Trailer Safety Week is Here! – Let’s Make America’s Roadways Safer One Trailer at a Time!
The fourth annual National Trailer Safety Week is being held this week (June 6-12, 2021). The aim of this event is to improve safety of the nation’s roadways by raising trailer safety awareness through education of end-users, dealers, and manufacturers on safe trailering practices. While millions of trailers are used by businesses, municipalities, and individuals every day, it is crucial to ensure that trailers are being towed safely for the sake of everyone on the roads. Consumer end-users are particularly undereducated on the proper use of trailers. To keep America’s highways safe, here are eight helpful tips from Security Specialists designed to help you and others stay safe when towing a trailer.
- Know Your Weight Limit – Always consult your owner’s manual for information about how much weight your vehicle can successfully haul. Some regular sized sedans are able to haul up to two thousand pounds and many larger trucks and SUVs can tow considerably more weight. However, you want to make sure not to overload your vehicle. Doing so, can cause difficult handling making it more likely that you’ll to be involved in a wreck.
- Practice Driving with a Trailer – Do not underestimate the difficulty of driving with a trailer. You should practice pulling in and out of your driveway and navigating quiet back roads before attempting to drive in heavy traffic.
- Make Sure You’re Properly Connected Before You Hit the Road – Learn how to properly attach a trailer before you start towing one. Also check your safety chains, lights, and license plate are securely fastened.
- Keep Your Distance – Always be sure to keep a greater distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you when you’re hauling a trailer. The extra weight behind your car or truck will make it more difficult to slow down or stop.
- Take Wider Turns – When you are towing a trailer your vehicle is now close to double its regular length, so you will have to take turns significantly wider than normal to avoid hitting curbs, other cars, or running off of the road.
- Learn to Put it in Reverse Gear – Sounds silly but driving in reverse while pulling a trailer is a skill that takes quite a bit of practice to acquire. Turn too sharply and the trailer will jackknife or turn extremely in one direction. Expect to make several adjustments the first couple of times you attempt to drive in reverse while towing a trailer.
- Slow It Down – For heaven’s sake, please slow down when pulling a trailer. When on a highway or interstate, use the right lane as acceleration will take significantly longer with a trailer. Try to drive a little below the speed limit for safety.
- Park It – It is not a bad idea to practice parking with a trailer before you start your journey. Parking while towing a trailer may be difficult. Small parking lots may be almost impossible to use when pulling a large trailer. If you do maneuver your vehicle and trailer into a parking space, or several parking spaces, make sure that you have plenty of room to exit the lot. It is often advisable to park in a remote part of a parking lot with few surrounding vehicles.
