A particularly energising day as I got to be the guinea-pig for "Dr Anderson's patented Austin 7 fixed pole towing arrangement prototype", to recover my car from home to my mum's garage (from hilly, nasty roads... to quiet flat roads to enable "starting to get it running again")
James has devised a link to affix said tow pole (which is available quite reasonably at shops near you) to the front Austin axle. Worked extremely well, especially when I'd mastered the brakes enough to reduce any drive train shunt from the pole on its fixings at either end.
And what's more, the car bearings and brakes have had a bit of a workout over 16 miles and nothing fell off! A lot, lot safer than a tow rope, which we of course had as a back up. Thankyou James!
I guess the string took the strain and the pole was just in case ?? Made a similar one for mine (Never used it yet) with a "UJ" bolt and a couple of pads of ply.
Looks lethal to me, I would certainly not tow in this state - is the load taken by the welded washer / exhaust bracket combo??
Madness. Wonder what would fail first, the string or the weld..
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7 Location: Salop
Car type: '28 GE Cup. '28 AD Chummy '30 RL Saloon. '34 RP Saloon. Too Many toys!
18-07-2018, 12:52 PM (This post was last modified: 18-07-2018, 12:59 PM by squeak.
Edit Reason: xtra info
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The tow bar seems to be a well made item with provision to remove the slack at the coupling points. The home made bracket with 'U' bolt less so, needing a massive redesign.
Hedd consider if the front bar end failed, the item would dig into the road or swivel under a front wheel, and all the braking in the world would not save . If the rear homemade bracket failed, not so dire. I don't think such a device would be legal over here. For me it's a fail. cheers Russell
The rigid tow-bar should normally be connected to the tow ball on the towing vehicle. The ring on the offside isn't normally strong enough for towing - it's intended just for fastening the vehicle down on a transporter. (unless the vehicle's manual says otherwise)
I have to admit I'm not happy about the welded ring idea, but it appears to have worked.
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7 Location: Salop
Car type: '28 GE Cup. '28 AD Chummy '30 RL Saloon. '34 RP Saloon. Too Many toys!
I would estimate the area of the weld is considerably greater than the area of the screw thread in eye in the Exeter registered tow vehicle, though probably the material is less strong. The 8mm thread on a mild steel chinese christmas cracker exhaust clamp would strike me as the weakest link. But to top it off, its survived a proof test.
As for a bar approx 8 foot long 'digging into the road' - poppycock. The towing eyes in the towcar are certainly designed for towing/recovery of the tow car, having a chummy at half the weight hanging off it should cause no cause for alarm. The bar is a item marketed commercially for such eventualities designed to use the towing eye.
That said if it did fail the bar would certainly go towards and under the wheel and cause some excitement, but I doubt our friend in the chummy was being towed at anything much more than 20mph. It would certainly have been the fastest the chummy will have ever slowed down!.
HI,
In NZ an A Frame is used clamped to the towed vehicle at two points and to the towing vehicle with a hitch on the towball and no driver is required in the towed vehicle.
on trucks a solid bar is required connected to the hitch pins and only if the engine is running to release the air brakes and you need a driver in the towed truck.
Rope towing requires skill and coordination. It is very difficult to avoid heavy jerks. If the rope is run over it can loop around the steering and lead to real thrills.
I have always run seriously out of date cars, I did/do a lot of driving off the main roads, and never belonged to the AA. For decades I have carried a portable solid towbar (wooden) with a trailer coupling on one end and on the other a simple blade and pin with fork bracket which quickly attaches to the front of my car(s). Hopefully if not too far from home mates can be recruited. And in remote places a local or passer by would likely oblige to the nearest town. I had to retrieve the wifes modern on a couple of occasions; a rope tow would a have been too harrowing for all concerned.
A frames were popular here but now restricted to large vehicles towing small. A local has permanent brackets on his Seven. When young and less cautious I A framed a Javelin 360 miles with another. Cruised at 60 mph and uphill easily passed truck outfits of the time; performance well in excess of my Seven! But in the wet took a long time to straighten after square turns.
(A senior fellow employee was Harry Chatteris, part owner of the Rubber Duck post war. He recounted A framing it Auckland to Paekakariki Hill Climb near Wellington, 400 miles. On the Desert road it would not follow and had to be steered. When the road was unsealed and all fine pumice!)
