for my 93 C2500, jacked it up, then knocked the jack over, moving the truck back into place) i resecured it, and was on my way.

i ALWAYS use criss crossed chains directly to the axle, or lower control arms.

 

[MTMike]

Here it was on it's maiden voyage early last year. This was long before the great 52/56 swap, the trailer rebuild and the tow rig upgrade of 2005

I use 1 big chain & 1 double-looped 10klb ratchet strap on the rear, 1 doublelooped 10klb ratchet on the front, and then pull the winch in on the front.

 

[K30CJ]

Those little blue straps on that big Blazer would scare the hell out of me. I like chains and binders. Big, strong, steel chain. One around each axle at opposite corners to the trailer frame. I also tie off the binder handle. They can pop open. If not having the suspension tied down causes problems, I have to wonder if the tow rig is up to the job. I have towed like that before, when the trailer overpowers the truck - not fun.

 

[Russell]

Chains on my front and rear diffs here, I wouldn't ever consider using just a strap...

I've never compressed my suspension while towing either, sure the truck bounces back there, but you fear its gonna fall off, or shift, then there is one very easy cure -- Slow Down!!

 

[ramjet gmc]

doing some grave diging -- BUT

i use chains and ratchet binders but it is a PITA and takes too long and go to the axel it is tied down but the bounce of the load (k5) make me a little jumpy so i put strap to the body and that look good but i am looking for a better setup -- i was thinking the new 3in straps to the axels and the 2in straps to the body -- and yes i like overkill but it is a safty thing

 

[kyser_soze]

It's this easy; chains around your axels, pumpkins, with binders( you will never have to second guess if they will break) load limit not exceeding. If you have hitch reciever use a 3" ratchet strap aroound your d-ring shackle in the reciever and secure the other to your trailer and compress the rear springs. Never had a problem doing it this way.

Even with the "incident" I had when I first bought the trailer, I "rear loaded" the trailer ( balace was towards the rear), the trailer had very bad sway going 50 mph I was able to get the trailer under controll, the sway was so bad that if I did not have the truck secured properly it literally would have thrown the truck off the trailer.

 

[muddysub]

hmmm i use chains and binders from aone of the heavy haul trucks at work, if they'll hold down a D-9t cat dozer theyll hold down a k5 suburban or pickup.