Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2018 13:14:39 -0400
Reply-To: Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@NBNET.NB.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@NBNET.NB.CA>
Subject: Re: Towing and Rock Damage
In-Reply-To: <20180220094936.aa1ebf988999e1b213df254c@5by9.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
I’ve hauled vehicles covered with a high-quality, securely fastened car cover and have not had issues with wear points (one of them a bubble car - Corbin Sparrow).
Why not simply rent an enclosed trailer or a low-body truck roll the isetta right inside? If I were closer, you could borrow the LT.
> On 20-Feb-2018, at 12:49, 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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