Hey Dave, Nice setup. Looks like Steve A. old trailer. See you on Saturday.

 

Aye, that be the one. See you next weekend.

 

Nice trailer. And you bought from a great guy.

 

Thanks and Yes,...Steve is a great guy.

 

I like the height of this tire rack. It doesn't stick up above the tow vehicle. Is that a lockable box up front with the Speedware logo, or just a canopy?
Also, great looking extension ramps with the step that accompanies the Featherlite ramps....

 

^ lockable box with tire rack on top

Speedware is just a sticker on the front of the box

 

Yea I thought so.... So is the box custom made with the tire rack intregal, or available over-the counter. Also, can you reach your D rings or did you move them?

Thanks,

JRG

 

Custom made and the tire rack bolts to the top of the box
I can and do still use stock placed d-rings

previous owner had the box made and mounted

it is bolted to the deck floor and I presume it is easy to remove but I cannot think of a reason that I would want to remove it

it is quite handy and the doors are weather sealed so I leave a lot of my track stuff in the box so I do not have to reload each time

 

Are most of you who use open trailers just DEing or you race as well? Just wondering because when i raced i always had an enclosed because of everything i would try to take with me to the track ( i was racing karts and drag racing, may be you do not need as much road racing?)>

thanks

 

De only for now

 

Great question. I race and have a 28ft. enclosed Pace and the same 18' Featherlite open as above. I love the ease and convenience of the Featherlite and used it almost exclusively in the warm months. I hauled it from So Cal to Salt Lake City and back in late September without issue mostly at 85 MPH (thanks V1).

I have a Snugtop shell on the back of my truck in which I haul 2 sets of tires/wheels, a 200 ft N tank, tool boxes, floor jack, and a couple of large RubberMaid containers with my spares, jack stands, etc. I keep my all personal gear, helmet, etc. in the back seat of my crew cab. I'll switch to the Pace for the winter events. It's easy, I just transfer over the Rubermaid tubs, wheels, etc. It takes just a few minutes.

I would only have the open Featherlite if the weather would cooperate. A tire rack and locking container like PJS's would really be helpful....

 

I doubt it will effect alignment but it does increase the strap length with increases strap stretch. If you cross, and one strap gets loose, both wheels can now move.

 

If interested in the custom box contact:
Racecraft
15815 Woodinville-Redmond
Woodinville, WA 98072
Attn: Jim Froula
425-766-6800

And yes, the front tie down positions were moved back

 

I (as do many others) race with an open trailer. Is it perfect ..... no but it is still very workable! If I had somewhere to store an enclosed trailer I would have on however my trailex fits nicely into my garage next tom my track car

 

Good point, Brian. I hadn't considered that, but it adds to the reasoning I've used on why to not cross straps.

We're actually mixing two separate issues here.... the physics of crossed straps, and whether the tie downs are attached through the wheels vs. the frame. So there are 4 different permutations here, not two.

And there is a third issue which is rarely discussed, and that is the purpose of the tie down straps in the first place.

Why use tie-downs?

I would never try it, but I think my car would stay planted on my trailer without any straps at all. The forces I feel inside the tow vehicle are not even close to the forces required to overcome the frictional forces of the car wheels on the trailer bed. So the straps are there for the unexpected emergency. And in an emergency, I don't want to introduce any more variables than necessary. I just want those straps to keep the car from coming through the back window of my tow vehicle!


Crossed vs. straight straps

In this light, consider first the crossed straps: Think about this analogy... You're winching the car up onto the trailer. Assume that the winch is mounted on the tongue and does not move with the angle of the trailer bed. Start winching with the ramps and trailer being at a low angle (say 10 degrees). Now increase the angle to 20 degrees. Did you not just put an extra load on the winch? Increase the angle to 45 degrees. Do you hear the pitch of the winch motor change? Increase the angle to 60 degrees. Are you stepping back away from the winch cable out of fear that something will snap? Get the picture?

Now flip that picture onto its side, and imagine that the winch cable is a tie down strap, and the angle of the ramps/trailer represent the angle of the forward motion of the trailer vs. the crossed straps. Just as it takes more force to walk uphill, it takes more force to stop the forward motion of a car tied down to a trailer with crossed straps.

Try this analogy also: pick up a 10 ft long, 20 lb bar, holding it at the center so that it is balanced. How much force is it exerting on your arm? 20 lbs. of course. Now pick it up from one of the ends, so that 8 or 9 ft of it is out in front of you. Now how much force is it exerting on your arm? Not 22, 25, or 30, but multiples of 20! There's a set of physics formulas that prove all of this, but hopefully the examples make the point.

To the frame vs. through the wheels

Assume that you're pulling a trailer at highway speeds, and encounter undulations in the road that cause your tow vehicle to compress and bounce on its own suspension. What's happening on the trailer? The trailer will absorb some of the bouncing with it's own suspension, but at some level, the car also will bounce slightly on it's own suspension, absorbing what the trailer could not. (Have you ever noticed a big rig trailer hauling 10 or more cars down the highway, cars bouncing up and down slightly with each bump in the road?) But the wheels are not moving around! The frictional force of the wheels on the trailer bed is clearly stronger than the spring rate in your suspension, so the car bounces on its suspension.

Now, what's happening to the tie-down straps? Well, if they're through the wheels, and wheels are not moving, the straps are not moving. But if they are attached to the frame of the car, as the car bounces, the straps are being tugged at. As Brian mentioned, straps do stretch. Since the wheels presumably never move around, but the frame does, straps will stretch more if tied to the frame of the car than if they are attached through the wheels.

The combined impact

The way I look at it, the angle of crossed straps is the more significant issue. When you bought your tie down straps, was your decision not in part influenced by the weight rating? Imagine buying straps rated for 5000 lbs of force because your car weighed 3000 lbs. But did you calculate the effective weight on the straps due to the extra force induced by the angle? Do you know how much closer to the 5000 lb limit you will get with your particular setup? (remember the bar analogy... depending on the angle, we're talking geometric increases, not arithmetic increases).

My point is simply this: crossing the straps introduces a set of forces that for most of us, is not worth the mental math required to feel confident that our straps will hold. To use my earlier analogies, why make guesses with "how much extra force is required to walk up the steeper hill", when it's just as easy to walk on a flat surface? Why pick up a bar at the end when it's easier to pick it up at the middle?

Attaching to the frame vs. the wheels seems to be a minor issue in comparison. Until, that is, you combine "to the frame" with "crossed straps". In this setup, you would be tugging on the straps with each bump, each turn, each application of the tow vehicle brake and accelerator, etc. Straps get stretched, and the frame is allowed to bounce a tiny bit more, putting even greater strain on the straps, making them even looser. (back to my analogis, it's like bouncing the angle of the trailer bed and ramps while trying to winch it up at 30 degree angle to begin with, or picking up the 20 lb bar at one end while someone is continually slapping the other end towards the floor).

Back to the reason for tie-downs

Then, when you most need those straps to do their job (extreme braking), you're going to snap tight those loose straps with a force that is multiples greater than if they had been straight. How much greater is unknown, because it was too complicated to figure out.

The whole "messing up the alignment" concerns out there are just silly. And they are also a distraction from the more important question of "messing up your straps" (thanks for pointing that out Brian). Not a big issue either, unless you're crossing them. Why cheat the laws of physics on the grounds that every-day usage does no harm, when every day usage could probably get away with no straps at all? I would be interested in hearing evidence of tie-down strategies in the event of accidents or accident avoidance! After all, that's why we use them.