Car Repair Help

Some off-roaders swear by them, others at them. I’m ambivalent, provided that the decision to trail or not to trail is done properly. For instance, an overloaded solo vehicle, with teeter-tottering handling is no way to avoid towing a trailer.

The trick with trailer towing is to pack the right stuff in it, set up the balance correctly and drive it properly. For a start, don’t expect eggs to travel intact in your trailer, but tools, spares, recovery and camping gear will be quite happy.

Towing a correctly set-up trailer shouldn’t be a problem, provided your good quality, correctly inflated tyres match the load – they should be rarely more than 25 psi and often much less -and your wheel bearings have been recently checked and repacked.

Many off-roaders come to grief when it comes time to manoeuvre the little beast, because everything has to be done backwards, with your head craned around like an ibis. You have to push when logic says pull and soon everything is in a jackknifed mess and you blame everybody else and swear you’ll never tow another bloody trailer any bloody where ever.

It doesn’t have to be like that. The best way to back a trailer is by using your mirrors, like the truckies do, rather than trying to drive with your head half unscrewed. If you can’t see the back corners of your trailer in your mirrors, change the mirrors or put reflective plastic ‘wands’ or flexibly mounted flags on the corners.

Then practise backing, using the mirrors, on your own, in a very quiet parking lot, where there are no Rolls Royces to scrape. If you take some witches hats – old soft drink bottles do very nicely -mark out a little slalom course and back the trailer through it. Some people get the hang of it quickly, while others need a few such peaceful days before becoming successfully backwardly mobile.

Once you can back skilfully, the horrors of maneuvering your trailer into tight spots in front of a smirking crowd vanish. Also, you’ll be much more confident if you have to back and fill a bit when getting through tight spots in the bush.

A correctly balanced trailer, with its tyres at the right pressure for the road and load conditions, should trundle along behind through most places your 4WD will go, but very soft or steep pinches may catch you out. A tyre pressure drop is often the answer, but if all else fails, you’ll probably find it best to separate 4WD and trailer, then winch the trailer through. A hand winch is fine for pulling a single axle trailer which is usually a quarter your 4WD’s weight. If you regularly do this, a large-diameter, inflatable jockey wheel is a good investment.