<VV> Towing Tricks - 8-wheel brakes & "Darwin Awards" ?

[Ken Pepke]

It is in most states, if not all, illegal to have passengers in any towed vehicle including travel trailers, cars, boats, etc.

While 8 wheel brakes is a good idea they must all be controlled by the driver of the lead vehicle.  Should the driver of the towed vehicle over brake the lead vehicle the result could be Jackknifing.  

Ken P
Wyandotte, MI
Worry looks around; Sorry looks back, Faith looks up.

************************

> From: "Charles Lee" <chaz at properproper.com>
> Date: November 11, 2011 1:49:53 PM EST
> To: "'Vairtec Corporation'" <Vairtec at optonline.net>, "'Virtual Vairs'" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Subject: <VV> Towing Tricks - 8-wheel brakes & "Darwin Awards" ?
> 
> When I towed the red Monza convert (see VV pix links, wrecked by my cousin)
> with the yellow Corsa convert, my brother rode in the towed car, and worked
> the brakes, so we have 8-wheel brakes.
> 
> I'm not sure if it is legal to be riding in a towed, wrecked (otherwise
> roadworthy) vehicle, but the cop who said we could not drive it, had gone by
> that time, but may have objected to that too ?  
> 
> I didn't get pix of the "seatbelt tow bar" that we used, or of the stretched
> bumpers when the towed Corvair "tested" the system, but I wish he had warned
> me BEFORE he tried that stunt (I was driving the yellow Corsa when he
> slammed the brakes!)
> 
> Like the previous guy said, "young and stupid" and I didn't win any "Darwin
> Awards" so all's well that ends well ?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Vairtec Corporation
> Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 9:28 AM
> To: Virtual Vairs
> Subject: <VV> Stupid Towing Tricks
> 
> In the late 1970s I was offered a 1961 Monza coupe, Fawn Beige metallic 
> paint with matching interior, 80-hp, Powerglide.  All I had to do was go 
> to the parking garage in Manhattan where it was and tow it home -- it 
> had broken down in the parking garage and the owner was fed up.
> 
> Being young and stupid (I am no longer young), I decided that the cool 
> thing to do would be to tow this car home with the identical 1961 Monza 
> coupe that I was driving at the time.  So I borrowed a 
> clamp-on-the-bumper trailer hitch, and a clamp-on-the-bumper tow bar (I 
> did not yet own my own tow bar) and went to midtown New York City on a 
> weekday.
> 
> Yes, the two cars were truly identical and it looked nifty all hooked 
> up.  But there was NO WAY that one set of stock early model Corvair 
> brakes was going to stop two early models on a downhill segment inside 
> the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River.  I had driven perhaps less 
> than two miles from the parking garage and I was learning a very 
> valuable -- and terrifying -- lesson.
> 
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