Towing Your ATV Safely

When the weekend arrives and you’re a powersports enthusiast, you’re probably looking forward to taking your ATV out for a ride through some mud or along a nature trail. But before you can ride your quad, you’ll need to take it to the riding area, which generally involves towing it in a trailer of some kind. Most ATVs are much too large to safely fit into a truck bed, after all.

It’s important that you follow good safety practices when towing your ATV so that you don’t do damage to your vehicle, your quad, your trailer or any people riding with you or drivers around you. Altus Motorsports is proud to be your southwestern Oklahoma ATV dealer. Here are our best tips for safely towing your ATV so that you can handle your towing setup responsibly and with care.

Establish a Plan

Your first step involves coming up with a plan and being certain that everything is ready to go. You should make sure that your towing vehicle is capable of handling the weight of your trailer with your ATV(s) inside. Also, make sure that your trailer can handle the number of quads you want to bring. When it’s time to hitch up your trailer, ensure that you have it on flat and even ground for the best results. While loading your ATV(s), you should balance the weight from left to right, with 60% of the weight towards the front of the trailer and 40% towards the back.

Hitch Up The Trailer

Now it’s time to hook up your trailer. You’ll want to do this while the trailer is empty, because it’s going to be much easier without the additional weight inside of it. Orient your trailer tongue to the height of the ball hitch on your towing vehicle. Reverse your towing vehicle until the latch is beneath the tongue, then park and go lower the tongue onto the ball joint while ensuring that it’s latched securely. 

Cross your tow chains in an X shape beneath the tongue and hook them up to the towing vehicle. This is an extra safety measure that will keep the trailer attached to your vehicle if your hitch comes undone, so that you have time to pull over and fix it without causing a wreck.

Finally, now is the time to set up separate trailer brake lights if you have them, and establish that they function correctly.

Level & Load Your Trailer

Now it’s time to load your ATVs into the trailer. Start by setting your ramp up and making sure it’s firmly anchored. Drive your ATVs far enough away from your ramp so that you have time to get up to a speed that’s sufficient to scale the ramp, but no more. Now you can drive your ATV onto the ramp at a steady pace in a straight line. Once you’ve loaded the vehicles you need to load up, you can use ratchet straps to compress the suspension systems. Wiggle your ATVs after you’ve secured them into place to make sure they don’t shift around. Tighten any straps that you need to secure.

Drive Safely

Now you can head out onto the road! When driving with a trailer in tow, it’s important that you don’t go too fast. Trailer tires aren’t designed to handle speeds much higher than 60 miles per hour, so keep your speed under that. Don’t be afraid to go even slower if you need to, but stay in the right-hand lane so that you aren’t holding up traffic, and try to go at a speed that is close to surrounding traffic.

Create more space between yourself and the vehicles in front of you so that you have time to bring your towing setup to a complete stop when you hit the brakes. You’ll also need to avoid passing other vehicles and allow them to maneuver around you. Use your mirrors judiciously to see traffic around you.

Come see us at our dealership in Altus, Oklahoma, today to take a look at our current selection of new and used ATVs for sale. You can also talk to our staff about our financing options, should you wish to make use of them. Altus Motorsports proudly serves the city of Amarillo, Texas.