History tow bar

Hubs that can be set to freewheel. There has to be a locking mechanism. Pretty much like older 4x4 front hubs with manual locking / unlocking.

Chris

 

thanks.

my 1978 F-150 had those and i remember having to get them lubed 1x per year and the local garage.

 

Like these. Remove to rear wheel, bolt on the towing hub to the wheel studs
re fit the rear wheel to the towing hub. The ones I have seen pictures of homemade ones had the same PCD.

 

Unlocking hubs aren't needed if you can easily remove the driveshaft, or dont care about mileage and have a trans that wont burn up being towed without the engine running. Also, there are RV towing companies that sell transfluid pumps that provide fluid flow to the little car people drag around the country behind their RV for those that don't like manual trans vehicles/jeeps.

-rick

 

so this allows the wheel to rotate without rotating the axle and everything up the drivetrain; correct?

 

leaving the shift/ transmission in neutral still turns its innards?

yes; i know that little about these things!

thanks

 

Back in the 60s when i was discharged from the service i towed a 56 chevy from California to Missouri. Tow car was a 60 chevy 283 glide. I would never try that these days.

 

My brothers 65' A990 Belvedere 1 with factory tow bar

 

I made one to tow my '36 behind my '67 C10, worked fine going forward, towed vehicle tracked and self steered well but no backing up, if any reverse action was needed I disconnected the towed car and moved it separately

 

These are a set of homemade tow hubs I picked (along with other parts) from an old time stock car racer’s collection several years ago.

The wheel stud holes on the stock wide 5 hubs were drilled to slip over the rear hubs on the car, the center was machined out and a piece of pipe was welded on to slip over the floater snout.

The pipe was capped and a stock Ford spindle end was welded on the capped end, then a stock Ford hub was placed on the spindle end.

I sold or traded these to another old stock car buddy of mine.

 

Used this tow bar for the Zipper as well as several Jeeps. There are a lot of brake boxes on the market for use in cars that are flat towed on a regular basis and comply with state laws. Best source is etrailer.com

 

When you tow a vehicle the driveshaft turns the transmission output shaft. The geartrain in an automatic is supported on bushings that require continuous lubrication. This lubrication comes from the front pump in the transmission which is driven by the engine. If the engine isn't running, the bushings are not being lubricated but the geartrain is being turned by the output shaft. Over a long distance, you will damage the bushings in the transmission.

This doesn't only apply to automatics. On a manual transmission, the bearings and bushings are lubricated by the gear lube slung around by the transmission countershaft gears. With the trans in neutral, and only the output shaft turning, you do not turn the countershaft and do not lube the gears, bearings, and bushings in the output shaft. However, manuals are more forgiving that automatics in this regard.

One way to prevent damage is to run the engine. This will run the automatic transmission front pump and it will turn the countershaft on a manual; lubrication is restored.

 

You can't tow an Olds/Pontiac Hydro because it has a trans rear pump that will turn the engine over if in a drive setting. So unlike most automatics, you can tow-start a hydro equipped car just like a manual trans.

Otherwise, I'd rather flat tow my car than put it on one of those single axle trailers - how many bitchin' cars have been totaled by a tire blow out on one of those turds?

 

Back when all my cars had real bumpers,I had clamp on type hitchs{ towed a lot of stuff with it too!
Even had a one dolly wheel little trailer,that had two bumper hitch hook up as part of the trailer.

 

Correct mate. Just put the handbrake on on the towed car and away you go.