RE: JPOR: Towing summary

[Jack Audet <audetphx@xxxxxxxx>]

****************Please Remember to snip your replies***************


I can only agree.
I tried towing my 90YJ behind a 97 suburban 3/4 ton.  No problem with
Power but, I definately hated the way it drove and pulled
over to check out jeep evey 30 miles because it "felt funny".  I
disconnected towbar and never tried again.  Going 65 m/hr  with a wobbly
jeep in tow is much scarier than 5++ rock crawling.
I am saving my lunch money up for a nice 3/4 ton trailer.

Jack

Jeff Reynolds wrote:
> Hard cores,
> 	I was seeing a pattern here in bad Scout experiences while
> towing and the reason dawned on me. Zero caster. Scouts have a built
> in '0' degree caster angle which lets the front end wander any way it
> wants to with no automatic pullback to center. Jeeps have variously
> 4-6 degrees of caster angle built in. Good thing, however....
> 	Recently on a sandy road leading to the WRCC in the CA
> desert, I was following a large motor home flat towing a built up
> CJ5,on a slight down grade. The motor home was barely moving, digging
> in the 4 rr wheels as the front wheels of the towed Jeep were turned
> all the way to one side and just plowing/disc-ing in the sand. The
> driver didn't even know it. I roared around and gave him a signal to
> check the Jeep.  He stopped and was going to lock the steering and
> continue. He had been towing it that way for maybe a mile, probably
> thinking the sand was softer than he thought.
> 	After all your good input about towing/tow dolly/trailering,
> this would be a negative situation for flat towing, especially if you
> have near '0' caster on your rig because you went SOA and tilted the
> pumpkin up or something.
> 	Thanks for relating your collective experiences on towing.
> Here's a summary:
> 1. Flat towing is the cheapest, least amount of equipment, way to tow
> your rig.
> 	a. Very difficult to back up
> 	b. Not as safe or controlled as a tow dolly or full-on two axle trailer
> 	c. Best if towed by a much larger/heavier vehicle.
> 2. The larger, longer and heavier the towing vehicle is, the safer
> and more stable the towing is, regardless if it's flat towed, tow
> dollied, or trailered. Same size/weight tows are the most dangerous
> and least successful.
> 4. A tow dolly is no panacea. It's better than flat towing, but has
> some of the same 'squirrelly' control tendencies as a tow bar.
> 3. Randy Peterson pointed out that after his classic bout with
> "Jeeper's Incrementalism", long term hard core's wind up with a heavy
> duty tow vehicle and a two axle trailer to get their rigs to the
> trailhead.
> 	regards, as always, jefe
>
> jefe@trailcraft.com
> http://www.4x4wire.com staff writer
> Jeff Reynolds<rgser@westworld.com>
> http://www.off-road.com/~jefe (a newer web page is at hand)
> '82 CJ-8, SOA, 4.4L, H.O., MPI, NP435, D300/4:1, D44/AMC20/ARB's,
> 110:1, SO. CAL.
>
>         +=======+
>         |    	   jefe  |
>         [========]
>       ___/O||||||O___
>       ##   o[$$]o  ##
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