Tow dolly question

Why not drive the Challenge car and pull a small trailer?  I just crossed the scales at the recycler with a total weight of 4678 pounds, 2300 or so was Miata,  the rest was trailer and scrap metal.  70 mph and 3250 rpm.

In reply to Justjim75 :

There's bonus cred for driving instead of towing.

I drove my little Miata to my first and only Challenge with (no trailer) tools, clothes and a full extra set of wheels with Hoosiers, one riding shotgun.  I know its doable, but Mike has a lot farther to go than i did.

Gonna tow it. Definitely not a car to drive there

Well, I got a trailer you can use if ya wanna come get it.  It think it's like 1500#.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Gonna tow it. Definitely not a car to drive there

Why not?

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Gonna tow it. Definitely not a car to drive there

Dude, I drove a 4.13:1 geared Mini across several states once. It was like an all-over body massage.

You should drive your Challenge car the Gainesville. ​​

Is pulling half shafts an option?

I pull my Exocet very regularly with a tow dolly (3+ hours each way) and never disconnect anything. Ymmv however. I'll be dragging it up to NCM tomorrow morning.

Pulling backwards is to be avoided if possible. A lot to go wrong.

There are a few different type of tow dollies. There is the kind with a center pivot, there are dollies where the wheels actually turn similar to the front suspension of a car and then rigid dollies that rely on the towed cars front wheels to turn as the Dollie is pulled through a corner. I have a rigid type (Acme Tow Dolly) that works well but the steering cannot be locked. Acme says no to any towing backwards. I would think the reason being would be the front wheels on the ground when being towed backward would have to scrub around corners putting a lot of pressure on the suspension.

I guess with the pivot type or dolly wheels turning type it would be feasible to tow backward but you would have to have a way to lock the steering safely. I don’t think or can’t remember ever seeing a car pulled backward on a tow dolly.

Just because it is a manual trans doesn’t mean a car can be towed four down in neutral. I have a Ford Fiesta ST six speed and it cannot be towed with wheels down. It states so in the manual and I was also told by a Ford Tech damage to trans bearings will result. There are some cars both manual and auto the factory recommends if towing four down that every 250 mile you stop and run the engine for at least 15 minutes. Some recommend you not exceed 65 mph but that’s probably a good idea when towing anyway.

In reply to John Welsh :

Having worked doing transports and repos for 10 years, the dollies shown are used for AWD cars. With RWD cars, the rear axles goes on the stinger and the steering wheel is strapped using the seat belt wrapped around the wheel. I don’t know about a two wheel dolly but this is standard procedure on a  stinger of a wrecker or rollback if the bed is already occupied by a AWD vehicle.

BTW those dollies are only rated for 50mph max. and only short distances. I would not use them for a long trip.

Knurled. said:

GameboyRMH said:

AngryCorvair said:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

i'll explain it the best i can:

something something input shaft not spinning something something output shaft spinning something something bearings not submerged something something BANG NEW TRANS WTF

Could make sense if the car is tilted back a long way with the flat-towing dolly...the input side of the gearbox could splash around the oil and save the same car on a long-distance uphill drive. Sounds like overfilling the trans could be a good workaround?

In 99% of longitudinal rear drive transmissions, the gears only turn when the input shaft is turning.  No gears are directly splined to the output shaft.  So when you are towing with the input shaft stationary, the output shaft is rotating in the now-stationary gears, and the upper bearings, and there is no splash lube.

 

Is that true of transfer cases?  I have a crazy idea of running a NP241 backwards. 

In reply to Stampie :

Depends on the design.

Any transfer case with a neutral position in the gate is probably good to flat tow.

In reply to Knurled. :

I don't want to flat tow. I want to hook my engine to the output and have the input self identify as the output shaft. 

AngryCorvair said:

biggest risk of towing RWD with rear wheels on ground, if indeed there is any risk, is to bearings in trans being insufficiently lubed.   ......

A bigger risk is that something  rolls around inside the car you are towing and knocks the gearshift into gear......

I mean, even the internet mostly agrees here. You have a bunch of people that say the manual and input/output shafts say it will go boom and then the people that have done it saying NBD. I researched it a ton before doing it.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-towing-a-miata/83176/page1/

Even Kieth says:

"Flat towing is one of those things you're not supposed to do, but I've never actually heard of any problems arising from it. There certainly are a number of motorhomes running around the country with Miatas as dinghies. So I guess it's an "at your own risk" deal."

Which sums up the research I did before dolly'ing mine all over the place. The other thing is, I have 3 transmissions and Craigslist always has a few (not to mention the pull a part) if it ever did go boom for cheap...

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Or in Angry's case he's too busy looking at his uncalloused hands he doesn't notice something going wrong with the tow. 

Stampie said:

In reply to Knurled. :

I don't want to flat tow. I want to hook my engine to the output and have the input self identify as the output shaft. 

It should work.  I can't think of a reason why you'd WANT to do that (clearly you have), but it should work.

^ A samurai uses a tiny divorced T case with a 1.4 high range that you can turn around for a .71 overdrive..

I've towed backwards on my dolley exactly one time. In my opinion it's mostly crap. Even if you lock the steering wheel you still have all the slack in between the steering wheel and knuckles, plus you have whatever sort of yaw can occur between the rear wheels and the dolley through sidewall deflection etc, or in my case a deck that pivots by design. For me, it wasn't comfortable to go over 45mph because of instability issues. Tow trucks with wheel lifts pull things backwards all the time but they can get enough lift on the rear wheels to flip the towed car's front caster angle back in the correct direction. A tow dolley probably won't. 

If i didn't want to disconnect the driveshaft i'd think pretty hard about just overfilling the trans (through the shifter, for the easy) and then just draining back to normal level when you got there.