Towing a trailer with your race car inside can be thrilling, but also nerve-wracking, especially if you’re new to hauling cargo. However, with some preparation and defensive driving techniques, you can feel confident and safe while towing your prized possession down the highway. Here are some tips for safely towing your race car trailer.
Check Your Vehicle’s Towing Capacity
Before hitching up your loaded trailer, confirm that your tow vehicle can handle the weight. Every vehicle has a maximum towing capacity based on its size, engine, transmission, brake system, and other factors. Exceeding the capacity strains components and compromises handling. Locate the tow rating in your owner’s manual or on the door frame sticker and make sure it exceeds the gross combined weight rating of the trailer and cargo. Going over capacity puts you and others in danger.
Acclimate to Driving With Added Length and Weight
Towing a 20-foot trailer more than doubles your vehicle’s length and significantly increases its weight. Take time adjusting to the slower acceleration, wider turning radius, longer stopping distance, and heightened wind sensitivity. Find an empty parking lot and practice turns, backing up, and hard brakes, so you can handle these maneuvers gracefully on the road. Get used to spotting the trailer in your side mirrors and recognizing its tail swing. Mastering these basics boosts safety for you and your fellow motorists.
Load the Trailer Properly
An imbalanced or overloaded trailer can lead to mechanical failures, fish-tailing, or tire blowouts. Load your cargo from front to back and distribute the weight evenly from side to side. Heavy items like the engine and fuel tank up front help stabilize sway. Secure all items with straps, blocks, and chains so nothing shifts in transit. A proper tongue weight of 10% to 15% of your cargo weight ensures safe towing. Always weigh fully loaded at a truck stop to avoid overloading. Adjust items or remove cargo as needed for safe transit.
Inspect All Equipment Thoroughly
Before each trip, meticulously inspect your tow vehicle, hitch system, trailer structure, and tires. Look for cracks, rust, loose bolts or fasteners, uneven wear, leaks, and low pressure. Replace worn parts, tighten fixtures, repack bearings, add air to tires, and conduct a full maintenance check based on mileage. Good equipment condition minimizes breakdowns and failures that can damage your vehicle or race car. Perform fixes, so you can tow with total peace of mind.
Drive Cautiously and Defensively
Once hitched up, driving demands heightened responsibility, awareness, and care behind the wheel. Allow extra room for braking, accelerate gently, signal early for turns and lane changes, and maintain reduced speeds to handle the weight. Scan further down the road for problems to react gradually and avoid sudden maneuvers. Leave room around the rig to be seen by other drivers. Don’t follow too closely, and use your mirrors to monitor conditions constantly. Defensive techniques give you time to handle surprises safely. Stay alert for fatigue and stop to refresh.
Have a Plan if Things Go Wrong
Despite extensive precautions, unexpected problems crop up now and then when towing. Items shift, lights fail, vehicles overheat, gears malfunction and more issues arise. Create contingency plans for common problems, assemble a roadside kit of tools/spare parts, and keep emergency numbers handy.
Maintain a AAA membership, or a similar roadside assistance plan, that covers RVs and trailers for free towing or tire changes. Brief your passengers on how to deploy stabilizer bars, warning flashers, and cones if forced to stop on the roadside due to a problem. Thinking through crises means you can handle them smoothly.
Stay safe and confident hauling your race car by following these tips. Pay attention to weight limits, drive defensively, and perform thorough equipment checks, so you deliver your precious cargo to the speedway in peak condition every time. With practical preparation and driving skills, towing becomes second nature.
