Towing a vehicle

[lostagain]

I bought a new Mini in 1977 for $2900. Fun little car, but the transmission ground itself to a pulp within the first year.
I think the only good thing the British ever made is HP sauce...

JC

[Oonrahnjay]

Towing it should be ok,lol driving one the 10 to 12 mpg really sucked.My wife has a 1977 Spitfire she has owned since 1980(41,000 miles) that thing leaks oil from the head lights I think   

      When I worked for Norton in England in the 1970s, we had to process a claim for an oil leak from the headlamp wiring harness.  (It was for real - there was a tight rubber cover on the tacho drive at the engine and the drive cable filled up with oil when the o-ring failed but the cover was tied into the wiring harness to run up the triple clamp and then to the tach gauge.  It filled the whole front-end wiring harness with oil!)

[DoubleEagle]

    Or Triple - I already have a Norton Commando production racer.  On the other hand, I could pour a quart of 15W40 2-stroke engine oil on my head and set my hair on fire -- that would probably hurt less.

I almost bought a Norton Commando 750 in Hong Kong back in 1968, but I thought about the potential road rash, and bought stereo equipment instead. It was and is a cool bike.

[DoubleEagle]

I owned a 2000 Range Rover I bought new never again ,I kept that toy for almost a year and it had to go

I had a 50th Anniversary edition Discovery (1998) that was also plagued with quality control problems that I departed from at a loss, but I still have three Series Land Rover 88's. Those were the origin of Land Rover before they became gentrified and complicated. It seems like the old Series LR's pop up in all kinds of ads when they want a rough Safari look, but they don't seem to use the newer models unless it is a Land Rover commercial. 

[Lin]

We use a 1999 Jeep Cherokee.  If the transfer case is in neutral, it does not matter where the transmission is.  You could even leave it in park.  I was told by the local CHP, possibly in error, that I needed a breakaway.  We bought a Brake Buddy on Craigslist for around $100 or so.  I have no idea if the thing does any good.  I always set it for the least sensitivity since I really do not want it interfering. But if I was in an accident, it could point to it and contend that I was doing everything to be safe.

There have been times when we had to disconnect the Jeep in order to make a hairpin turn going up a steep incline.  That is relatively easy since you can back the car out of the way and drive it when once it's disconnected.  What would you do with a trailer in that situation?

[buswarrior]

Being able to tow the trailer with both the coach and the toad would be a powerful option, for many things beyond navigating tight places.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[sledhead]

with a trailer if you have to back up you can up to about a 70 degree angle but flat tow it's only about 20 degrees and after that it will cost $$$

we all do it our way

dave
 

[dtcerrato]

True about the trailer. When it comes to backing up we prefer to trailer our toad. We have towed both ways in the past. Being our travel direction for 99+ percent of the time is forward we prefer four down, it has enabled us to put the bus in places where it wouldn't couldn't normally go... Goose is the word! :-)

[dtcerrato]

True about the trailer. When it comes to backing up we prefer to trailer our toad. We have towed both ways in the past. Being our travel direction for 99+ percent of the time is forward we prefer four down, it has enabled us to put the buses in places where it wouldn't couldn't normally go... Goose is the word! :-)

[daddysgirl]

Hi Billy!
I'm in Richmond as well...nice to know there's another nut in the vicinity.

I've got the blue ox and a Jeep. BUT dad towed a GMC short bed step side with 2WD. He made a set of tail lights and attached them separately to the truck, and in the truck went the golf cart. But the truck engine always ran when being towed.

Whatever you do, be careful. He and mom were behind dad's best friend (same bus, same tow) on the way to FLA. They had a radio system to talk to each other. Dad noticed the car on his friends bus was not pulling properly. Before he could grab the walkie talkie...the car and the hitch came off the rear of the bus and went careening across three lanes of the road before landing in the ditch.

The only difference between the two set-ups was the weld job. Dad was a great welder...but he took the bus to a weld shop for that job. His friend, also a great welder, did it himself.
I'm not trying to be the negative nancy, just sharing a frightening experience to prevent it in the future.

[Beesme]

My toad I swear a Jeep Wrangler . I have a bike lift on back for mt full dress hd and my toad behind that with a brake buddy . I van see in coach when my brakes are on and I set sensitivity at 4. We just got back from 3000 mile trip . It works awesome! Of toad is auto so I put transfer case in neutral and tranny in park per jeep.

[oltrunt]

Just finished an upgrade on the brakes for my toad.  I'd been using an older Brake Buddy and the air pump went out.  A replacement pump turned out to be unavailable so I ran an air line from my bus to the Brake Buddy and all was good-----until the printed circuit board gave up.  Also unavailable.  Four automotive relays and a couple of buck relays later and the system works better than new.  I combined the Brake Buddy with a new Kelsey Hayes progressive electric trailer brake actuator which combines an accelerometer with a manual overide (in the bus).  I did a bunch of stopping trials with the bus alone and with the toad.  California law states that a vehicle must be able to stop from 20 mph in no more than 50 feet.  Without the toad Honeysuckle Rose easily stops in 35 feet and with the toad and the repaired Brake Buddy, the stopping distance is the same.  I didn't think to test the system without toad brakes but I haven't forgotten the "this thing isn't going to stop" feeling I had a couple of times before with the original Brake Buddy.

I won't go into it other than to say brake rotor temperatures on the bus were way down after the upgrade on the Brake buddy.  I expect this is due to the fact that the toad brakes now apply immediately along with the bus brakes rather than only at speeds above 30 mph as originally designed.

Jack

[Dreadnought]

I bought a new Mini in 1977 for $2900. Fun little car, but the transmission ground itself to a pulp within the first year.
I think the only good thing the British ever made is HP sauce...

JC

BTW the engine in the P51 Mustang is a British Rolls Royce unit designed by the British- built by Packard- despite Yanks ignoring the little aspect of the design itself while citing it as a 'Packard' unit.

[daddysgirl]

I won't go into it other than to say brake rotor temperatures on the bus were way down after the upgrade on the Brake buddy.  I expect this is due to the fact that the toad brakes now apply immediately along with the bus brakes rather than only at speeds above 30 mph as originally designed.

Jack

Brake rotors on the Bus?
...and the only time Our bus EVER had a problem with brakes was exactly as you described ...not thinking you were going to stop. Dumb jerk that I foolishly allowed to drive the bus pulled a trailer. Never bothered to even look at anything. When I finally looked, 1/8" crack in the drums on the front. Why? Dumb jerk never bothered to understand if the rear seals leak all over the rear, the front does all the stopping. The point? For safety sake, if you haven't already...make sure there are no cracks anywhere

[oltrunt]

Yup, disc on the front and drums on the back of my little bus--no cracks though.  Thanks for the good reminder.  Jack