Trailering a Car

[patrick_g]

My HD car hauler only has a half dovetail so there are clearance problems with low vehicles or long wheelbase vehicles. If there is no convenient bit of hill to back up to I have been known to chock the wheels, disconnect the hitch and run the tongue up quite a bit with the tongue jack which lowers the rear of the trailer.

Do pay attention to the guys commenting on having your tie-downs secure and properly placed. For safety you need to snub the load both fore and aft as well as side to side. Improperly attached tie-downs no matter how tight are just a false sense of security.

For nautical readers... Consider the spring lines vs the bow and stern lines.

Pat

 

[gemini5362]

Had to lift the front of the triaxle to load the wifes car.

hard to tell from the picture but is that a pre 2005 model.
I have a 2005 but the body styles are still very similar

 

[hemiguy]

RobS,
Don't know if you picked up your car yet, but thought I'd throw in my similar recent experience. About a month ago I bought a little Dodge Neon (~35 mpg vs ~12 for the Hemi Ram) from a dealer 1 1/2 hrs away. My wife was busy at work/school so I decided to pick up with my truck/trailer. Trailer is a 16', 2' dovetail, and ramps only 4' long. I have some plywood pads that I drop the ends of the ramps on. I used a different ball hitch than I normally do that put the front of the trailer up a couple inches and I dropped the tongue jack down before loading. The Neon really has very little ground clearance, but went up the ramps and onto the trailer just fine. Here's something to think about though. Will you be able to open the drivers door to get out once on the trailer? My door cleared the top of the trailer fender, but just barely, maybe a 1/4". Now figuring out how to tie the car down is what took some work. There were no dedicated tie points under this little car. I ended up using all my axle straps, 2 pairs on each corner on the suspension arms and hooked to D-rings on the trailer with the big ratchet straps. I still need to get me the binder chains for this stuff, but thats another story. Anyway, I've heard of plenty of people that had their cars towed on rollbacks and ended up with bent suspensions cause the guys weren't carefull what they hooked the chains to.

Let us know how you made out.

 

[Newblue]

Thanks for the compliments. I don't have a lift so to change the oil on the wifes car I have to drive the car onto the trailer then put the ramps on jackstands then back it out onto them (rear engine). The Deuce is much easier, just two 5 gal. buckets under the oil pan and pull the drain plugs!
Hers is an 01

Mike

 

[gemini5362]

Thanks for the compliments. I don't have a lift so to change the oil on the wifes car I have to drive the car onto the trailer then put the ramps on jackstands then back it out onto them (rear engine). The Deuce is much easier, just two 5 gal. buckets under the oil pan and pull the drain plugs!
Hers is an 01

Mike

I thought it was a pre 2005 there is a bit of difference in the air scoops on the side and the big difference which you cant really see well in the picture is the roll bars. On yours they sit right over the seat. I am 6 foot tall and they didnt really give my head any clearance when I tried to sit in one. In 2005 they moved them behind the seat a bit more and raised them a bit taller. The other big difference is in 2005 they put HID lights in them. That really makes a difference the lights move up and down to keep level and the high intensity beam really lights up the road. Sometimes I drive ours to work and then drive home late at night when there is no traffic on the curvy road it really makes for a fun drive.

I just let the dealer change my oil they dont really charge that much for the labor. The first time I let them do an oil change it was 115.00 dollars. I kind of gulped and told myself that i knew what I was getting into when I bought it. I looked at the ticket and noticed it showed 10 quarts of oil. I asked the parts guy if they had made a mistake when they entered in the oil. He had the service manager come talk with me and the first thing the service manager asked me was "is this your first porsche" When I told him yes he went and got the shop manual for it and showed me that it actually did take 10 quarts. I was amazed.


By the way ours is exactly the same color as yours.

 

[Newblue]

Hillbilly fancycar lift. The wife cringes when she sees her car like this. I'm also 6' tall but I've never had any problems hitting my head. They call this color Zanzabar red but I call it traffic cone orange! It calls for 10 quarts of Mobil one oil so even doing it myself it's around $80.

 

[RobS]

I'm happy to report a successful trip. Not looking forward to Chicago area construction and tolls anytime soon though!

Naturally, a couple of pics. First is at the dealer after loading. I stopped shortly after taking off to check things out then again about an hour into the drive. All was well both checks. Next two shots are back home. The third shot shows my solution to the air dam/ramp situation. A couple of boards got the front tires up a bit before hitting the ramps. The dovetail breakover was no problem.

Drove my "little black box" to work today and I was pretty pleased. It's amazing roomy inside and I didn't detect any movement in the gas gage! Poor old truck will likely spend it's time outside now but will still get some use with hauling and pulling our camper.

Thanks for all the suggestions, it made my little adventure a lot easier.