Towing a lowered Miata

I need to tow my Miata 500 miles from Atlanta to Florida. I had planned to rent a U-Haul vehicle trailer, but it looks like our van does not have adequate tow rating to pull one and and I may have to use a tow dolly instead.

There seems to be a lot of disagreement about towing RWD cars long distance on a dolly. If I disconnect the drive shaft it will hard to get the car on and off the trailer, and if I tow the car backwards (ratchet-strapping the steering wheel in place) I'm pretty sure that the nose will drag.

Have any experience with this, or any recommendations? Thanks!

For the same weight of car, a trailer is MUCH safer than a dolly. The trailer has brakes, a dolly doesn't. Honestly, due to the lack of brakes, I'd consider a dolly safe for nothing more than a Miata behind an F-350.

I towed my Miata ~1600 miles with the driveshaft connected and in neutral. It did not seem to cause any harm.

This was towing with a Volvo 940 wagon.

Evan - Were you flat towing or using a dolly?

In theory, the nose-up attitude of the dolly puts a bit of fluid on the rear trans bearings so they do just fine. In theory, flat towing does not.

In practice, I've never heard of a Miata suffering from being flat towed with the driveshaft in place.

Not sure about the Miata trans in particular, but a lot of manuals with throw enough lube to the bearings with just the output spinning and not the input, so towing shouldn't hurt anything.

I've always thought that towing with drive wheels down was only (potentially) bad for automatics.

When I towed my 240sx 1000+ miles I did it with rear tires on the dolly and removed my front airdam for clearance.

I don't know anything about Miata transmissions, so I don't know if they're safe to tow wheels-down.

UHaul tow dollies are only $10 savings over their full-sized auto trailer, BUT that trailer has WAY too much tongue weight when it's loaded with a short car. The only way to load the car is all the way to the front of the trailer. So I don't really like their trailers.

When I dolly-tow a car that needs the drive shaft disconnected, I load the front wheels on the tow dolly first, then I block the dolly wheels, lift & jackstand the rear of the car, and then disconnect the drive shaft from the rear axle differential. I have done this on very low cars with nose spoilers.

One thing I have never tried, but contemplated for 100-mile tows of manual tranny cars with the rear wheels on the road: leave the drive shaft connected at both ends, and the transmission in neutral with the clutch let out. Start the motor of the car in tow, and jam the throttle open to 2,000 rpm. Leave it running for the whole tow.

The drive shaft connected to the wheels will spin the output shaft, and the motor will spin the input shaft and the lay shaft. My untested theory is, this overall RPM within the transmission, of all the shafts, should splash-lubricate the transmission in the same was as driving the car in gear does.

I have a car with a Getrag 260 that is nearing the end of its useful life. I have already purchased a race-rebuilt Getrag 260, so I'll be ready to swap it when the current one dies. I'm going to dolly-tow it to the track this weekend, and I may decide to employ the above theory on the return trip. It's only 65 miles, but it's a start.

nderwater wrote: I need to tow my Miata 500 miles from Atlanta to Florida. I had planned to rent a U-Haul vehicle trailer, but it looks like our van does not have adequate tow rating to pull one and and I may have to use a tow dolly instead. There seems to be a lot of disagreement about towing RWD cars long distance on a dolly. If I disconnect the drive shaft it will hard to get the car on and off the trailer, and if I tow the car backwards (ratchet-strapping the steering wheel in place) I'm pretty sure that the nose will drag. Have any experience with this, or any recommendations? Thanks!

Reach out to SVreX. Per his Miata or FC V8 swap thread, he may be heading to FL from GA soon to pick up the FC project. I think that means he'd be headed south with an empty trailer.

nderwater wrote: Evan - Were you flat towing or using a dolly?

This was with a dolly.

The Hoff wrote: I've always thought that towing with drive wheels down was only (potentially) bad for automatics. When I towed my 240sx 1000+ miles I did it with rear tires on the dolly and removed my front airdam for clearance.

I heard the same. And that's because the transmission pump isn't turning but the internals are. All manufacturers recommend if you are going to flat-tow, say behind an RV, get a manual transmission car only

NickD wrote:

The Hoff wrote: I've always thought that towing with drive wheels down was only (potentially) bad for automatics. When I towed my 240sx 1000+ miles I did it with rear tires on the dolly and removed my front airdam for clearance.

I heard the same. And that's because the transmission pump isn't turning but the internals are. All manufacturers recommend if you are going to flat-tow, say behind an RV, get a manual transmission car only

Or a Saturn, IIRC.

The brake issue is one to consider and it always concerned me when i saw strange vehicle combos flat towing (always in Arkansas for some reason). My last experiment towing through the smoky mountains with the rabbit on a dolly behind the 4x4 envoy went well though. Given this is a full frame V8 with an 1850lb Rabbit behind it...

I've towed little British cars hundreds of miles nose-up with no issues. I left the drive shaft connected and just put it in neutral.

Should work fine for a Miata, although you may need to remove the chin spoiler to get it on the dolly.

Okay, long story short, I towed a Getrag 260 manual this weekend with the rear wheels on the pavement, the drive shaft bolted in (ie, normal), the clutch in neutral, and the motor on doing 1,800 rpm. Did this for 65 miles, tracked the car all weekend at HPDE running REALLY high RPMs, then towed it 65 miles home same way.

No problems resulted.

I have another event at the same place next Monday. I will probably do the return trip without the motor running, and see what we get.

I always dropped the drive shaft and reinstalled it after I put the car on the dolly. That is how I got my X3 to DC from Louisiana, but that was AWD.

I have seen a few Miata's behind motorhomes. I don't know why you couldn't just leave it in neutral.

It all depends whether rotation of the output side of the manual trans, without rotation of the input side, splashes enough lubricant around to keep it from disintegrating.

Left it in neutral, seemed okay after 500 miles. Getting it on and off the dolly was a bit of a challenge and backing up (I had to, got stuck) stinks -- two points of articulation makes for instant bind.

Tip for lowered cars: with the car on the dolly, jack the tongue of the dolly way up to get the trailer more parallel to the bottom of the car so you can slide the ramps in/out without them being impeded by the car chassis.

Other than the comment in the last post, can anyone add info on loading a lowered Miata onto either the dolly or the trailer?

I want to tow mine to an event.  I can get either the trailer or the dolly.  Braking is no problem with the dolly for me.  I'm guessing the dolly would be easier to load than a U-haul trailer, which doesn't appear to be configured for a race car.

Have a friend who spent last year tow dollying an Exocet to events motor off with drive shaft connected. No problems. Many tows were over 45 miles.