Tips To Tow Or Trailer A Boat

If you are passionate about boat and love dragging out your boat to the waters every weekend, you would agree with the fact that the trip from garage to the sea can be challenging at times. With a little preparation and practice, however, that challenge can easily be done away with. There are some essentials that you will need to take care of for making the task smooth and simple. Have a look at the useful tips given below:

Prepare A Checklist : 

Making a proper checklist of all the things that can ruin your experience of towing a boat would help you a lot to avoid them. For example, you might forget to replace the drain plug or fail to strap the vessel properly to the trailer. But if there is a checklist for you to go through before embarking on the journey, it will instantly remind you whatever that you forgot to address, such as tightening the lug nuts on trailer wheels, inflating all tires properly, securing the motor or outdrive, and so on.

Don’t Forget To Turn Wide :

Suppose you have a 4 car hauler and your boat is just as big. Towing with such a wide load is not at all an easy task, and you are bound to forget essentials such as turning wide. But you need to prevent that from happening. Therefore, always remember that turning radius of your hauler is tighter than of your vehicle. Failing to clear that curb can be an open invitation to trouble.

Avoid Over-speeding : 

Before setting out towards the waters, calculate how much time it will take for the vehicle and trailer to stop once you have got them up to speed. You have the physics as well as a lot of extra weight acting against you. So be careful and do not overspeed even if your trailer has got its own pair brakes. It will ensure the safety of your boat, the entire towing equipment, you and other vehicles on the road.

So next time you are preparing to bring out your boat on a hot summer day for relaxing in the waters, make sure you follow the above mentioned guidelines. In addition to that, keep in mind maintaining your hauler trailer is also essential. Otherwise, you would not be able to use it for pulling your boat. The aim is to have fun, without experiencing any problem.

Trailering Tips That Can Help You Save Fuel

In the USA, there are many people who own a trailer and use it either for personal reasons or towing business. Whatever the reason may be, trailering is quite common in the country. Towing a fully loaded 5 or 4 car hauler not an easy job, requires great driving skills as well as regular consideration of several factors. The matter which concerns us here the most the amount of fuel used up in towing trailers. It is quite a significant amount, which is why this blog will focus on towing tips that can be followed to save fuel. Those tips have been described below in detail:

Checking Tire Pressure : 

Low pressure in tires can drag the trailer as well as the tow vehicle, thereby decreasing fuel mileage. It can also be responsible for tire failures caused due to heat. It is therefore, important to ensure that trailer tires have the pressure recommended in the manual. It is better to avoid the pressure rating posted on the tires.

Levelling The Trailer : 

In case someone needs to tow a trailer loaded with a boat, the former should be adjusted properly so that the latter is level on it. Proper leveling would help to reduce resistance from wind and thereby increase fuel economy. It will also ensure that the boat can be loaded and unloaded without much hassle.

Maintaining Tongue Weight : 

The tongue weight of a trailer should around 5-7% of the gross tow package, which includes weight of the load as well as the hauler. This can substantially help in increasing miles per gallon for the rig by decreasing fishtailing and swaying.

Lubricating The Bearings : 

Trailers generally come with protective bearings for keeping the hubs lubed properly. However, these also need to be inspected from time to time for making sure that they contain the required amount of grease. One can easily check the bearing protectors by pressing the piston loaded with spring. The hub will slightly rock back & forth if it has sufficient grease and not compress entirely.

Maintaining Consistent Speed : 

While towing it is important to accelerate steadily and slowly from complete halts. Driving 5mph slower than what has been posted on the speed limit sign can aid significantly in getting the most out of gas. Besides that, it is also one of the commonly followed tips for towing a car trailer safely.

Following the above mentioned tips can greatly help to save on fuel required for towing, irrespective of whether it is done regularly or once in a blue moon.