Also, DON'T TWIST YOUR STRAPS. As seen on your right-rear wheel. The straps are tested, and rated, in a straight pull. Twisted straps reduces the strength of the strap.
After months of searching youtube, I finally get a perspective of an 8.5w enclosed trailer with f150 standard mirrors...also with use of extensions. Was dreading converting to tow mirrors. Extremely great coverage of the setup!
This is a very good video for the novice as well as the intermediate trailer tower. One part I don't agree on is the method of strapping down your car. Strapping through the tires allows the body to bounce which is very similar to the car driving down the road. This means if you have a car with 20K miles and you tow it 20K miles you have now put 40K miles on the struts and shocks - unnecessary wear and tear on your struts and shocks. If you strap it down at the body you have now eliminated that wear; your body isn't bouncing and your struts and shocks aren't suffering wear. Just my 2 cents. Great video!
As a truck driver I can't tell you how many times I've seen trailers jacknife and get away from people due to poor vehicle balance. Nice to see you try to inform the public about this
I like how much difference there is between towing in murica and europe.... in europe most ppl use like a station wagon with a 2l i4 diesel to pull those kinda weights and at most we use a bus like a mercedes sprinter. Gotta admit that pick ups are a lot more common nowadays but still most ppl tow stuff with simple golfs n stuff
Hehe, yeah, pickup plus a heavy trailer seems a bit overkill for a track day car. My tow car at the moment have a 895cc engine, only tow my small trailer up to 1200kg with it though, works great. Not very merican though :) Europe is a different place, you wouldn't even be allowed to tow that weight on a normal driving license :)
Awesome video as always, but I feel that you left out one important aspect of towing. Tire pressures of the trailer and truck. I would also suggest that you keep maintenance of trailer up to date. Bearings failing with your race car attached is not good.
Best way to judge it with out tech is to look at the tyres and if one is more flat than the other move the weight away from it, you should have both your tyres evenly weighted
Thank you so much for making this. I don't tow currently, but as I would like to get into racing down the future, I'll inevitably have to tow at some point, which I know little about. But now, I know more than I previously did 😊 I just hope the Diesel Colorados will drop in price at some point so I can afford one. They're stupid expensive
Great advice! One more tip- Make sure your trailer is reasonably level! If you are using a tow bar, it needs to be reasonably level too! I almost wrecked my cars because of this. I was pulling my 04 Civic with my 05 Civic, but my tow bar was way lower on my tow car's hitch then on the car I was towing, so it was pushing my tow car all over the road and trying to pick up the back when accelerating. Even worse, I could barely stop because the tow bar was pushing the back of my car down when braking and picking up the front end, so I had no traction to stop. I almost got into an accident when my front wheels locked up when braking and I got pushed into an intersection! Never thought about the angle of the tow bar, but that is certainly a mistake I will never make again! Adjustable hitches exist for a reason folks!
One more thing to ad, make sure the engine weight is on the side of the tow hook, which means that cars with rear engine or mid mounted engine have to be reversed on the trailer. The reason is: it's easier to control the mass of the trailer in case of snaking
Might have been good to also mention truck payload as that is affected by tongue weight (or if going further, GVWR/GAWR/GCWR). I know current Platinum or Limited F-150's have quite a bit lower limit for payload due to increased content inside the vehicle. 1000lbs of tongue weight will be a large chunk of that, plus anything in the bed, passengers, driver etc so good to keep it lower at 670-725lbs like you did.
Tell your friend Mark to upgrade from a chain style weight distribution to a trunnion style like an E2 or Equalizer. Much better hitch for sway control.
Man I’m jealous of your country. In the UK if you passed your test after 1997 you can only tow a maximum train weight of 7700 pounds. That’s truck, trailer and race car! You have to take a test if you want to tow more.
Not sure about it being preferable to strap by the wheels vs the unsprung axles/control arms vs the sprung chassis itself. So many different opinions out there on that topic.
I’ve towed a 10,000-11,000 pound G23 (depending on ballast and gas), behind my F150 with a regular hitch no issue. Farthest I’ve gone is 5 hours with it, but I’ve really had no need to get a weight distribution tongue tbh. Not sure how much different it is with cars and enclosed trailers.
That's weird. In the EU tongue weight should be between 50-80 kilos, regardless of trailer weight. We also have to do extra exams / driving to be able to tow anything over 750kg.
“need to tow our car” .. I drove my miata to the track some time out of state for 5 years otter 3-5 hours away tracked it for 1-3 hours and then drove it home get the right car don’t over build it and have road side assistance haha . Balling on a budget
I love your system in the USA. I‘m from Germany and I have a manual car(1300€), bike(1600€) and trailer license(500€). I‘m kinda jealous, but at least I know how tow!
Thats not my Point. I meant its funny that some need those Information from RU-vid, bescause you don‘t have to learn that stuff, before you are allowed to tow some serious weight.
4:27 I’ve been putting the rubber part with teeth on the floor and the part that curved up towards the wheels. I guess I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time
Recomendation buy a 2wd 2nd gen ram 96-98 12v Or 01-02 24v 12v is rayed at 13500 lbs 24v is rated at 14000-15000 lbs I get 24-26 mpg hwy with mine and they severly overbuilt it and can handle 18k Pop some rv275 injectors 4 inch straight pipe new air box go cheap bhaf or go expensive s&b) And an edge tuner keep it on an easy 60-120hp tune which will boost ya somewhere round 800 ft lbs all in all Then badda bing badda boom reliable truck with enough power to do anything ya need and decent efficiency and decent reliability Also do a gooseneck hitch\trailer tows better then conveniently Or do the v10 option if you want power and 10mpg because your a wimp who thinks diesels are to smelly and loud for you to own ... 🙃 11k lbs towing
Damn I’m struggling to save up for a sports car and now I gotta buy a nice truck and a trailer and all that extra stuff to make sure I’m doing it all safe... what do you guys do for a living??
My #1 advice? Learn how to back up your trailer, straight line, near side and blind side. Not every place you will go to will be a pull through. Nothing more annoying seeing someone with expensive trucks, trailers, and cars but can't even back into a space. I'm wrong? Go to a boat ramp during the summer and see how many people can't control their trailer while backing up. It's comical but it's sad.
You wanna know what's hilarious? I just bought a 2006 Nissan Armada SE two days ago so I could tow my Z and Genesis around for track days. Video was right on time gents. lol
So....I substract the tongue weight from my car's carrying capacity and thats how much I can load IN my car? Besides the towing capacity is how much I can pull besides the carrying capacity?
depending on your vehicle on the door should be a sticker stating a GVW or gross vehicle weight. that usually is the max you can haul with that vehicle.
We have a ‘12 Pilot in the family and we have had it ever since we bought it brand new and it’s still running strong at over 120k miles This video really helps me out when I am now starting to do a bit of work with the Pilot Thank you guys for this video and keep it going🔥
I personally disagree. I use the tow hooks on the vehicle - that is after all what they are made for. Besides I would hate to scratch my wheels with hooks.
