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You’ve got the toy hauler. Now it’s time to hit the road and find a new riding trail to explore, or to visit an old favorite. No matter where your powersport adventures take you, you’ll be able to stay there for as long as you like and have a comfortable place to sleep every night. But that’s the fun part. Before you can do this, you’ll need to be able to load up your toy hauler with your powersport vehicle, and while this won’t necessarily be too difficult, it still might be helpful to have some tips. That’s why Lone Star RV has provided you with a guide to loading your toy hauler safely and efficiently. If you need additional advice, stop by our dealership in Houston, Texas, near Katy and Beaumont.
Prepare your Toy Hauler

All RVs, and other vehicles for that matter, need to be checked over before a major trip to ensure there isn’t any risk that you’ll break down on the side of the road. And these checks are going to be a lot easier to do before you load your powersport vehicles, especially if you encounter some sort of major issue.

Start with the tires. Check the pressure to ensure it matches the recommended psi levels, which you’ll find in your owner’s manual. You’ll also want to inspect the treads. Any signs of damage may indicate you’ll want to get the tire switched out before the trip, or if you notice excessive wear. If it looks like your tires are wearing unevenly, reevaluate the weight distribution of the cargo on board (we’ll get into that in a moment). If that’s not the issue, then there might be another mechanical problem at play.

After you’ve hitched your toy hauler (if this is a necessary step), adjust your mirrors to reduce you blindspot. Notice, we said reduce, not eliminate. You’ll still need to be careful when turning, merging, and backing up. Also test all your lights, including your headlights, brake lights, and turn signals.

Distributing the Weight
When you think about your loading strategy, you’ll want to focus on weight distribution. An unbalanced toy hauler can make for difficult and dangerous driving. You’ll want to distribute your cargo weight evenly from left to right and employ the 60/40 rule for front to back. This means that 60% of the overall weight is in the front half, near the hitch, and the remaining 40% tapers off the back. In addition to this, we also recommend about 10% of the overall weight be directly over the hitch itself, which means a lot of that 60% needs to be as close to the hitch as possible. (Obviously, this is mostly applicable to towable toy haulers.) You’ll want to remember this if you have a smaller toy hauler and the sheer weight of the machine in back might throw off this balance.
Loading

Now it’s time to load the toy hauler. Make sure it’s parked and you chock the wheels so everything remains steady as you’re working. Set up your loading ramp, whether that means simply lowering the back door or attaching the ramp that you like to use. Try to reduce the slope of the ramp as much as possible.

Use a steady combination of your throttle and brake to make your way up the ramp. Slow and steady wins this race, because if you try to rush it, you’ll risk bumping something inside the RV. Once your powersport vehicle is completely inside the garage, turn it off. Leaving a motor running in such a small space is a carbon monoxide risk. All that’s left is to secure the vehicle and you’re ready to roll.

This should help guide your first couple of tries, but we also recommend practicing ahead of time so you’re a pro on the day of the big trip. If you still need the perfect toy hauler for your powersport travels, stop by Lone Star RV and we’ll give you the full tour of the models we have available right now. We proudly serve Houston, Katy, and Beaumont, TX.

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