914 Trailering Tie Down Question, Where to tie it down? Options

[flat4tom]

Hello all,

I'll be bringing home my 914 tomorrow. I have a trailer but have not loaded or tied down a 914 onto it before...only VW's and my Model A Ford.

This is a stock suspension car, i.e. no tiedown loops on the chassis. I will be using nylon tie down ratchet straps - I have 4 of them and use them on my other cars - the BIG ones.

Question: what points on the car should I use to tie the car down to the trailer? Suspension points, shock mounts, what....?

Any advice?

Thanks
Tom

[jt914-6]

I have the BIG car tie down ratchet straps too. I bought the "axle" straps and run the strap throught the front suspension lower arm and loop it back to the "D" ring on the strap. Depending on how much strap you have maybe you can do the same and attach both ends at the tie down ring. On the rear I bought two big eyebolts and cut off the threaded part and welded the ring on the shock bolt. I clip one end of the strap to that and the other to the tie down ring...

[EdwardBlume]

The front A arms work fine. The rear on a stock car can be trickier. You can loop the wheels, or take a chance on the engine mount bar, but it I like the car, I'd more likely tie down a wheel.

[messix]

i use straps too and loop thru the wheels. do a search and you should find a picture of how i do it. you could use the same idea to use on the rear arm too.http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=84844&st=40
look here

[r_towle]

Front, use the a-arms or run the strap through the wheel if you have alloys.
Rear, run the strap around the shock at the bottom, or loop through the wheels.

Rich

[Krieger]

I trailered mine 500 miles once by straping the front around the front a arm and the rear around the base of the shock absorbers. no problems

[BMXerror]

I trailer mine to the track all the time. I use 15 foot ratcheting tie downs and criss-cross front and rear. Fronts through the A-arms right by the rear bushing, and rears around the bearing carrier portion of the trailing arm. Just make sure on the rears you fish the tie down between the bearing carrier and the brake caliper. You don't want to cinch down on the caliper.
Mark D.

[URY914]

I trailer mine to the track all the time. I use 15 foot ratcheting tie downs and criss-cross front and rear. Fronts through the A-arms right by the rear bushing, and rears around the bearing carrier portion of the trailing arm. Just make sure on the rears you fish the tie down between the bearing carrier and the brake caliper. You don't want to cinch down on the caliper.
Mark D.

Mark, why do you criss-cross the tie downs? I see people do this and have never thought it was a good idea. If one comes loose, the car will pull over and the other side will be loose too because it has slack in it. Do people do it because they see others do it?

[BMXerror]

I trailer mine to the track all the time. I use 15 foot ratcheting tie downs and criss-cross front and rear. Fronts through the A-arms right by the rear bushing, and rears around the bearing carrier portion of the trailing arm. Just make sure on the rears you fish the tie down between the bearing carrier and the brake caliper. You don't want to cinch down on the caliper.
Mark D.

Mark, why do you criss-cross the tie downs? I see people do this and have never thought it was a good idea. If one comes loose, the car will pull over and the other side will be loose too because it has slack in it. Do people do it because they see others do it?

Not to drift this thread (because I hate drifting!), but I think I know what you mean, and I don't criss-cross them to where that would happen. I hook one end to (say) the right rear hook on the trailer, loop it through the right trailing arm, then hook the ratcheting end to the left rear on the trailer, and opposite for the other side. And actually, if you do it this way, and for some reason you forget to tighten one of your straps, the remaining one will only get tighter (by a small amount) if the rear of the car tries to walk in either direction.
To answer your question, I do it this way because I thought about it and it looked like the best way to do it to me. The thought was keeping it stable both forward and back, and side to side. Maybe I can post pictures for your approval.
Mark D.

[campbellcj]

I have always used the a-arms in front. In the rear I looped-through the wheels prior to adding the tie-down brackets to the car.

I do not criss-cross. I am using burly ratcheting tie-downs and I also add a fifth strap in front just for good measure. The car is rock solid.