Date:         Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:39:42 +1000
Reply-To:     Stephen Overmyer <s.overmyer@UWS.EDU.AU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Overmyer <s.overmyer@UWS.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Re: Anyone tow a car with their van?
In-Reply-To:  <200206190400.g5J409607691@cooper.uws.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I've towed a '76 Double Cab on a (braked)car trailer approx 450kms
with no probs at all.
The D/C was on a farm in some hills in kinda backwoods country
and the winds that weekend were approaching gale force...just
to make it interesting ;)BTW I grabbed the D/C for the best set
of gates I'd seen in recent memory.Rest of the truck was pretty
rusty but parts of it live on in several other D/Cs including mine
in Oz as well as in Tacoma WA and Eugene Or.

The van did fine...towing up hill & down dale even in the winds
to get back to the main road.
I took it very easy,rarely allowed the van to go above 80Kmh,
mainly to make sure I could pull up in time if need be,and kept
an eye on the eng.temp but it was fine.Hardly moved off 12 o'clock...

I didn't use 5th very much,but preferred to keep up the revs a little
in 4th and around 80kmh,the engine is happy there...the WBX motor is
really quite good on torque.Afterall it was designed for use
in a commercial vehicle.

Naturally the van used  considerably more fuel than normal but
was admirably up to the task.
As long as you...
Take it easy and are not in a hurry...
Keep a goodly distance between you and any other vehicle in front...
Shift back before you labour the ol' girl...
and stay in touch with how the van feels/sounds...

...all should be sweet :)

Hey,I've got 240,000kms on the van now and still have the original
clutch,gearbox and engine (sans heads naturally) so I didn't knock her
about too much...

Cheers,
Steve O
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
'92 Transporter WBX Kombi
'76 Double Cab
'68 Beetle
'00 Transporter 5Cyl Double Cab (work truck)