trailering 1M to events.... but then no jack pads

[M3 Adjuster]

I attend about 10 autocrosses and about 6 -7 DE weekends a year... so my car gets trailered A LOT. Itrailered my car to an autocross last week.... but first had to sort out the issue with the jack pads...

i got under the car and lo and behold one of the jack pads was already mangled a bit by the dealer that did my 1200 break in service. It was intact.. but a bit crushed. After researcing the forums, I confirmed thagt the best way to trailer the car is by removing the jack pads and using T hooks. Fine.. no problem... went to Northern Tool and got T hooks for $8.99 apiece and headed back home. I attempted to remove the jack pads..and destroyed two of them in the process.. From reading other 1 series forum posts about these... this appeared to be par for the course.


At this point I stopped.. because I realized.. that one day I will want to chance tires at an event.. or even at HOME before the event... and then there will be no jack pads? What happens when I take it back in for service and it needs to go on a lift? What the heck? I don't get the Germans on this one... Are the jack pads only intended to be removed for an OCCASIONAL tow? Can anyone remove these without mangling them?

So I trailered the car wth two T hooks and then used straps to the wheels for the other two corners... . but to be honest.. I'm really not all that comfortable using straps through the wheels as I don't want to bend a wheel.

Anyone frequently trailering their car that has some other options for jacking up the vehicle to change wheels tires at the track once the jack pads are removed?

[Dan Parker]

I've been strapping my race car at the wheels for 4 years without bending a wheel. These are 17lb (17x9) wheels so I wouldn't worry about strapping to the wheels. Discovery Parts sell the straps if you decide to go that way.
As far as the jack pads I have a hockey puck on my jack stand and that seems to avoid crushing them.

[MDORPHN]

Originally Posted by Dan Parker

I've been strapping my race car at the wheels for 4 years without bending a wheel. These are 17lb (17x9) wheels so I wouldn't worry about strapping to the wheels. Discovery Parts sell the straps if you decide to go that way.
As far as the jack pads I have a hockey puck on my jack stand and that seems to avoid crushing them.

+1. Try it, you'll like it!

Neil

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by MDORPHN

+1. Try it, you'll like it!

Neil

Well... since i've got two Mikeys in favor of going through the wheels.... LOL...

I really am not too thrilled about threading the straps through the spokes of the wheels.. especially the BEAUTIFUL stock wheels! Perhaps the 1M will somewhat reverse the trend of ugly wheels on M cars... I mean really.. WHO is rocking the stock E46 and E9x wheels? They must be all in a landfill somewhere... or maybe someeone is actively melting them down as we speak... oh my... clearly I digress...

So the stock jack pad (with some of the cool man jack pad adapters... hockey puck.. or nothing... etc) is the preferred way of lifting the car.... If so.. then looks like another reason to mount up some track tires ASAP... perhaps i won't feel so bad about the ARC-8s.... I'll check out Disco parts...

[jhall1957]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

I attend about 10 autocrosses and about 6 -7 DE weekends a year... so my car gets trailered A LOT. Itrailered my car to an autocross last week.... but first had to sort out the issue with the jack pads...

i got under the car and lo and behold one of the jack pads was already mangled a bit by the dealer that did my 1200 break in service. It was intact.. but a bit crushed. After researcing the forums, I confirmed thagt the best way to trailer the car is by removing the jack pads and using T hooks. Fine.. no problem... went to Northern Tool and got T hooks for $8.99 apiece and headed back home. I attempted to remove the jack pads..and destroyed two of them in the process.. From reading other 1 series forum posts about these... this appeared to be par for the course.


At this point I stopped.. because I realized.. that one day I will want to chance tires at an event.. or even at HOME before the event... and then there will be no jack pads? What happens when I take it back in for service and it needs to go on a lift? What the heck? I don't get the Germans on this one... Are the jack pads only intended to be removed for an OCCASIONAL tow? Can anyone remove these without mangling them?

So I trailered the car wth two T hooks and then used straps to the wheels for the other two corners... . but to be honest.. I'm really not all that comfortable using straps through the wheels as I don't want to bend a wheel.

Anyone frequently trailering their car that has some other options for jacking up the vehicle to change wheels tires at the track once the jack pads are removed?

Excuse me if I'm stupid, we only trailer to the track 12-15 times a year for the last 6 or so years, but I don't understand the connection between removing the jack pads and tieing down your car? Are you saying you take the jack pads out and then hook a J hook into the side of the car under the door? And you think that is safer/better then threading the strap thru the wheel? I just can't figure that out? The "jack pad" area would seem to be reinforced for lifting the car, not for pulling the car back or forth, right? Besides, the idea of the J hook being "on the body" makes me far more nervous then running a nylon strap over a CLEAN wheel (you would clean them if you wanna keep them nice).

Now my 1M hasn't arrived here yet, so I can't say where I'd hook it, but if there is no place underneath on the frame structure to hook it, I'd buy some straps to go over the wheels. I for one have hauled lots of cars by threading strap thru the wheel and have never had any issues.

Sorry if I'm not understanding, but I'd just put it up on trailer and look around underneath. But I'll sure check out the Jack pad idea. Just never knew about it.

[JimD]

There is a jack point in the center in the front and in the back. So you can lift the car without using the jacking points on the corners. You'll need a short jack to get to the one in the front. The one in the front is in front of the trap door for the drain plug. In the rear, you jack on the differential (not the differential cover). I made up little blocks of 3/4 baltic birch (high quality) plywood that I put into the stock jack pads on the corners when I use those points. I am assuming in these comments that your 1M is like my 128i with respect to jacking. I also use a plywood disk in the jack when using the center jacking points.

If you want to get real fancy, you could rig your car like a race mini that comes to our BMW club autocrosses. He has a scuba tank and a hose arrangement built into the car. A little cylinder goes under each jacking point and with a quick opening of the valve on the scuba tank his car is in the air. Equally quick to release the air and he is down.

Can you tie down to the suspension rather than the wheels? That seems plenty sturdy and safer than the wheel.

Jim

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by jhall1957

Excuse me if I'm stupid, we only trailer to the track 12-15 times a year for the last 6 or so years, but I don't understand the connection between removing the jack pads and tieing down your car? Are you saying you take the jack pads out and then hook a J hook into the side of the car under the door?

Correct, yes!

Originally Posted by jhall1957

And you think that is safer/better then threading the strap thru the wheel? I just can't figure that out? The "jack pad" area would seem to be reinforced for lifting the car, not for pulling the car back or forth, right?

Not me... BMW... Using T (J) hooks is the factory recommended locations/way to transport the vehicle.

http://www.tunnellracing.com/thookTN.html

Originally Posted by jhall1957

Besides, the idea of the J hook being "on the body" makes me far more nervous then running a nylon strap over a CLEAN wheel (you would clean them if you wanna keep them nice).

Now my 1M hasn't arrived here yet, so I can't say where I'd hook it, but if there is no place underneath on the frame structure to hook it, I'd buy some straps to go over the wheels. I for one have hauled lots of cars by threading strap thru the wheel and have never had any issues.

Sorry if I'm not understanding, but I'd just put it up on trailer and look around underneath. But I'll sure check out the Jack pad idea. Just never knew about it.

So essentially.. another recommendation for using the wheels..

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by JimD

Can you tie down to the suspension rather than the wheels? That seems plenty sturdy and safer than the wheel.

Jim

Umm.. no... I'd much rather bend a wheel than, say... a control arm. Wheels are easy to swap out and have repaired.... or to replace... Suspension components... not so much.

[JimD]

It seems like there are at least two viable alternatives. You can take the plastic jacking points off and use the hooks you like for tie down. With that alternative you need to jack the car from the center jacking points. Or you can keep the plastic jacking points on the sides and tie down using the wheels.

You could also tie off to the suspension but you don't like that alternative. Maybe it is a bad one. I would be more confident of not doing damage to the control arm or even the sway bar than a wheel. But it's your car and properly is your choice. Scuffing suspension pieces, the most realistic negative consequence, seems vastly preferable to scuffing wheels.

Jim

[robertm]

I've never liked strapping down to the wheels because you are loading the suspension every time the trailer moves/sways ect and I just don't think the susp was designed for that exactly. Its probably not a big deal to do everyone once in a while but many times a year adds up. When strapping to the chassis you effectively compress the suspension down and get far less movement of the body.

Plus I shutter to think what happens in a roll over if you're tied to the wheels. My bet is quite a bit of suspension is tweaked/damaged and possibly the car breaks lose from the wheel to fall on its head/side.

I've seen a trailer roll over upside down in the mountains going from CA to NV. The tow truck pulled the trailer back over and the car inside was absolutely fine, not even a scratch. It was an NSX and was back out on the track with us the next day. He had the chassis of the car propperly strapped down though. Was very strange seeing it hanging upside down in the trailer! Just food for thought.

[JimD]

Tieing to the body through hooks in the jacking pockets or tieing off to the suspension both would compress the suspension some. Tieing the wheels is the only option under discussion that leave the suspension totally uncompressed. I don't like the looks of cars being towed that "pogo" down the road but it probably doesn't hurt anything.

The wheels are strong but the load would be very localized around their circumference. The load would be equally localized the other ways but it seems to me that that localization of load is totally intended in the jacking points and more closely what was intended at the suspension. If you wanted to not risk expensive parts, you could tie to the sway bars. I think they cost about what the wheels cost. It's hard for me to imagine damaging a sway bar absent a wreck.

If you have a wreck while towing you would be fortunate to not damage a lot of stuff including the vehicle being towed. An enclosed trailer would possibly give you a chance. I don't see how you were tied off helping a lot unless the car comes loose.

Jim

[M3 Adjuster]

quick update to this.

I eventually became more comfortable with the T hooks, especially when compared to running straps through the gorgeous OEM wheels and even with track wheels.

I removed all 4 OEM jack pads from the car and I keep one Jack pad (with a cool man ECS tuning Jack pad adaptor that allows the jack to have a flat surface to lift the car) in my track box for lifting my car.

http://www.ecstuning.com/News/E82_E9..._F02_ES251251/

It has not been an issue to take my car to the dealer without jack pads. For awhile I tried to reinsert them, or left them in the car for the tech.. .. but they are really not designed for multiple usage and eventually they will not stay in place at all, so I just leave them off.

Tightening straps down while using the T hooks can be a little harowing as sometimes the T hook will come undone and come flying off. Take care when tightening the straps... I generally try and place tension on the strap/hook and then begin ratcheting.. this lessens the propensity of the T hook to fly out while ratcheting the straps tighter. I always also drive a few miles and make a stop or two to make sure nothing shifts and then check all the tension on the straps to make sure that they remain tight.

I have trailered my car several dozen times at this point.. Many short 1 hour trips and even as far as Texas to mid Ohio and back without no drama.

[robertm]

What does happen when you take the car to the dealer and they need to get it up on a lift? Are they just using a drive up lift instead? If a scissor lift is needed (like to suspension work) are they installing there own jack pads then removing?

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by robertm

What does happen when you take the car to the dealer and they need to get it up on a lift? Are they just using a drive up lift instead? If a scissor lift is needed (like to suspension work) are they installing there own jack pads then removing?

i don't know. I presume they are installing their own. they havent asked me for, nor hassled me that the jack pads arent there when it arrives.

Perhaps they also have the technique of removing and installing them better than I do.. I basically tore the clips off mine trying to remove the buggers. They held for awhile when I reinstalled them but after about 6-7 times of being removed and reinstalled, the clips were broken enough that they won't stay in place at all.

[JimD]

Why not use the towing eye at each end? It seems you've solved this but the car comes with a towing eye and connection points at both ends. With an extra eye, you could easily strap it securely at each end.

Jim