Tow Bar Experience

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

I did my first tow yesterday!

I drove to Bozeman, MT to drag home another Scout.. as mentioned a few 
days ago.

'74 Scout II, 345/T18, Sorry Willy - 3.54 Dana 44s, XLC.  "IH" key, 
factory jack.. pretty much a stocker.  No rear seat, no headliner, and a 
spotlight (the hand operated/moveable ones) in the hardtop.  Liftgate 
doesn't latch (pins need aligned)..

This truck was parked on the side of the highway when a Ford pickup did a 
head-on.  The driver (poor guy that babied his Scout) was throw forward 
into the steering column, breaking the plastic shear-pins, breaking the 
plastic column covering, and.. BENDING the "stub shaft" from the rag 
joint to the steering column U-joint.  We found this when we went to turn 
the steering wheel.. at first, we thought it was binding because the 
column had collapsed.. then we noticed the huge bend in the stub shaft.. 
so we yanked the drag-link for the trip home.

Front end damage -

Stock bumper is a throw-away.  We drilled it for the tow-bar mounts and 
it worked fine.  Passenger fender is OK, inner can be straightened.  
Grille + Radiator + the entire driver's fender is junk.

We used my grinder + cut-off wheel to remove a square section of bent up 
hood where the latch is so we could open the hood and then unbolt it.. 
the "latch pin" coming off the hood was BENT.

Power steering pump bracket is broken.. and I *think* it took a chunk of 
the head with it.. not an important part, but some metal that the p/s 
bracket bolted to.  Hafta figure something out for that..

Driver's side forward body mount was sheared from the frame at the 
welds.  I'll be fabbing a new one.

After getting the tow-bar attached (my shiny new tow-bar) and running my 
new magnetic lights *and* rewiring my trailer plug (the PO had cut all of 
the wires), we dropped the rear driveshaft and towed the Scout away.. 
with the drag link removed from the pitman arm and wired to the tie-rod.

I had hoped to leave Bozeman at 3pm and drive during the day.. NOT.. we 
didn't locate a tow-bar for sale until after 3.. (BTW, U-haul wanted 
$150, another local shop wanted $125.. U-hual didn't have any in stock 
anyhow...)

I left Bozeman closer to 5pm, in the dark.  The drive was uneventful.. 
though slow.  Heck, it even snowed a good bit of the way!

45mph was my typical speed.. though I was going 55mph on a particularly 
smooth section of I-90.  The flat-towed Scout II behind me pushed me a 
little now and then.. the worst was when it would "wiggle" a little and 
both rigs would start undulating.. enough to make me nervous, anyhow.

I have no idea how well this train would stop.. I never had to touch the 
brakes. :-)

My Scout pulled pretty well.. taking off from a dead stop was slow.. 
because I was going slow, becuase I had a good load and couldn't go that 
fast power-wise, and because of my hesitation that's getting better.. but 
it pulled strong away from stops.. with a 304/close ratio T19/4.09s and 
33s.  The towed Scout even made some fairly sharp corners.

I ran 3rd gear for a while at 45mph.. then decided I could try 4th.. the 
TURBOS got MUCH quieter, and the Scout still pulled just as long.. only a 
torquey IH. :-)

So.. one safe tow under my belt.  This, with my 4" lifted, +2" rear 
shackle'd big tired (33s) Scout II.  304V8, close 4spd, 4.09s.. 

Of course, 45mph isn't quite my taste, but.. 

Hopefully my racer will weigh in much less and tow much better.. would 
caster have helped with the "wiggle"?

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT