Transporting Allroad on Carrier

[Renegade5]

In the next week or so a transport company will be picking up my recent AR purchase, and transporting it California -> Massachusetts. Due to timing, and availability the car will unfortunately be on an open trailer. The seller has agreed to apply painters tape to the front/rear/side exposed areas to minimize rocks, and debri from damaging the paint.

But my real question is around the suspension, after some reading this morning I've seen threads on other forums around "Jack Mode." Understanding that this is to be used while the car sits for a while, when on a lift being worked on, and lastly for transport? Is the only precaution needed for the transport is to have the car in this mode to lock the suspension, and to prevent the compressor from turning on, and running during the trip?

Is there a preferred level the suspension should be set at as well?

Anyother precautions w/ the transport of this vehicle?

Thanks in advance!

[rollerton]

I bought a car and had it transported on an open trailer recently. I thought about some of that, but then...I realized that what's the difference between hauling it and driving it?
Would you tape up the whole front of the car if you were driving it? Depending on what kind of tape and how he uses it, the tape could be worse than the road grime.
My car was transported in winter and showed up dirty, but a good wash and it was clean. You could put the suspension in jack mode, but I'm not sure that is even necessary. If they have to shuffle cars around on the trailer you risk them driving the car in jack mode, so I might not.

[4rings2turbos]

You can drive the car in jack mode, it just self cancels after 5kp/h or something like that.

The only thing jack mode does is stop the suspension ecu from dumping air from the bags or filling them from the holding tank. Once the holding tank loses pressure there's no more until you turn the key and the compressor runs. It's used for lifting the car so that the drooping wheel's level sensor doesn't tell the ecu it's riding too high and dump air. It would just empty the bag trying to bring the sensor back to spec.

All that being said, no need for jack mode on the trip.

And carriers can throw some nasty stones/debris and oil dripping from cars above and ahead. The best place on a carrier is the top rear if you can work that out.

[JTown77]

I would put it in jack mode, I had a car shipped that deflated the bag trying to level that exposed a crack in the bag. The bag then deflated and the jarring on the trailer took a toll on the bushings and hardware. The car then was an absolute bitch to get off the trailer and it would not inflate the bag.

[4rings2turbos]

But on the flip side, if any bags have a leak leaving it out of jack mode could alleviate those symptoms.

It might be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Renegade5]

Thanks for the input. There are currently no leaks in the bags, and I think its best for it to be in Jack Mode for the trip.