Flat Towing

Come to think of it, are you sure this is true? Last month I towed my '59 Ford Galaxie from Oregon to Washington on a U-Haul car trailer (or, as they call it, an auto transport) with plenty of room to spare.

Also, have you considered a tow dolly?

I did it once with a donor I bought a few hours north of my home. The guy had towed it 120mi from his place, met me on the hwy, and I was set to drive ~120mi to get it to it's finaly resting place (a friends house where we were going to pull parts and cut up the chassis).

TIP - if you have a long distance to flat tow the car, check lugnuts on the car being towed BEFORE you start your journey and at a safe point halfway through.

After the first 120mi of it's final journey, the tbirds lugnuts has worked themselves off their wheels. 5 miles after I was handed the car, I felt some increased drag from behind my borrowed tow vehicle and when I looked at the rearview mirror, I saw a wheel bouncing down the highway and across the median. That wheel came from the front right side of my donor car and sheared off 3 out of 5 lugs with it.

- Luckily for me, noone was hit by that wheel and I had the presence of mind to pack a spare tire.
- Unluckily for me though, this incident added ~6 more hours to what was supposed to be a 2-3 hour tow as the incident had sheared 3 of the lug bolts off the hub that lost a wheel. I had to steal some lugnuts from the other wheels, replace a second lug that had sheared off on the drive to Uhaul by borrowing tools from NAPA, limp to a Uhaul shop, rent a flatbed,  and finally figure out how to back the car ONTO the flatbed when the front wheels kept turning (no steering wheel -- just a bolt).

It was a total PITA and honestly, probably wasn't legal in CA. Even with magnetic lights, I'm pretty sure that anything towed in CA that touches the road needs to be registered and that car most certainly wasn't. If I had to do it again, I'd probably have rented the UHAUL trailer from the outset. For that reason alone, you might want to check your local state's flat towing laws.
-g

Back in the 80's we had a friend who raced the Rabbit Cup and LeCar Cup series.  He would flat tow whichever car was being raced that weekend behind the other one all over the country.  His only incidents were on the race track.

Dave

Check the front track in advance, too. They are of the opinion that a Sonett is too narrow to fit on their dollies. They are mistaken, but there's no arguing with them. Their database has always been happy with 1974 VW Beetles, though.

My Lemons teammate and I once towed a vw bus with a vw bus.  We put a tire between the two and chained them tight together.  The teammate 'steered' the towed bus.  It was crazy but we didn't have tow truck money.  We were on a curvy two lane in nor cal with giant redwood trees on both sides.  It was really unnerving to forget about it and then look in the mirror ... Somebody is really, really tailgating me!  We went 30-40 miles that way sometimes getting up to 60mph.

You kinda want to avoid having the towee outweigh the tower by a large amt.  You'd like the dog to wag the tail, not vice versa.  Also wondering if having the weight off the nose of this thing will result in caster going away and you end up with a 4000lb wobbling shopping cart.  Just idle thoughts.

Thanks for the input everyone, exactly what I was hoping for.

I hadn't even considered some of it, like the wonkiness of the front suspension without a motor/trans. Seeing as how its gonna be a 1000+ mile trip, this is starting to taste like an un-good idea.

When I plugged the vehicle info into the uhaul website, it came back "not recommended" which I took as "it won't fit." I'll sneak over one night after closing with a steel tape and verify. I'm not above bending the truth with them, so if I can squeeze it on a dolly, I will.

Word is Pat is tired of constantly asking favors from his friends. Pat also wrote this in the third person.

I can attest to seeing some idiot with a Pullzall yanking riced-out Thunderchickens onto trailers before.

We put a 65 T-bird on one of the Uhaul trailers years ago.  They didn't think it would fit, but it did w/ an inch or two on either side.
Just sayin'...