Toy Hauler Loading Tips

Toy haulers are a special kind of towable RV that allow you the extended enclosed garage space to carry all your favorite powersports vehicles with you while you travel. They’re the best way to go for a weekend off-roading, because you can camp in a remote area right next to a trail or open space and ride to your heart’s content. Then at night, you can retreat to your comfortable and spacious living quarters for a hot meal, shower and a good night’s sleep. 

Loading up your toy hauler with your vehicles can be something of a challenge, though. It’s a process you want to ensure you get right, as mishaps could mean damage to your toy hauler or your powersports vehicles. Your Indiana toy hauler dealer is The Outpost RV, located in Middlebury, so if you have any toy hauler maintenance needs, give us a call!

Preparing Your Toy Hauler

Before you head out with your toy hauler, you should ensure that everything is in good condition and functioning well. Taking a little extra time now to prepare your toy hauler can spare you a huge headache down the road.

Check your tire pressure in all the tires of your toy hauler. Your tires need to be properly inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended standards to reduce the risk of a blowout and lessen tread wear. Use a tire pressure gauge to check the levels and an air compressor to get them where they need to be.

Make sure that you’ll be able to see other vehicles. With your towing vehicle hitched up to your toy hauler, climb into the driver’s seat and adjust your side mirrors to minimize blind spots and ensure that you can see the entire length of your trailer as you drive.

Finally, try to make sure that others can see you. Test all brake lights and turn signals to make sure they are bright and visible so you don’t catch other drivers unawares with sudden movements that look unsignaled on the highway.

Evenly Distributing Weight

Hitching a toy hauler up to your towing vehicle will drastically affect the weight balance of the latter, which in turn affects how you drive. If you take the time to distribute weight evenly, then you will find the task of driving while towing a loaded toy hauler to be much more manageable. Placing too much weight too far forward can put undue pressure on the toy hauler’s tires, and placing it too far back can imbalance the trailer at high speeds.

The ideal ratio is to place 60% of your cargo weight towards the front of the cargo bay and 40% towards the back. Distribute the weight evenly from left to right as well so you’re not putting too much pressure on any one tire, as this increases your risk of a blowout, which is bad enough on a passenger car but potentially disastrous on a toy hauler.

Loading Your Powersports Vehicle

Once you’ve plotted out how to distribute the weight, it’s time to load your vehicle into your cargo bay. Chock up your toy hauler’s wheels and make sure that your towing vehicle is parked with brakes on. You’ll also want to be doing this on as flat and even a surface as possible to prevent tipping while you’re on the ramp.

Lower the cargo bay gate to convert it into a ramp. Try to make the angle of the ramp as low as possible to make loading easier. Then climb aboard your powersports vehicle and approach the ramp at a slow, even speed. You want to go fast enough to get up the ramp, but not so fast that you shoot through the front of your toy hauler! Turn off the engine of your vehicle as soon as it’s inside and reasonably centered where you want it, since the build-up of carbon monoxide fumes can make you sick.

Securing Your Vehicle

Once you’ve parked your powersports vehicle or other cargo inside your toy hauler’s garage, you’ll need to secure it down to prevent it skidding around and hitting the walls as you drive. Not only would this damage your cargo, but it would make driving significantly harder since it would destroy all the careful weight distribution you did earlier. Tie down your vehicle with ratchet straps through the suspension or D-ring tie-downs that anchor to the interior of your cargo bay. Test the strength of your securing by tugging at your vehicle and trying to work it loose. You should be all done if everything proves steadfast!

If you have powersports vehicles and need a way to transport them, you should check out toy haulers. The Outpost RV has a great selection of toy haulers for sale in both new and used styles by all the leading RV brands. We serve the whole state of Indiana. We also proudly welcome our customers coming south from nearby Kalamazoo, Michigan!