Car tie-down with enclosed trailer

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79 Camaro
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Car tie-down with enclosed trailer

#1 Post by 79 Camaro » Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:50 pm

Heres the deal... I am wanting to know your guy's technique on tieing down a car using enclosed trailer. Let me know where you have your D-Rings mounted and where you run your straps. I have leaking slicks like everyone else and when you strap the car down at the house and then take off down the road the straps will losen up do to the slicks loosing air. I just need some ideas. My dad was thinking of putting the back of the car on jack stands with the tires just a little bit off the ground and then straping down the car.. But I am not sure about it... anyways let me know what you guys fix is. I am sure I am not the only one that has leaking slicks right???

Thanks
Adam
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#2 Post by TubbedTruck67 » Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:34 pm

Your tires must be loosing air fast?

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#3 Post by 79 Camaro » Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:46 pm

Well with the cars weight only and no extra force from tiedown they loose about 3/4 to 1 pound over a 2 or so hour period...... But when you tighten the straps the added pressure seems to sqeeze the air out faster...
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Re: Car tie-down with enclosed trailer

#4 Post by 55delray » Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:40 pm

79 Camaro wrote:Heres the deal... I am wanting to know your guy's technique on tieing down a car using enclosed trailer. Let me know where you have your D-Rings mounted and where you run your straps. I have leaking slicks like everyone else and when you strap the car down at the house and then take off down the road the straps will losen up do to the slicks loosing air. I just need some ideas. My dad was thinking of putting the back of the car on jack stands with the tires just a little bit off the ground and then straping down the car.. But I am not sure about it... anyways let me know what you guys fix is. I am sure I am not the only one that has leaking slicks right???

Thanks
Adam
i read an article about tied downs and race cars. guys that run moly chassis use an airbag style jack so they chassis doenst absorb the shock of the trailer when going down the road. i guess this stops cracks in the chassis and such.

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#5 Post by John_Heard » Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:43 pm

Are you strapping to the axle in the rear? How far back behind the rear end are the current D rings?

The last set of tires I had on last year leaked pretty good too, but it was never bad enough to loosen the straps. Mine are about a foot from the back of the trailer I believe. I used to air the tires up to 20-25 lbs before heading out on the road and then let them down at the track. That seemed to work ok.

I also cross my straps in the rear (2) maybe that helps some?

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#6 Post by 79 Camaro » Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:44 pm

yes, we are strapping it around the axle on the rear. Here is a pic of were the D-rings are mounted. They were not suppose to mount them for us but when we went to pick the trailer up they already mounted them and they are in kinda a wierd spots. The middle d-rings are right under the car about mid-door section on my camaro and the front ones are about 1-2 foot in front of the bumper. I think I remember how you strapped your car down John, but what do you do in the front? I just didnt think that putting the car up on jacks in the back and then strapping them down was a good Idea.... My dad is the one that came up with the Idea and we tried it on the trip to ark city and on the way up there everything was fine but on the trip back the car jumped off the jack stands and moved about 2 or so feet forward in the trailer. Not sure how it happen but it did and now its got me concerned, but dad seems to think that we didnt get the straps tight enough..... Either way I am trying to do it another way, but it is hard to persway your own dad from his own idea, if you know what I mean :?
And I myself dont have any experience in pulling cars in a trailer so you can see I am in a little bit of a pickle dick :lol:
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#7 Post by John_Heard » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:10 am

That's about the same location mine are, which aren't really in the best place for my car but they work.

I'm not sure the way I strap mine down is the best way, but on the front we tie it down using the front frame sections behind the radiator support using a chain and a load binder. I try and set the front tires above a floor support also. Then in the rear I use straps to the rear end on each side and cross them. So far that has worked fine and stayed tight.

It doesn't sound like the jackstand idea worked to good for you. I suppose the easiest way to fix it would be to get the tires to quit leaking so much. Mike Peters is getting some of those chassis stabilizers but I don't think he's tried them yet. I suppose you could set up a some rear rims and tires just for hauling then switch them at the track

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#8 Post by Mike Peters » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:30 am

'Sup Adam? Hey, first of all, it is never a good idea to rigidly tie the car down to the trailer whether it be under the housing or the frame. You do not want those forces of the road bumps transmitted to the car's structure. :idea: John's correct. Why don't you get a set of "trailer tires"? They don't have to be anything expensive. Just some steel wheels and Wal-Mart specials. Towing 400 miles round trip causes more stresses on the car and its components than most bother to realize. 8-) If you can get a taller set, it will help with ground clearance when loading and unloading the car.

In fact, you would prefer not to have the car bouncing along for the entire trip either. That's more wear and tear on those expensive Afcos.

Chassis Stabilizers .............mmmmmmmmmm :wink:
Last edited by Mike Peters on Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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#9 Post by 79 Camaro » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:48 am

I guess I have never seen these chassis Stabalizers, but They sound like a good idea. I think that I can dig up some old tires and rims from gramps. But on another note would new tubes fix my problem? I just thought that all slicks leaked pretty good. :?

Since I only have 2 bolts holding the rear shocks on, would it be a good Idea to just unbolt them on the trips to and from the track? And then put them back on? Thanks John and Mike for tuning in on this thread. :D
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#10 Post by Mike Peters » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:01 am

Are you saying you want to run tubes in your slicks and currently aren't? There's opinions to both sides of that practice. I sure wouldn't run tubes in slicks just for towing purposes if that's the only reason to do so.

No, don't unbolt your shocks. Your car will really hate you if you could imagine it going down the bumpy highway with no shocks. You need to take care of your springs too.
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#11 Post by John_Heard » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:06 am

In the past most of my slicks have been very good about not leaking up to this last set (tubeless). Tubes would fix the problem but I have a strong aversion to increasing rotating weight! Some people use dawn dish soap on the inside of the tire which really helps with sidewall leakage I've been told, never tried it myself.

On the saving the shocks thing, one idea is to make you a set of bars that you can insert between the axle and frame. Just jack the car up, stick the bars in, then lower it back down. Real easy to remove quickly and will eliminate the suspension travel while hauling.

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#12 Post by Mike Peters » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:34 am

Beyond wrote:In the past most of my slicks have been very good about not leaking up to this last set (tubeless). Tubes would fix the problem but I have a strong aversion to increasing rotating weight! Some people use dawn dish soap on the inside of the tire which really helps with sidewall leakage I've been told, never tried it myself.

On the saving the shocks thing, one idea is to make you a set of bars that you can insert between the axle and frame. Just jack the car up, stick the bars in, then lower it back down. Real easy to remove quickly and will eliminate the suspension travel while hauling.
I thought Palmolive made your hands softer?

John's got an idea on the struts. I'm thinking that still may be a bit harsh on the car. Not sure how the sidewalls would like it either. I thought and thought of ways to resolve this problem and kept going back the Chassis Stabilizers or something similar. I would describe the Chassis Stabilizers as a very thick-walled air bag built on an aluminum base. I kept thinking I could come up with something similar on my own using a heavy ply inner tube which I think still might work. However, doing a little searching on the ol' 'net turned up a pair of used C/S's. A super nice guy out of Texas named Bobby Wallace sold me both of them for a really great price. You might think along this line of thought. The problem I see with the inner tube is the valve stem is on the inside making it hard to reach. I guess they could be aired up prior to cinching the car down to contact them. Also, I'm not sure if there is a heavy enough ply tube to do the job. Maybe one that is sandwiched between two pieces of plywood?
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#13 Post by 79 Camaro » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:39 am

Mike, I am running tubes right now.
Do you guys have a picture or link to these Chassis stabalizers?
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#14 Post by Mike Peters » Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:01 pm

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#15 Post by 79 Camaro » Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:07 pm

Thanks mike, That would take care of the shocks, but I might just have to fix the tubes or get new ones to take care of the leaking slick problem..
"THE THROTTLE IS THE DEVIL" By Mr. Willis
"ALL I SEEN WAS HOOD!" By Mr. Heard
MAKO RS-1979
Sponsored By:
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