I'm using an electric winch on a trailer for the first time. When you line up the car on the ramps and hook up the winch to the tow eye do you: A) Lock the steering wheel (Key off) B) Unlock the steering wheel C) Does not matter..
Frank - when hoisting it up - I leave the steering wheel unlocked - so I can guide it if needed - with little tweaks as necessary. Once it is up I lock it up, leave it in first with the parking break on...
Thnx Richard - Just did a trip MIA-PHX-MIA in under 4 days to go pick up this trailer. Way cool trailer...all custom built..even the rivets are aluminum! 14 D rings, 2 sets extended ramps giving you over 10 feet of ramp.. Never seen anything like it before. My concern is that the winch is centered on the trailer. The tow eye bolt is off center, about even with the driver's seat.... so when you crank it up, it will pull the car toward the right....and right off the ramps. Seems if the steering wheel is locked it can only go straight and evenly up the ramps. I'm going to pull her on for the first time in the morning. So, whats bad about locking the wheel? I can't see how it can hurt anything. Also - On old FChat I remember reading not to leave the car in 1st when towing because it will rock the gears and it's better to leave in 2nd or in neutral. Don't know the validity of that shool of thought, but I just want to pass it along...
I would like to know also, been looking for an enclosed trailer for some time now, so many to choose from with a large price range....
It was a one time deal I could not pass up. Fellow FChatter, Matin, brokered a deal on a 360 Challenge car and the buyer did not need the trailer. It's brand new and was only used one time. That's why I did a cannon ball run to pick it up!
You can try C&C, they advertise in Cavallino and have sent me a brochure in the past. Looks like quality trailer. 888-454-8350
Leave the wheel unlocked! That little motor is not going to pull your car to the side, trust me. It is the front end alinement that determines where your car is headed. If you are really worried about it, get an extension for the winch and walk next to the car as it goes in. I would spend more time working on getting the toe weight correct with the car in the trailer. All the best Chris
You may be able to use a good strong pulley hooked to one of the "D" rings to move the pull point to the side you need it.
Thanks everyone...unlocked it is... chris - yes, the control has a long chord...I can walk along side of car while operating... Ok how about this...winch is 2 way (fwd and rev). What about taking car off trailer? Tilt the nose of the trailer up and winch down?
F355, I trailer my 348 only and always get the car on/off with a winch. You need to have proper tongue weight to reduce sway in your rig. I have towed for a long time and long distances. Here are my tips: 1) Do not use the tow eye in the front. It is not well anchored to the chassis. Others have had these bend. These are perfect for pulling the car off the track when in the dirt etc.. Do not...DO NOT winch the tow eye and lock the car down on the trailer. Some owners have caused car damge as the suspension loads and unloads and all the stress is on the tow eye. 2) Further do not lock the car down by frame. Tie the car down by the wheels or via the suspension a-arms so the car frame can bounce freely 3) leave out of gear parking brake on is o.k. 4) use wheel chocks to help lock your load on the trailer**** This IMO is a must. Once you use wheel chocks you will never be without them. Your load stays put and your tiedown straps don't get stretched and they last longer. 5) use 4 proper rated tiedowns one per corner 6) put the car on the trailer ass end first makes for better tongue weight and less sway 7) use a brake controler not surge brakes. brake controler also give you the added benefit of braking the trailer and not the tow rig. This helps to stop sway. 8)dual axle trailers only 9)"D" rated tires 10) tow rigs tow best with huge overkill. My suburban is setup to tow 12,000lbs and I tow 5,000lbs so the rig feels like nothing is there so the truck handles well and wind does nothing to me. 11) There are cutouts on the rear frame submember you can hook your winch up to. The car will not be pulled sideways but you do need to watch how the cable is wrapped on the drum. It can bunch but becareful not to over do it. 12) do not lock the steering you need to adjust as you go up the ramps. 13) winching the car up backwards is harder than going forward but forward causes a heavy trailer rear and you get more sway. 14) make sure your tow rig is level either by load leving suspension or weight distribution hitch with sway control. 15) long wheelbase tow vehicles are better than short even if the tow capacities are the same. IMO Towing with a 1/2 ton truck is lame. Once you have tried a 3/4 ton or 1 ton you will agree with me.
Fatbillybob - You da man. A few points. 1. I pull a 10K lb boat with my vehicle..I'm OK with vehicle, hitch, etc. I agree with your points. 2. Have brake modulator in cab, 2 axle elec brakes, break a way switch, radial tires, etc. 3. Have Tie Down straps rated 10K each. Will go through rims, not frame. I'm just new to a winch. Like the idea of going in rear first for weight distribution. Will have to look for the cut outs on the submember...I know parts of the submember on a 355 are weak and bend if you use them as a jacking point. What about removing the car, I assume you don't use the winch and drive it off going forward?
F355, Actually, I winch off and tilt my bed with the front trailer jack. I do this since I have to winch out to winch back on later and it is less of a pain that climbing in the car and driving it down the ramps. I like to watch the car up and down on the ramps. You see once I was dumb and a ramp had cocked. The car almost fell as the ramp was just hanging on my a small lip of metal. Can you think what a pain it would be with two wheels on the bed one on the ramp and the other dangling in the air?
I was thinking about jacking the front of the trailer also to winch down. Looked long and hard today. Under the 355 there are no cut outs I could find on the rear subframe. There's a cross member, but they bend if you try to jack the car up on it, so won't hook it there. The only thing I can think of is to "loop" the hook around the subframe...should be OK I hope. If anyone here has winched a 355 from the rear I would appreciate your comments. Sent a PM to Rob and he drives his 355 up.
FL355, Sorry I have a 348. My subassembly has two large cutouts I can hook onto. They are within 6 inches of the tail of the large frame rails by the crossmember. If you really do not have them on the 355 you can Weld a eye onto the framerail. You can also contruct a new crossmember from tubes going in a v shape to protect the hanging clutch bellhouse. On the point of the v you weld the eye. I have seen this style of crossmenber on one Ferrari racecar and one day I'll make one. You can attach any number of eyes like the Porsche guys do.See http://p-car.com/products/tiedown/
Yes, no holes. Need to clear bellhouse and the diffusers as well. No problem. I live about 15 minutes away from Shelton and the service techs know me well. I'll swing by this morning and see what they suggest. Thanks for your input. You helped me avoid the mistake of using the tow eye. Best Rgds FL
Youve well covered the art of towing - but heres a small tip. If you tow a car for say 3,000 miles, the tires, engine and transmission do zero miles - BUT the suspension components drive the full distance. If your car is set up for racing just open up the bump and rebound valves on the shock absorbers, otherwise theyll be knackered in no time. Kram
F355, It is not a mistake using the tow eye. In fact 355ch has one front one rear. The problem is when you use that point as a tiedown as opposed to a winch point. You see the 355 is just a bunched of boxed frame sheet steel. It is strong and light but areas cannot take repeat pounding like the car trying to move on the trailer over bumps. The best tiedown is to tie suspension and let the car swing free. You may be able to use this: http://www.awdirect.com/awdirect/catalog.cfm?dest=itempg&itemid=9940&secid=92&linkon=subsection&linkid=411
Well ....I just did it for the first time. God, I LOVE THE WINCH! All went smooth as butter. Walked along the side with remote. Perfect! Went rear end first. Saturday I'm going to do about 30 freeway miles to feel handling. Then hit a shopping center and try her nose first and do another 30 miles to compare. I sent a PM to Rob and he said sometimes nose first, sometimes tail first, depending on the trailer and tow vehicle he uses. The 355 is nearly 50/50 weight distribution and rear first puts the center of balance in front to the trailer wheels (better forward than backward). I think that if she goes in nose first the center of gravity of the car will be right over the trailer wheels. Anyhow, it will be fun finding out. Mucho grass for all the help and insight. That's what FChat is all about. Gees I'm all warm and fuzzy now... Thanks again / have a good weekend ya'll.
F355, You can take all the guess out by knowing the weight of trailer and car. Then take 10 to 15% of that weight and that is what you want on the tongue when you tow. 15% at the tongue gives you less sway. Use your bathroom scale and about 4 ft 2x2 or 2x6. Then prop one end of the wood on your scale center and the other end on the cement floor. Put the trailer nose jack about 1/3rd the way from the cement floor. Take your weight and multiple by 3 thats your tongue weight.
Billybob - Thanks never thought of doing it that way...I know you should be at 10-15%. The only comment I want to add is that the car was not 100% straight on the trailer, off to one side by about an inch or so. When doing it by yourself it's hard to see both sides of the car when pulling it up. To remedy this (here's a tip)...I'm taking some tape and going to lay down a "guide line" for the wheels to track on. That way you can be on one side of the car while winching and make minor steering corrections to keep the tire right on the guide line, knowing that both sides of the car are center on trailer.
Bob, I'm not sure that formula is right. If the outside 2x4 pivot point is 12 inches from the trailer jack and the scale is 24 inches, the 1/3 - 2/3 rule should make the weight twice the scale reading. I use two small pieces of pipe to support the 2x4. One on a board on the floor to level it with the scale and the other in the center of the scale. This makes it easy to measure the position of the tongue jack precisely. The weight measurement should be made with the tongue level. Just a little change in angle of the tongue can change the weight reading. I also regularly put my loaded trailer on a scale to check axle and tongue weights and to verify my tongue-weight reading. I have a special tongue-weight scale. It's a little quicker to use but isn't any more accurate than the 2x4. Don't ask me about the time I inadvertently set a digital bathroom scale to kilograms and smashed it flat! I tie the Ferrari down by the A-arms and cross the tie-down straps. This reduces sideways shift. I have been reluctant to tie it down by the wheels and cross the straps because I think that could mess up the alignment. I don't snug the car down too tight because it wants to move around just a little. I like your suggestion of chocks. I haven't used them before and have never had any problems but I may give them a look. I have towed several cars this way for several years. I admit I have also taken the targa top off occasionally and driven it in. I remove my shoes and step out carefully. I wouldn't want to do it too often for fear or breaking the seat down, but if I had competition seats in the Ferarri, I wouldn't worry about this method at all. For sure my next trailer will have an escape door, making all this academic.
Frank, Just a couple more thoughts. It sounds like your winch has a remote so you can control it while steering the car in. You can sometimes retrofit one if it doesn't have one now. I don't worry if the car is a couple inches one side of the trailer or the other. Crossing the straps will keep it from going too far to one side. You may find that after loading a slew of tools and tires in the front, you'll have more tongue weight than you want. Items in the very front of a trailer can really rachet up tongue weight. I run the 308 in nose- first to keep the engine behind the trailer axels to to off-load tongue weight and avoid stressing the tow vehicle chassis. I put the trailer jack down while it is hitched to the tow vehicle and before running the car in. This prevents a lot of stress on the tow vehicle chassis. If you run the car in even a foot too far, the tongue weight will rise dramatically. Even your walking around in the front of the trailer transfers a lot of weight forward. Once I get the car set, I raise the trailer jack and transfer the proper weight to the tow vehicle. Of course putting a wheel stop in would prevent some of this, but I trailer different cars and have different loads in the front of the trailer, so I can't set it up for just one. I have spent a lot of time figuring out tongue weights, because I tow with a 27,000 pound motorhome, which despite its heft and 10,000 pound hitch, can't tolerate extreme tongue loading. With the loaded trailer, the rig weighs 36,000 pounds. Obviously I pay particular attention to the condition of my trailer brakes. The trailer was ordered with brakes on both axels. From your description, I'm pretty sure your terrific sounding trailer has the same.
Wow, I'm impressed with the amount (and weight) of trailering that you guys do around the place. Here in the UK, on much smaller roads, it's not so easy. I do a bit of towing with my Range Rover (a friend's racing mini, other race cars, my brother's 3 bike trailer full of gear, even another Land Rover Discovery once) and I would just add that all trailer instruction manuals (and vendors) in the UK always advise that the engine of the towed vehicle is facing forward - just forward of the trailer axles to give correct nose-weight as discussed. This is tricky with a RR due to the self-levelling air suspension which changes ride-height above 50mph, although this can be switched off. So a mid-engine car like a 360 should be facing backwards as you drive, and a front-engine car like my 456 (which I'm pleased to say I have never needed to trailer) would face forwards. I believe this is designed to prevent the kind of scary fish-tailing at motorway speeds that I once saw a caravan do, pulling both itself onto the opposite carriageway and and the tow car over the central metal barrier ! To this day I will never know how cars managed to swerve to avoid it, and amazingly nobody was injured. I just want you all to avoid the same fate. Anyway, it sounds like you guys know what you're doing, so that was just my input... Happy motoring. J.
Well as you guys on the other side of the pond say "your're spot on". The mid-engine's 348/355/360's absolutely do better when the rear of the car goes in first (engine toward the front). Did some testing past few days... No question .. rear end first! Thanks again eveyone for all the good info.
