{"id":21494,"date":"2014-06-20T09:10:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T16:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/?p=21494"},"modified":"2019-07-24T12:31:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T19:31:24","slug":"safe-trailering-comes-to-central-washington-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/20\/safe-trailering-comes-to-central-washington-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe Trailering Comes to Central Washington University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-05-28-09.17.10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-21383 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-05-28-09.17.10-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Safe Trailering -CWU 1\" width=\"265\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>I was recently invited to speak to Professor\u00a0Scott Calahan&#8217;s &#8220;Transportation and Fleet Safety&#8221; class at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cwu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Central Washington University<\/a>. You see, he heard that U-Haul has been teaching driver&#8217;s ed students how to safely tow a trailer for nearly 40 years, and he wanted his college students to have the same experience. The difference is that his &#8220;kids&#8221; aren&#8217;t just learning to drive &#8211; rather, they&#8217;re\u00a0preparing for careers in the oversight and management of job site and fleet safety in\u00a0the\u00a0numerous fields that require the use of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/Truck-Rentals?utm_campaign=uhaulsm&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=trucks&amp;utm_content=20140620-safetraileringcomesto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trucks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/Trailers\/?utm_campaign=uhaulsm&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=trailer&amp;utm_content=20140620-safetraileringcomesto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trailers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-21384 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-05-28-09.16.41-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Safe Trailering-CWU 2\" width=\"282\" height=\"212\" \/>The Basics<\/h3>\n<p>The &#8220;Safe Trailering&#8221;\u00a0material was presented over two days to\u00a0Scott&#8217;s 30 students. The first day entailed 50 minutes of classroom presentation, helping these young guardians understand the basics of towing, starting with the <a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/2013\/12\/15\/safe-trailer-use\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">five basic components that make up a combination vehicle<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The driver<\/li>\n<li>The tow vehicle<\/li>\n<li>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/MovingSupplies\/Trailer-Hitches\/?utm_campaign=uhaulsm&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=hitch&amp;utm_content=20140620-safetraileringcomesto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> hitch<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The trailer<\/li>\n<li>The cargo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Safe Towing<\/h3>\n<p>The students\u00a0also learned about what makes for a <a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/2013\/03\/02\/towing-a-trailer-safe-towing-checklist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>safe<\/em> towing\u00a0<\/a>experience. Tips such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Slowing down<\/li>\n<li>Increasing following distance<\/li>\n<li>Understanding vehicle, tire, hitch, and trailer capacities<\/li>\n<li>Proper weight distribution (loading 60%\/40% &#8211;\u00a0heavier in the front of the trailer)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-21386 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-05-29-09.36.49-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Safe Trailering-CWU 3\" width=\"278\" height=\"209\" \/>Hands-on Demos<\/h4>\n<p>The following day was spent putting this knowledge to use, as we hit the parking lot with some hands-on demonstrations that were sure to make this experience a memorable one. With the help of local Washington state\u00a0U-Haul leaders Manny Mendez, Matt Schaub, and Monica Howard,\u00a0we were able to get five trucks and trailers on campus to teach the fundamentals of safely\u00a0hooking-up a trailer, properly distributing the cargo weight, and precise backing<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-21387\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-05-29-09.12.51-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Safe Trailering-CWU 4\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/> of a tandem-axle trailer. This was a great experience, as getting out of the classroom and getting to do the work yourself creates a powerful learning experience, for it is always one thing to be told how to do\u00a0something, but it is\u00a0far more meaningful\u00a0to\u00a0accomplish it with your own hands.<\/p>\n<p>If the enthusiasm of this group is any indication of their understanding of the subject, we&#8217;ll have a fine bunch of competent leaders in the field, making sure that everyone under their watch is capable of towing a trailer,\u00a0ensuring the safety of\u00a0you,\u00a0me,\u00a0and our loved ones out there sharing the road with them.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>If you&#8217;d like more info or have a comment on this article or the Safe Trailering material, please leave a comment below!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently invited to speak to Professor\u00a0Scott Calahan&#8217;s &#8220;Transportation and Fleet Safety&#8221; class at Central Washington University. You see, he heard that U-Haul has been teaching driver&#8217;s ed students how to safely tow a trailer for nearly 40 years, and he wanted his college students to have the same experience. The difference is that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":21509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[545,548,7,999,195],"tags":[1192,100,1193,174,175,178,1191,184,185],"class_list":["post-21494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-2","category-safe-trailering","category-tips-tricks","category-towing-trailers","category-trailers","tag-class","tag-loading","tag-safe-towing","tag-tips","tag-towing","tag-trailer","tag-trailering","tag-u-haul","tag-uhaul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44116,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494\/revisions\/44116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uhaul.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}