Towing Cars- Are you a hooker or a (wheel) strapper?

I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum, and everyone has their own opinions, but I'm genuinely curious. I see a TON of wheel strappers out there, and it just seems so... archaic. Then I read an article about how BimmerWorld wheel straps all of their cars and has done extensive research blahblahblah and they swear up and down that it is actually safer and does not affect steering or tweak suspensions/stress bushings.

What do you all say? I'm a J-hooker, but that's only because I was always told that wheel strapping messes with your alignments... Maybe I'm a sheep? Basically I want whatever is ensured to keep my car attached to the trailer under any and all circumstances.

Furthermore- If you use hooks... do you 'X' straps or run them straight? Another variable! AHHHHH!

I've seen people do both on the same car.... scary!

If the suspension moves, the non wheel tethered and could totally come off...

J hooks, axle straps, wheel straps (through the wheel). I do it all, but it comes down to what I'm towing.

Both, hooks with straps crossed in the front, wheel loop and straps straight back from the rear wheels.

I'll say why if you really want - but I don't have time to type that all up right now :)

It depends on the car but I preferred mini t hooks into a key hole whenever possible. It's almost impossible to damage something that way. If that wasn't an option I would go with tire straps. It's too easy to bend a suspension piece on a modern car so I would avoid them if at all possible. I don't know if they still do but AAA used to put out a guide to locate factory tie down points on most cars. You can't really go wrong securing the car the way the builder intended.

I use a strap on method

We strap to the front tow hooks (e30) in the front, and around the rear subframe in the back.

I had a bunch of these clusters. Place the appropriate hook into the car, then hook a strap or chain to the cluster to secure the car.

Here's a guide to locate tie down points. They will generally be small oval shaped holes with a reinforcement stamped around it. It may have a rubber plug in it. If it does replace it when you unload the car or you may have a problem with wind noise particularly on Audis and BMWs.

Towing Guide

Tow hooks/solid points, cross front and rear.

I liked to cross my straps or chains but it wasn't always practical. It shouldn't make a difference but I felt it looked neater.

I hook to tow points and cross straps front and rear

I need to get some T-hooks for the s2000. I currently fish straps through the subframes front and rear. The through the wheels straps worry me about pulling the car out of alignment or even bending a control arm.

'90 Miata: Factory tow hooks, straps crossed both front and rear.

I go through the wheels on my '08 MX5 because someone before me removed all the factory tow hooks grrrr.

It really depends on the car. I try to use factory tie-downs if it has them. If not, I use the largest, beefiest things I can find, subframes or possibly control arms. On solid-axle cars, I have a couple of straps that loop around the axle which I then attach to the ratchet strap itself. I cross the straps if possible.

Anything works, but I have seen a car with the rear quarter panels buckled by tying down too far back on the unibody. I prefer to tie down suspension, and let the car move, but that's just me.

As to crossing or straight, in most cases I go straight. If I'm towing something that wants to jiggle sideways, I can cross, but I don't really like to, because if one of the 4 tie downs fails, the car is now completely free to move around, barring any help from the parking brake. Straight pull, you can lose one and the others should still be able to remain tight.

Probably not really a big concern.

I've been doing/questioning my chain across the axle/LCA method. Nothing's fallen off yet but it's kind of a pain sometimes.

I have a friend that transports cars as a 2nd career. He has been all over Canada and he has told me to always secure a car so that it's suspension can still move.

I have always attached to the control arms or wheels.

I prefer to tie down the wheels so the car can move around. The forces are less than the car sees just driving.

I think the best ones are the ones that wrap over the wheels and straight down

Good stuff here. Knock on wood, I haven't had an issue using the j- in the tow hooks with crossed straps (I can't straight strap them due to interference with the body), but I'm also not an expert admittedly.

I did have one issue with wheel strapping on one occasion where it knocked a wheel weight off. Luckily it was just sitting on the trailer next to the wheel, so it was an easy fix... but it still annoyed me a bit.

jfryjfry wrote: I prefer to tie down the wheels so the car can move around. The forces are less than the car sees just driving. I think the best ones are the ones that wrap over the wheels and straight down

Similar to this?

I have a couple of those, too. Basically, I have a little bit of everything.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

jfryjfry wrote: I prefer to tie down the wheels so the car can move around. The forces are less than the car sees just driving. I think the best ones are the ones that wrap over the wheels and straight down

Similar to this? I have a couple of those, too. Basically, I have a little bit of everything.

You may have these but I hope you don't use them like the picture shows! Wheel straps work best if the attachment points are directly behind and in front of the wheels. I don't like them since most car trailers don't have the tie down points in the proper place. If you install some "E" tracks on your trailer and the proper straps with the "E" track clips then they are a good option. But to use them as pictured I would be scared!

I do like to keep the suspension free to move. My only goal when tying down my race car is to keep it from moving forward or backward. The rear is secured with short straps to the lower control arms. (The car get loaded backwards) and the front is attached to the beam axle with long straps.

In reply to jimbbski:

I had similar straps and they are designed to be attached that way pulling to the outside of the trailer.

Wall-e wrote: In reply to jimbbski: I had similar straps and they are designed to be attached that way pulling to the outside of the trailer.

I actually don't, I have some tie-down loops in the deck of my trailer that I use that are roughly in line with the wheels. That was just the first image that came up on Google. Seems like with that method, if you cinch them down too tight it could mess up your alignment since it wants to pull the top of the wheel outboard.

On the flatbed I had there were rings mounted along the outside edges of the bed so that it could accommodate vehicles of almost any size. I only used it on cars that didn't have easily accessible tie down points like Porsches. I preferred using points on the body to limit suspension motion particularly on heavy vehicles. On bad roads a full size Lincoln or an suv free to move about on its suspension can start rocking the truck back and forth pretty badly. You may not notice it as much on a trailer but on a truck sitting right behind you it's very noticeable. On any tie down you use you need to be aware of how tight you're making it to avoid damaging anything.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

jfryjfry wrote: I prefer to tie down the wheels so the car can move around. The forces are less than the car sees just driving. I think the best ones are the ones that wrap over the wheels and straight down

Similar to this? I have a couple of those, too. Basically, I have a little bit of everything.

basically, yes. I haven't seen those in particular, and I think that pulling straight down is the better way to do it. But cars are towed in many ways with no damage or incident so it seems that unless you use rope tied to the exhaust to hold the car down, you're probably a-ok.