Just wondering..
Have been dragging a Unimog around with mine, close to 10t IIRC...
Low range 1st - The Morse chain in the T/box is loving life....
These cars do have muscle...
Any road going loads?
How do they tow at speed near the limit?
I bought mine because I had need to tow 1950s and 1960s American cars to the South of France, so that is what it does more often that not. Heaviest was towing a 3.5 tonne boat on a 1 tonne unbraked trailer from the south of France back to home (953 miles). Somewhat bum clenching at times, looking well ahead was the order of the day and brakes could only be used when travelling in a straight line. Cruising speed was about 50 mph on the flat but a bit less going up hill. The 50 limit was self imposed knowing that stopping it was going to be more of a problem. As long as the trailer is loaded correctly, I can cruise at anything between 60 and 75 mph depending on how much weight I've got on it. Bought a Mini Cooper (proper one, not one of these BMW fakes) back from France and took an Audi A2 to Latvia and it didn't even know the trailer was there, would sit at 75 mph all day long (saw just over 80 at one point through Germany). Get too much noseweight on the trailer and it'll hit resonance and start to shudder at anything over 60 mph, too little and the tail starts to wag the dog at anything over 60 mph so loading it right is more important than the weight.
That sounds insane! How did you not get stopped?
When? With the boat on the back? Probably because the EAS kept it nice and level and it didn't look out of the ordinary. The boat was only as heavy as it was as it was made of teak and mahogany rather that the usual fibreglass with a damn great cast iron American V8 mounted inside. It was a copy of a Riva built by a bunch of ex-Riva employees that had set up in competition. I'd seen it numerous times, even been towed behind it on water skis but boats always look smaller in the water than out. It was advertised for sale expecting it to be bought by someone local in France but it was bought by a guy that lives about 20 miles from me so I was asked if I could bring it back and deliver it. When I saw it out of the water sitting on the twin axle trailer it looked about twice the size as I thought it was. We Googled it to find out what it weighed and it was only then that we realised that the trailer was intended for launching and had no over run brakes. By then it was a bit too late, everything was booked, the new owner had paid for the boat and delivery so it was a bit late to bottle out. From where I was picking it up to Calais involved 2 roundabouts, 800 miles of Autoroute and 8 toll booths so hardly any need to apply the brakes. From Dover to home there's 3 roundabouts, the A2, M2, M25, Dartford crossing, M11 and A1(M), so again, pretty straight through. The only time it get any attention was at Dover where Customs lifted one corner of the cover and put a Spaniel in to have a sniff around, other than that, nobody gave it a second glance.
The nice thing about driving on the Continent is that the speed limit is 130 kph most of the time and the only restriction on trailers is towing anything over 750kgs means you can't use lane 3 but there's no lower speed limit. I just wish someone would tell a few of the trilby wearing, caravan towing, Brits that daren't go any faster than 50 mph so the middle lane gets clogged with trucks overtaking them and I have to sit behind them.
Congrats :)
Heaviest load I've moved with a P38 is a P38 on an Ifor Williams CT166. Trailer is around 900kg with the winch on it and sides removed.
Not me, but I remember this for a while ago.https://youtu.be/i2iUjRvkeps hope the link works.
For the first 8 years of it's life mine spent much of it's time dragging dead 44 tonners off the M6. I had an email conversation not long after I got it with a retired GMP traffic plod that used to drive it, reckoned it, and the other matching ones in the batch that they had, were the best cars they ever had.
Probably the guy I met in about 1994 - he was a huge fan :)
and what did you do in 1994 that caused you to meet a GMP Traffic officer? Would probably still have been using their Classics then.
Biggest/heaviest thing I've towed was a 63KVA generator on a tandem axle (braked!) trailer.
I think the generator place said it was about 4.5T all up and they usually tow them with big yank style SUV/Pickup, but took one look at the RR and said "yeah, you'll be fine with that"
EAS FTW - level driving, and pulled it easily at 50mph/80kph (limit for towing in NZ at the time) on the motorway.
In the mid 90's at about 3am on a Sunday morning I was driving back from Liverpool to home in Yorkshire on the M62 in my Vauxhall Senator at about 130mph, not flat out, just cruising at a high speed with hardly any other traffic on the road. I saw another car way behind slowly catching me up but it had no police markings, at the time there were few unmarked police cars anyway, I considered the car was approaching from so far behind that it was unlikely I'd gone passed it while it was parked up somewhere and it was trying to catch up to me so I thought it would just be someone doing the same as me. I stayed at the same speed as it overtook me and as it went past I looked across at it. I saw it was full of policemen, probably middle aged officer ranks! The front and rear passengers both gave me a look as they went past but they didn't pull me, just continued on their way as both cars maintained the same speeds we'd been doing. I gradually slowed down to under a ton to put some distance between us in case they changed their mind lol. I wondered that if I'd been in a different car, maybe something they knew I'd have to have foot to the floor in to do 130mph, or if it was a different time of day and traffic was busier, they might have thought I was speed testing the car, racing or driving recklessly and pulled me. On another occasion I was stopped for speeding in my Vauxhall Senator by police in an Vauxhall Omega, we had a chat about the cars and they told me if I'd decided to try to do a runner it was unlikely their Omega could have kept up with my Senator, I told them 'yes but your roadblocks and helicopters would catch me', they ended up letting me off lol.
Mine used to pull according to a PO" a Farr 7500 sail boat!
510kg, i doubt she felt it!
Gilbertd wrote:
and what did you do in 1994 that caused you to meet a GMP Traffic officer? Would probably still have been using their Classics then.
I ran out of fuel on the M62.. nothing sinister except I had two SA80s in the back! Simpler times! :)
i dragged a 10 yarder truck out of the paddock up the drive way, the driver was not impressed about my driveway , its a little narrow a little sloppy a little muddy a little bit of wee and that was on entry. he dropped his load of logs off and on leaving got stuck on the rise out of the paddock so out with the rover and dragged it up the drive much to his surprise .i said to him that they are supposed to have a good traction control system to which his reply was you could see something working
PS my neighbor has ordered wood from the same person and he has not delivered , i think he thinks it's me.