New trailer. Where to weld the D rings?

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Kern Dog

Kern Dog

Build your car to handle.
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I just bought a new trailer and need to weld in some D rings. Where did you place yours? I have a Big Tex 18 footer.....

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A friend suggested welding them on the outside of the side channels like so:

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Also, I've heard conflicting advice on how to tie down vehicles. Some prefer to criss-cross the straps, some just tie straight forward and straight back.
YouTube has some videos that show all sorts of ways to attach the straps.

I won't be hauling 8000 lb tractors with this thing.....just cars. The rating is 7000 lbs and the trailer is right at 2000 lbs on its own.
 
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Mine are "over done" as I didn't know what I'd be hauling. I have two on each side along with some stake pockets.

For cars, tho, I mostly use the one on the front header and rear the ties go pretty much straight forward and straight back

I'm tellin you guys, this nonsense of tying "X" (cross) is just that. If one comes loose, the car can walz sideways and then the three remaining are LOOSE. If you tie it straight forward and straight back, 1 can break or come slack and the other two will hold against each other, and the remaining 3'rd will still hold against the opposite end. If it is too thing, figure a way to beef it. Ad structure underneath or whatever it takes
Below, you cannot see the rear chains, but you can kinda see the front ones going forwards. Along the side, you have a stake pocket to the above and right of the front clearance lamp, then a D ring ahead of the fender. You can't see another one just rear of the fender, then in the shadow, there's a rear stake pocket. The last "bump" in the shade is a stub mimicking a 2" receiver (short) so I can plug in a tongue jack on each rear corner. The bed has been made to tilt. There used to be a thread on this, don't know if it's "still."

I normally don't even use binders on the rear. I put the rig on and block it, string the chains at the rear, and hook them "equal" and then roll the rig up forward so the rear chains are tight and then put binders on both fronts. The front ones, then, are in tension against the rears
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A photo after I converted the trailer to tilt. I did not "do" it strong enough and one of these days I'm gonna have to "beef" the tounge where it changes angle. I used an HF cherry picker ram which you can/ could buy separate for less than 100

The spare mount is not "permanent." I welded a vertical "socket" and made a bracket to drop into it, then chained through the middle of the tube and through the tire with a padlock. This allows "if I need to" to quickly pull the spare off if loading something difficult. So far have not needed to.

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I had a friend that had one almost identical. Same brand. I Can tell you this. Make DAMN SURE to heavily inspect that spare tire mount. I plea the 5th amendment about what happened to us, but it was scary. Just check it and reinforce as needed.
 
The spare tire mount is welded quite well from what I can see, thanks.
 
67Dart273 said:
I'm tellin you guys, this nonsense of tying "X" (cross) is just that. If one comes loose, the car can walz sideways and then the three remaining are LOOSE. If you tie it straight forward and straight back, 1 can break or come slack and the other two will hold against each other, and the remaining 3'rd will still hold against the opposite end. If it is too thing, figure a way to beef it. Ad structure underneath or whatever it takes
Click to expand...

The straight forward and back strap positioning makes the most sense to me too. A guy on YouTube tied down a rock crawler Jeep that way and it seemed to be better thought out.
The criss cross method sounds great if nothing ever comes loose.
 
This might help. You can see the front chain/ binder. The rears are in the same relative positions Also with a small car such as this, getting the tie points way out on the sides makes the chains interfere with the tires. I spose if you used those fancy nylon tire baskets that would be OK.

Theres a stake pocket near the front, near the fender, and not visible way at the rear. You can see the added side D ring, and one more behind the fender
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I guess its a preference, I cross my cars straps on trailers and lines on boats in a slip, prevents the sideways movement. If you straight-line strap using this UHaul transporter, the webbing will rub on the deck.
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The four indicated, and two at the back, inside the ramps, a couple on the tongue, if no winch or toolbox (I HIGHLY recommend a winch, I made do with a 2500lb, got a nine ton now), and two on the middle on each side, to tie down something other than a car.
I did see one wood deck with the d-rings bolted tonight. I don't recommend that......
 
If you put the d-rings on as indicated by your friend (and I would) you might have to cross tie to avoid inteferance with the tires.
With four more, on the tongue and in-between the ramps, that would give you the option of a straight tie.
(I always use a straight tie in front, sometimes a cross strap, sometimes a straight strap in the rear. Depends on the car I'm hauling.)​
 
Joey4speed said:
I guess its a preference, I cross my cars straps on trailers and lines on boats in a slip, prevents the sideways movement. If you straight-line strap using this UHaul transporter, the webbing will rub on the deck.
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If one breaks or happens to loosen up, the car migrates to the opposite side real quick, since the opposing strap or chain is pulling it opposite to the side that's now broken or loosened up. Seen it happen too many times for me to ever be comfortable with crossing straps or chains ever again. Cinching them down straight eliminates that possibility completely.
 
33IMP said:
The four indicated, and two at the back, inside the ramps, a couple on the tongue, if no winch or toolbox (I HIGHLY recommend a winch, I made do with a 2500lb, got a nine ton now), and two on the middle on each side, to tie down something other than a car.
I did see one wood deck with the d-rings bolted tonight. I don't recommend that......
Click to expand...
Winches on a car trailer sure are nice, aren't they? I used to travel a little with a good friend (RIP) that enjoyed just going and getting the occasional car to clean and flip. Man that winch made it easy.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Winches on a car trailer sure are nice, aren't they? I used to travel a little with a good friend (RIP) that enjoyed just going and getting the occasional car to clean and flip. Man that winch made it easy.
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Yeah, I did the come-along and a strap or chain pull too many times. And had to tilt the trailer and ride the car down on the way off. That only works if the car has brakes, lol.
Even the tiny 2500 lb was a MASSIVE improvement, even though it strained occasionally on a 3500/4000lb car. I think the nine ton I got now could put a car on the roof of a house.
It'll sure set one down gently off the trailer, even if the car has no brakes.
 
33IMP said:
If you put the d-rings on as indicated by your friend (and I would) you might have to cross tie to avoid inteferance with the tires.
With four more, on the tongue and in-between the ramps, that would give you the option of a straight tie.
(I always use a straight tie in front, sometimes a cross strap, sometimes a straight strap in the rear. Depends on the car I'm hauling.)​
Click to expand...
Great suggestions.
I'm thinking on welding two on the inside edges of the front header and the sides:

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And two on the top of the rear header and sides:

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33IMP said:
I would do a couple there, but I would reinforce the header with a couple pieces of angle iron first, welded to the header, bolted through the wood deck.
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Kinda triangulating the header to the deck. Good idea.
 
Back when we were oval track racing we used two come-a-longs. One in the front and one on the back. It sounds scary now but we never had any issues.
 
We built our own trailer after several years of hauling with a Tri-quest we copied theirs and did some upgrades. 6 D-rings and 4 strap ratchets from a flat bed truck trailer with chain welded to them For easy tie down of a car or machinery. The last picture shows the ratchet in the front . After having them on the tri-quest for may years we had to get them for this build. One d-ring in the middle in the back . One in the middle in the front and 4 down each side. The one in the front is used with a snatch block.

Our Deck overs have Rails and pockets down the side. We also built our own dump trailer.

One thing I can tell you is you can never have to many tie downs.

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Joey4speed said:
I guess its a preference, I cross my cars straps on trailers and lines on boats in a slip, prevents the sideways movement. If you straight-line strap using this UHaul transporter, the webbing will rub on the deck.
View attachment 1715959201
Click to expand...
I can GUARANTEE you that if one of those two fails, the other one will allow the load to shift sideways, and then the LOAD is LOOSE, left / right, and front to rear. Once the load comes loose front to rear, the FRONT straps are both loose and you have LOST that load.
 
I get the physics of the lateral forces.
But with the U-haul auto transporter, those D-rings will rub the straps if placed straight, then they'll fail for sure.
I won't use the safety chain around the rear, since it's painted.
I'll take my chances.
I know I'm jinxed now, but never had a strap fail....yet.
 
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