A guide to towing safer.
It is important to understand the fundamentals of connecting your trailer to your tow vehicle. This is to ensure a safe ride for the driver, the load and others on the road.
A disconnected trailer is a dangerous, costly and sometimes deadly situation to be in.
Read on to see our quick instructions (with images) on how to hitch a trailer.
1.
Adjust your trailers coupling height to be above the height of your tow ball.
This is done by cranking the jack-stand until the front of the trailer is raised to be above level.
2.
Use your mirrors or a guide to reverse the trailer until your tow ball is positioned in line and under the coupling of the trailer.
3.
Wind down the Jack Stand, so that the coupling encompasses the towball.
The next step is the most important
4.
Secure the towball by activating the safety latch which securely fits the coupling over the tow ball.
The handle gets pushed downwards until it can spring latch on itself as pictured.
5.
The next step is to draw up the jack stand. To do this, release the lower latch and pull out the pin.
Then slide the extension onto itself, until just one hole remains and securely latch the pin back in.
6.
Next, put the stand into its travel position.
Do this by pulling the pin on the holder on the drawbar.
There are 4 holes - 1 set is vertical and 1 set is horizontal. Pull the pin out of the vertical position and rotate the jack stand till it is horizontal and in line with the chassis.
Re-install the pin into the horizontal holes and securely latch.
7.
Secure the trailer once more to the tow vehicle by forming a 'cradle' with the trailer chains. The chains must diagonally cross over one another to latch onto the hooks of the tow vehicle. This forms a cradle that can catch the trailer coupling in the unlikely event it releases from the ball and will prevent it from hitting the road or completely coming loose.
8.
Ensure that one of the chains is intertwined with the breakaway cable. This must also be hooked onto the tow vehicle.
This ensures that if the chains were to come loose, the trailer would
pull
on this cable and
activate the emergency brakes within the trailer - enabling it to come to a stop.
9.
To link the trailer to your car electrically. Insert the trailer plug from the the trailer into the corresponding car receiver.
This ensures that your trailer shows your tow vehicles blinkers, brake lights and reverse lights.
Always check before beginning your drive that all your lights work and are synced with the trailer.
It is best to test each blinker instead of activating the hazard lights as this can often give a false reading.
10.
After checking everything is secure, and your blinkers and brake lights are responding, you can now release the handbrake and you're ready to roll!
