This is good thinking and very worth considering. The straps are there for two
important
reasons. 1. Hold the car in place during normal towing forces (obvious). 2.
Hold the car
in place during extreme conditions, panic stops, swerves and collisions (less
obvious).
This explains why most articles say to cross the front and rear tie downs to
opposite
sides of the trailer. The car isn't going to move sideways under normal
conditions but if
something goes wrong you need to control the car from moving sideways. I think
I'll move
my tie downs this week end to allow for crossing the straps on future trips.
Cheap
insurance.
Craig Wright
"Crawley,John" wrote:
>
> Hi:
>
> I talked to a friend of mine, who was foreman of a trailer manufacturing
>business and an instructor in our college in the metals department, about
>tying down cars on trailers. He said that each case should be assessed on its
>own depending on the relative difference between the weight of the trailer and
>the weight of the vehicle on it, as well as the spring rate of each. When I
>asked how to do this he replied: "Common sense and experience" - BIG HELP! He
>did say that most failures of carried loads come about from the unexpected. In
>his experience the biggest danger is from cars came off of trailers forwards.
>People always tend to think of a car falling backwards off a trailer but the
>most force applied to the tie-downs is foreword under braking or in the event
>of a collision. He said sideways is second as people seldom tie a car down to
>account for sliding into a curb or a ditch. His warning, though, is that by
>far most loads are lost by failure of the trailer to remain attac!
> hed to the tow vehicle from people simply not doing up the hitch.
>
> Godspeed
> Jc
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