[Formulajones]

The problem with tying them straight that I've found is the car walking side to side on the trailer. I've tried this on both our open flat bed and the enclosed trailer and found that the car would walk to the side. Got so close to the wall on the enclosed I couldn't even squeeze down that side.

From then on, I've always crossed the straps front and back, and the car never moves.

[Skip Fix]

I strap the fronts straight and crisscross rears .

[Tim Corcoran]

I broke an axle on launch at Speedworld many years ago and Steve Barcak happened to be there with a trailer and he towed my car back to his house. My friend Bruce Meyer happened to have a spare axle and I went over to Steve's house a couple days later with my son put in the axle and drove it home. Yeah Racers are some of the best people I have to say. There was a guy that sold fuel in a little shack at Speedworld and was an expert at reading plugs he would tell me if it was rich, lean, if it need more timing or less just by looking at my plug. I would shut if off at full throttle at the end of the track coast around to the return road. Pull a plug and put in a spare then drive back to the pits and bring him my plug. He was such a nice guy and I can't even remember his name.

[TedRamAirII]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

The problem with tying them straight that I've found is the car walking side to side on the trailer. I've tried this on both our open flat bed and the enclosed trailer and found that the car would walk to the side. Got so close to the wall on the enclosed I couldn't even squeeze down that side.

From then on, I've always crossed the straps front and back, and the car never moves.

What do you think would happen if one of those straps in the rear broke loose? It would be better to use 4 straps and criss cross AND straight. Of course on a enclosed trailer, the vehicle will get to the side, and that's bad. On a open trailer, its going off the trailer. If you lose 1 strap criss cross, the car is going to move to the side and now you have 2 loose straps. I had a buddy do that, he had to have a quarter panel repaired, after rubbing the inside of a trailer for 1000 miles. The bolts holding the tie down loop on the trailer had let go. Bad installation!

[Formulajones]

So if a strap that is straight breaks that's going to save you from what exactly?
The vehicle still moves side to side even with all 4 strap intact if they are tied straight, you don't need to break one for that to happen LOL

Bottom line, if a strap breaks at all, you're in for some sort of trouble no matter how you tie it down. You just take your chances and roll the dice on your strap quality. So I would much rather have them crossed, at least the car isn't walking side to side while the straps are intact. That's not the case tied straight. Been there done that.

[TedRamAirII]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIC7URvAqmM

[Formulajones]

I understand what you're trying to explain, but it doesn't solve the issue of straight straps allowing the car to walk sideways on the trailer. You don't have to break a strap for that to happen. I've done that and it's not fun.

That's why I got away from that, no matter how tight you make those straps when straight, if you tow long enough you'll find the car walking across the trailer while all 4 straps are still intact. If you broke one I would suspect it would just walk that much easier.

With the criss cross, the car cant walk at all and stays put. I understand if you break a strap it could then pull to one side, but at least I know I've eliminated one issue by criss crossing them, that won't rear it's ugly head unless a strap lets go, and the chances of that are pretty slim.

I've criss crossed the country towing my enclosed trailer for I don't know how many thousands of miles and close to 30 years towing, I've never had a strap break, so I feel my odds are better this way.

[geeteeohguy]

Great story, glad it worked out. But, seriously, as a mechanic, a reminder of why I've run stock points distributors in my GTO's for the past 40+ years without any failures. HEI distributors offer zero performance gain over the stock points units. None. If in doubt, read Lars's articles and tests. This comes up all the time on the Corvette forum as well---lots of towed and stranded cars due to 'upgraded' ignition. No thanks.Beautiful looking GTO, BTW!!!

[Tim Corcoran]

I use chains on the rear and hook them to the lower control arms not crossed but straight. I use straps on the front and not crossed but straight. The chains will NEVER break and most of the stress is on the rear for hard breaking. As long as the straps are tight the car will never move on my open trailer. I towed the car to many tracks for many miles and the car never moved ever. I towed the car from Phoenix Arizona to Raleigh North Carolina over 2,200 miles at speeds up to 80+ MPH and the car never moved at all. If I loose a strap on the front it won't make a difference not much stress on the front. Not sure why people have cars moving on trailers maybe trailer bouncing too much don't know.

[69 Limelight]

Hauled new cars from plants and rail heads to dealers for 30 years. Always chains pulling straight (inboard or outboard) until last few months before I retired then manufacturers were demanding converting to straps over tires so as to not load suspension.

Of course hauled a lot of cars with 1,2 or NO chains but transport company didn't know it and/or turned a blind eye.

Won a lot of awards for damage free deliveries.

[torqhead]

Originally Posted by 68lemans462

Took the car out to Bandimere Speedway tonight to socially distance myself from my house. 9100 DA air!! I always drive the car there make as many passes as I can and roll home. I noticed a miss in the car at higher RPM's yesterday when I took it for a quick spin. It missed a couple times on the first pass but ran OK considering how hot it was. I didnt think much of it but it was unusual. Pulled up to the line and did a burnout for second pass and the car died. It would crank and start for just a second then die. I yanked the cap off the HEI and noticed the MSD HEI/rev limiter module thing looked to be FUBAR'd (circuit board bubbled up).

The employee at the dragstrip who helped me push the car off was unusually cool/helpful and asked me if I needed some time to get the car going. I looked at it for a couple minutes and quickly determined I wasnt driving this thing home. He asked how far away I lived. I told him about 10 minutes away. He said "how about I go get you a truck/trailer you can borrow to tow it home". I told him I'd just call AAA, no worries. He then asked me if I wanted an enclosed or open trailer. I told him an open trailer would be fine and also told him again it wasnt necessary. Low and behold he and 3 other dudes show up with a truck and helped me load the car on the trailer. He said "bring it back by 9pm", didnt even ask who I was. I then went home, dropped the car and grabbed the kids/wife. They followed me back up there to drop the truck and they got to see a little action. They let the wife/kids in for free. Kids loved it. This experience says alot about the racing community and car people in general..I'm going to make another post asking about my distributor module, which failed. I need some advice on that one - but had to share this experience.

Dang that sucks and cool all at the same time Dan! I've had that set up for more than 10 years and many many miles with no issues, runs hood tach too. Did you have plenty of that dielectric grease under it?

[Skip Fix]

So about 20 years ago I was towing from Dallas and a NMCA event using a friend's utility trailer and some of those dinky utility straps. Following a Buick buddy we were taking a cloverleaf exit in the rain and a boat trailer last it in front of me and blocked the exit ramp-had to go offroad in a straight line(exit should have done that anyway. Car never moved on the trailer!

[Joe's Garage]

Originally Posted by Tim Corcoran

I use chains on the rear and hook them to the lower control arms not crossed but straight. I use straps on the front and not crossed but straight. The chains will NEVER break and most of the stress is on the rear for hard breaking. As long as the straps are tight the car will never move on my open trailer. I towed the car to many tracks for many miles and the car never moved ever. I towed the car from Phoenix Arizona to Raleigh North Carolina over 2,200 miles at speeds up to 80+ MPH and the car never moved at all. If I loose a strap on the front it won't make a difference not much stress on the front. Not sure why people have cars moving on trailers maybe trailer bouncing too much don't know.

We've always used chains on the rear since my concern would be about the car coming loose on braking, like Tim stated.

We usually use FOUR of the axle straps - two on each side - if we're worried about finish damage or scratching (nicer or restored cars). The presumption is that it would be really unlikely for both of them to fail on the same side with them splitting the load. Otherwise the chains either loop the axle or the lower control arms.

On the front, one industrial 3" heavy-duty tie-down on each side, pulled straight, looped or hooked around the lower control arm or crossmember.

Of course, we also stop and check everything every 150 miles or so. It usually coincides with someone needing the use a restroom or a fuel stop (we usually travel with females).

The only time we had anything move significantly was on a borrowed enclosed 20' trailer where we had to make a panic stop to avoid an accident on a curve topping a hill...... We went straight when the pavement didn't and thankfully it was sort of flat and unobstructed.

Luckily, there was no damage, just the 'pucker factor' when we pulled the trailer back up on the pavement and opened the rear door to check and the floor was curled up about 6".

We discovered that the 'heavy duty' tiedown D-loops were just bolted thru the wood flooring....

And, yes, we helped the owner re-mount those loops thru the top of the frame after we got back home. Not moving anymore.