How to Tow a Trailer: From Hitched to Confident

Four things change at once, and each one has a driving consequence. * Mass. You are accelerating and stopping perhaps twice the weight with the same engine and the same brakes on the tow vehicle. * Length. The combination is much longer, which changes turns, passing and lane changes. * A hinge. The rig can now articulate, which is what makes reversing counter-intuitive and sway possible at all. * Rear-biased load. Weight behind the rear axle lightens the front, and the front is where your steering is. This guide covers the driving. The setup that has to be right first is in the trailer hitch guide, the coupling sequence is in how to hitch a trailer, and the day-one preparation is in the first-time towing checklist. Almost everything below is quoted from a manufacturer's owner's manual. Where a widely repeated technique turns out not to be published by any manufacturer, this guide says so rather than passing it on.

Most towing advice offers a number of seconds. Manufacturers do not. GM's Sierra owner's manual gives a multiplier on your own normal gap: > Stay at least twice as far behind the vehicle ahead as you would when driving without a trailer. This can help to avoid heavy braking and sudden turns. That framing is more useful than a fixed count, because it scales with the conditions you are already reading. Whatever gap you would leave unladen at this speed, in this weather, double it. On braking, Ford's Expedition manual is deliberately unquantified: > Allow more distance for stopping with a trailer attached. Anticipate stops and gradually brake. No multiplier, no distance. Anyone quoting you "a trailer doubles your stopping distance" is not quoting a manufacturer, and stopping distance depends on far too much — total weight, whether the trailer has brakes, gain setting, grade, surface — for a single figure to be honest. On speed, two limits may bite before the posted one. Special trailer (ST) tyres carry a maximum rated speed of 65 mph. And if the tow vehicle is new, a break-in restriction may apply — Ford asks for 1,000 miles before towing plus 70 mph for the first 500 towing miles, while Ram specifies 500 miles then 50 mph. Several states also set lower limits for vehicles towing trailers; the state law directory is the place to check the route you are driving.

GM packs four separate instructions into one paragraph: > Turn more slowly and make wider arcs when towing a trailer to prevent damage to your vehicle. Making very sharp turns could cause the trailer to contact the vehicle. > > Make wider turns than normal when towing, so the trailer will not go over soft shoulders, over curbs, or strike road signs, trees, or other objects. Always signal turns well in advance. Do not steer or brake suddenly. The geometry behind it: the trailer's wheels follow a tighter arc than the tow vehicle's, so they cut inside your path. Take a turn at your usual line and the trailer's wheels find the kerb — and on a right turn, the kerb is where people stand. GM names the opposite failure too: turn sharply enough and the trailer contacts the back of the tow vehicle. One honest note on technique. You will often be told to swing wide before turning in, or to delay the turn until the trailer's axle reaches the corner. That is standard commercial-driver instruction and it may well serve you, but no manufacturer manual consulted for this guide publishes it. What the manufacturers publish is the four instructions above. Take them as the sourced advice and treat the rest as experience. If the stability control light flickers in corners, that is expected. GM says so directly: > When towing, the stability control system might be heard. The system reacts to vehicle movement caused by the trailer, which mainly occurs during cornering. This is normal when towing heavier trailers.

Two manufacturers publish the same mechanism, and the operative word in both is before. GM: > Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear before starting down a long or steep downhill grade. If the transmission is not shifted down, the brakes may overheat and result in reduced braking efficiency. Ford: > Shift to a lower gear when driving down a long or steep hill. Do not continuously apply the brakes, as they may overheat and become less effective. Riding the brakes down a grade heats them until they stop working properly, and a loaded trailer pushing from behind is what turns that into an emergency. Let the driveline do the holding. That is exactly what tow/haul mode is for — it delays upshifts and provides engine braking, and on a descent it will downshift to hold speed with your foot off the accelerator. The full picture is in the tow/haul mode guide, including the one condition Ford says never to use it in. Chevrolet adds a line worth memorising for climbs and descents alike: crest the hill no faster than the speed at which you want to descend, and in the gear you expect will require little braking. At altitude, derate. Ford asks owners to reduce gross vehicle and combined weights by 2% per 1,000 feet of elevation to match sea-level performance. On a 7,000-foot pass that is a 14% reduction, which is worth knowing before planning a summer trip at your maximum rating. Sustained climbing also builds heat — see can towing damage a transmission.

This section exists because the assumption is so natural and so wrong: that the electronics adapt. Several of them do not, and manufacturers say so plainly. The ABS does not control the trailer's brakes. Ford: > WARNING: The anti-lock brake system does not control the trailer brakes. Both Ford and GM also prohibit plumbing a trailer's hydraulic brakes into the tow vehicle's system. Ford: "Your vehicle may not have enough braking power and your chances of having a collision greatly increase." GM: doing so may disable both the vehicle's antilock brakes and the trailer's brakes. Blind-spot monitoring may not cover the trailer at all. GM's Sierra manual: > If equipped with Lane Change Alert (LCA), the LCA detection zones that extend back from the side of the vehicle do not move further back when a trailer is towed. Use caution while changing lanes when towing a trailer. > > If equipped, the Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA) feature is automatically disabled when a trailer is attached to the vehicle. So on that vehicle the blind-spot zone stops where it always did — somewhere alongside a trailer that may extend twenty feet further back — and rear cross-traffic alert switches itself off entirely. Ford can extend the coverage, but not automatically. Its blind spot assist with trailer coverage works only if "you have properly set up the trailer coverage settings", and it "only supports certain trailer shapes and dimensions". Attach an unsupported trailer, or skip the menu setup, and the function is off. Parking aids should be switched off. GM instructs that Park Assist and Automatic Parking Assist "should be turned off when towing a trailer". The practical conclusion: with a trailer attached, assume the electronics cover the tow vehicle only, and go back to mirrors and your own head.

Sway is a self-feeding oscillation. Something disturbs the trailer, the trailer pushes back on the tow vehicle, and if the geometry and speed are wrong the swings grow instead of damping out. Jayco names the usual triggers: crosswinds, passing vehicles, improper weight distribution and excessive speed. Three manufacturers publish nearly the same three-step response. 1. Ease off the accelerator, gradually. GM: "reduce vehicle speed by gradually removing your foot from the accelerator." Jayco: "gradually release the accelerator." 2. Keep steering inputs small. Jayco: "minimize steering adjustments to avoid exacerbating sway." GM warns against steering or braking suddenly. 3. Stop and find the cause. GM lists what to check: an improperly loaded or overloaded trailer, unrestrained cargo, an improper hitch configuration, or incorrect tyre pressures. Ford says to stop as soon as it is safe and check the tongue weight and load distribution. On the brake controller's manual lever, manufacturers disagree with each other. Redarc, which builds controllers, describes its lever as designed for "correcting trailer 'sway' whilst traveling." Ford's F-150 manual names that same practice as misuse: > Only use the manual control lever for proper adjustment of the gain during trailer setup. Misuse, such as application during trailer sway, could cause instability of trailer or tow vehicle. Ford's mechanism is on the same page: the controller "does not provide anti-lock control of the trailer wheels", so a manual application can lock one. Follow the manual for the vehicle you are driving. All three of the steps above are agreed by everyone. The real fix is upstream. Sway is usually a loading problem — too little weight on the tongue, or cargo packed behind the trailer's axles. What causes trailer sway covers it, and weighing at a CAT scale tells you what you have actually built.

The hand-at-the-bottom-of-the-wheel trick is not folk wisdom. It is in GM's owner's manual: > Hold the bottom of the steering wheel with one hand. To move the trailer to the left, move that hand to the left. To move the trailer to the right, move that hand to the right. Always back up slowly and, if possible, have someone guide you. That single instruction removes the mental inversion that makes reversing hard. With your hand at the bottom of the wheel, hand and trailer move the same way. Three more things that help: small inputs, then straighten — a trailer takes a moment to respond, and the usual mistake is adding more lock while waiting. Get out and look as often as you like. And with a spotter, agree hand signals in advance rather than shouting. On Ford's Pro Trailer Backup Assist, which steers the vehicle while you turn a knob in the direction you want the trailer to go — read Ford's own limits alongside the feature: > WARNING: This system is an extra driving aid. It does not replace your attention and judgment, or the need to apply the brakes. This system does NOT automatically brake your vehicle. > > Note: The system does not detect or prevent your vehicle or trailer from making contact with obstacles in the surrounding environment. > > Note: The front end of your vehicle swings out when changing the direction of the trailer. It steers. It does not brake, and it does not see obstacles. It needs a sticker or sensor fitted to the trailer and a one-time setup per trailer, and Ford states it works only with conventional trailers, not fifth-wheel or gooseneck. GM's approach in the manual consulted here is different in kind — camera-based rather than automated steering, with hitch view, rear trailer view, transparent trailer view and guidance-line overlays.

GM gives three separate instructions for overtaking: > More passing distance is needed when towing a trailer. The combination of the vehicle and trailer will not accelerate as quickly and is much longer than the vehicle alone. It is necessary to go much farther beyond the passed vehicle before returning to the lane. Pass on level roadways. Avoid passing on hills if possible. The middle one is the one people get wrong. Your rig is much longer than your mirrors suggest, so the point at which pulling back in feels safe arrives well before it is. Go further than feels necessary, and use the trailer's rear — not the tow vehicle's — as the thing that has to clear. "Pass on level roadways" is about the acceleration you no longer have. A pass that works on the flat can run out of road on a grade. Being passed is the harder case, and honesty is required here. A large vehicle overtaking you pushes a pressure wave that can start the trailer moving, and Jayco names passing vehicles as a sway trigger. But no manufacturer manual consulted for this guide publishes a technique for what to do about it — nothing about easing off, gripping the wheel, or positioning yourself in the lane. Plenty of advice exists; none of it is manufacturer-sourced. What is published is the sway response above: ease off the accelerator gradually, keep steering small, stop and check if it does not settle. Applied to being passed, that means the useful preparation happens beforehand — correct tongue weight, a load packed ahead of the trailer's axles, and a speed that leaves you margin.

Both GM and Ford would rather you did not park on a slope at all. GM: "always park your vehicle and trailer on a level surface when possible." Ford: "avoid parking on a slope." When you must, GM publishes a five-step sequence, and the order is doing the work: 1. Press and hold the brake pedal, but do not shift into Park. Turn the wheels toward the kerb if facing downhill, or into traffic if facing uphill. 2. Have someone place chocks under the trailer wheels. 3. Gradually release the brake pedal to allow the chocks to absorb the load of the trailer. 4. Reapply the brake pedal, then apply the parking brake and shift into Park. 5. Release the brake pedal. Step 3 is why the sequence exists. Letting the chocks take the load before you select Park keeps the rig's weight out of the transmission's parking pawl. Shift into Park first and that small metal pin holds the whole combination on the hill — which is also why a truck parked that way lurches when you shift out. Leaving is the same idea in reverse: hold the foot brake, start, select gear, release the parking brake, drive slowly clear of the chocks, then stop and collect them. Ford's version differs in two details worth having. Ford says to chock in front of and behind the trailer wheels, not just on the downhill side, and Ford's steering rule is the single instruction "point your vehicle tires away from traffic flow". Ford also notes that chocks are not supplied with the vehicle — buy a pair before the first trip. Unhitching has a published order too, and Jayco's begins where you would expect: 1. Tow vehicle in Park, and chock the wheels securely before anything else. 2. Unhook the wiring, safety chains and breakaway lanyard. 3. Fit the dolly wheel, release the weight distribution bars, open the coupler latch. 4. Raise the tongue jack until the coupler clears the ball, then pull the tow vehicle away. Chocks go on first and come off last, so the trailer is never held by the hitch alone. That is the same principle as the hitching sequence, run backwards.