Car carrier vs Tow Dolly (1 Viewer)

[bosljeff]

Here's the plan


Here are some numbers and ideas. I prefer Penske cuz their stuff isn't crap.

Penske Car Carrier specs
vehicle can't be wider than 79"
Max WB 125"
Max Weight: 4055

Landcruiser w/33s
widest point is under 79"
WB 107.5
Weight 4246 (according to curb weight @ tlc4x4.com)

Should I lose sleep on the weight? I'll go by a scale tomorrow to see truly what it weights now. I'm gonna be pulling it with penske's 26' truck. I had to lie and say it was for a stratus on the purchase to get the carrier so I'm sure I'll be in deep s*** if something goes wrong.

I can rig the tire straps with additional ratchet straps to make them fit, but I don't trust them, so I'll still do the axle strap/ratchet strap suggestions from above.

Thoughts?

 

[Elbert]

straps

here is what I do..notice at the rear...teh passenger side strap could use some better placement at the axle...this is the one that's a little bit of a challenge...since the uhaul is fairly low to the groud you have to get down on your hands and knees and crwal around to hook everythign up.

See pics. one of them is not so good. I'm headed to Harlan, KY tomorrow. In my personal view...don't get this model uhaul trailer (red metal version)...do get the galvanized metal one though, as it works fine.

 

[Elbert]

Part II

I could put strap on the passenger side at the rear ...maybe to the left of the apring hanger...I was a little lazy this afternoon.

 

[Elbert]

I drove this trailer around this afternoon a little to see how it "drives".... end result not-so-good. The newer trailer pictured in one of my previous posts...towed great and had abloute no issues . The one above appears to have been well used and has a few years of service on it.

I would have to say the new u haul dual axle trailers are very well built and I would have no problem owning one if you could buy them (I'm told you can't). I would want one with heavier duty axles.

I'm probally going to buy a PJ brand trailer, with dual axles, dual brakes, 5K plus rated axles, metal deck..etc. I don't want to have any issues with being overloaded. THe land cruiser is right on the edge of being to heavy for the U-haul (depeding on mods, tires, bumpers...whatever esle).

Most of the general car hauler trailers are configured to haul somehting at 5K or less, most only have brakes on one axle.

I avoid catching the brake lines, or breather hoese. The chains are the safety devices for the trailer. The trailer comes with nice tire "tie-downs" for the front two tires, but with 33 ince tires you can't use them as they will not fit around the tire as they should. I guess its your choice to tie down the rear of the truck or not, the uhaul setup just restrains the front two tires, and then you have two saftey chains, one for the front and one for the back. The uhaul trailer has nice d rings as depicted in the pics for your own straps.

 

[Elbert]

Here are some numbers and ideas. I prefer Penske cuz their stuff isn't crap.

Penske Car Carrier specs
vehicle can't be wider than 79"
Max WB 125"
Max Weight: 4055

Landcruiser w/33s
widest point is under 79"
WB 107.5
Weight 4246 (according to curb weight @ tlc4x4.com)

Should I lose sleep on the weight? I'll go by a scale tomorrow to see truly what it weights now. I'm gonna be pulling it with penske's 26' truck. I had to lie and say it was for a stratus on the purchase to get the carrier so I'm sure I'll be in deep **** if something goes wrong.

I can rig the tire straps with additional ratchet straps to make them fit, but I don't trust them, so I'll still do the axle strap/ratchet strap suggestions from above.

Thoughts?

Secure the truck as noted in my pics if you have the equipment. Otherwise do teh best you can. Put truck in gear and engage parkking brake. I would not be concerned about the truck at all. Very minor issue with weight. As noted above the "new" dual axle uhaul trailers are very nice.

 

[Elbert]

new uhaul car trailer.

I took some pics of teh new style trailer the other day (forgot about that) Uhaul.

See pic of the weight tag, plus two other misc shots.. The trailer below was great..I used it to go from my home in AL to the Land between the Lakes and back...without issue. Tracked very well. The older trailer not so great...

This is the trailer I refer to as the galvanized metal version...this is the one to use.

 

[bosljeff]

This one doesn't look like it has any D rings. What are you going to do to secure the ratchet straps? Just wrap them around a cross beam or something?

I took some pics of teh new style trailer the other day (forgot about that) Uhaul.

See pic of the weight tag, plus two other misc shots.. The trailer below was great..I used it to go from my home in AL to the Land between the Lakes and back...without issue. Tracked very well. The older trailer not so great...

 

[Mace]

I could put strap on the passenger side at the rear ...maybe to the left of the apring hanger...I was a little lazy this afternoon.

Your criss cross isea is kind of a good one. As long as you only do it for one end.

If you do it on both sides you can potentially allow the car to "roll" off of the trailer during a hard corner (emergency).


I am also not a fan of chains, although lots of people use and love them.

 

[skipdup]

My .02...
I tow my race car a lot. I've seen a lot of strap down methods.
Couple words of advice (take for what it's worth)...
Make sure you have enough strap wrapped around the ratchet. I prefer three or four.
New straps stretch (ask me how I know). Check them frequently (like each fill-ups).
Your load will (likely) settle, loosening the straps. Check/re-tighten after your first few miles.
Cross your straps (front & rear) - inhibits side-to-side movement.
Attach straps in front of and behind vehicle (not under) - inhibits front to rear movement.
Use straps, not chains. You want a little "give".
I do not leave in gear - movement has damaged transmission by constant back and forth movement. Shouldn't move, but sometime it does. YMMV.
I DO set emergency brake!!
I like to attach to chassis on my race car -- don't want any additional cycles on suspension and seems to tow better (which methos is a huge debate in the racing community). But I would likely use axle straps for LC based on convienience.

Again, my .02 based on lessons learned.

- Skip

 

[bosljeff]

My .02...
I tow my race car a lot. I've seen a lot of strap down methods.
Couple words of advice (take for what it's worth)...
Make sure you have enough strap wrapped around the ratchet. I prefer three or four.
New straps stretch (ask me how I know). Check them frequently (like each fill-ups).
Your load will (likely) settle, loosening the straps. Check/re-tighten after your first few miles.
Cross your straps (front & rear) - inhibits side-to-side movement.
Attach straps in front of and behind vehicle (not under) - inhibits front to rear movement.
Use straps, not chains. You want a little "give".
I do not leave in gear - movement has damaged transmission by constant back and forth movement. Shouldn't move, but sometime it does. YMMV.
I DO set emergency brake!!
I like to attach to chassis on my race car -- don't want any additional cycles on suspension and seems to tow better (which methos is a huge debate in the racing community). But I would likely use axle straps for LC based on convienience.

Again, my .02 based on lessons learned.

- Skip

Awesome advice. Thanks.


https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/381230-how-trailer-60-a.html

 

[Mace]

Again, if you cross the straps, you are not preventing the truck from rolling off of a trailer in a hard corner.

 

[bosljeff]

I agree. Since the Penske I'm looking at doesn't appear to have any reliable D ring anchor points I'll have to wrap straps around cross beams so I can't do the X anyway. If I do, the straps will slip centrally on the beam so...

 

[Man Jerk]

I towed my wagon 1000 miles a day on a dolly. The wagon had 35's so I swapped the fronts with some junk tires I got from a friend. I had no issues even at 70 mph. I towed it behind a 32' Penske.

 

[slcfj62]

Car haulers don't strap down the axles. They connect the tie down straps to the frame and suck the body down on the suspension. This keeps the body from bouncing and leaning the whole trip. On a short trip, it wouldn't much matter, but going cross country you might want to consider tying down to the frame.

 

[bosljeff]

Hmmm....good argument too. Dammit, there's always differing opinions. Why can't things just be black and white?

 

[skipdup]

to lash sprun or unsprung is a never ending debate. both side make (to me) equally good arguments. i choose sprung for reasons that are not applicaple to a LC.
don't worry about it - either will be fine and you'll likely not know the difference.

 

[Elbert]

I agree....one might need to consider the impact of "x-ing" the straps on both the front and back. One thing that's not that noticeable in the pics is the fact that there is a saftey chain on the drivers side front axle and on the passenger side rear axle.

If you wanted to pull straight down then you probally would want a different configuration of ratchet strap than what I suggested.

It might be best to pull straight down at the heavy front end (engine end) and "x" the straps at the rear, and then of course use the safety chains as well. I think I will do that in the future. Of course with the bigger tires you cannot use the built in tire-tie-downs that are made into the trailer, unless you modified them, but even then I don't think they would grab the larger tires correctly.

 

[Casca]

I load lots of stuff on C-130's, including vehicles. We go 3g's forward, 1.5g's side to side and 2g's aft. The chains or straps we use are rated for 10k lbs. There is a formula to figure out it's true capacity based on length and angle, but we just go ahead and call it 75%, or 7500lbs.

What I do to figure out how much restraint I need for forward (that is, the pull that keeps the vehicle from going forward when you apply the brake...on the plane) is the weight of the vehicle x 3. So if it weighs 6,000lbs, I'd need 18,000lbs of restraint which is three chains/straps, but since we use even amounts of chains or straps (never mix....they stretch different), we go with 4 chains/straps. That will take care of the forward restraint.

Aft restraint is less (a C130 stops alot harder then it goes forward...you might have to emergency stop, but unlikely emergency drive forward...unless zombies are after you...damn zombies!) just x2. Lateral restraint....if you crisscross all the chains or have them pulling at angles, then lateral restraint will be fine. Never use a straight pull. Generally, I put half the restraint on the frame and half on the axle ....each set of chains/straps mirroring each other.

Basically

vehicle weight:

x3 for forward
x2 for aft
x1.5 side to side

your chain/straps x .75 for its restraint capacity devided into the multipled vehicle weight you came up with above to figure how many chains/straps.

I don't think you need this much restraint, but maybe that gives a good idea on what will be safe. C-130's loaded with vehicles have crashed......and the vehicle/s remained secure through it all.

 

[bosljeff]

I took some pics of teh new style trailer the other day (forgot about that) Uhaul.

See pic of the weight tag, plus two other misc shots.. The trailer below was great..I used it to go from my home in AL to the Land between the Lakes and back...without issue. Tracked very well. The older trailer not so great...

Yeah, called Uhaul and asked what the difference is between the two trailers you have used. This is fine print on their site: "Note: outside tire width over 75" must use late-model

• U-Haul Auto Transport (identifiable by silver galvanized color)."

That explains why you liked the silver one over the red one. The operator said the red one, not necessarily newer or older, is rated for less weight and size. She said if I want the bigger one, specifically request the "7.5K one."

Which also lines up with the your first silver one you used, it states its max is 7500....

I'll be damned, it all makes sense other than Uhaul charging more, having ****py equipment and nearly killing a 'Mud member and his daughter.

 

[Elbert]

IF I could buy the galvanized trailer I would.... it tows great, has multiple tie down options, and is made very well in my view. I'm told Uhaul makes their own products. Until I can buy a trailer I will only be using the trailer pictured above.

I'm not a big fan of the surge brakes, but they do work, and are not dependent on the towing vehicle to have the brake controler or 7pin trailer setup.

As stated above...I had absoutley no problems from the "gray" trailer... I think you can see from teh pics its very well made.