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I tie the car down, put the parking brake on and put the transmission in reverse. That way I have 3 things (triple redundancy) keeping the car from rolling off the trailer. The transmission isn't going to be damaged if the first two items work as intended since the car will not be turning the rear wheels. However, if there is a failure of the first two items the choice is a damaged transmission (unlikely) or a major incident while driving down the highway at 70 mph. I know I would rather pay for a damaged transmission Vs all the bad things that could happen if the car came off the trailer.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (track prepared)
C3 of Year Winner (track prepared) 2019
I tend to leave in neutral with parking brake on. The idea behind not leaving it in gear is so that as the car moves in the trailer, you are not straining the gears (same goes for automatic.) The first thing I do when I go to unload it reach in and slap it into 1st gear just as a precaution so I don't end up with a run away car. I don't think it should ultimately matter whether left in gear or neutral. Your tie down point also will dictate how much suspension bounce you get going down the road. If you are using the frame hooks, you'll put the suspension under tension so it does not move as much. If you are using tire or frame wraps, the car is free to float on the trailer.
Just make sure whatever method or process you do, you do that same procedure each and every time so you don't catch yourself making a costly mistake when unloading.
And after loading the car onto/into your trailer, make sure you turn off the motion sensor, or you'll probably have the horn honking at you as soon as you start towing.
From the Owner's Manual:
Intrusion and Inclination
Sensors Disable Switch
It is recommended that the intrusion
and inclination sensors be
deactivated if pets are left in the
vehicle or the vehicle is being
transported.
I tie the car down, put the parking brake on and put the transmission in reverse. That way I have 3 things (triple redundancy) keeping the car from rolling off the trailer. The transmission isn't going to be damaged if the first two items work as intended since the car will not be turning the rear wheels. However, if there is a failure of the first two items the choice is a damaged transmission (unlikely) or a major incident while driving down the highway at 70 mph. I know I would rather pay for a damaged transmission Vs all the bad things that could happen if the car came off the trailer.
Bill, do you tie down from the chassis or to the wheels (or axle on a straight-axle car)?
Tieing down from the chassis puts all the suspension work on the trailer, but tieing down from the wheels, while it allows the car's suspension to absorb the road, means the load is bouncier then... I've always tied down to the wheels/suspension so that car's springs and shocks are still active, myself, but don't know the "right" way.
Random tips: cross the tie-downs (like an X) so they they hold the car laterally too. Never use a car cover on flat bed in motion.
Bill, do you tie down from the chassis or to the wheels (or axle on a straight-axle car)?
Tieing down from the chassis puts all the suspension work on the trailer, but tieing down from the wheels, while it allows the car's suspension to absorb the road, means the load is bouncier then... I've always tied down to the wheels/suspension so that car's springs and shocks are still active, myself, but don't know the "right" way.
Random tips: cross the tie-downs (like an X) so they they hold the car laterally too. Never use a car cover on flat bed in motion.
Agree on lots of opinions. I tie down from the wheels; cross the rears and straight on the fronts. Lot of people feel you should not cross the fronts on Corvettes.
Car in neutral (C7 M7) and no e-brake. I prefer the car to move freely within the straps albeit minimal to no movement. No strain on brake or trans. I can tell from the mirrors if the car was to move. I guess e-brake is easier to replace than the trans.
I think like this...If straps are a tad loose, then car is still safe, but trans and/or e-brake will be working the whole time to keep the car from moving. IMO almost more important are the strap tensions if using "backup safety options"..
Bill, do you tie down from the chassis or to the wheels (or axle on a straight-axle car)?
Tieing down from the chassis puts all the suspension work on the trailer, but tieing down from the wheels, while it allows the car's suspension to absorb the road, means the load is bouncier then... I've always tied down to the wheels/suspension so that car's springs and shocks are still active, myself, but don't know the "right" way.
Random tips: cross the tie-downs (like an X) so they they hold the car laterally too. Never use a car cover on flat bed in motion.
I tie down the chassis and cross the straps front and rear. I want the car as restrained on the trailer as possible. I want to keep the bouncing to a minimum. Not because of potential damage to the drive train but because I think the trailer is safer to tow if the load isn't bouncing around. You hit a large bump in the highway at 75 mph you want the tow vehicle and trailer to just go through it with minimal bouncing. If the car isn't tied down the trailer will move around more and if you are unlucky enough you might hit a common resonant frequency where the two reinforce their bouncing.
I fasten the straps tight and after a few miles of bouncing down the highway I pull over and check to make sure they are tight. I have been trailering my cars since 1992 by tieing them down using the chassis and haven't had a problem with an ebrake or transmission because of doing it this way. I did have one incident where I forgot to lock the two front tie down straps and they came loose. 35 miles of bumpy road to an autocross site and the car hadn't moved even though the straps would have pulled out if it had. I was very glad I used the PB and put the transmission in reverse.
Bill
Last edited by Bill Dearborn; 02-21-2017 at 07:35 PM.
I just learned from watching flatbed tow truck drivers haul my junk when I was a kid, but what works for a C6500 flatbed may not work for a trailer :-)
I tie down with a lasso through the wheels. This way, the straps are not handling a force they aren't meant to deal with as they have no elasticity. The combined weight of the truck, trailer, and cars is over 21,300 so the cars bouncing an inch is not a big deal. I think you run the risk of breaking the strap from popping as the suspension will still cycle since you can't fully compress the springs.
I set the parking brake and put it in neutral. Here are the various combinations I've tried on the Z and my opinion.
T-hooks in the frame. You pretty much have to cross front and rear in this case as there is no straight shot to a tie down point. The reality though is that the suspension still moves a lot more than you think. Most of the force is lateral and very little is actually pulling down. I used to use the T/J-hooks that had multiple types on the ends on the main loop. I actually had the suspension bounce enough that the car drove one of the loose J-hooks through the plywood floor of the trailer. The biggest downside to this method is fishing the straps under the car and finding the holes without catching a carbon fiber shard in your arm from the side skirts.
Over the tire straps with rubber blocks. I like this method on an open trailer but on an enclosed trailer it's near impossible to get hooked up since you need to get next to the car and in front of the rear/behind the front tires which is hard with as wide as the Z is. The other downside is that you need E-track running directly under the wheels. However this is what I've seen professional transporters use since nothing touches the car.
Straps through the wheels. I've used this but one problem is that I'm afraid the wheel will rotate and the tension will loosen. A lot of this is crap shoot with how your wheels are positioned relative to the spokes when the car is on the trailer. The other downside is scratching your rims. Finally, nothing like trying to do this when you've just come off track and the brakes are hot as heck. I wouldn't cross these as you're pulling the wheels toe in.
Straps through the suspension. I've used them either through the lower control arms or around the sway bar inside the mounting brackets. This works in the rear but in the front there are too many deflectors and such on the C7Z. Wheel straps in the front and suspension straps in the rear is how I did the C7Z in the enclosed trailer for a while. Again I don't cross these.
I just picked up a new open trailer and was going to use the over the wheel straps but the airline track is in the wrong place. So I'm back to using T-hooks. HTH
I did this for years in towing back when... In park, in gear with parking brake on.
Tying it down with T hooks has to be just right or they will fall out when a big dip or pot hole appears in the road.
Having the suspension depressed in this situation makes for that 'bounce' to happen. If you do this criss cross the traps like an 'X' back, then front.
Get wheel straps the kind that looks like a basket strap. It goes over the top of each tire back and front then they tie to the bed of the trailer.
The car jiggles but won't move.
Sure are a lot of opinions. I use the 4 j-hooks on the frame method, criss-crossed front and back. I used straps on all 4 hooks, but I think it would be better to use chains in the rear and redundant straps on the front.
I haven't towed the Corvette yet. When/if I do, I'll go through the wheels with straps, once everything is connected but not tight, I put in neutral then tighten the straps. Never have used the parking brake. I towed my Roush Mustangs back and forth to Michigan using this method. 1,200 miles each way. I just check the straps when I make my pit stops on the way.
I tow my 32 quite a bit and hook to the wheelie bar mounts in the rear and the axle in the front. The wheels don't have "windows" large enough to pass the straps through. Again, car is in neutral and no e-brake (it doesn't have one).
Last edited by Jus Cruisin; 02-22-2017 at 10:25 AM.
I think it's a bad idea to keep it on gear. It's not the weight of the car that would damage the gear, but constant vibration from the road and the trailer. The gear surfaces will keep hitting each other.
Regarding tie-downs, I usually tie down the wheels. Since the suspension is free to move, any sudden jump, etc. due to road surface issues would be terminated by the car's suspension. After all, trailers don't usually have suspension shocks.
My wheels are 12-spoke. If the angle of the spokes is not good for the tie down, I wrap it around 2 spokes, which ends up centering it.
Tire blow out doing 80 mph. Pretty close to a 360 with truck. Slight damage to truck, trailer, winch, and Camaro but we all survived. Back on the road 3 hours later.
Yikes!!!! Glad everything stayed upright with very little damage!!
I wish I could put runflats on my truck and trailer! Or at least I wish my truck TPMS displayed the tire temperatures like the C7 does. I bet there was a buildup of temperature as that tire got up to the blowout point.
I at least have tire pressure sensors in my trailer tires - and it does show temperature as well as pressure, so hopefully I'll know if a tire is having an impeding problem before it catastrophically blows. I can watch the tire pressures as well as temperatures - won't guarantee you can't have an unexpected blowout, but if you start losing pressure in a tire, or start getting overly high temp in one, you can stop and investigate.
My trailer has tire pressure sensors that go in the wheels in a similar fashion that the sensors are mounted in our cars, and they transmit pressure and temperature to a receiver in a display unit you mount in your tow vehicle. I mounted my display unit in an empty cubby hole on the dash of my F150 and it looks like an OE gauge:
You can see that it can be set to alternate between pressures and temperatures of my 4 trailer tires. Here is the pressure display:
And here it is displaying temperatures:
As I said, mine has sensors that are mounted in the tires like our Vette sensors are mounted, which requires the tire sidewall to be broken loose for the sensor to be installed. But some of the systems have transmitters in valve stem caps so it would be very easy to install them.
I like my system very much!!
Last edited by BEZ06; 08-05-2017 at 10:46 PM.
Reason: replaced unviewable photobucket pics
Lots of good info here. Thanks everyone. Getting ready to haul to Carlisle in a couple weeks. I can strap my other car in with my eyes closed, but the even lower sitting vette will be more challenging. I'll drive up on ramps now and see if I can find some accessible locations on the frame for my straps
02-21-2017, 08:41 AM
Trailering question for M7 please
Glad everything stayed upright with very little damage!!
