Properly Towing Your ATV

Going out into the wilderness or to a local off-roading trail or racetrack with your all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is always fun, but you can’t just drive it there or shove it in your trunk! And if you need to use your ATV for work purposes, you’ve got to have a way to transport it to and from the worksite safely. 

That’s why you’ll have to invest in a trailer that you can use to tow your ATV from place to place. You can choose between an enclosed or open-bed trailer, but either way, you’ll need to follow some good safety practices to keep yourself and those around you safe, as well as protecting the sanctity of your towing vehicle, trailer and ATV. Dunfords of Havelock is your local ATV dealer here in Ontario, so in order to help keep you safe, here are some tips for towing your ATV safely.

Form a Plan

Before you begin, you’ll need to determine a game plan that will help you to know what you can expect and what order you need to do each task in. First, check over your trailer and towing vehicle and make sure that both can handle the weight that needs to be hauled. Evenly distribute the weight from left to right and from front to back. Try to put 60% of the weight in your trailer towards the front and 40% towards the back, with 10% over the hitch, if possible. Once you’re ready to hitch up the trailer, you should park both the trailer and the towing vehicle on flat and even ground.

Hitch The Trailer Up

Now you can hitch up your trailer to your towing vehicle! Orient the trailer tongue so that it’s sitting above the height of your trailer tongue. Lower your tongue onto the ball joint and set it securely. Cross your towing chains in an X-shape beneath the tongue and attach them securely to the towing vehicle, which will help to reduce the risk of your trailer and vehicle separating if the hitch fails on the highway. Next, you can set up the brakes and lights for your trailer to the towing vehicle or on the trailer if they’re independent of the tow vehicle’s power source.

Load Your Trailer

You can now load your ATV(s) into your trailer. Set up the ramp and make sure it’s secure and on flat ground. Allow yourself to have enough distance to drive up the ATV without going so fast that you blow through the front of the trailer. Try to come up to the ramp straight on and give it enough speed to get up the incline. Once you’ve loaded up the ATV, you can strap it down securely using tie-downs or ratchet straps, which can compress the suspension so that the vehicle is less likely to shift around in transit. Try to wiggle or shake the ATV now to see if it moves at all.

Drive Safely

While you’re on the highway with your trailer, you should make sure to go no faster than 55 or 60 miles per hour because trailer tires aren’t designed to handle higher speeds. Increase the following distance between yourself and the vehicles in front of you so that you have more space to come to a stop if you need to. Use your side mirrors to make sure that you can see and signal all of your turns well in advance.

We hope these tips help you to safely tow your ATV wherever it is you wish to use it! Still in search of the perfect powersports vehicle? Visit us at our dealership in Havelock, Ontario, to take a look at our current selection of new and used ATVs for sale. Check out our financing options if you need them for budgeting. Dunfords of Havelock proudly serves the cities of Peterborough, Belleville and Kawartha, Ontario.