I purchased a flatbed trailer to haul my 54' F250 in the future to shows, etc. For those who have also trailered vehicles, is it best to leave the manual transmission in gear or put in neutral? Are chains and binders best or will heavy straps suffice? I am thinking if the chains/straps are tight enough, it shouldn't matter whether in or out of gear, but don't want to damage gears with any jarring or pressure. What have you had good luck with, how many tie down points, does DOT have any special requirements.

 

i use a closed trailer too, and always use 4 10,000lb straps.
2 in the rear crossed
2 in the front straight.
they all go to axles,which won't move up/down with body motion.

I leave the vehicle in gear, with the parking brake on, or in park, with the parking brake on. you want as much resistance on the deck as possible.
for manual tranny vehicles, I try to get it into the highest gear. use the engine as an additional brake.

I didn't strap one down once, and some yahoo pulled out in front of me at an intersection, me doing 55. the ford superduty auto-kickdown on braking kept me from hitting him, but the trailered vehicle slid all the way forward on the trailer.

won't make that mistake again.

 

On these old manual trans vehicles, I'd put it in the lowest synchro'd gear. Non-synchro'd gears are more likely to pop out of engagement, and the lower the gear the faster it would try to spin the engine (so more resistance).

 

In Calif there are some specific laws regarding this issue, I am not sure about your state but it would be worth a web search to find out.
That said, if you follow sdetweil's method you should be just fine. I use the same method using trailer straps that I bought online from a trailer supply house. These straps have a beefy strap that goes over the axle and has an added sleeve to protect the webbing...this strap is attached to the wratchet strap so that the whole setup comes in one piece. Hope that makes sense...what you really want to be sure of is that the strap over the axle does not chafe or get cut on shock mounts, etc...

 

When I am trailering a vehicle, I always hook to the frame and pull the vehicle tight to the trailer, compressing the suspension as much as I can. That keeps the trailered vehicle from bouncing. I try to keep the sprung weight from springing. This is in addition to the 4-point crossed straps to the axles, to keep the vehicle from sliding around. I have also been known to screw pieces of 2X4 down to the deck around the tires for long hauls, just in case.