Just a word of caution in using these eyes on the lower shock bolts to tie your Spyder down! :lecturef_smilie:
Even tho the leverage & movement isn't massively increased, those eyes are actually mounted on the moving part of the lower suspension arm, so as your Spyder is trailered along & bouncing up & down, the suspension
WILL be articulating, which means that no matter
HOW tight you pull the straps or whatever to tie it down, those straps will be loosening & tightening & so be subjecting the eyes & whatever they are mounted on to significant shock loads.... and after the strap, either the eye itself, the bolt end it's affixed to, or the suspension arm will be taking the brunt of that shock loading, which will be repeated unceasingly for the
ENTIRE TIME your Spyder is secured to a moving trailer!!
Those 'eyes' are made for towing or pulling, etc, they aren't really intended to be used as tie-downs, and in fact, in many applications they are specifically barred from being used as such! Still, it
might be OK to use those eyes as 'tie-downs' or securing points for a
short trailering distance; or maybe a bit longer distance on an absolutely glass smooth road, but those eyes are made to be at their strongest under loads placed
directly in line with the long axis of the bolt they are secured to - and even then they rely on the strength of the bolt & the thread that's securing them and on the base of the eye being very close to any 'levering forces'.... But the more of an angle to that long axis you place the load, or the further away from the securing point the eye actually is, the greater the leverage, the weaker they become, and the greater the twisting/shearing forces applied onto whatever is the bolt that's holding them in place is secured thru!! :shocked:
Even if you force the Spyder's suspension to bottom out, the trailer movement & bouncing etc will be repeatedly and unceasingly subjecting that eye/bolt/shock mount to some significant & potentially damaging forces, and who knows which bit will bend or break first?!? :dontknow:
IF you are 'lucky', it might be the strap, or the eye itself, or possibly the bolt - but I wouldn't bet on it!! After all, the eyes
do usually have a fairly substantial 'safety margin' over their rated safe (pulling) load limit, and the bolts might not be really high tensile or otherwise all that substantial, but they are designed to withstand
some loading during use! Heck, even the shock mount the bolts run thru can take a lot of up/down pounding, but then the eye is bolted onto the
END of that (longer) bolt and any tie-
DOWN forces will be exerting a significantly leveraged twisting force onto the suspension arm and the base of the shock itself! And that suspension arm isn't really designed to withstand a heap of twisting force in that plane - come to that, neither is the lower shock mount... or the bottom shock eye for that matter!! Not on Spyders (yet!) but I've seen each & all of those components broken thru using them in this manner to tie-down a vehicle - heck, I've even seen the eye's broken, and when you understand the forces
THAT would actually take, you'd never even
DREAM of using those sort of eyes mounted onto a possibly moving suspension component as a tie-down point for trailering ever again!! :yikes:
Those eyes fitted to your Spyder are a
FANTASTIC way of evening up the load and safely (carefully!)
TOWING your Spyder for a short distance (like up onto a tilt-tray or trailer

) but they
ARE NOT really safe or recommended as tie-down points for trailering too far,
ESPECIALLY if you are planning on trailering any great distances!! IMHO the only really
SAFE ways to secure a vehicle for trailering is either using 2 crossing straps or chains on each end at the front & rear securely tensioned between the frame & the 4 corners of the trailer; or better yet, strapping the tires themselves to the trailer deck as BK911 & others have recommended above. Just sayin' :lecturef_smilie:
So if you need to secure your Spyder to a U-haul or similar that doesn't have any deck level tie-down points to secure your tires to, then I reckon you'll need at least 4 (four) heavy duty ratchet straps or chains with lever tensioners to securely tension & tie the Spyder frame to the corners of the trailer.... and carefully pad the frame ends of your straps/chains etc, or you'll mark things up. :sour: