I have towed hundreds of thousands of miles, and had three mishaps over those years. I find that crossing the straps makes it worse if something goes wrong, so I never do it anymore. I try and winch most vehicles up and leave them hooked to the winch if I am loading by myself, but let owners drive their cars onto the trailer if they want, sometimes it is better to get the vehicle just where you want it. Two weeks ago I picked up a 2001 Mexican Ramcharger and found out the tires were wider than my fenders when I let the owner drive it up on the trailer, he came up gangbusters and before I could make him stop it smashed both my fenders down the the tires! We had to back the vehicle off and remove the rear trailer tires to beat the fenders off the tires with a sledge then we had to change the front tires by using his spare and mine from my transport truck. Sometimes it just doesn't work out right...
