Gary W Clem

I have a 24ft enclosed featherlight trailer that I would like to haul my corvette in. I would like to find out what is the proper way to tie it down, also should the car be backed in the trailer to minimize tong weight. I am not to concerned about the cost of special tie down gear, I want the car to be secured, and safe for towing. I will be toeing this trailer with a 36.5 foot motor home, so I will have 60ft of equipment going down the road. I also would like to put a Harley/Davidson in the front of the trailer if possible. This is the reason I asked if the car should be backed in to keep the engine weight over the trailer axles. Any advice from people who have done this type of hauling would be greatly appreciated.

gota07

I'm not sure about any good tie down locations, but as far as backing in the car as opposed to driving it in forward, there is no real benefit to backing it in. The front to rear weight ratio is 51/49 which means there is aprox. the same amount of weight distributed to front wheels as there is on the rear ones. The best way to get the car's weight centered over the trailers axials would be to position car so that the midpoint between the vette's front and rear axials are centered as close as possible to the midpoint between the trailer's front and rear axials. You could also consider adjusting the car forward or rearward to compensate for the bike or other gear.

E Stumpff

I use a trailer to take my vettes on long trips in bad weather and I have found the following to work pretty well.

The C5 and C6 have slots in the frame were you normally place the jack. Buy the proper type of hook to fit in these slots and some nylon tie downs. Then hook the tie downs to the trailer floor near the front and rear of the trailer and tighten. Keeps the car centered where you placed it. To be double safe I also put straps around each tire and cinch them down to ensure nothing moves. To easily tie down the ties you will have to attach some E-track to the floor of your trailer where the wheels of the car will normally be located. Then use nylon tie downs and E-track adaptors to cinch down the tires.

Look here for the parts you need: http://www.snappinturtle.com/products6.htm

I've put a lot of miles on my trailer with vettes tied down this way without any problems.

jeffyhog

Much of this will depend on the location of the tie-downs or eyelets provided in the trailer. The trailer may have multiple attachment points for a variety of load types, or it may have mounting points only in the outward locations for a single vehicle, depending on the purpose for which the trailer was built. The best way to determine the positioning of the H-D and the Vette would be to load the trailer as you intend to tow it, measure the tongue weight, adjust the corvette to balance the load, then determine the length of your straps and positioning of any additional mounting points you may need to add. The fact that the Harley will be in the very front puts an automatic 600 to 800 lb weight bias on the front end of the trailer, depending whether your talking Softail or Ultra Classic. If the Corvette is centered over the trailer wheels, that weight bias will be reduced only slightly. Move it back six inches, and the weight bias will be reduced more dramatically, but I think you will run out of room very quickly. It depends on the trailer hitch you are using, but I would suspect that a motorhome of this size would be able to handle a tongue weight of several hundred pounds.

shopdog

I'd worry a bit about depending on the the body jacking locations as good tie down points. While they can support the car's static weight, they aren't really designed to withstand a vertical pull when the car bounces on a rough road. I think it is better to tie the car down in such a way that its suspension can fully work to absorb jouncing around. In other words, boom the car down using the lower A arms and/or wheels as the tie points.

E Stumpff

When the factory ships the cars those are the spots that are used - and they are drawn down so there is little or no action from the suspension. I don't think strength is an issue. You need to pull the car down against the suspension to take out most of the movement out of the suspension. I don't like to have a car bouncing around on its own suspension when trailering - all that movement tends to loosen things up. Maybe my own personal preference but it works for me. There are probably 1,000 different ways to tie a car down - I've even seen cars with tie down straps placed through the wheels. So whatever rows your boat and gets you there with the car still in the trailer.

ED