So I retired and sold my business in January. I decided with all my new found time if I want to go any long distances with my car I needed a good trailer. This is a Triton all aluminum tilt 7x12 it weighs 745 empty with a 2995 gvwr. as you can see the mini fits perfectly on it.
I'm working on getting some custom tie downs from Mac's Custom Tie Downs, stay tuned on that.
Very nice! Perfect for a mini. What is the ramp situation?
Looks like a tilt bed?
Are you planning to go to MME in Asheville this June? Car looks fab!
Congrats on your "retirement"?
Your Mini looks good on that trailer!
Hope you are enjoying your retirement.
So answers to the questions; it's a tilt bed, however I have a couple of wedge ramps that prevent the bed from tilting too much or it hits the front license plate driving up.
I won't make Ashville this year, my wife already had a trip planned around that time. I have a tentative plan to go up to Stowe, VT for the British Invasion it's a 5 hour drive so it should be perfect for that.
The retirement thing is pretty good so far, I'm liking the "every day is Saturday" thing. I owned my bike shop for forty years and four months, I believe I only missed working on Saturday a dozen times, lots of projects to finish....
Thinking about adding an electric winch or anything in case you're broke down and can't simply drive it on?
Looks good George.
Quote from: 94touring on March 31, 2026, 06:59:35 PMThinking about adding an electric winch or anything in case you're broke down and can't simply drive it on?
I thought about that. I have an "Armstrong" winch that I usually carry in the truck so I could use that, it "only" takes 10-15 minutes to move something 6'.....
Quote from: ADRay on April 01, 2026, 03:25:04 AMLooks good George.
I bought it just down the road from you Andy, sort of a sight unseen buy, it was buried under a foot of snow until I picked it up.
My electric winch has been put to use countless times. Also I don't even drive the car onto my trailer anymore. Use the winch to pull it nice and easy, checking ramps as I go, rather than revving and slipping the clutch to get up and on the thing. I've never used a tilt bed before so not sure if or any challenges it has.
So I've tied the car to the trailer on the front with the small tow loops and through the subframe in the rear. Neither is what I would call great, the tow loops are way too wimpy and looping through the subframe is a pain, so I tried going through the rear wheels which worked pretty well. I contacted Mac's tie downs for custom wheel nets the problem with them (besides the price $$$) is I don't have enough length in front and behind the wheels on the trailer deck. They suggested straps through the wheels from their sister company Cargo Equipment front and rear. They aren't a bunch of money so I'm inclined to go with them.
How are do you guys strap the car down on a trailer?
https://www.cargoequipmentcorp.com/hauling-towing/automotive/p/celp220893bl-pk/ (https://www.cargoequipmentcorp.com/hauling-towing/automotive/p/celp220893bl-pk/)
The style in the link you provided is what I use. They work great and easier than nets with our wheels. You just want something over or through the wheels so the suspension can move as you're going down the road. After I snug them all down I leave the winch cable connected on the loose side as another safety catch.
I have done two approaches based on what trailer arrangement I had.
I have used the "through the wheel" method such as you linked and I have used an "over the wheel" version as per these straps (which I still have for possible future needs).
https://www.uscargocontrol.com/products/car-carrier-tire-holder-strap-w-wire-hooks-ratchet
For that style of "over the wheel" straps, you would have the ratchet ends under the sills: ratchet for front wheels behind the front wheels and the ratchet for the rears in front of the rear wheels.
I bolted one of these in front of each front wheel on my trailer. That way I have a positive stop. I have over wheel straps that then pull the moke up firm. I cross strap thru the rear subframe but don't pull them real tight, more to keep it from moving sideways.
https://www.harborfreight.com/wheel-chock-with-eyebolt-69828.html
Thanks for the insights and advice. I can't use the "over the wheel" method as the existing tie down grooves don't line up with the wheels. I think I'll go with the "through the wheel" method.
The ones you linked, shown being used in the through the wheel method, can also be used in the over the wheel method. You just loop the strap through the eye and place the hoop over the tire. Its useful when you have wheels that dont allow the strap to go through it, like my 10" steelies.
I will say the over the wheel method can be a real pain in the ass to get it all to work with the small 10" wheels/tires.
Similar to what this picture is depicting. The closer you can get to vertical and the closer the wheel is to the tie down point, the easier is to get to work.
The trailer I was using the "over the wheel" straps on was a Kendon folding trailer meant for a Smart car behind an RV. They use a mesh deck, so attaching the straps in line with the Mini's wheels was no problem.
It appears they no longer make the Smart car trailer, but it was similar to this one:
Also depending what you have for places to hook onto, adding some D rings may be a nice addition. My tiny aluminum trailer for pulling behind the bus I added several. Works great for strapping other things down aside from a car too.
So these are the straps I bought for strapping the mini down to the new trailer. I think they'll work just fine. I still need to do some fine tuning on the fore/aft position on the trailer but just chucking one side to try them on was easy.
Quick advice, angle your straps outward to the corner of the trailer. Aids in keeping the car from sliding.
Quote from: 94touring on April 12, 2026, 06:38:19 PMQuick advice, angle your straps outward to the corner of the trailer. Aids in keeping the car from sliding.
Or cross the straps to the opposite sides.
That works too :great:
So in the same way there are hundreds of opinions on motor oil, it appears there are a lot of opinions on strapping a car to a trailer. This is a video from Mac's Tie Downs.
Valid points. I suppose crossing them you're limited by what's in the way anyway depending on the car. Those rubber stops are nice. I do the angled to the corner method, set the hand brake, and have the redundancy points the winch cable still attached up front with safety latch on the hook and a rear chain I loop up over the rear subframe that's attached to the trailer with a hook and safety latch on D ring. Both aren't super tight like the straps, just there to prevent rolling forward or backwards if a strap failed/came loose, the car shifts, and suddenly the other straps lose their attachments to the trailer. My trailer strap hooks don't have safety latches, so if there's enough slack they would fall out of position. When I trailer the vespa it sits in bike holder that kinda locks it in place anyways, then I have 4 straps that angle forward to keep it up against that holder and centered upright stabilized, AND then tie the front wheel to it! I just always err on the side of caution hauling things. Easy to add 2 extra straps as a precaution on a car, blocks, ect... The other thing is I load up, strap down, drive to the nearest gas station to top off, and re tighten/inspect the straps. Every fill up after that they get an inspection too.
He makes some good points.....
When we hauled a Mini on John's trailer he tied the front of the car all the way to the rear of the trailer, and the rear all the way to the front. I didn't like that arrangement because I was concerned that the straps could stretch and on rebound be loose. I thought it better to have them short....we had one car come completely loose in only a few miles, we were lucky that we caught it in town only a few miles from where we'd left, and re-strapped it. We were both confident that it was tight as can be when we first left.....
Dan's method is pretty failsafe.
I can't see a car jumping sideways unless you were to hit some pretty extreme bumps that could unload the car along with the trailer moving under it.
So maybe the tie downs that go over the tires is a better arrangement?
From my experience minis do like to slide. Maybe it's because they're so lightweight and the tire patch is small. It's not uncommon for me to see a shift in position in all the car hauls back and forth the 8 hours round trip to Dave's. That's just normal driving with some basic turns and curves. I still prefer through the wheel straps instead of over the wheel nets on minis. Over the wheels would be a pain on the rear wheels of my bus too, whereas the couple times I've had to trailer it, through the wheels were easy as could be. The bus is heavy enough I haven't seen it shift fwiw. The ass end of the vespa will slide too now that I think about it.
Looking back at your pics, you've already got eye bolts up front. Perfect for having a chain or smaller strap to one or more of your front D rings. You just don't want it extra tight because the suspension of the car needs to move freely of course. Toss something loosely over the rear subframe and hook into your center rear D ring and you're set.
Speaking from experience on the over the tire method because I have steelies. Specifically on a "normal width" car trailer having to tie out to the edges with the car being so narrow in relation to the trailer, and with small 10" wheels....it really sucks.
With tie down points closer to the car width and larger diameter tires that method gets exponentially easier.
As I noted earlier, when I used the type of "over the tire" straps (as attached below) the trailer I was using had an open mesh deck. Aligning the straps with the center line of the wheels (10" wheels were on the Mini) was very easy.
The end hook gets placed as close to the one end of the tire's contact patch as possible. The strap just slides through the middle hook, so it is also placed as close to the other end of the tire's contact patch as possible. The ratchet end is then laid flat in line with the rest of the strap and it all gets tightened down. These really secure the wheels, but as noted by others, they do require being able to have them secure in line with the wheel.
I have used the "basket" style "over the tire" straps on a tow dolly as they were what was needed by the dolly. They were on the large side for using with any sized Mini wheels but did work in that application (again, in line with the wheels).
Just FYI. I have used these for years on my Elf with 13 inch tires. Once you attach the wheel chocks and the straps, you drive it on and it goes in exactly the same spot every time and stays put. I used one on each wheel, and I trailered from South Carolina to Canada and to Minnesota and lots of other long drives. Never had any issues at all.
Fastraps (https://trailerracks.com/products/wc001-fastrap-wheel-tie-down-system?srsltid=AfmBOoq8A1SMuf0eAI50kAhGM-yQSlprIx_goLRxT7AD9ftQLwBhiq_v)
My Fastraps in use.
That style of tie down would be ideal for sure, or a trailer that has those tie down rails permanently mounted in the floor.
I don't currently have a small trailer dedicated to the mini, so any sort of specific mounting like that would end up being in the way when I used the trailer for other things. I already have 4 trailers and convincing my wife I need another is probably out of the cards......for now at least lol.
Quote from: 94touring on April 13, 2026, 08:19:56 AMLooking back at your pics, you've already got eye bolts up front. Perfect for having a chain or smaller strap to one or more of your front D rings. You just don't want it extra tight because the suspension of the car needs to move freely of course. Toss something loosely over the rear subframe and hook into your center rear D ring and you're set.
The way I understand it, tow companies use the wheel straps/baskets because they'd be anchoring the unsprung part of the car, keeping a firm attachment of the wheels to the deck or dolly and let the car body wobble on its suspension. When using chains they try to hook onto axles or outer ends of independent suspensions. To tie onto the body means the ties could slacken on every bump. It is interesting to see heavy military vehicles like tanks chained on rail cars - crossed chains front and back as well as linear ones. A tank has to be anchored to the body because it has so many "wheels" inside the tracks.
I had my Mini hauled home a couple of times on a roll-back: entertaining to see the driver trying to make the basket type straps made for larger wheels fit onto my wee 12 inchers. But he did it. He declined to even consider the tow ring, even though we were going less than a mile.
Correct, suspension needs to travel. Strapping down the vespa you hook over each front handlebar and the rear metal frame on the back of the seat. But, this means you're compressing the shocks, so it's not really ideal but there aren't other options. I tighten them up to almost full suspension travel and call it good. It works on a scooter ok.
If all I did was haul minis on a dedicated trailer that setup Red Riley posted would be something I'd consider.
I wonder if I could convert my tow dolly to use fastraps?
Mine is a 12' Aluma tilt bed which some of you guys have seen. It hauls the Minis and Sprite effortlessly. Driving onto the trailer has never been a challenge.
I also installed a manual winch on the front frame rail in case I ever have to haul a non-running car.
I criss-cross my ratchet straps at all four outside corners, and I've never had a car shift around on me. I check the straps at every pit stop during my trips.