Rick

Never had to do this before...I am going to have to trailer my 993 Cab this weekend to take it in for some suspension work. It only has to go a short distance with less than 35 miles of highway and a few city streets.
Any suggestions?
I have access to a flat-bed trailer w/ tied down equipment through a friend of mine who moves his cars all over the midwest without issue. I didn't know if there was anything unique to consider given this car.
Thanks much.

B-Line

Hey Rick,

I just towed for my first time this past weekend.
I hauled my C2S to Sebring from Miami behind my X5. It was very simple..

Here's some tips, if you have an aero kit you have to mount your car all the way forward on the trailer to get access to the chains and tie downs.
There are places to hook the chain under the car no problems.

beware of death wiggle: If for some reason the car/trailer starts to wiggle do not slam the brakes.. do not make any fast movements, gently ease off the gas and until the trailer stabilizes.
if you jam the brakes, you risk the trailer driving you

Leave plenty of room to stop. when your towing 6000 lbs, you need more stopping distance.
beware the wake of 18 wheelers going by, the wind wake they make can upset temporarily the balance of the tow. (sometimes creating the wiggle we talked about.) drive the car on slowly and have someone guide you. If you are lowering suspension, bring some wood pieces to put under the ramp. Once the suspension is done, you will need the wood blocks to keep the car from scraping when you come down the ramp.
pullover periodically to check straps and chains (since your driving short mileage, not really neccessary.)
You can drive the car on the trailer forward, backwards not needed.
hope this helps..
B-line

B-Line

Oh, and don't worry much if when you brake the trailer makes noises. That's the tongue and ball interacting with the trailer. You will also get this noise when you are braking/stopping. It kinda sounds like a small bang, and click clunk when turning.

when you take the car off the trailer, make sure your tow vehicle is in park with park brake on and make sure trailer brake (hand crank) is down.
use all the safety chains.
and when you set the straps on the front tires, make sure the tightener (on the trailer) is centered on the tire.

Robert Henriksen

[quote]Originally posted by B-Line:
<strong>There are places to hook the chain under the car no problems.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

I'd be really, really careful about that. The service manager at my local dealer keeps a set of lower control arms off a 993 turbo - one is cracked almost completely in half, the other is pretty savagely bent. Apparently flatbed towtruck drivers (at least here in Texas) like to really CRANK down the chains, and there are a lot of bits & pieces underneath a 993 that are NOT made for the stress.

I'm not a towing expert, so I'll leave it to others to deliver the Rennlist Approved (tm) towing tips.

B-Line

Hey Robert,

Excellent point.. As I am no towing master I don't have a good answer or response. The only thing that comes to mind is:

when you tie down the car, you strap it down with
the tire straps, the chains you don't tighten or crank, you leave on loose just as a back up..

and considering it's a back up I would think, it would be better to risk breaking a control arm then having your car being towed break loose completely and winding up in the back seat of the tow vehicle

I mean, better to break a control arm then destroy the front of your pcar and the rear of your suv??

but that's just my uneducated opinion..
and, if I recall also, we didn't chain to the control arms, rather the slots that are made by Porsche for shipping when they leave the factory.

Rick

I think I just figured out a better way...the forecast is for partly sunny skies with a high of 50...drive the 993 to the shop...rent a car from Enterprise to get home...don't worry about brakes, control arms, straps, ramps or anything...drive the rental car for 3 days...pick up the 993 on Wednesday...find a really twisty road for the ride home.

E. J. - 993 Alumni

There are actually two hooks in the front of the car for attaching a tow hook. They are hard to see at first since you are not looking at them and I used to have a pic, but can't find it now. Anyway, go to your car and turn the wheel all the way to the right. Now look from the back side of the left front wheel into the wheel well area. Painted the same color as your car will be a visible oval shaped O that hangs down from the inside of the steel body wheel well.

See, that is hard to explain. But go get cozy with your car and use a flashlight to see it. Now beware that people with lowered cars might have a problem with the strap touching the front underside of the bumper if you use these eyes since they tend to be a little high.

Be carefule and definately don't throw a hook on a tie rod.

E. J.

Eric in Chicago

Hey Rick,
Are you taking the car to Midwest Eurosports for the PSS9 install?
if so,dont forget to ask Brian about the sway bars
Also, make sure they are going to get your install done in time as they are heading down to Sebring next week for the PCA race

Rick

Eric,
I'm heading over to Performance Alignment in Cincinnati - they were highly recommended by several people. The guy who runs the place, Bill, spent a lot of time on the phone with me and struck me as one of the more knowledgeable people re: Pcar suspensions. They're also a bit closer to me.
I got my PSS-9s w/ RS swaybars, front protection bar and windstop today - I'll update you as soon as I'm done.
What's your status?
Best of luck to you.

speedster 94

hallo
i haved towed a lot of KM with Porsches on a trailer. The most important thing is to put the Car backwards on the Trailer ,so the heavy side
is to the moving Vehicle.The Ideal weight on the
Trailerhitch is about 100 Kilogramms .
This way wind or trucks will not bother at all .
Allways turn the Steeringwheel sharp into one direktion,in case the car rools it will come to astop on your trailers reling .
Harald

Greg Fishman

[quote]Originally posted by B-Line:
<strong>You can drive the car on the trailer forward, backwards not needed.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
What B-Line says makes sense except, that on my particular trailer the weight distribution was better if I backed the car on the trailer. If you aren't going to go over 40-50mph it won't make much if any difference but at highway speeds the last thing you want is for sway to start. I used to load my trailer on forwards because I was worried about tongue-weight. Too hell with that. I could have totalled my wife's Ml430 and my almost new C2S at the same time. Was cruising along and the trailer starts doing tank slappers, I got very very lucky that day, and changed how I loaded the car.

Rick,
Bill should do a good job for you, make sure you get a print out of your specs after he is done.

B-Line,
Get yourself a good set of tie downs and use them instead or in addition to the ones on the U Haul, god only knows how long they have been on there. Tie down in the front to the spots that EJ mentioned, get a set of shackles at Home Depot if your tie downs are too large for the factory spot. In the back I just run the straps through the tires.
Leave the tranny in neutral and set the E-brake AFTER everything has been tightened down.

Greg

B-Line

Hey Greg,

Great advice and I will get those straps..Definately!!

also, the parking brake, I was talking about on the tow vehicle, not the vehicle being towed.
just to clarify!!

But you are correct about leaving the car in neutral and putting up the brake after everything is secured..

Jeff96-993

Rick,

I can vouch for Bill at Performance Alignment. He put ROW M030 on my car last year...the guy knows his stuff. I also trailered my car down to
Road Atlanta just a few weeks ago, my first time with a trailer. No problems at all.

If you're close to Cincinnati why don't you drop me a line. I'd be happy to help get your car on trailer and I have the straps to help secure it. Let me know.

Jeff96-993

This pic was after arriving home, after a successful trip down to Road Atlanta and back. I also drove around the track a few times while I was there, even took the car off the trailer for a few of the laps.

Greg Fishman

Jeff,
Use the factory tie downs in the front instead next time. And go straight back with the tie downs on the rear tires, less stress on the suspension that way.
Are you going to be at any OVR events this year? I will be at our Mid Ohio school in April, hope to see you then.
Greg