How To Prepare Your Car For Towing
Do you drive a pickup truck too often? Then towing must be an everyday task for your vehicle. But do you follow the rules of towing? Read on to know the current towing rules and regulations that the Chevrolet dealer Huntsville have provided us with.
Regulations on the Brakes of the Trailer
If trailer you are towing is laden with the weight of more than 750kgs, then it should have its own set of braking system that can slow down the trailer when required. But if the trailer is weighing less than 3500kg there won’t be any need to link the trailer’s brakes to the brakes of the towing vehicle. All this is required to make sure that the brakes are able to slow down the speed of the trailer automatically whenever the car slows down against the momentum of the trailer.
Criteria for the Connecting Sockets
The socket that connects between the car and the towed trailer must have seven pins while the wiring of the socket needs to follow an internationally accepted color scheme. The standard socket should be of 12N to be capable of running the tail and brake lights, number plate light, indicators, and either the rear fog light or a 12-volt caravan power supply. If you want to run both the rear fog light and the caravan power supply at the same time, you need to install a 12S socket.
Weight Limits for Towing
The next important factor that concerns the act of towing is the unladen weight of your vehicle and also the total weight of the trailer that you are going to tow after you laden it with the stuff. You also need to check out, if the trailer or the towing car has its own braking system. This is important for better maneuvering of the two vehicles in tune with each other against the momentum that each of them acquires while moving at a certain speed. If it does not have brakes of its own, then your car’s unladen weight alone must be minimum twice the weight of the trailer and its load combined. Overall you should follow the thumb rule that the total weight of an unbraked trailer must not exceed the weight limit of 750 kgs under any circumstance.
Speed Limits while Towing
It is sheer common sense, that when a heavy load is carried along, a vehicle cannot run at high speed. Currently the maximum recommended speed limit of towing a trailer is 50mph or lower but never going higher. However, in cases of dual carriageways or in motorways one can safely tow at a speed of 60mph, providing that there is no lower speed limit.
The Bottom Line
The experts of the Chevrolet Huntsville agreed to the fact that Towing is a high precision job that demands a careful attitude from the people who would be associated with this task. Hence, the above-said regulations become necessary to follow in order to ensure safety for all.
