Any tips for hauling a trailer you can share with a newbie?

[reggie13]

hey all! i will be riding with 2 friends from Texas and we will be sharing the driving. The vehicle is a 5 speed Nissan Truck, and we're towing a 10 foot trailer with all the gear. I know how to drive a standard (though it been a little while-i will be refreshing myself on the driving), but that is not the concern. Any tips for pulling a full trailer? I've never hauled anything before, so was just looking for pointers or advice when dealing with a load like this. I have backed up trailers to a boat before, but i know that doesn't count at all! lol my main concern is like driving down the road and getting cut off by someone....unsure of stopping distances for larger, heavy loads, dealing with hills (climbing and/or braking), etc.

thanks!
Reggie

[EspressoDude]

what's in the back of the truck?
It better be heavier than the trailer, or else the trailer will be driving and steering the truck. keep weight over the axles, not in the ends.

does the trailer have brakes?
what is the hitch rating?
is it a factory hitch?
trailer light pigtail?

go down hill in the same, or lower gear, that it would take to go up that hill.

[reggie13]

what's in the back of the truck?
It better be heavier than the trailer, or else the trailer will be driving and steering the truck. keep weight over the axles, not in the ends.

does the trailer have brakes?
what is the hitch rating?
is it a factory hitch?
trailer light pigtail?

go down hill in the same, or lower gear, that it would take to go up that hill.

there will be gear in the back of the truck (covered by camper shell) as well. i'm sure it will be properly distributed weight-wise, as he has done this before.

doubt the trailer has brakes; don't know hitch rating; unsure if it's factory or not; probably on the light pigtail.

my main concern is driving with that weight behind me, forward momentum, speeds, braking, etc. just not used to doing it, but there's a 1st time for everything.

Reggie

[Ratty]

The internet is your best friend. Do a lot of research.

viewtopic.php?f=286&t=19853

[Jackass]

Rule no.1- NEVER FORGET, you have a trailer behind you.

Don't zone out and think that you're driving the sport coupe...

[Molotov]

1. Load the trailer so that the tongue is heavier than the rear. Equally distributed weight is not the best setup. Not so heavy it makes the tow vehicle headlights point into the sky (If so, you're hauling too much on the little trailer)
2. What size are the tires on the trailer? Tire sizes less than 15 inch spin the wheels much faster and can lead to hub and bearing failure, as well as tire tread separation.
3. When is the last time the trailer wheel bearings were cleaned, packed, and lubricated?
4. How old are the tires, and are they inflated to almost the max pressure stamped on the side wall? Underinflated tires lead to most trailer tire failures. Tires older than 5 years, even though they have lots of tread, fail more often than newer tires.
5. And last but not least...SLOW DOWN! 65 mph or less on 15 inch tires, maybe just 60 mph on smaller tire sizes.

Borrowing a trailer with an unknown service and tire history and loading it wrong is a recipe for trouble. Best of luck on your trip to the playa.

[GreyCoyote]

I once had an old trucker give me the following advice:

1). Do it SLOWLY.
2). Do it EARLY.
3). THINK before you DO it.
4). Stay three mistakes away from TROUBLE.

For what its worth, this has served me well for many years.

[mooserider]

Here's my $.02 that the other folks haven't covered yet:

Remember, you're going to be longer and slower than you were without the trailer (slower due to the additional weight). Your acceleration when you try to pass, climb hills, or start from a stopped position won't be as good as it was before. Same with your braking. Get used to it.

So, allow four times as much room for entering into traffic as you did without the trailer (accounting both for your greater length and slower acceleration). When you pass (if you must), remember that you have to be a lot further past the passed vehicle before you can re-enter the other lane (so you don't hit them with your trailer), so make sure you have lots of room to pass before you start.

The big trucker's thumb rule for following distance is good: watch for the vehicle ahead of you to pass some landmark (highway sign, milepost, tree, whatever), and ensure you don't pass the same mark for the total length of your combined vehicle (car+trailer) in feet divided by 10, converted to seconds. Example: if your combined length is 30 feet, you should be 3 seconds behind the vehicle in front, regardless of your speed (i.e., if you're traveling twice as fast, you should be twice as far behind). This should give you enough distance to stop if something happens to the vehicle in front of you.

Naturally, someone in a quickly-maneuvering car will drop into your following distance. Just back off some more; just because they are a suicidal idiot doesn't mean you want to end up legally responsible for their stupidity (because you can't stop in time to avoid hitting them). As a driver of a heavy 40-foot-long RV, I am repeatedly amazed at the people who zip around me because I'm slow and then slam on the brakes right in front of me because the traffic ahead was jammed (or the traffic light is changing). Gee, maybe there was a _reason_ I was slowing down. Duh!

And don't forget your interior rear-view mirror is probably going to be useless, because the trailer and its load will block any view directly behind you. Unless you have a truck with the special extendable outside mirrors (or your trailer is so small it's narrower than your car or truck), get the clamp-on-the-fender extra rear-view mirrors to get you enough width to be able to see behind your trailer.

Avoid parking anywhere you have to back out of. Try for pull-through parking whenever possible; if you can't get a pull-through, back _into_ the parking space rather than trying to back out of it. Backing a trailer (especially with turns) is a skill that requires some practice, because it behaves seemingly illogical to someone who hasn't done it before, and the turn accelerates until the trailer crunches the back of your car/truck. So take your combined rig into a big parking lot without annoying light poles or other obstructions, and practice backing and turning while backing until you understand how it works. If at all possible, have an assistant who can guide you while backing up, and agree on your signals. Oh, and if you have one of those U-Haul trailers with the tongue brake (the compromise to have trailer brakes on cars that aren't wired for them), forget about backing up at all. Every time you back up, you will turn on the trailer brakes (because they are supposed to come on when the distance between the car and the trailer body shortens).

Don't cut your corners. Drive straight into intersections as far as you can and then turn sharply. This is to try to overcome a trailer "feature" called off-tracking, where the trailer follows a course further inside the turn than your car does. You don't want to clear one of the median strip islands with your car and hit it with the trailer (or worse yet, a car in the opposite lane of traffic). Similarly, on right turns, you don't want to make the trailer try to climb the curb (it may not be able to, especially with trailers with small tires).

[Elliot]

I worked in trucking for 27 years. Perhaps the scariest thing I ever heard a truck driver say is this:
"I can drive all day and never get tired."
Because... that means he drives all day without concentrating on driving safely every second of the way, as he ought to.

When we drive just a car, we can get away with driving a little bit "on autopilot" (at least after 40 years of crash-free driving). But we can never relax behind the wheel when we tow a trailer. We must pay attention, think ahead, and all that stuff that was mentioned by others.

And... something I told all the drivers I trained: Always put brain in gear before starting truck.

And... something else: Every five seconds, ask yourself "What can go wrong in the next five seconds?" Yes, I mean to anticipate possible problems, so you can prevent them.

Safe travels!

[reggie13]

thanks everyone, for your personal input. this is what i was looking for. while i have no details on the trailer other than estimated size, i have no doubt everything is safe and ready to go. I am riding with veterans, so that won't be an issue. my concern was what *I* needed to know as a 1st time driver of a truck with a trailer. was nervous at 1st, and still am a little, but in this case that seems to be a good thing. it will keep me aware of my surroundings. I already told him i'm not pulling in anywhere i don't have plenty of room, and no high-traffic areas! lol

thanks again, ya'll! see ya soon!
Reggie

[mooserider]

thanks everyone, for your personal input. this is what i was looking for. while i have no details on the trailer other than estimated size, i have no doubt everything is safe and ready to go. I am riding with veterans, so that won't be an issue.

Whoops! Per the statements that Elliot made, don't assume that, just because your tripmates are veteran drivers, that they are always safe drivers. Always check things yourself. There is a reason both commercial truckers and airplane pilots go through a pre-trip checklist every single trip to ensure everything is working OK. For example, before you start each leg of the trip, ensure that all the trailer lights work (left turn signal, right turn signal, brake lights, backup lights if the trailer has them). The electrical cable between the car and trailer might have come loose, such that people behind you can't see your signals even though you properly signaled, because the connection is gone. Is your hitch secure? Make sure the hitch is latched closed correctly, your safety chains are not drawn taut but also aren't dragging on the road, and your cargo in the trailer is secured and the tailgate is properly latched (not going to come open and spew cargo from a bump on the highway).

[AntiM]

Whoops! Per the statements that Elliot made, don't assume that, just because your tripmates are veteran drivers, that they are always safe drivers. Always check things yourself. There is a reason both commercial truckers and airplane pilots go through a pre-trip checklist every single trip to ensure everything is working OK.

I'm married to a trucker, so much yes. Plus, he checks the trailer every stop. I even have picked up the habit of checking the straps as I walk by the trailer during potty stops.

[reggie13]

thanks everyone, for your personal input. this is what i was looking for. while i have no details on the trailer other than estimated size, i have no doubt everything is safe and ready to go. I am riding with veterans, so that won't be an issue.

Whoops! Per the statements that Elliot made, don't assume that, just because your tripmates are veteran drivers, that they are always safe drivers. Always check things yourself.

pre-trip safety check.....got it!

[Token]

I absolutely hate giving advice on trailering.

It's a shame cuz I got a few miles of experience behind me and I put in allot of time to learn AND understand the how and why of things.

The problem is, there is so much technical stuff that shapes the do and don't, and then there is another mountain of knowledge which is the art of trailering.

It simply is too much for a setting like this.

The biggest bang for the advice buck:

Go slow. There is a reason DOT wants you to drive 55 when towing.

Leave a big-ass gap between you and the vehicle in front of you.

All the other technical stuff, load distribution, sway, brakes, etc. you gotta take it all in, understand it all, and it's years of investment.

Slow, easy, predictable.

[Elliot]

What Token said. Being a rookie at this, you must be even more vigilant and careful than I would be. Do that, and it will be fine.

[Elliot]

That wreck in the photo above.... If that's on 447, I bet I know exactly where.
Coming south, after the Burn, there is a long steep downhill near Pyramid Lake. There have been trailer wrecks around the bottom of that downhill.

The road is straight, so it is easy to think that it is safe to let gravity give us a bit extra speed. But not with a trailer. The danger is fish-tailing. So on that particular downhill, and any other such, drive extra slowly.

[skippy3k]

Someone here said the following, which I always think about when I'm towing;

"Remember...the trailer will always be trying to kill you."

I know it sounds morbid, but it's true. The trailer does NOTHING to help you out when you drive. I won't repeat the great advice above, except to say if you forget everything...JUST GO SLOW. When I pull our RV on family vacations and especially when I pull the 20' foot cargo trailer to Burning Man, I constantly have to fight this weird inane sense of being "pushed" or hurried to get out to the playa. 55 miles per hour seems so fucking slow when cars are zipping right by you and inevitably I begin creeping up past that 55 MPH (or even slower) safe speed limit. It's easier for me to monitor my overall exhaustion level than it is to just go 55 MPH and leave the accelerator the fuck alone.

[AntiM]

MyLarry tells his students, "You are not driving the trailer, the trailer is driving you".

[dragonpilot]

The last thing you do before driving off with the trailer: remove wheel chocks.
The first thing you do after arrival at destination: position wheel chocks

[Savannah]

Trailer newbs! . . . Learn from Meat Hunter's timely misadventure with his trailer!

viewtopic.php?f=286&t=75238

(I plan to consult the above thread if I ever end up pulling a trailer.)

[Cjohns44]

Start your turns much later than normal or else the trailer will pop the curb or side swipe another car. Slow is your friend. You'll get the hang of it first day.

Have you and a friend double check all safety connections to the truck to ensure its all good.

[TT120]

Slow down.
Take turns wide so the trailer doesn't hit stuff on the inside of the corner.
Slow down.
Give extra room for braking.
Slow down.
Give extra room for accelerating.
Slow down.
Load the trailer with %60 weight in front of the axle %40 on top/behind the axle.
Slow down.

And the most important thing is to SLOW DOWN.

[motskyroonmatick]

You are using the pickup truck to position the trailer correctly as you drive. Kick the tires every time you stop for fuel or restroom and give the trailer a once over look. Look at the hitch and hitch area every time you stop to make sure it is normal and nothing has worked loose or become disconnected. Run tires on the trailer at maximum pressure and verify they are properly inflated before setting out.

[Elliot]

And.... After driving 18-wheelers for a living for 27 years... I would like to add this advice: Slow down.
In California, your maximum speed limit is 55 MPH when towing a trailer -- any trailer -- even on Interstates -- for good reason. And even that is too fast in many situations.

[FlyingMonkey]

One thing no one has mentioned yet is you need to slow down.

If you are coming from the East & have to go through all the mountains be sure you get used to the extra weight & how much longer it takes you to come to a complete stop. Going down a steep grade only makes this worse. Slow & smooth gets you Home & back home in one piece.

Can't over stress proper weight distribution either. Last year someone posed an excellent video of what happens when a trailer is properly loaded & then with too much weight aft of the axle.

[Elliot]

On I-80 from the east approaching Salt Lake City... shortly after you enter Utah, take I-84 toward Ogden and then I-15 down to I-215 and then back on I-80. Only a couple miles longer -- MUCH safer.

[Joeln]

Nice thought Elliot! do I cut south before Ogden on highway 89 or go all the way into Ogden to get on 15?

On I-80 from the east approaching Salt Lake City... shortly after you enter Utah, take I-84 toward Ogden and then I-15 down to I-215 and then back on I-80. Only a couple miles longer -- MUCH safer.

[Elliot]

Thanks for bringing that up! (It's been a while.)
I always used 89.
There may not even be a ramp from I-84 to Southbound I-15, and you might have to go north a short bit and turn back at the next exit.

HOWEVER... 89 runs thru residential areas, and those are becoming more and more crowded, with lots of traffic lights. So these days... I'm guessing it may be better to follow I-84 to I-15 and do whatever it takes to go south from there. Probably considerably faster. And stop and go is heck on a car with a heavy load.

[MrFortuna]

Last year someone posed an excellent video of what happens when a trailer is properly loaded & then with too much weight aft of the axle.

This is a great demonstration on how much this matters.

[FlyingMonkey]

Yeah, that one.

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