Towing a vehicle is a lot of work, but so is protecting your vehicle in that process. Protecting your vehicle doesn’t mean that you have to put on barriers or box your car. It’s the precautions and simple things you can do to avoid any possible damages in the whole towing process. For Sacramento towing services, you should first and foremost call a professional such as AJ’s Towing. Calling a professional instead of taking matters into your hands is the first precaution you can take to minimize damage to your car if you need to be made aware of the process yourself.
There might be people who notice issues with their vehicle regularly and have it towed a number of times to know about the things they can do to protect their vehicle while towing. But this number of people is very few, and there are still many people worldwide that need to be made aware of how the vehicle could get damaged while getting towed. Read below to understand better how you can protect your vehicle.
1. Know More About Your Vehicle
Protecting your vehicle is an easy task if you have knowledge about your vehicle. Your vehicle has various parts, and it is mostly the exterior parts that are prone to getting damaged when it gets towed. For example, an automobile can be headlights, bumper, tires, side mirrors, and so on. But if you were to cover all these parts, it would only make it more difficult to tow your automobile.
Thus if you were to learn more about your automobile, you would have better knowledge about how and which part is more prone to damage. These parts are mostly the side mirrors, bumper, and headlights, and covering these parts causes no harm to the mobility of the automobile. Other than that, when your vehicle is getting towed, you should carefully opt for an appropriate hitch. A hitch is very important to create a pivot point for smoother turns, but if the hitch size isn’t appropriate for the vehicle, it can cause the vehicle to sway and get damaged.
If the hitch is inappropriate, you can always adjust the brakes. Though it’s not recommended to tow your vehicle with an inappropriate hitch, if the vehicle being towed sways, you should adjust the brakes accordingly. Doing so would prevent the wheels from moving freely in any direction, making it easier to drag the vehicle.
2. Protect The Tires
No matter the urgency or reason for towing your car, you should check all the tires before it gets towed. Your automobile might have a deflated or punctured tire. Towing your automobile in that condition can lead to the tire bursting and having it replaced with a new one. To avoid this enormous problem, you should use tire-protecting options on every tire that isn’t normal.
There might be fancy tire-protecting options, but the most basic ones require you to use wheel chocks. It is beneficial for keeping your automobile in place and avoiding pressure build-up inside the tire. A wheel chock can be commonly seen in parking lots and cars towed in a truck or trailer as it’s beneficial for stopping any movement of the car.
To avoid severe damage to your wheels, you can also opt for turning off the brakes on downhills. It is mainly done when your automobile is towed with a hitch ball. When going down the hill, the friction and resistance due to the brakes can cause significant damage to the tires.
3. Check Out The Route Beforehand
Knowing the route that you have to take while towing your automobile is always a plus. There are short routes with a lot of traffic and long routes, but there is rarely traffic there. Browsing through the possible routes, checking how much time it would take you and which route will be safer for your car. Towing your automobile through heavily congested traffic can be way more problematic than you think. It takes a lot of fuel to tow a car; if you opt for the longer route, the automobile might only last for part of the journey.
When talking to the towing personnel, you should discuss your situation with them and tell them more about your car and the amount of fuel you have. It will simplify the towing process, and the equipment for towing your car will be more accurate according to weight.
4. Take Precautions On The Road
When you have opted for a particular route, you should check the number of turns and places you must stop and also check whether there is traffic at those curves. Taking a turn with a towing car is tricky and should be avoided as much as possible. Here it would be best if you stopped earlier than you usually would and should maintain a healthy distance between the towing car and the car in front. When you encounter any curve, try to take wider turns to avoid bumping into surrounding cars.
Driving while towing a car is challenging, and if you aren’t to practice or become more familiar with this task, you should leave it to a professional. When the towed car has to be backed up, you should preferably have a person at the back to guide you or the driver through it. No matter how wide the mirror on the towing car is, you may need a better view behind. A spotter in such situations is beneficial to avoid any unseen accident or damage to the car.
Conclusion
Towing a vehicle is not a simple task. A lot of effort and time goes into towing a vehicle successfully from one place to another. Whether it is you or a professional towing the vehicle, you must be aware of ways through which you can protect your vehicle from damage in the towing process. To protect your vehicle, you don’t need various equipment or tools; following basic precautions and two-three tools at max are more than enough.
