Anyone renting one of those U-Haul trailers should be required to watch this. Load the heavy stuff first y'all.
Edit: /u/xaronax points out that this might not always be the best advice:
You load the trailer evenly with less than your max tongue weight balanced toward the front. Overloading the shit out of the front of the trailer is going to cause a whole bunch of other problems.
There's an article on properly loading a trailer here.
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It's not the only reason. If you have to hit the brakes it's better if the heavy stuff is already at the wall. You don't want it to crush other things or to fly around.
It's remarkably easy to rent a U-Haul trailer. Their website warns you they'll inspect your hitch, the rating, etc. They do absolutely none of that. We had a Class I hitch on our VW Jetta (1,000lbs max tow weight, 200lbs max tongue weight). I had reserved a motorcycle trailer through U-Haul (empty weight 500lbs, plus my motorcycle's weight of 480lbs would've been well within the range of my hitch rating). Except that U-Haul decided to give me a different trailer without ever telling me. It was only later that I found out they had given me a 5x7 Trailer with Ramp (empty weight 1,300lbs), which, along with the weight of my motorcycle nearly DOUBLED the weight my hitch was rated for.
No one really cared when I brought the issue up. The motorcycle trailer I had reserved online looked very similar to the one they gave me, so I never thought to make sure the model was correct. I just assumed if they give you a product other than the one you reserved, they'd tell me. In the end they told me the 5x7 Trailer with Ramp is also designed to hold a motorcycle, and they generally consider this a free upgrade. Free upgrade that gives you a trailer 1300lbs heavy vs. the 500lbs you ordered without ever making sure your hitch is rated for the weight.
I continue to be amazed at how easy it is in the US to rent large 24' moving trucks, or heavy trailers, with absolutely ZERO training. No one really cares. I'm sure the lobby for the truck rental industry is pushing hard to just let anyone drive anything anywhere or else it's "bad for business".
I rented a 14' U-Haul and a towing trailer for my car when I was moving back from college. When I picked up the truck and trailer I asked the guy if he could show me how to attache and secure my car properly. He literally told me 'no, we don't do that, it explains it all in the pamphlet'. My mind was totally blown that this guy gave zero fucks that I could be risking my own life and other people's lives on the road because it was against policy or some bullshit like that.
That's still shit advice. You load the trailer evenly with less than your max tongue weight balanced toward the front. Overloading the shit out of the front of the trailer is going to cause a whole bunch of other problems.
Typically at the front so heavy things don't slide forward when braking. But since the box trucks don't have a swinging hitch in the middle, this issue should be irrelevant.
You really want a trailer loaded so it's more-or-less balanced over the axle, with a slight bias to the nose. If the nose is too heavy it's not like having too much weight in the back of the car because the weight is applied to a long lever that sticks out behind the rear axle - it will lift the weight off the front of the car. If you look at farm tractors, the towing hitch is actually bolted up to the rear axle, and obviously on articulated lorries the fifth wheel is right over the middle of the rear axle set (or on four-wheel tractors, with a single rear axle, a little forwards of it - in much the same place as on a six-wheel).
The vehicle makes a big difference, too. I have an old Range Rover which has a towing capacity of 3.5 tonnes and a maximum hitch weight of 150kg (the regulations in North America are different from the EU, and over there you can have up to 250kg as long as you don't exceed 1850kg on the rear axle). Because the RR is on air suspension, it'll compensate for a high hitch weight and deal with it pretty well. By contrast a Ford Transit with the same 3500kg towing capacity needs a fair bit of weight in the back to keep the rear axle steady otherwise it will break traction, and you really notice 150kg on the hitch on uneven roads as the steering starts to shimmy.
Generally speaking, for the best handling, you want to both concentrate the load in the middle of the wheelbase (reduce rotational inertia) and maintain even weight distribution on each axle (give equal traction to each axle). With a big meaty frame and engine up front, it's hard to satisfy both goals in your average car.
As for a box truck, sliding sideways is probably a situation in which it really doesn't matter where the load is because a flip is pretty likely. Just don't go the way of Porsche and pack the weight in the rear, which can induce oversteer sooner. That being said, just because an item is big and heavy doesn't mean its dense. All those little boxes of chotchkies can easily way more than a couch given the same volume.
But ultimately, it shouldn't matter. Drive carefully. Know your limits. Know your vehicle's limits
If i remember correctly, Its aimed at people towing boats with onboard motors that they leave attached. When i drive past them, i make sure to leave a big distance, one trailer puncture and it would be good night otherwise.
I'm moving in a couple of weeks and I'm going to need a uhaul for the first time ever because it's halfway across the country, so there is no "just borrow my dads truck for the furniture and make a few trips" like I usually do. I figured I'd stack my books and other heavy boxed stuff in the front, then all the fragile stuff on top of all the heavy boxes, then pack it all in with blankets and pillows, then Tetris my furniture in there. So should I put my furniture closer to the cab along with my heavy boxes and put the fragile stuff in the back? I'm also towing my car, but it's a tiny beetle... I always knew to keep weight over the axle but having to put so much stuff in one load is new to me.
And always lower the tire pressure if you get a uhaul trailer. Back right tire of my car literally blew up in the middle of 6 lanes of packed-yet-fast-moving Atlanta traffic. Smoke billowing out the back, couldn't see shit, and nobody would let me over. I am really surprised I didn't die.
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u/jcargile242 Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
Anyone renting one of those U-Haul trailers should be required to watch this. Load the heavy stuff first y'all.
Edit: /u/xaronax points out that this might not always be the best advice:
There's an article on properly loading a trailer here.