How to Tow a Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Hey pizza lovers! How is everyone? Thanksgiving is this week already! It’s crazy how time flies by so fast, in the blink of an eye it will be Christmas so enjoy everything in the moment. I can’t wait to eat some turkey, ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, some home made stuffing…. you get the picture. I am also super excited to spend time with the family!

Without further ado, this week I will be giving you guys my advice on how to tow a wood fired pizza oven. This is probably one of the hardest aspects of making wood fired pizza. Because you have to tow a 4,000 pound trailer… it’s definitely something that only practice helps! Here’s how you tow a wood fired oven in 10 steps:

1. Have a heavy duty truck: Make sure your vehicle can tow this big of a beast. Trucks I would recommend for towing with a wood fired oven are: Ford F-150 truck, Ford Ranger, any type of Chevrolet truck such as a Silverado, and basically any type of truck suitable for heavy towing.
2. Make sure you have the correct tow hitch: Make sure you have the correct hitch and lighting connections! The back lights on the trailer are going to hook up to your truck so that cars behind, can see you’re blinker.
3. Have someone back you up: Make sure when you are backing up to the oven with your truck, you have someone there to guide you onto the hitch. This is very important so that you can hitch up properly, and as quickly as possible.
4. Follow proper hitch guidelines: When hitched up you, make sure the brakes of the oven are up so that the pizza oven brakes aren’t on while your towing. Make sure you put the pin through the whole so the latch of the hitch doesn’t open! Also make sure to cross the chains when you hook them on so that they don’t drag on the ground. Lastly, make sure you connect the lighting cable to the truck so that you don’t get pulled over 😉 Always always second check your hitch job so that you know the trailer is secure!
5. Once your all hitched up you can hop in your truck and push the tow button so your truck knows that you are towing a big beast!
6. Always go slower: Depending on how far you are going, make sure to add a couple minutes onto your trip. You want to go slower than usually because 1 the trailer puts a lot of strain on your truck, and 2 you want to take proper precautions while driving which means you go slower than a zippy car would!
7. Always brake sooner than later! This is super important to remember because if you stop last minute with a 4,000 pound trailer you might not be able to stop. You want to take the extra space to brake sooner than usual so you can come to a proper full stop!
8. Take wider turners: When taking a left or right turn always make sure to take wider turns so that you don’t hit anything or so that you don’t jackknife your truck. Jackknifing is when you take too tight of a turn and the trailer hits the side of your truck and dents it. You don’t wan this so make sure you take super wide turns.
9. Backing up/ parking: Once you get to your location make sure you talk to the event manager so you can figure out where to park. Some times you will have to park in areas where its hard to back up. Always make sure you straighten out the steering wheel and trailer when backing up so that you don’t jackknife it. Funny story one time I was trying to back up the trailer and I was doing a sharp turn and the trailer hit the side of the truck and dented it! I jackknifed it. Thankfully my dad wasn’t mad but this proves that you always need to straighten out the trailer and have someone there to back you up. Same thing with hitching up the trailer, make sure you have someone there to back you up so you don’t jackknife.
10. Unhitching: Once you have backed up your oven into the perfect spot, it is time to unhitch. Put your brakes down, and put a piece of wood under the front or back of the tire so that your oven doesn’t roll. Next take the pin out of the metal pedestal with the tire and put it flat on the ground. Put the pin back in when the pedestal is straight on the ground so that your trailer doesn’t fall. Crank it down so that the tire is able to apply pressure to the ground, and support the trailers position.

There you have it! By following these guidelines, your pizza oven is parked and you towed the trailer here carefully. Once again this is trial and error as you can understand from my personal story. This is one of the aspects that was harder for me to learn, so I had someone experienced with trailers park the oven for me at events. But I did have to tow the oven and drive with it! I hope you guys enjoyed and gained knowledge from this post! See you guys in December 😉