Man In The Maze

by Rich Luhr, Editor of Airstream Life magazine

  • About
  • Follow
    • Twitter
  • My books
    • Exploring National Parks
    • Newbies Guide To Airstreaming
    • Airstream trailer maintenance guide
  • “How To Airstream” blog
  • Store
  • Back to Airstream Life
You are here: Home / Airstream / The Performance Towing Experience

Sep 23 2014

The Performance Towing Experience

A stretch of non-Airstream time and no blog entries can only mean one thing:  plotting the next adventures.

For months I’ve been chafing to write about one of the most exciting projects our event team has ever attempted.  This is something entirely new, which we are calling “PTX,” for “Performance Towing Experience.”   And now, since it’s coming together, I want to give you advance notice of it.

Next July 2015, we are going to take Airstream trailers to the race track—and you can drive them!

We’ll have three courses: a dragstrip run for demonstrations by our instructors, a low-speed cone course for beginners to towing, and a closed road course where experienced drivers can pull their Airstream through a slalom and practice maneuvers like emergency braking.

Whatever your level, PTX is going to be the place to learn more about towing, get your hitch optimized, get a safety check, practice things you hope you never have to do on the road, and compare different towing combinations by actually driving them.

This has never been done before, as far as we know.  That’s a big part of why I’m so pumped about it.

PTX will include three days of educational seminars and practice on the courses, plus three days where you can watch others race (on vintage motorcycles and other vehicles), and up to seven nights of camping!

We’ll be camped at the Grand Bend Motorplex, in Grand Bend Ontario.  It’s just about two hours drive from Detroit, or about 4-5 hours from Buffalo NY.  Camping will be mostly boondocking but there will be water available, a dump station, bathrooms, showers, and you can bring a generator.

We are anticipating that the event will have three levels of participation:  Spectator, Driver (beginning towing), and Advanced Driver (experienced towing).  Even Spectators will have a lot to do. We’ll have several off-site tours and events for Spectators, as part of the program.  The Motorplex is very close to the white sand beach at Lake Huron, and there’s a surprising amount of things to do in the area. And of course we’ll have the usual Happy Hours, catered dinner, social events, door prizes, and fun that we have at all our other events.

I’m really hoping that, besides being fun, this event helps improve safety.  Instead of relying on “rules of thumb,” and anecdotal reports on the Internet, and outdated advice, participants will have the chance to learn what works first-hand.  I’m hoping they actually feel the differences brought on by proper hitch tuning, tire choices, and tow vehicles.

No matter what you tow with, PTX will be an opportunity to make it tow better … and that should improve safety!

If you want to learn more about it, check the PTX website and sign up for our new Aluma-events newsletter, called “Outside Interests.”

By the way, the newsletter is another new project I’ve very excited about.  We just launched it last month.  Outside Interests comes out every three weeks, and shares news about Airstream, tips, profiles, and special deals on upcoming events—including PTX.  It’s sort of a companion to Airstream Life magazine, but entirely free and delivered by email.  Give it a try if you are curious; you can always unsubscribe if you want.

Written by RichLuhr · Categorized: Airstream, PTX

Comments

  1. Koos de Heer says

    September 27, 2014 at 8:34 am

    Sounds great! We think it is a bit too far for us, but we will definitely look into it.

Recent Posts

  • Upgrading: Bike rack
  • Upgrading: Bathroom vent
  • “How’s that Ranger tow?”
  • Time to roam differently
  • Say this over my grave

Archives

  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • May 2020
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008

Categories

  • Airstream
  • Airstream Life magazine
  • Alumafandango
  • Alumafiesta
  • Alumaflamingo
  • Alumapalooza
  • Asia
  • Bicycling
  • Books
  • Caravel
  • Current Events
  • Electrical
  • EUC
  • Europe
  • FAQs
  • Ford Ranger
  • Ford Ranger
  • Globetrotter 23FB
  • Home life
  • Interstate motorhome
  • Maintenance
  • Mercedes
  • Mercedes 300D
  • Mercedes GL320
  • Modernism Week
  • Motorcycling
  • Musings
  • National Parks
  • Photos
  • PTX
  • Recipes
  • Renovation
  • Roadtrips
  • Temporary Bachelor Man
  • Tesla
  • Tucson places
  • Uncategorized
  • Upgrades
  • Vehicles

©2004–2015 Church Street Publishing, Inc. “Airstream” used with permission · Site design by Jennifer Mead Creative