Teach me towing

In a month I will be helping my best friend with his 5 hour move out to Massachusets. Thankfully he isn't taking too much furniture/ large items but I'm concerned that the truck, a Dakota with a 6'6" bed just won't be enough. We might use a small rental trailer.

My extent of towing is a yard cart with my lawn mower. What do I need to know about highway towing, aside from never rent from U-Haul?

Thanks.

For one-way trailer rental you will not find much other than Uhaul.
It's all about tongue weight. A adjustable hitch/ball will go a long way to remedying a situation.

I never had a problem with a Uhaul trailer.. their trucks on the other hand...

I towed a 12foot uhaul trailer from NJ to Ok without any problems.. and have rented plenty of other uhaul trailers without any issues.. car haulers, utility trailers, box trailers.. most of them went overstate lines.

Best thing to know is how to load. You want 60% of the weight on the trailer.. any less and you can get the tail wagging the dog.

Also NEVER forget the extra weight you are hauling. Starts slowing sooner, take the turns slower, and generally treat it with respect and you will do fine. Unfortunately backing a trailer is something you have to learn yourself..

I pulled a 6x12 Uhaul with a 92 Dakota V8, did it with no problems, V6 should handle it as well. Just load the trailer correctly so the tongue weight is about right, not too light (too much weight at back of trailer) or too heavy (too much weight at front), either condition can get the "tail" wagging. Also, watch how much weight is in the bed as well. Also, like Mad machine said, watch the braking, Dakotas don't have the greatest brakes and Uhauls surge brakes aren't great either.

If you've never driven a vehicle with a trailer or a heavy load, here's something to remind you how you should be driving: Drive like you left your kid in their car seat on the hood of your tow vehicle. No body roll, slow take offs, and slow stops. Nice and smoooooth....

I might want to add... no real speeding. If you are unsure how how the load is positioned.. SLOWLY accelerate to your cruising speed.. and the first sign of any wagging.. back off (no brakes!) and slow to a halt once everything is under control.. then go back and reposition

Now for the scary part: backing up!!

Quick and easy guide: grab the bottom of the steering wheel, the direction you turn the wheel is the direction the trailer will go while backing. Now, as to how far to turn it, that'll depend on the turn, but also, keep in mind the tounge length. With a small trailer, it'll be easy to suddenly have the trailer within inches of the tailgate...short tounge length. In many ways, a longer trailer is actually easier to maneauver.

mad_machine wrote: and the first sign of any wagging.. back off (no brakes!)

If you have trailer brakes and a brake controller, manually activating the brake controller to "drag" your tow rig to a stop is actually the best way. The trailer brakes activating with the truck's momentum still pulling forward greatly helps straighten things out.

I like the quote about driving like your child is strapped to the hood. very succint.

Like everyone else said -

-- load it right. If the truck or trailer isn't (fairly) level, then you've probably loaded it wrong. Stop and reconsider

-- take your time. Drive easy and plan ahead. Way ahead.

-- if the trailer has brakes, be sure to adjust them (if you can) once you have the everything loaded. Adjust while empty is pointless.

--TAKE YOUR TIME!

--Wide apex the corners until you get a feel for where the inside trailer wheel tracks. You should feel it out in a couple turns.

mad_machine wrote: I never had a problem with a Uhaul trailer.. their trucks on the other hand... I towed a 12foot uhaul trailer from NJ to Ok without any problems.. and have rented plenty of other uhaul trailers without any issues.. car haulers, utility trailers, box trailers.. most of them went overstate lines. Best thing to know is how to load. You want 60% of the weight on the trailer.. any less and you can get the tail wagging the dog. Also NEVER forget the extra weight you are hauling. Starts slowing sooner, take the turns slower, and generally treat it with respect and you will do fine. Unfortunately backing a trailer is something you have to learn yourself..

Rule of thumb says 10%-15% tonque weight. Of course you will need to know/estimate the gross weight of the loaded trailer.

iceracer wrote: Of course you will need to know/estimate the gross weight of the loaded trailer.

I was just about to ask how to properly do this.

z31maniac wrote:

iceracer wrote: Of course you will need to know/estimate the gross weight of the loaded trailer.

I was just about to ask how to properly do this.

Start with the weight of the unloaded trailer add load. If not available, Make sure the rear of the tow vehicle drops when you hook up the loaded trailer or as you load it.

I bought a 6x12 box January of last year and tried towing it with my 2008 Silverado Ext Cab V6. It was a nightmare. Trailer was loaded WAY underweight, but the combination of a big box and a V6 was not fun. I traded it in for a 2007 Tahoe with the V8 thinking it'd tow like a dream. Not quite, but better.

As a newbie, here's some things to keep in mind:

1) You will be slow. Prepare for taking a long time to get up to freeway speed.

2) You WILL know the trailer is there. It feels really odd with it jerking the truck and just something to get use to.

3) If the Dakota is an automatic, keep an eye (and ear) on the way it shifts. If it feels like it's right up to the point of shifting up a gear, but not quite there, back off and let it. That's the biggest thing for me to get used to. Learning to listen and watch for my shift points so it's not in a constant state of slipping.

4) Don't use cruise control. Learn to feather the throttle to allow it to shift and sit comfortably in a gear. Using my cruise control would have it constantly downshifting to maintain speed and heating up the transmission. Just be prepared to keep it steady and lose some speed on even the smallest inclines rather than making the transmission "hunt".

-Rob

The Dak is an 05 with a 4.7L and the tranny is the slusher with a tow mode.

iceracer wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

iceracer wrote: Of course you will need to know/estimate the gross weight of the loaded trailer.

I was just about to ask how to properly do this.

Start with the weight of the unloaded trailer add load. If not available, Make sure the rear of the tow vehicle drops when you hook up the loaded trailer or as you load it.

Sorry, I meant tongue weight.

One tip, check the security of the rear doors before you set off, and perhaps once in a while whenever you stop. If it is loose, you can spread your underwear over many miles of I-80. or, you know, whatever road.

triumph5 wrote: Now for the scary part: backing up!! Quick and easy guide: grab the bottom of the steering wheel, the direction you turn the wheel is the direction the trailer will go while backing. Now, as to how far to turn it, that'll depend on the turn, but also, keep in mind the tounge length. With a small trailer, it'll be easy to suddenly have the trailer within inches of the tailgate...short tounge length. In many ways, a longer trailer is actually easier to maneauver.

^ This!! I taught many soldiers using this method . . .

Good information here, just one I would like to add.

Inspect your equipment. Check tires on the trailer, bent fenders, holes in the floor, etc.

The U-haul equipment can leave alot to be desired sometimes.

Ride levelers are brilliant, I have towed about 100,000 miles with these and have never had an incident that related to towing, however I had a brake failure last year that caused an accident that could easily have been very bad.

This set up is fabulous

This is what happens when tow vehicle brakes fail behind a semi

As stated above, tongue weight is the key. Get it right, and the trip will be pleasant. You can almost forget the trailer is behind you. Get it wrong, and bad things can happen, up to and including the whole rig being wadded up on the side of the road.

Usually, sway side to side = not enough tongue weight. Can also be a sign of a low tire. Bucking for and aft = too much tongue weight, but can also be a sign of a loose hitch. Don't be surprised if you have to stop and adjust the load to get it right. At the first sign of trouble, stop and fix it. Too often I see people towing obviously miss-loaded trailers. Don't do it. It's dangerous. Even after loading trailers for 25 years, from a few hundred pounds to over 10K, I still get it wrong occasionally.

Stop and check the trailer and load about 30 minutes after leaving. The load will probably have shifted. Furniture is a pain to load. It will move around. Those straps you thought were tight probably aren't anymore.

Tires that are too hot to touch are a sign to slow down. Even 5 MPH can make the difference between changing a tire on the side of the road, and making the destination with no problems.

Don't be in a hurry. People are going to cut you off and do all kinds of stupid things to get in front of you. Just let them. They will pull out in front of you. Be prepared for it. Acceleration will suck, the brakes will too. Plan ahead, and as they say at autocross events, look ahead.

Whatever you do, don't be like this guy:

Yes, that is a 5500# way underpowered "truck" towing a 65-7000# truck on a trailer made for no more then 5000#.

Up the tire pressure all the way around on your car. Check the tire pressure in the trailer as well. A whole lot of trailer problems come from the sidewall flexing of the tires on the tow vehicle. The tow vehicle sways, which sets the trailer to swaying, which makes the tow vehicle sway harder, which gets the trailer swaying harder...

Center your load about the axle as best you can. Put the heavy things over the axle if you can.

Don't try to rip your bumper off with tongue weight. Lots of folk go nuts with tongue weight, making a bad situation much worse. You don't do good things my dragging the bumper of the tow vehicle down the road, overloading the rear tires and getting the front tires up in the air.

There are some urban myth out there. With my Jeep Liberty I towed my 4000 lb trailer all over the NE for 8 years,with never a problem. Used cruise control much of the time when feasble. Never locked it out of OD except when going down some long hills. No extra cooling for the transmission. I added Air Lifts to keep it more level. It helped the front brakes work better. No ABS. Just thought I would share my real world experience. Others may differ.

And cross your safety chains!