PDA

View Full Version : just a bit of advice needed


bloat
19-01-2010, 18:37
off to tow a car on a trailer with the mav tomorrow, couldnt belive how heavy the trailer was on its own!! anyway my question is should i tow in 2wd or 4wd??
cheers in advance:thumb2

tezzer
19-01-2010, 18:40
2 wheel drive, unless roads are slippery etc.:thumbs

bloat
19-01-2010, 20:08
ok cheers :thumb2

danielj
19-01-2010, 23:04
Would tend to agree with tezzer. Haven't done a huge amount of towing but unless surface is slippery I would stick with 2wd. Should have plenty of towing power.

MudLifeCrisis
19-01-2010, 23:24
I do a lot of towing and would agree with 2wd. Towed nearly 2.5 tonne behind mine, no probs.

tezzer
19-01-2010, 23:43
if you use 4 wheel drive on tarmac/concrete roads you wont get far, you will wind up the transmission, unles the wheels can slip ie mud,snow,ice, etc

makeitfit
20-01-2010, 00:33
2wd all the time towing till you spin out:D
I had 2.8 tonnes of sand plus whatever the trailer weighed, behind mine no worries(well stopping was more fun)

lacroupade
20-01-2010, 13:49
2wd all the time towing till you spin out:D
I had 2.8 tonnes of sand plus whatever the trailer weighed, behind mine no worries(well stopping was more fun)

what was wrong with the beach then, thats free???

makeitfit
20-01-2010, 15:06
what was wrong with the beach then, thats free???

Bloody premadona "Patio" layers wanted some fancy quarry sand :doh

DEE
20-01-2010, 15:11
I do a lot of towing and would agree with 2wd. Towed nearly 2.5 tonne behind mine, no probs.


Towed 4.5 tonne in mine :thumbs. Wow if i had been pulled by the old bill :doh would of had the book chucked at me. But it pulled it great. One great work horse. And all standard.

makeitfit
20-01-2010, 15:14
Towed 4.5 tonne in mine :thumbs. Wow if i had been pulled by the old bill :doh would of had the book chucked at me. But it pulled it great. One great work horse. And all standard.
Trailer weights top trumps eh?
I bow before you :bow good luck with the clutch :augie

zippy656
20-01-2010, 15:37
Towed 4.5 tonne in mine :thumbs. Wow if i had been pulled by the old bill :doh would of had the book chucked at me. But it pulled it great. One great work horse. And all standard.

wish my wallet was that big!

DEE
20-01-2010, 17:33
Was on my way to your.s zippy. it was your wallet :lol

bloat
22-01-2010, 22:32
Well this was it being towed in 2wd :thumb2:thumb2
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd227/claregareth/SNC00205.jpg
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd227/claregareth/SNC00203.jpg

lacroupade
23-01-2010, 14:36
Just my humble opinion but NO WAY would I ever tow a car loaded like that scooby, i.e. arse about face with the engine effectively hanging off the back of the trailer.

There isn't a better way to destabilise the trailer and induce snaking (unless vatco knows one?) - I did it once and wrote my mates car off as a result, while towing on a similar trailer at no more than 45mph...in that case it was a Beetle that we stupidly drove on the trailer FORWARDS..:doh:doh

(RIP) PLANK
23-01-2010, 21:21
Just my humble opinion but NO WAY would I ever tow a car loaded like that scooby, i.e. arse about face with the engine effectively hanging off the back of the trailer.

There isn't a better way to destabilise the trailer and induce snaking (unless vatco knows one?) - I did it once and wrote my mates car off as a result, while towing on a similar trailer at no more than 45mph...in that case it was a Beetle that we stupidly drove on the trailer FORWARDS..:doh:doh

I agree mate, i tried it once and it was a very unpleasant towing experience, I supose unlesss the car has a rear or mid engine?

a trailer should be nose heavy, and making maximum use of the permited nose weght makes it more stable!

vatco
24-01-2010, 07:19
Just my humble opinion but NO WAY would I ever tow a car loaded like that scooby, i.e. arse about face with the engine effectively hanging off the back of the trailer.

There isn't a better way to destabilise the trailer and induce snaking (unless vatco knows one?) - I did it once and wrote my mates car off as a result, while towing on a similar trailer at no more than 45mph...in that case it was a Beetle that we stupidly drove on the trailer FORWARDS..:doh:doh

I would tend to agree

In an ideal world the weight should be on the axles or slightly forward of them. But it is not an ideal world. Sometimes this is just not possible . Also I do not know the weight distro of a Scooby. And I did, once, have to reload a car on a trailer because it was better balanced the Wrong ways round.

Maybe we should, as a club, have a 'tractor' style pull one day Just for a bit of fun and see what will pull what weight on what terrain :)

I'd enter the black top section (and I won't cheat........... Honest :naughty )

bloat
24-01-2010, 10:00
yep i agree completely but we unfortunaly had no choice he ha lost the keys for the scoob thats why we had to trailer it to subaru, and it was parked forward on his drive with the steering lock on plus we only had to go across town so didnt venture ove about 25mph, we tried to get the front wheels/engine as far over the trailer axle as we could. then the rover went off to the scrappy.:thumb2

Thomas-the-Terrano2
24-01-2010, 10:44
I would tend to agree

In an ideal world the weight should be on the axles or slightly forward of them. But it is not an ideal world. Sometimes this is just not possible . Also I do not know the weight distro of a Scooby. And I did, once, have to reload a car on a trailer because it was better balanced the Wrong ways round.

Maybe we should, as a club, have a 'tractor' style pull one day Just for a bit of fun and see what will pull what weight on what terrain :)

I'd enter the black top section (and I won't cheat........... Honest :naughty )

certanly up for this, having seen a d21 2wd pull a 4.5 tonne bus i reckon the troll would
be up for quite a bit more. maybe recreating those police rangeys dragging 32 ton wagons
or that vw tourag that moved a jumbo jet. mind the vdub was ballastted to about 7 ton
itself, one of those v10 td models.

jims-terrano
24-01-2010, 11:07
Just out of interest, on Christmas Eve I tugged a truck that was stuck at an acute angle on a hill and he kept sliding on snow (sliding whilst parked as he'd given up trying to drive at that point). We both attached my tow strop to our vehicles and low box 1st gear no problem just set off on the snow and towed him up hill to the main road.
The truck was a flatbed, bigger than a transit but not as big as a 7 1/2 ton ford cargo type. Sort of thing a coal man might use. Hope you can imagine the type of motor. I've been guessing it was a 4 1/2 ton vehicle, what does anyone think am I right.

What ever weight motor it was the bloke was mighty impressed:thumb2

Jim T

Thomas-the-Terrano2
24-01-2010, 17:34
hmmm jim well not many 4.5s baring sprinter 416/7 types, so might have been bigger
in 5 or 6 tonne range. iveco do one popular as a spec lift recovery for vans upto 3.5t,
any road was it laden? glad you had fun and what did you charge?? or was it a gift?

tezzer
24-01-2010, 18:38
i done a job for a farmer a few years ago, he had a artic deliver bags of food, anyway the bloody clutch went on the tractor unit, so i get a phone call to recover this unit, manage to get it half mile down the road so it was'nt blocking the road to the farm, it suprising that once it moved (5-10 mph) it was'nt any trouble really. but i got paid well lol. :doh:lol

jims-terrano
24-01-2010, 21:41
Forgot to say Thomas The Terrano, it was a Merc.

Jim T