U-Haul trailers

Hi,

U-Haul trailers are well-designed by people with genuine brains and decades of experience. The U-Haul person will get your tow vehicle properly set up.

I have trailered the Old Lady, war-weary as she is, as well as many of my own broken-down company vehicles all over the Midwest over the years. But be sure you follow some basic rules:

1. RULE # ONE OF TRAILERING!!!!!!!!! : The trailer MUST be loaded tongue-heavy. A tail-heavy trailer will buck side-to-side uncontrollably at turnpike speeds, and I DO mean uncontrollably. Load the car nose-first and verify that the trailer is tongue-heavy.

2. Wrap a 3/8" or 7/16" just-in-case chain in padding and loop it through the frame of the car and the frame of the trailer. Put a large Grade 8 bolt and nut, at least the thickness of the chain, through two links to bind the chain to itself. Do not trust chain hooks to stay in place unless you secure them in place with stout cord or cable ties. I use plastic cable ties on the chain hooks just to keep the hooks from slipping off. You can get necessary hardware supplies at Lowe's or any similar place.

3. Stop often at fuel and rest plazas. You will draw on-lookers. Half the fun of the trip is chatting with the folks who either a) don't know what the car is, b) do "know" what the car is--usually an Oldsmobile, and, c) whose "granddad had one JUST like it" back in the day.

Have a safe trip and look me up at Auburn--the Old Lady will be in the Park, on a trailer.

--Tom


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I have used a uhaul car trailer for a 600 mile trip from LA to Reno, for my Model A hot rod. They seem well built and should handle the Cord with no problem. They have good wheel tie downs (web straps) and chains for the frame. Didn't have any issues, towed fine behind my F350 diesel dually.

Steve Derus

U-Haul is also very cautious when renting trailers. If your tow rig isn't up to snuff, or if there's even a shadow of doubt, they will not rent you a trailer. After the Ford Explorer tire failures you couldn't tow a U-Haul at all with an Explorer, not even a little utility trailer.

They have great equipment. You could reserve one for inspection. They are galvanized and if you do have a problem, look at the support. The one problem I had was a power steering issue on a huge rig that was an engine problem. They paid for a motel till the tech could get there Monday, a fifty mile drive in Junction Tx. The part took a a day to order and I sat at the swimming pool while they installed it. Things can happen but they do there best to make you comfortable and they have hitches in stock and they will install brake controllers. I did a 1250 mile haul, the only problem is everyone will be looking to the Cord on the back asking, what kind of car is that!

Hi everyone,

I have a dilemma, I have registered for the ACD Festival and have my hotel room but I would like to bring my 36 Westchester out to the meet. I have a tow vehicle but do not have a trailer to but the Cord on. I have been inquiring all over to rent a trailer but have not come up with one. As a last resort I looked into U-Haul to see what they had. I am concern about trusting a U-Haul trailer to trailer a car as valuable as a Cord for an approximate 1,900 mile round trip from the Boston area to Auburn and back.
Have any of you used a U-Haul trailer to trailer your Cord for that distance? Please any comments.