For those that tow a trailered car:

- Do you have sway control or wish you did?

- Tire bonnets or axle straps (or both in case the car has to leave sans wheels)?

I have towed an S4 before...much different. Corey/Sharon have sway control when they borrow Paul Lamberts' enclosed trailer..this is on their Duramax Diesel Chevy pick-up.

I am sure John/TSR can give you a wealth of info, but here is my limited experience. It depends on what you are trailering. Open trailer with a Miata as Steve mentioned might not need a sway bar. Ditto a 1600 pound spec racer. Anything heavy and you need to plan carefully.

I personally use tire bonnets but some people will only use axles straps.

If you're trailering something big and heavy like a 24 foot trailer with tons of gear inside including a 3000 pound car you will want all the stability you can get and this means sway control bars, large tow vehicle with the longest wheelbase, longest bed, and biggest engine etc.

I tried pulling my 20 foot trailer with my buddies shortwheel base Silverado (wasn't even an extended cab) and a dinky 4.6 V8 and we nearly stalled going up the hill at Watkins Glen. I bought a crew cab HD and now just cruise up that hill. It's not important to get the most expensive tow vehicle just the right one.

The sway bars made a huge difference on the highway with all those rigs blazing by.

Regards,

Jon
95 F355 C
88 M5

I have an opinion. What a surprise.

Let's make sure we're talking about the same thing - "sway control" = "sway control", not to be confused with "load equalizer bars" & "load equalizer hitch", right ?

Sway control - you only need it if you need it (what the hell does that mean ???). You need sway control if, when you have your trailer properly loaded (proper tongue weight...you know what your tongue weight is...don't you ?) and leveled (loaded trailer and tow vehicle level at static), you notice that your trailer is "wagging" at highway speeds. Most of the time, this wagging is caused by too little tongue weight or improper hitch ball height. I also feel that sometimes radial vs. bias ply trailer tires can have an impact on this, which is why I continue to swear by bias-ply trailer tires.

I tow race cars 20,000-30,000 miles/year. I have a 24' enclosed trailer and an 18' open trailer, and neither of them have sway control. Both can be nasty pigs to tow if not loaded properly (see paragraph above), but when loaded right they don't sway. Tractor trailers ARE going to push you around on the highway, it's a fact of life. Crosswinds are a bitch...another fact. Sway control ? IMO sway control just hides a problem that you really ought to know about.

Tire bonnets vs. axles straps ? I don't like either of them. I like hooking onto the frame. You can put a HUGE load onto suspension bushings and knock your alignment to hell by tying the car down at outboard suspension points. Tire bonnets are OK if the load goes DOWN, not fore & aft, but on most trailers it's easier said than done. I make sure I have good tie downs on the frame/unibody/rails.

As Jon mentioned, don't pull too much trailer for your tow vehicle. This is the primary source of wagging. It's also the primary source of blown-up tow vehicles and ambulance rides. Pull with as long a wheelbase as you can.

non-audiworld pics on the server. BAD boy!

With the 24' enclosed trailer, we use a load-distributing hitch. Although we haven't towed that trailer w/o, I can definitely feel the advantages based on several years of towing experience. Although John/TSR probably has more towing miles than I do, I bet I've towed with a larger variety of vehicles!! :-P

Anyhow, since this hitch distributes some of the tongue weight to the front axle of your tow vehicle, the tow vehicle is much more stable at highway speeds. It also allows you run with even more tongue weight, without making it look like you removed the rear springs from your truck.

With the 3/4 ton Duramax, no special gadgets are required for towing a car on an open trailer, it hardly knows it's there. I do know several folks that use 1/2 ton trucks and SUV's to tow open trailers that use load-distributing hitches, though. Perhaps not required for many of these cases, but I'm sure it improves stability and control quite a bit.

I've never used sway control. I would guess that it would be less effective than a load-distributing hitch, however.

On the Audi, we simply reuse the holes that are built into the bottom of the chassis. These are the holes used while the cars are being transported on trains in Europe. We found some neat beefy "T" hook things that have a loop at the end, at a local trailer shop. We insert the "T" into the chasses holes, then hook our tie straps to the loop. The car is quite stable while towing, and I don't worry about the suspension getting thrashed.

do you cinch the car down when hooking onto the (sub)frame? To the bump stops or somewhere in between?

I will be towing anywhere from an approx GTW of 4900# to 6400#. The advice I have been given is tongue weight should be at least 10% of GTW, preferably 15% with trailer and truck level. Tow vehicle is a Ram 2500 quad-cab short bed Cummins turbo diesel.

I did somewhat mix up weight distributing vs sway control. Was looking at the Equalizer (WD and sway control) hitch.

http://www.equalizerhitch.com/

It's pretty expensive but I don't want to skimp on safety.

AHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Oh. Sorry.

It's just that people reef their cars down too hard on trailers, and end up bending or damaging something. My rule of thumb: Tight enough so it doesn't fall off. Loose enough so there is some suspension compliance in the load. Your car handles like crap when you're on the bump stops and the spring rates go to infinity...why should it be any different on the trailer ?

What does this mean ? You're just tying it down, but you're not experimenting with automotive bondage. Some people thing that the car has to stay in place, even with the trailer upside down. Well, if the whole rig is upside down, you have bigger problems. If you put 4 good straps on the car and just snug them down, the car isn't going anywhere without the trailer. Remember, you're not trying to "stretch" your car...you're just tying it down.

How to figure out your tongue weight without cornerweight scales ? Easy - get 4-6 of your friends who will admit to their weight, to climb on the back bumper of your truck. Measure from bumper to ground, loaded and unloaded, and you'll have a quickie little guide to various tongue weights. Then hook trailer up, load the car and adjust the position of the car to get an appropriate bumper height. Remarkably accurate. Each trailer has a magic tongue weight where it will be happy. The only way you'll find it is to experiment a little.

Corey mentioned some advantages of load equalizing/weight distributing hitches, but didn't mention the one I feel is most important - braking. Without a WD hitch, your front brakes SUCK, and in the wet they SUCK WORSE. This can make for very exciting towing, and maybe give you a winner in the 'fireside towing horror stories' competition, which you don't really want to ever win. A good WD/LD hitch gives you back some bite in your front brakes.