Herb’s Hints for Trailer Towing

Trailer and Tow Vehicle Basics

Your trailer is going to weigh around 2200 pounds empty. By the time you get through adding propane tanks, water, supplies, and everything else, you could go as high as 3200 pounds. Take 3000 pounds as a reasonable tow weight. Your trailer title ought to have empty weight on it. You need a vehicle rated to tow at least this much.

The tongue weight on this trailer will be between 250 and 300 pounds. Therefore, you will need a load leveling/distributing hitch, unless you’re going to tow with a heavy duty truck, and even then, you’ll want a load leveling hitch because the hitch is also an anti-sway device, and a travel trailer in a cross wind can sway a lot, sometimes enough to turn over trailer and tow vehicle.

Your trailer ought to have electric brakes on it standard. They are essential because without them, stopping on a level surface will be two to three times longer than without a trailer, and your tow vehicle brakes will be put under high strain. Electric brakes on the trailer are totally and absolutely essential if you are going to do any towing in hill country. Therefore, your tow vehicle will need to have an electric brake controller to run the trailer brakes.

About That Tow Vehicle

Major fact: The more that your tow vehicle weighs, the easier it is to control the trailer. The less it weighs, the more your tow vehicle will respond to trailer inputs… wind, braking, sway, turns.

Vehicle manufacturers love to be optimistic in specifying how much a vehicle can tow. For example, my Toyota Highlander is rated for 5,000 pounds and there is no way I’d tow an actual 5,000 with it. But, I would tow 3,500 pounds with it.

Therefore, you’re going to want a tow vehicle with at least a 5,000 pound tow rating. I judge a 3,500 pound tow rating, while technically sufficient, is too small a margin of safety for the unexpected. And, towing puts a substantial extra strain on a vehicle, especially at highway speeds, and especially with a boxy travel trailer. Thus, if you have a choice between smaller motor and bigger motor, get the bigger one.

Tow Package: You’re going to want a tow package, especially in hot Texas weather. Standard tow packages include an oversize radiator, a transmission oil cooler, sometimes an engine oil cooler, and sometimes a wiring harness. As an example, my Highlander came with all of the above, plus oversize radiator fans. You’ll also need a receiver hitch installed.

Brakes and Wiring Harness: For trailers with brakes, you’ll need a brake controller. This fits under the dash of the tow vehicle. Spend the money to get a good one. The good ones automatically start braking the trailer when you brake the tow vehicle, and you generally won’t need the manual braking lever. Cheap ones require you to manually brake the trailer while braking the vehicle. Using trailer brakes is something of an art; for example, if a passing truck causes your trailer to sway, a touch of the trailer brakes only usually stops the sway, and using the trailer brakes when heading downhill, into a turn, also makes the turn easier to control. The wiring harness used for trailers with brakes uses a 7 wire round plug (left turn, right turn, running lights, backup lights, accessory power, electric brakes, and ground). Most tow packages are 4 wire setups (left turn, right turn, running lights, and ground) so you’ll need to wire in the 7 wire harness.

Miscellaneous: You’ll need to see if your tow vehicle is wide enough to see behind the trailer with your side mirrors. If not, you’ll need to get extendable mirrors to add to the vehicle. As a general rule of thumb, the air pressure in the rear tires of your tow vehicle should be at least four pounds greater than the front. This will reduce sway and the tendency to oversteer.

Driving With a Trailer

Above and beyond the various tips to make trailering easier, there are two things that really matter when towing a travel trailer: Height and turning radius. Your trailer is about 8 feet tall, which _should_ fit under most anything you plan to drive under, but… be aware. You might drive into that quaint motel with a sign that is 7’ 6” off the ground, and bingo… you owe someone a new sign.

The second thing to always be aware of is that the trailer wheels will always turn inside the turning radius of your tow vehicle. This means that if you don’t compensate, you’ll find yourself running the trailer wheels over the curb at the very least, or worse, hitting a building or a parked car. Even when turning left, it is important to consider that the trailer will turn inside, just in case you might clip a car waiting at the light when you make a left turn.

The solution is simple. You must drive your tow vehicle in a large radius than you normally would to ensure that your trailer won’t accidentally clip anything. The picture on the right is something of an exaggeration but you get the point. I’d recommend finding an empty parking lot, put out a couple of boxes to represent the corners of an intersection, then turn around them a few times to get an idea of how much adjustment you need to make in your turns to get the trailer around the corner.

I may be OCD, and, each time I start out, I always perform at least a cursory inspection to make sure that the trailer tires are inflated, that the hitch is securely fashioned, tow chains are set, and that the electrical connections are in place and tight. For the first time each day, I check that all electrical connections are working… the lights work properly, and when moving slowly forward, that the trailer brakes work.

As I’ve noted, your braking distances will increase, but not too much with trailer brakes in use. However, you should give yourself more stopping distance, which of course, means that the muppets will pull in to the open space. Such is life. You can forget about jack rabbit starts, so enjoy the view.

Towing at speed is hard on the tow vehicle, especially if powered by a smaller motor. On hills and into headwinds, your transmission may start to “hunt”, continuously changing gears between 4^th or overdrive and a lower gear. If this happens, you should leave the transmission in a lower gear, even if this means engine RPM increases. Be aware of engine temperature. Use synthetic motor oils when towing because they resist high temperatures better.

Backing Up with a Trailer

Good news: Longer trailers are easier to backup then short trailers because they take more time to respond to vehicle inputs. Bad news: The longer the distance between the trailer hitch ball and the rear axle of the tow vehicle, the harder it is to control the inputs to the trailer.

Backing up rule #1: The trailer will move in the same direction as you move the bottom of the steering wheel. So, if you want the trailer to backup to the right of the tow vehicle, you turn the bottom of the steering wheel to the right.

Backing up rule #2: When you turn your steering wheel and start backing up, the trailer “breaks” from moving straight back. It will continue to break more and more so long as you keep the steering wheel turned. So, once you’ve initiated the break, you return the steering wheel back to the neutral position in order to keep the backup turn from sharpening. You might even turn the wheel the other way to compensate if you got too much break on the trailer but this doesn’t always work.

Backing up rule #3: There is no shame in pulling forward and straightening out your vehicle/trailer combo. If your trailer has turned too much (too much “break”), it will be impossible to recover it unless you’re doing this on a football field. Pull forward, get it straightened out, and try again.

Backing up rule #4: When backing into a spot, try to do it so that you’re breaking on the driver’s side, ie, to the left. It’s much easier to see where you’re going out of the driver’s side mirror than the passenger side.

As with practicing turns, you should practice backing in an open parking lot. Put a couple of boxes out and backup in between them.