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.
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 _in gear_ because it has a trans rear pump that will turn the engine over if in a drive setting. Out of gear, the rear pump should (I think) the rear pump should lube the rotating parts. Anywho, 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 *****in' 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.
Strange but true. If this photo had a 1940 split grille, it would have been a carbon copy of our 40 Willys Coupe build. The red primer paint was the same, black wheels and tires with a 7 inch set of slicks that fit under the rear wheel opening. Now, what motor was in this 41 Willys Coupe? Look behind the trunk area, along the wall. A 671 supercharged SBC motor sitting on a rolling stand. Who would have thought that 57 years later, a similar model shows up at a local drag race museum? We had one of the first 671 supercharged motor kits from the newly created Isky -Gilmer belt drives, plus the Edlebrock blower manifold. No other 671 kits were available for the SBC motor. Hello, When my brother and I started our 1940 Willys Coupe build, getting it ready for an SBC motor, LaSalle transmission, and Chevy rear end + suspension, we had used a big dock line from one of those big boats in the LA/LB Harbor area. There was a surplus store that had all things, marine supply and one was a pile of used dock lines. They were handy to clip on to various places for towing vehicles home. With those early ropes, we had our specified positions. My brother drove his 51 Oldsmobile sedan and I “steered” the Model A Coupe, first using the dock line tow rope. It was fun as I did not have a license to drive, buy I was not driving… well that was going to be the excuse, if we got stopped. We had to cross two big major streets in our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood. It was my job to keep the dock line taut and not to allow any slack on the rope. If there was a slight dip in the road, the line also had a dip. So, when my brother accelerated again, the pull gave a slight jerk to tighten the dock line again. That part was not nice. I was getting good keeping the line tight and not let any slack in the line. He drove all the way home and coasted to a stop in our driveway facing the garage. The 41 Willys in the above photo was taken at the original Lion’s Dragstrip Museum on the set up days. I was totally amazed at the sight of a red primer Willys Coupe. It was a single grille 41 model whereas ours was a dual grille 1940 model. But at the time of our build, no one had a red primer 40 or 41 willys coupe. The odd thing was the tow bar under the Willys Coupe on display. We had a local welding shop create a tow bar to our specs and attachment points. The easiest was to take off the bumper and have the attachment tow bar use the existing brackets to put in the nuts and bolts. We also did not want a round pipe unit and so they used an oval shaped tubing. That one piece, bent tubing gave more strength than a simple round tube welded together. They bent the oval tubing and made it fit the existing brackets. The other end was a standard ball unit, welded to supports and cross bracing. Jnaki Now, we had our friend who owned a muffler shop design and build our tow bar hitch for our 58 Impala. Yikes, a tow bar attachment to the Impala? Why not get one of those rental tow hitch attachments for the bumper? The brackets that were available for towing were sold at auto parts stores and rent available at the rental places and some gas stations. We tried to put one on the bumper of the Impala, but had to put on a thick rag to not scratch the chrome. NOT going to work for us and the hitch... So, our muffler shop friend made a solid 2x4 bar, cross member + supports and what stuck out was a solid bar about a foot out and it had a hole in it for the ball unit. The bar was empty when we saw it first hand. It looked funny sticking out as a plain bar with a hole in it. Despite rounding off of the corners and making it look clean and neat, it was a bar sticking out under the chrome rear bumper. Now, after we installed the round ball, it took on the look of a tow car, yet still a fast cruiser/racer. The black tow bar looked like the one under the display Willys Coupe at the museum. The initial tow was fine. Everything was sturdy and the Willys followed the Impala around the block, just as smooth as if we were driving around without anything behind us. When we turned the corner, there was plenty of looseness in the joints to allow an up and down movement for an easy turn. Road dips were another thing we had to learn to cope with for a smooth transition in towing. We practiced with the empty Willys Coupe rolling ch***is many times as we knew it was going 1.5 miles to the Lion’s Dragstrip and 1.5 miles home. So, it became old hat to tow with the Impala. Once we got the hang of towing with the Impala, we rented a small trailer to go get our 283 motor and transmission. The Impala trunk was not going to do much except to lift the tool box in and out. Note: Once the driveline was installed and ready, the coupe handled better being towed behind the Impala. Now, it tracked better as it must have been the weight of the motor/transmission, etc. For us, we knew our goal of 1960 Detroit Nationals is a long way driving to and from. So, our plans were to have an actual tow car, not the Impala. We began to design a 55-56 Chevy station wagon for our final car, once we got the Willys Coupe running fine. YRMV
The beauty of having a quick change rear axle, pull the change gears out. Now only the ring and pinion are turning, and because you have gear lube in the center section, there is lubrication for them. Better yet, if it has full floating axles, pull both out and put caps on the hubs to retain the lube. Now only the wheel bearings are turning
When we started dirt track racing in the hobby stock cl***, the track decided there wasn't enough cars so they closed the cl*** for a few years. When it restarted, most of the guys that were going to run in the cl*** didn't have a trailer, and the money for a car trailer. We had sold the one we had as well. At the time, you could rent universal tow bars from U haul. Then had clamp on brackets that bolted to the car's front bumpers and the other end fit over a trailer hitch ball. This would have been about the late 1970s. My buddy rented one for our first race day. It actually worked very well, so I made a copy of it, renting one from U haul every week would have been too expensive. A couple of the guy that raced with us worked the same place I did (I worked in factory maintenance). They knew we had used the U haul tow bar, so when they found out I was making a copy, they wanted me to build one for them as well. The next week, 4 cars showed up in our cl***, all using my homemade tow bars! Those were 4 different brands of cars, those U haul copied adjustable tow bars I built worked very well on all of them. The next week I made 4 more for other guys in our cl***. After that there were several other guys making car specific tow bars. Most of the guys with cars in the cl*** lived in town, and the track was only a 1/2 mile out of town. I think everyone in our cl*** that lived in town towed the race cars to the track with tow bars. Just after mid season I got word from one of my police friends, that the city was going to crack down on everyone that was towing a car to the track using a tow bar the next week, so I spread the word. The next week, when the police had set up the road block at the edge of town for anyone using a tow bar, no one was using them. Just a side note about towing with a tow bar that was in effect even back then, that we didn't know about. The car being towed with a tow bar was suppose to be licensed and insured, it was also suppose to be street legal. The police options on pulling over a car being illegally flat towed (by any means with 2 or more tires on the road surface) gave them several options. They could impound the towed car and the vehicle doing the towing on the spot. They could force the tow operation to return to their home address intermediately. Or they could bring out the ticket book and wright up any infraction the towing vehicle may be violating, and any infraction the vehicle being towed was in violation of. Apparently, the local police were OK with a few cars being flat towing through town, but when the number grew to 12 or 13 and the trip home for each of them was near midnight on a Sunday night, they couldn't ignore the citizen complaints any longer. Just about as fast as it started, it ended. My clamp on tow bar worked great until the front bumper got bent, then most of the guys just resorted to hooking to tow bar to the front bumper with chains. The cars did follow along pretty well, until they got bent up a little, then the front tires didn't want to return to straight after a turn. I had someone sit in the car steering, both going to and from the track, towards the end of the tow bar era. Most of the tow trucks at the track were out of Freeport. If the car got crashed, they would haul it home for you. The tow trucks didn't charge me, I have no idea if they charged anyone else. A lot of the guys from the late model cl*** would take their cars home and come back to haul the hobby cl*** cars home for those they knew. There was a race track about 70 miles away, at Farley Iowa, that had a hobby cl*** with the same rule package we had. A couple of the guys with my tow bars decided to make that trip to race one Friday evening. They got so close they could see the track, when they both were pilled over by an Iowa State Police car. The officer politely told them they could turn around and go home right then and there, and he would let them go. One of the guys asked him if, since they were so close, if the couldn't just go to the races and then not come back with the tow bars again. The officer told them sure, let me get out my ticket book, and do a safety inspection on each of the two race cars. I can already see there is no windshield, no windshield wipers, and no headlights, or turn signal lights. That is about 6-8 faulty equipment failures with even looking too hard. I'll probably have writers cramps before I get done with the first car. After I write all those tickets, if you want to go to the track, OK. Then after the races, my fellow officer be waiting for you, and he can write all the tickets again. They chose to turn around and go home.
Back in 1978 I towed my Dad's 59 T-Bird from Tacoma Wa to Springfield IL with a borrowed home made bar. He had died in 1976 and my mom wanted me to come get it. Almost 2,000 miles with my four kids in the GMC van with me. Drop the drive shaft and go. Great time with the kids.
boy you guys must think i the perfect rube! besides, everybody knows it's called an "emergency brake" for just that reason. hand brake? ha ha ha . . . .
The Jalopy Journal
