Is there anything to be concerned about re the upward load on the hitch when driving on or off a trailer? Seems that the tongue wants to fly skyward. Should stands be placed under the rear of the trailer to limit this movement?

 

If you chock the trailer wheels, you limit the forward roll while loading/unloading, which in turn limits the amount of upward pressure on the hitch.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

 

Its not a bad idea.

 

I put a jack stand set just below the rear edge. The most it drops is about 1"

 

Bill, I can say it was never a problem with that trailer when not using jack stands while unloading when the trailer is secured to the hitch. If is ever were to become a problem, I wouldn't drive the loaded rig on the highway, as you will see similar or greater "lift" loads under certain conditions.

 

Should be no problem if hooked up to your tow vehicle properly. I've seen numerous examples of what happens if it is not hooked up to a vehicle and has no feet at the rear edge (jack stands). It is not pretty. If you do put something under the rear before the weight of the car is in the trailer you likely won't be able to get it out. The weight of the car will push down on the jack stand. You would only need jack stands if the trailer is free standing. My .02.

 

Somewhat related query regarding loading/unloading:

I know most folks will bring a couple of planks and place them behind the regular trailer ramps - this helps prevent a lowered car from hitting the trailer when loading/unloading.

Since I'm not a lumberjack, and prefer not to lug around a bunch of wood, with the trailer attached to my tow vehicle, with parking brake engaged and trailer wheels chocked, I use the trailer jack to raise the front of it a little (20 turns of the crank). This allows me to load/unload my lowered 944 without bottoming out anywhere.

Any reason why I shouldn't use this technique?

Thanks,
-Z-man.

 

Lifting the hitch while loading/unloading doesn't concern me.

However, I once saw a guy straddle the hitch to help is wife drive onto the trailer. I told him "You should't straddle the hitch. If something broke it would snap up and do some serious bodily damage."

 

Bill;
It's OK unless you forget to latch the hitch first. You can predict the results - bed tilts up, guy that you recruited to help spot you thinks "humm, tilt bed trailer," as the hitch goes up and into the back door of the (borrowed) Suburban.
Couple of hundred dollars of bodywork later, everything's back to normal.

 

Mine is pretty tricky with the open trailer, which i use for the long distance traveling now.
I have to put special contraptions to allow the car to clear the splitter. I also need to put jackstands on the rear of the trailer and I have to jack up the trailer hitch,as connected to the truck. If anything is missing, its big problems, mainly due to how long the nose is, and how low the car is overall.

 

I use a set of these to get my lowered car on my trailer and, while it does have little jacks I can lower to support the tail while driving up, I have yet to ever use them.

Marc

 

Never had that problem with my enclosed trailer as the tongue weight was 700 lbs empty. However, it is a good idea to chock the wheels as one time I drove the car into the trailer which was on a small incline, and felt the damn thing sliding forward. WTF? Didn't take but a second or 2 to throw it into reverse and get back out!

 

a little pricey for what i made with some 2 x 4s and blocks. took a few times to master how I wanted all of it bolted together, complete with a hinge for storage, but it works and allows for my very low, very long nose to run up the ramp onto the trailer.

mk

 

Yes, but can you get the car up on the trailer too?

Marc

 

The Trailex trailers, such as Bill has (was my trailer), come with longer ramps (9ft or 11ft depending on the model) than those I see on most other trailers. I never had to use any lumber, etc. with any of my very low cars, including the Cup Car.