<VV> Towing with a Car Dolly or Flat tow

[corvairduval at cox.net]

Opinions vary. Matt is correct in that Corvairs have been towed by all
means over the last 40 years. Most have survived the trip. I do not
personally know of any that have had damage to the drivetrain.

Powerglide cars have what is known as a rear pump. You can test this by
turning the car off in neutral and turning the ignition back on then drop
the selector in D or L if your speed is over 18 MPH. Obviously this could
be a dangerous driving trick, so a non populated street at 25 MPH is good.
This also means you CAN push start a powerglide equiped car, as long as
your buddies can get up to 15+MPH pushing.

Now, as for the tow question, this also means the powerglide transmission
will lube itself just fine while being towed in NEUTRAL. If you tow in R,
D, or L the engine will be spinning. Not a good thing when towing. Tow
directions will tell you to limit speed to 45 MPH and 100 miles in
distance. I'm sure many people will tell of higher and longer tows with no
problem. I know of one dune buggy powerglide 110 that was regularly towed
at interstate speeds from DC to the Outerbanks (North Carolina) on
vacation. He let the engine run the whole time. He had made a big light
wired into the generator light so incase the engine died or the belt came
off he could see warning in the rear view mirror. 

Even with 3 & 4 speeds you need to make sure nothing can fall and force the
shift lever into gear while towing. Some people think you need to start the
engine and drive the car every few hundred miles to circulate gear lube in
the manual tranny since the trip is in neutral, and therefore not a normal
operating condition for fluid flow to bearings.

So, what transmissions do you have and how far are you going?

Frank DuVal

Original Message:
-----------------
From: James Speas james.speas at yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:21:56 -0800 (PST)
To: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Towing with a Car Dolly or Flat tow


I posted a question about towing a corvair with a car dolly and watched all
of the responses and they went back and forth about towing on a dolly or
with a tow bar with all 4's on the ground.  I had some say that it was bad
for the transmission to tow it pulled onto a car dolly with the back wheels
on the ground but also people said we should tow it with all 4's on the
ground with a tow bar.  I am not being a smart A@* but isn't it the same
way either way the back wheels are on the ground?  I am really new to
Corvairs and maybe I might be missing something is the translation but
could someone explain whats the difference.  I just want to know if I use a
car dolly can I hurt my transmission?

Thanks
James
64 monza conv
61 lakewood 


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