[Sunbeam Talbot Email List] transporting a beam,

[CotaLymepond at aol.com]

Greetings All
Over the years I have seen some particularly scary transportation methods,  
and not always from amateurs.
The problem is that people tie down a car and move it, have no problems and  
think that that means it was properly attached . If you put a car on a 
trailer,  set the parking brake, and drive very carefully, you could take it across 
the  country with no tie down's on it at all and it would still be on the 
trailer  when you got to your destination. (that does not mean it would be a safe 
trip)  We do not wear seat belts to keep our butts in the seat while we drive, 
we wear  them in case something goes wrong. Same thing with tie downs The idea 
is to tie  the car down so that it will stay on the trailer in the event that 
you're  involved in an accident.
Which includes a blown tire, (trailer or tow vehicle) drifting off the  edge 
of the road, or a jackknife situation.
The best method is to use four ratchet straps, one at each corner. the best  
attachment location is a spot on the lower control arms or the drive axle. 
This  allows the car to move on it's suspension when you go over bumps without  
creating slack in the tie downs, Which is what would happen if the straps were  
attached to the frame or the bumpers. As the car bounces on it's springs, the 
 straps would be jerked tight and loose against the frame as it moves up and  
down.  For newer cars that have nothing to hook to underneath (Porsche's  
etc.) the method used is to pass a strap through the slots in the wheel and tie  
the tire down. This keeps the wheels firmly tied down and allows  the 
suspension to bounce around at will. this method doesn't work on  Sunbeam's as there 
are no slots in the wheels to pass a strap through. 
The problem with just looping a strap around a wheel in an X is that there  
is nothing to keep the vehicle from sliding around if things get  scary.  I 
have also seen many brake lines pinched flat from having a  chain wrapped around 
the rear axle. be careful when locating straps so as not  to chafe the straps 
or do damage to the car itself. 
And Never trailer a car on an open trailer with a car cover or a tarp over  
it. 
The cover will flap in the wind and scuff the paint.
I once took delivery of a model A Ford that had been trucked about 1000  
miles with an expensive car cover on it. The entire back portion of the cover  had 
disintegrated from flapping in the wind and had worn right through the paint  
on the rear corners of the body right down to bare metal. 
As always the best advise is just to use good old common sense.
Happy Trails  <> Steve Cota <>
 
In a message dated 7/1/2008 7:23:03 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
rhughes at actewagl.net.au writes:

Our car  club has its own trailer that we members borrow - a twin axle job.
After  positioning the car on the trailer so that there is a slight downforce
(100  pounds sounds fine) on the towball, and then ensuring the parking brake
is  on and car in gear,  I use a heavy duty chain around the rear axle  to
secure the car to the back of the trailer (greatest force is  encountered
when braking).  Then I use two ratchet tiedowns at the  front to 'tension up'
the load.  My last tow was 400 miles and the car  didn't shift an inch -
relative to the trailer.  It did make the 400  miles home :-).

Cheers, Vic


----- Original Message  -----
From: "George Simpson - Forums"  <george.simpson.forums at neuf.fr>
To:  <wes.stewart at sunbeamsaloon.com>
Cc:  <staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:50  PM
Subject: Re: [Sunbeam Talbot Email List] transporting a  beam,


> My last tow was over 500 miles in a day and I tow on a  flat bed trailer
> with twin axles under the platform. I don't even have  the bolt-down
> chocks for the wheels and just use two ratcheted tie  downs for the front
> wheels. I pass the tie-down heavy canvas band  behind the top of the
> wheel and then cross it over at the front so  that at  the front of the
> wheel it looks like a  big X with  about 8 feet between the tie-down
> attachment points on each side. With  my wing (fender) mirrors, I can
> check constantly that the rear wheels  have not moved and, of course,
> check about every 200 miles that all  tie downs etc are in place and tight.
> Your set up seems more than  adequate. As always, look for about 100 lbs
> on the tow ball.
>  Cheers
> George
>
> wes.stewart at sunbeamsaloon.com  wrote:
> > When I go to Galveston to collect "the beam", I will be  taking my 22ft
car hauler trailer so as to flat tow the car back home. I  have tie-down
rings at front and rear, and an adjustable wheel stop (4x4)  that straps down
to push the front wheels against. I tow my Austin 1100 and  Riley Elf with
ease and use 4 ratcheted tie-downs: one for each  corner.
> >
> > Are there any particularly good or bad  tie-down points on the car. With
a nice heavy-duty frame it would seem  pretty much anything goes, but I
thought I would check with the  "experience" pool.
> > WES
> > Fate,  TX





**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for 
fuel-efficient used cars.      (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://sunbeamtalbot.info/pipermail/staowners_sunbeamtalbot.info/attachments/20080701/938ebffa/attachment-0001.html