Alfas as tow cars

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

Both Fred Di Matteo, in AD7-045, and one of our Prime Lurkers, off-digest,
chimed in on the Joe Chan/Dana Loomis tow-car thread.

The Lurker started "why not? its a car isnt it?", and went on with enjoyable
reminiscences of towing his airplane (German, unfortunately rather than
Italian, and I believe an aerobatic machine, although I am not up on aircraft-
a Bolkow-Messerschmitt 208 "Junior"-) behind a Colli Giulia Promiscua, the
wagon-variant of my Giulia Super tow-car. He hitched on the bumper, apparently
without the rear-floor tie-ins I felt necessary, and limited his towing speed
to 60 mph because of the 5" wheels. (I suspect Fred might have put bigger
wheels on that Messerschmitt first thing). I am not up on the weights of
aerobatic aircraft (or any others) but if Joe Chan's formula vee car weighs
appreciably more than the airplane I would think some lessons on structural
efficiency might be learned by the car-builders. The plane was relatively
small and light, but the vee should be too.

Fred's (and Dana's) point about automatic transmissions is well-taken,
although neither the lurker's Colli nor my four-door seemed to suffer vapors
of the clutch. My own case for an automatic is that my future towing will
involve backing uphill around a corner on a driveway, which would stretch my
skills if I tried it with a manual gearbox; thus the choice of an automatic
Sport Sedan. Backing with more elbow-room and on the level should not be much
of a problem.

Fred correctly says "I don't care what kind of load you want to put on a
trailer, if it is nearly perfectly balanced, very little load will be on the
hitch." Perfectly balanced does mean slightly nose-heavy, probably fifty
pounds or so; my caravan, loaded, was a bit heavier on the nose than that,
near my upper limits for manual horsing around, probably under 150. I am not
sure about the aerodynamics of a tall box trailer, but if I towed one at
Fred's characteristic speeds I would not assume that static loadings would
necessarily remain in effect, and would want to be watchful for any sign of
whipping.

The other point Fred did not make, but could have, is Have Good Tires. When
his flat-towed Junior Z blew a front at near 100 the tire wrapped in the
suspension, locking up, and the Z took over the steering, damaging itself,
destroying the Milano tow-car, (but fortunately missing the bridge-abutment)
and shaking-up both Fred and his wife (and their good friends in the car
behind, too). Tire load-ratings usually have an appreciable safety-factor, but
I would not skimp on quality or specifications, and I (being me) would
probably be chicken on speed. Not that Fred was cavalier on tires- he wouldn't
be, and wasn't- but road-hazards and other chance factors are always out
there.

One other stability factor not mentioned is the ratio of overhang, rear-axle-
to-hitch-ball, to the wheelbase. The Giulias and the Milano should be the best
of all Alfas, the Spiders of course the worst. 

John

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