Bob Carlton and I ship the Jet Salto to Australia every two years for the Avalon Airshow near Melbourne. We always use the services of a professional shipping and packing company who help us block and brace the trailer with many webbing straps, fixed chocks at each wheel, an axle support that will hold the trailer up in case a tire loses pressure and a rigid support around the front jack.

In eight round trips from LA to Oz and back, we haven't had any problems, but we are super careful to overdo all attachments. We use two independent straps at all points, tongue, front corners, rear corners, axle (fore and aft attachments), side to side and any other points we feel like tying down. Note that we have also installed extra tiedown points to the chassis.

Remember that longshoremen and others of the transportation breed take a big metal box that looks just like the hundred thousand others out there and treat it like, well, I don't even want to know how they treat it, but if the Teamsters are any example, my advice is to insure the hell out of it just in case.

Also, container ships have regular mishaps in rough seas and containers are lost far more often than you would think. if possible, try to specify (and be willing to pay extra) for "center loading," on the theory that outer containers will be washed overboard before yours. I know of one glider and container that "sleep with the fishes" and were not insured. Not funny at all..

As far as removing the running gear, you are delving into an area that might be a real problem trying to load a long skinny box into another long skinny box. The shipping companies at both ends of the trip may elect to just push the thing in and drag it out with a forklift, and I have never seen a glider trailer that will withstand that treatment without substantial damage.. And without accessible tiedown points, the shippers may have no choice but to just run straps over the top and crank them down- likely crushing the top. I would rather deal with paperwork and customs stuff than possibly have a trashed trailer unloaded at the other end.