Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2018 12:25:48 -0500
Reply-To: Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Edward Maglott <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Towing and Rock Damage
In-Reply-To: <20180220094936.aa1ebf988999e1b213df254c@5by9.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
OOOhhhhh Isetta! Lucky you and it's already restored. how much does that
car weigh? the 4x8 trailer I have from HF is only rated for about 900lbs
of cargo iirc.
it sounds to me like the level of protection you desire would be most
easily achieved with some 2x4s and plywood and screws. does the trailer
still have the "stake" holder brackets on the front and sides? 2x4s in the
2 front ones and the forward ones of the sides. screw them to the stake
holders so they can't come out. plywood as sturdy as you desire... I would
probably go with 3/8 or so. make a 3 sided fence as high as you like that
attaches to the 2x4s and use plenty of screws. I would probably do 3' tall
if it was me. maybe 4' but then there's more aerodynamic load on it.
I like your idea of big truck mudflaps attached to the bumper but that
seems like it would be hard to do quickly without messing up the bumper.
I'd want them to go all the way to the edges of the bumper and almost touch
the ground with the car loaded and hooked up. Still, they may create an
aerodynamic issue with pulling small stones and pebbles and trhowing them
up at your car.
The fence idea would also provide some protection from some of the small
airborne objects that get pulled into the low pressure behind the van and
are then traveling toward your towed car. those might be kicked up by the
front tires or other vehicles.
Good luck!
Edward
On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:49 AM, Michael A. Radtke <wa7zpu@5by9.net> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Thanks for all of your comments and advice.
>
> The towed car is a restored BMW Isetta. I modified a Harbor Freight
> 4x8 trailer to load and hold the car securely with rails and chocks for
> the wheels, as well as tie downs. The car sits backwards on the
> trailer and the load is balanced for the proper tongue weight. I made
> the 400 mile trip last year with the un-restored car and had no apparent
> damage. But, you folks have confirmed my worry.
>
> I agree that there could be various types of debris from other sources
> of it besides the tow vehicle. However, I am not too concerned about
> that and can afford to be "self insured" against less likely damage.
> My focus is the debris that the Vanagon might toss at the trailer which
> follows pretty closely.
>
> I am not comfortable with a car cover or anything touching the towed
> car. Seven hours of friction from undetected flapping cloth can do a
> lot of damage.
>
> I am also uncomfortable with building a shielding structure. First, I
> am out of time. I leave on Friday. Second, unless carefully
> designed, the shield could fatigue and fly apart, doing far more damage
> than a few rocks. I don't think that I am up to a safe design.
>
> I don't know about what a "big rock guard" is, but I have seen various
> cloth shields used by RV drivers to shield their dolly towed vehicles.
> Any of these would require considerable modification to fit on a
> Vanagon and scratch building one would likely have the same limitations
> as the hard shield described in the previous paragraph.
>
> Another shield used by RV drivers is the broom-like thing that
> stretches across the rear of the RV. It might be difficult to fit such
> a thing to a Vanagon though.
>
> The "broom" looks attractive to me, but also brings to mind just adding
> mud guards to the Vanagon. Is that worth considering? Perhaps just
> buying and and trimming a couple of truck trailer mud guards and then
> mounting them to the hitch or bumper?
>
> What do you think?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
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