How To Tie Down Your Mustang

Longer ratchet straps are attached to the shorter straps, then crossed. "You always want to cross the straps at the rear," Don says. "That keeps the car from moving from side to side. You can cross the front too. Some people use straps that you can ratchet on both ends but that's a lot of work. I try to make it as easy as I can because sometimes I'm loading by myself."

Once the straps are secured, Don makes sure the straps are tight. "If it's a running car, I back it up as tight as it will go before I tie down the back of the car," he says. "If it's not a running car, I make sure it rolls back far enough to pull the chains tight."

At the rear, Don typically wraps the straps around the axle housing (under the brake lines to prevent crushing or damaging them). However, for Mustangs with a transverse muffler, like Christopher Lemp's '69 Mach 1, Don wraps the strap around the outside of the axle and the leaf spring perch. This outboard method keeps the straps low to keep them from rubbing and possibly scuffing the low-hanging transverse muffler.

The ratchet straps have hooks on each end which could be used to attach directly to the trailer D-rings, but Bob has learned that the hooks can damage the vinyl flooring, so he uses regular straps to wrap around the trailer D-rings, then attaches the straps to the ratchet straps. "You can see where I didn't use them in the past," Bob says as he points to divots in the vinyl. "The straps get the hooks off the vinyl."

After tightly ratcheting the straps, Bob wraps the ratchets and straps with a length of Velcro strap. "It keeps all that stuff from flopping around," Bob explains.

Here's the final tie-down at the rear. Notice the large rug behind the car; it prevents damage to the floor vinyl.