RV Lifestyle & Repair Editors

How to Secure Items in Your RV Toy Hauler

RV Lifestyle & Repair Editors
Duration:   6  mins

Description

If you’re the kind of adventurer that likes to RV out into the great outdoors and explore off the beaten path, a RV toy hauler is the perfect option for your needs. Toy haulers allow you to easily store and transport your smaller vehicles or “toys” such as motorcycles and ATVs, keeping them safe from the elements while you travel to and from your destination.

Loading a RV toy hauler is a fairly simple process, but it’s essential to complete it correctly to ensure your toys don’t bounce around while you travel. In this lesson, we teach you how to load a RV toy hauler with your favorite toys and properly strap them down to guarantee they don’t go anywhere.

Connecting toys to an RV toy hauler

Dave Solberg walks you step by step through a loading demonstration to help you figure out the best way to strap down a motorcycle, ATV or any other toy on an RV toy hauler. He teaches you a few expert tips and techniques you can utilize to simplify the process and make sure everything is properly secured and you don’t do any damage to the inside of your RV toy hauler.

You’ll also learn a little trick for elevating a portion of the trailer for easier loading and unloading of a motorcycle. This small adjustment will allow you to drive onto the RV toy hauler at a comfortable speed and avoid stalling. The key to completing the loading process safely is momentum under control. After getting the motorcycle and an ATV situated on the RV toy hauler, you’ll discover the proper method for using tie-down straps and ratchet tethers to ensure your toys won’t go anywhere during transit. Once everything is in place on the RV toy hauler and firmly strapped in, you’re good to go. Enjoy the journey!

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2 Responses to “How to Secure Items in Your RV Toy Hauler”

  1. Christine Lorence

    In my toy hauler I installed 2 winches- I pull the bikes up/down. No riding under power on the ramp. I felt it was a safer option.

  2. Dane

    The guy almost crashed when he hit the loading ramp! How many Harley's have a a hitch? Is that really the best anchor point? Dollar store cinch straps on an 850 pound ATV?

The advantage of a toy hauler is you get to bring your toys. We're going to take this model here and put in a motorcycle and an ATV and show you how to properly secure those when they're going down the road. Now, the first thing we did, Doug had a little tip. He brought the front end up about two to three inches above level because that brings this back end down and it reduces the incline when you you're bringing that unit up. So we don't have as much of a climb to get in. It also helps greatly when coming back out because sometimes even if this is dry, it's not wet out there, when you're backing that motorcycle out just the brakes alone, aren't going to secure it. It could slide right down. So he literally starts the vehicle up, the motorcycle, puts it in gear and rides that a little bit to help him get down and not have to rely on the brakes or skid back down. So, you'll need to get one of these. This is a tie-down strap. It usually does not come with the toy hauler. And all we're going to do is put this around the handles down on towards the bottom of it and that's gonna secure and that's what we're gonna connect to our base plates down here. So, first thing we're going is to have Doug startup is a wonderful motorcycle here and we'll bring it in and show you how to hook it up. Okay. I'm going to give Doug the strap. And one of the things you'll notice when he came in he came in at a pretty good speed and he was saying that it's better to go up as fast as you feel comfortable with because your momentum's going forward and you're not fighting side to side as much plus you don't want to get stuck right in the middle and have to spin out the tire. So, go as fast as you feel comfortable with and stay in control. Now I'm gonna have him put that strap on the handlebars and we got one on each side and you're going to tether that down with the ratchets. Yep. Okay. And so you can see these actually have a little safety pin that spring loaded that helps hold it into place down there. And it's just a typical ratcheting type. And this, these obviously came from Harley Davidson. Yep. You wouldn't dare put a Honda set on this, right? No. Okay. Just making sure. So now you've got one on each side of these. You don't put the kickstand down or the under Jack or anything like that? No, you don't need to. Once you run into your cradle, it'll hold your bike. And then once you strap it down, it's not going anywhere. Okay. So you don't have to worry about the kickstand. Good. If you do go over on the kickstand you're already against the wall anyway. So you kind of defeated the purpose of it. Good. Okay. Now you're going to do the back here in just a little bit but we're going to bring up the ATV first. Yes. All right. I'll stand on this side. Okay So once you get it in you've got these straps you're using, correct? Yes. So with an ATV or just going to hook it up to I'm going to hook it up to they always have a strap down here that you can put your winch cable on. Good. So I'm gonna hook my winch cable, since I'm not using it. And I hook him to that. Cause that's hooked right to the frame. And I want to make sure my four wheelers back a little bit. So I'm pulling it forward instead of just pulling it sideways. That'll give me more stability going down the road. You don't have to over crank too tight just for the fact that when you strap the back you're going to pull it backwards also. Okay, good. And now typically, you would have that slide room out when you were hauling and unhooking and stuff. So you could get out this door but for our purposes here, we're going to have to crawl out this way. Yes. You don't want me to crawling out this way? No, no where near the bike. We'll go that way. Okay. We've already strapped down the front end. We're going to strap the back end so that they don't bounce around on the backside of here. So in the same type of straps, ratchet down straps now the motorcycle has a hitch on that one. So he can go right around that. If you don't have that on the back of your bike you're going to have to go through the tire and back over to the other. tie-down just to get it nice and tight. Now, while he's doing, you'll notice that we've got some two by eights along the side here. Doug puts those in, he uses them to level the coach underneath the wheels in here, but they also act as dual purpose because he puts it on the side here in case this moves any we don't have it rubbing up against the side of the unit. So now once you got it down like this, the last thing is put the coolers in. Put the coolers in And we'll put the Beaver tail up. And that's how easy it is to properly connect your toys and your toy hauler.
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