To keep people from "hopping in" I keep Einstein on the driver's seat. Often I have had small children come up to him thinking he was real. I even had one grab him in a bear hug and start waking off with him! The parents had him return it, I would not have wanted to try to take it away from him!!!! At some car shows and cruise nights when people walk past with their dogs the dog gets startled for a moment when it sees Einnie, I guess they are surprised by a dog with no smell. On the subject of foward or backward on the trailer it all comes down to tongue weight. If you can get the car far enough foward ahead of the trailer's wheels it can be loaded facing foward. YOU MUST HAVE THE PROPER TONGUE WEIGHT TO SAFELY TOW A TRAILER. Crossing the straps is also important as the car could slide sideways in the trailer. Even if it doesn't hit the sides it could be very difficult to unload especially if it is skewed. I don't use the parking brake and when towing a manual trans car I leave it in neutral. You cannot count on the brakes to keep it from moving, only the straps will hold it. Check the anchors on the trailer, I have seen anchor rings that were only attached to the floor, not a structural member. They should be directly attached to a structural element of the trailer so as to transfer loads directly to the trailer frame. Marking the "right spot" is a great idea so as to be able to quickly load the car into the best position. When first loading a car after driving about 25-50 miles I always stop and inspect the tie-downs and position and I find I always can get another click or 2 on the rachets. David Teitelbaum vin 10757 --- In dmcnews@xxxx, abatt10347@xxxx wrote: > Fellow DMCer's, > Having towed both ways on a trailer (car facing front and backwards), I must > say that towing it facing forward in my situation was best.. It took about 45 > min. of driving and having slight fishtailing. Each time I would stop undo > tie down straps and move the car forward on the trailer. After a few tries I