Tips on traveling with a trailer
If you want to make someone feel foolish, ask him to back up a trailer for the first time. Be it a utility wagon, a boat trailer, or a sleeper camper, if it's attached to the vehicle on a swiveling hitch, he's bound to make a mess of it.
I was reminded of this as I stood in the parking lot of my local U-Haul outfit recently, watching a customer's futile attempt to back out his 5-by-8-foot storage trailer. He wanted the trailer to go left, but it instead kept vectoring right, as if it had a mind of its own. I could relate: On the rare occasions I've been asked to back up my dad's antique car trailer, it does the opposite of whatever I want it to.
Trailer driving is our subject this week. Is it legal to drive in the fast lane while towing your boat, or do you have to stay to the right? Does your skimobile trailer need a license plate or its own insurance? And if you're a novice trailer driver, what's the best advice for driving and backing up?
Following the law
There are really two sets of laws for driving a trailer.
If you're using your trailer for business purposes - towing lawn mowers for a landscaping company, for example - you need a commercial driver's license and you must follow certain guidelines to properly secure your load.
If you're using your trailer for personal use, which is the focus of this column, you can tow it with a standard Class D license so long as the combined weight of the trailer and your load doesn't exceed 10,000 pounds.
Most family boats, antique cars, and skimobiles should easily fit under this limit.
The rules for driving a personal trailer are almost the same as for driving a car. You can even travel in the high-speed lane, though if you hold up traffic, police could cite you with failing to keep to the right, a $35 fine.
Almost every trailer, no matter how big or small, must be registered and titled like a car. Trailers need license plates and working brake lights, and if the trailer weighs more than 3,000 pounds, it must also have working brakes, said Trooper Larry Kiely, with the State Police's traffic program section.
There were only a couple of differences that I could come up with - you can't tow a trailer in the high-occupancy vehicle lane, and trailer insurance is optional, but know that your car insurance policy probably won't cover vandalism or accident damage to whatever's in tow.
"If you put a boat trailer on the back of a car and it comes loose on the road, your liability insurance for your car covers the damage the trailer might do to something else," said Peter Rossetti, a Saugus insurance agent.
"But if you were worried that someone might hit the trailer or vandalize it, you'd have to buy separate insurance for the trailer," he added.
Backing the right way
"Trailers are our only business," advertises the TrailerPlace of Kingston, N.H. So I called up owner Steve Noury for advice on backing one up.
"Everyone says you have to do things in reverse when backing up a trailer, and that kind of mixes people up," he said. "The rule of thumb is, put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel and turn the wheel in the direction that you want the trailer to go. For example, if you turn your wheel to the left, your tow vehicle will go to the right but the trailer will go to the left."
Smaller trailers are actually harder to control than longer trailers, Noury said, because they have shorter turning radiuses. But regardless of what you're towing, you should always back up slowly (no surprise there) and use your side mirrors, as opposed to trying to look over your shoulder.
"With anything up to a 7-foot-wide box trailer, with any type of SUV or pickup truck, your side mirrors are going to be able to see to the end of the trailer," Noury said. "If you have an 8-footer, we generally tell people to stop by a camper shop and see if you can get some extended mirrors attached."
Kiely, of the State Police, said there aren't any specific rules requiring extended mirrors for hauling a trailer. But if you can't see the end of your trailer, you could be cited for impeded operation, a $35 fine. Plus, if your mirrors aren't wide enough, you leave yourself prone to a blind spot.
The other danger with driving a trailer is that it might sway or "whip" as you gain speed. Should that happen, take your foot off the gas (but don't touch the brakes) and steer straight until you regain control, advises U-Haul.
Swaying occurs not because you're going too fast, but probably because you haven't loaded the trailer correctly, Noury said. His advice? Make sure the trailer is level, even if that means you have to lower or raise the trailer hitch, and don't put too much weight on the wheel axle.
"Load your trailer with 65 percent of the weight forward of the axle. If there's more weight on or behind the axle, that makes the front of the trailer lighter, and that makes it sway," he said.
Correcting the record
Time to address a few small gaffes in recent columns, as pointed out by readers.
Regarding last week's column on lightning, I should have written that electric current is measured in amperes, not volts.
A file photo we ran of a radar gun a few weeks ago was actually of a laser speed gun, also known as a LIDOR unit. Such devices can yield more accurate readings than radar guns, but require pinpoint accuracy in pointing to hit the right target.
Finally, in a recent column about high-octane gas, I should have written that its higher burning point causes it to ignite more slowly - not burn hotter - in high-compression engines. The slower burn prevents performance-reducing engine knocks. 