its been several years since using a tow bar. my trailer needs repairs so it can't make the 180 mile one way trip to pick up the impala. i bought a tow bar knowing i could keep it in the truck incase any more $200 take it now vehicles pop up, and plan to use it to tow the crown vic to scrap then bring home the impala. i have magnetic tow lights and will be pulling with my dad's suburban.
what do i need to recall? do i leave the key on so the steering wheel stays unlocked? i am used to loading cars on my flatbed trailer.
Yes, unlock the steering wheel. The front wheels turn when the tow vehicle turns. Also remove the drive shaft if towing any distances (if rear wheel drive). I've never tow bar towed a front wheel drive so I'm not sure if neutral is good enough.
FWIW I towbar-ed a GTI to a season and a half of hillclimbs (with a Windstar, BTW) and had no problems (except the bumper support broke once and I lashed it up and towed the remaining 150 mi)...
Then I crashed the car.
Any FWD car with a manual trans can be flat towed. I did that with my ITC Fiesta. You need a tow dolly if it's an auto trans. For RWD cars you can just pop the trans in neutral for a manual trans and remove the drive shaft for one with an auto trans. Usually you just need to unbolt the driveshaft from the rear diff. swing it to the side and secure it to the car so it's out of the way of the rear suspension. This solves the problem of having trans fluid leaking out the output shaft if you just removed the driveshaft compleletly.
If you turn the ignition on to release the steering lock, is the dash powered up? Maybe you should disconnect the battery.
Boot the front tire pressure up on the towed car and drop the rear tire pressure; this makes the towed car follow better.
Check your local listings, I passed on a car that I was going to tow bar home because the State it was in required the towed car to be registered and insured.
Dan
914Driver wrote:
If you turn the ignition on to release the steering lock, is the dash powered up? Maybe you should disconnect the battery.
On most (and probably all) modern cars, you can turn the ignition on, verify that the wheel is unlocked, then turn it off.
As long as you don't remove the key, it will stay unlocked.
