Towing safety begins in your driveway.
Other than driving in a blizzard or hurricane, pulling a camper trailer down the highway is one of the most dangerous things you can do with your tow vehicle. On the other hand, what's better than being on the open road, with your living quarters on wheels? With sound attention to detail and a reasonable level of caution, you can safely haul your family camping trailer down the highway for a memorable vacation. Make it a habit to go over your camping rig with a safety checklist before you hit the road.
There's a lot riding on your tires.
You've heard the expression, "kick the tires before you go," right? That's a great place to start. Proper inflation for all eight tires (at least!) on your tow vehicle and your travel trailer is critical. Use the high-end of your tires' listed cold pressure numbers for good-weather hauling. All four trailer tires should have identical readings. You can use a mid- to low-range setting for your vehicle's front tires to ensure smooth handling. Visually inspect all tread surfaces for unusual wear while your adjusting tire pressures, too. Never needlessly risk a blow-out on the highway!
Look for trouble before you hitch up your wagon.
Two sure warning signs of trouble are rust and frayed wires. A rusty hitch could be dangerously weakened. Use a wire-brush and good lighting for a closer look. See any cracks? If you have any doubt about your hitch's integrity, have it checked by a qualified shop. Replacing a damaged hitch component is a minor inconvenience compared to the potential consequences. If all you're seeing is surface rust, brush it clean then prime and repaint. If your safety chains are badly rusted, consider installing a new set - a small investment that looks good. Take a minute to lubricate moving and load-bearing parts, too.
Make good connections.
Inspect your wiring harness for wear and bad connections. A brake or turn signal that fails to light up on the road can lead directly to an accident. Replacing wiring and connectors is easy and inexpensive when the repairs are made at home. Pay special attention to your break-away brake lead, usually mounted beneath your camper's hitch. Make sure the release-key actually does release, and see that the connecting cable isn't rusty or frayed. Open your trailer's battery case, too; the terminals should be clean and the connections secure. When in doubt, have the battery tested. The trailer's battery supplies power to the brakes in an emergency.
Hook it up and check it out.
Leave yourself plenty of time to hook-up your camper trailer and do a serious "pre-flight" inspection. Rushing through that initial connection because you should have left an hour ago can only lead to mistakes. Most camp trailers are heavy enough to require a load-leveling hitch system. These are more complicated than a bumper-mounted ball. Bump, lock, snap and go isn't an option. Follow these three steps.
1. Load leveling hitch hook-up:
Step one is always to drop the trailer cap-hitch cleanly onto the towing ball. The snap-lock should close crisply to finish seating this key connection. Raise the stand-off bar to place full weight on your hitch; be sure it ends up high enough to clear future road-bumps. Weight-distribution (load-leveling) hitch systems use various lever designs to put upward pressure on the coupling. To work properly, both your tow vehicle and trailer should be on fairly level ground. Choose medium pressure. Locking in your distribution levers should be neither too easy nor too difficult to be "just right."
You probably have an anti-sway feature on the hitch, too. This provides added friction on side-to-side ("sway") interaction. The friction bar should be clean and rust-free with just a trace of lubricant. Set the clamping pressure using the middle-ground rule for "just right" once again. Added together, these two systems greatly reduce bounce and wiggle that result from wind and bumps in the highway. If you're towing a smaller pop-up camper you probably don't have to worry about these concerns.
2. Check your brakes.
Almost all camping trailers use electric brakes to provide crucial braking assistance for stopping. These are magnetically applied, rather than by fluid pressure. They depend on a proper electrical connection and on a brake signal moderator mounted near your steering wheel. Every brake controller uses a proprietary system to set the correct signal level. Some are manual (analog) and others are digital. You'll see red, orange, and green indicators - or a digital readout for calibration. Generally you can't just "set it and forget it" for brake controllers. It's best to read the manual, at least the first couple of times.
If your driveway is long enough, you can check for proper brake settings at home. You should be able to stop both your tow vehicle and the trailer manually using just the electric brakes. Stopping should be smooth but firm. Re-adjust as needed. You'll still want to carefully check brake function on an empty road or in a parking lot before you hit the highway. If you cannot get the trailer's brake system to work properly, please don't consider towing without them. The extra strain on your vehicle's brakes and the potential for jack-knifing are too high, and dangerous.
3. Save yourself a ticket, and check all the lights.
Yeah, you probably had your trailer inspected sometime in the last year. That's not good enough. Take three minutes and have a helper watch the taillights for you. With your engine on, actuate your emergency flashers, then each turn signal, then the brake-lights. Now turn your regular lights on, too, and check the whole system again. While a dead clearance lamp might be ignored for one trip, never head out with malfunctioning brake or signal lights. It's hard enough for other drivers to see around you and your camper; don't make them guess about your turning and stopping intentions.
Think about weight distribution, too.
Towing a camper puts extra strain on every component involved. By the time you add in the weight of clothing, food and supplies, a full tank of gas, passengers and maybe even some bicycles, you're carrying quite a load. The best place for added poundage is over an axle, where it applies the least leverage. Heavy coolers should go in the back of your truck or van, rather than to the rear of your trailer, for instance.
Avoid filling up the front section of your camper with gear, too. This needlessly adds weight on the hitch connection, and takes even more pressure off your front wheels. If your vehicle's hood feels high when you look out from the driver's seat, you may well find your steering to be under-responsive. You can't do much about where your passengers are seated, but you can consider shifting the weight distribution of all that "essential" gear you're carrying.
When you're confident in your camping rig's condition and in your own driving skills, you'll be far more likely to have a safe and happy vacation. An extra hour or two of preparation, a few minutes spent on a safety checklist before you depart can make all the difference. Have a safe trip!