Towbar Incident Report

[mudguppy]

... The wreckers that do a wheels up tow in the civilian world cannot rely on the towed vehicle to help stop or slow it down. ...

actually, when towing a tractor/trailer they can and do run air lines to the trailer to use the trailer brakes. i believe some (many or few?) tractors have inter-vehicular connections to utilize the truck brakes during towing.... or did i make that up?

 

[hdexpert]

yes

Does anyone flat tow a deuce and use the towed deuce's brakes? I haven't seen any discussion on that before, maybe I've missed it.

Yes, we hooked up the brakes on my truck last time it was flat towed by another deuce, worked great!!

 

[DUG]

Yes, we hooked up the brakes on my truck last time it was flat towed by another deuce, worked great!!

What's involved in rigging that up? Seems like something I would want in my tool box.

Is this common and just not discussed? Are a majority of people tapping into the towed deuces brakes?

Anyway, would love to hear more how you do this - PM me when you have time. Thanks.

 

[3dAngus]

My post was more on common sense approach to towing under a wide variety of circumstance as I noted. In the common sense approach theory, you should not pick apart the individual or partial thoughts I put out there, but look at the broader picture I am trying to portray. I am NOT trying to be specific, and am deliberately tryig to avoid that as I indicated in the fact there are enough variations in towing you could fill up a book.
So, when I say, "

"Towing a single vehicle with nonfunctioning brakes must be limited to not more than 25 mph on the highway and 15 mph off road.
So, you have to ask yourself the question, what would be the appropriate top speed if the towed vehicle had brakes to assist in the stopping process."

then you have to read the entire paragraph in lieu of a single word, sentence, etc. in order to follow the thought process, where if it is 25mph on the road without brakes, what is it with brakes.

The towed vehicle and the towing vehicle are irrevalent in a case like this when I am speaking from an overall thought process of with, or without brakes, making a huge difference in how fast a towed vehicle could go under a given circumstance.

If you want to be specific to the flat towed vehicle without brakes, I agree, 15-25mph is probably about right by the book, the way the book is written.

If you want more argumentative discussion, I'll say this. If I had a 5 ton truck, I would not hesitate to go 45mph towing a Deuce without brakes on the towed Deuce while using a Hunter towbar rated at 39K pound towing capacity and a set of good safety chains. And I really don't give a hoot what the book says.

 

[nk14zp]

What's involved in rigging that up? Seems like something I would want in my tool box.

Is this common and just not discussed? Are a majority of people tapping into the towed deuces brakes?

Anyway, would love to hear more how you do this - PM me when you have time. Thanks.

You take the J pipe off the airpac on the towed deuce and hook your air line from the towing truck up the back of the airpac.

 

[DUG]

My post was more on common sense approach to towing under a wide variety of circumstance as I noted. In the common sense approach theory, you should not pick apart the individual or partial thoughts I put out there, but look at the broader picture I am trying to portray. I am NOT trying to be specific, and am deliberately tryig to avoid that as I indicated in the fact there are enough variations in towing you could fill up a book.
So, when I say, "

"Towing a single vehicle with nonfunctioning brakes must be limited to not more than 25 mph on the highway and 15 mph off road.
So, you have to ask yourself the question, what would be the appropriate top speed if the towed vehicle had brakes to assist in the stopping process."

then you have to read the entire paragraph in lieu of a single word, sentence, etc. in order to follow the thought process, where if it is 25mph on the road without brakes, what is it with brakes.

The towed vehicle and the towing vehicle are irrevalent in a case like this when I am speaking from an overall thought process of with, or without brakes, making a huge difference in how fast a towed vehicle could go under a given circumstance.

If you want to be specific to the flat towed vehicle without brakes, I agree, 15-25mph is probably about right by the book, the way the book is written.

If you want more argumentative discussion, I'll say this. If I had a 5 ton truck, I would not hesitate to go 45mph towing a Deuce without brakes on the towed Deuce while using a Hunter towbar rated at 39K pound towing capacity and a set of good safety chains. And I really don't give a hoot what the book says.

I thought we were talking deuce flat towing deuce here.

While I understand you may not give a hoot and that is your right not to give said hoot, in the bigger picture I wonder if the majority of the insurance companys that cover MVs (deuces in this case) give a hoot.

I don't ask that to be arguementative, I ask that to learn, just like I just learned how to tap into a towed deuce's brakes.

If you don't know the answer concerning insurance, you might want to ask before you do it. Or not. Hoot giving is a personal choice.

What would Gulfway, State Farm, etc, etc say if you asked them about flat towing a 13,000 lbs deuce with your 13,000 lbs deuce (with or without hooking up brakes - many GL deuces don't have brakes which is why they are being towed) and driving say 500+ miles of interstate?

There are many recovery threads of people doing this. Many of them were treated like SS rock stars for pulling it off. Maybe they are, I don't know - I would like to discuss and learn.

 

[doghead]

For the sake of this thread, let's only discuss flat/wheel towing with a tow bar, as the OP was doing when this situation occured.


Here are two different tow bar TMs. Open them and read them. If you do not already have them saved on your computer, save them!

 

[nk14zp]

You take the J pipe off the airpac on the towed deuce and hook your air line from the towing truck up the back of the airpac.

PS DUG while doing this you get to look at the spot the pto goes.

 

[doghead]

This is what is in the TM9-2320-361-10 shows

No mention of speed restriction

 

[Recovry4x4]

(Checking classifieds for good deals on towbars).

 

[doghead]

The tow bar TM shows this.

The towed load weight limit of the prime mover shall not be exceeded.​

Refer to towing vehicle’s -10 (operator’s) manual for speed limits.

 

[doghead]

Tabulated data in the -10 shows this

 

[DUG]

The tow bar manual also says - "TOWING CAN BE FUN!"

 

[doghead]

So, it looks like we can tow bar a 6000!

Let me also point out that the permissible fuels does not mention UMO anywhere!

So to summarize, Ferro was exceeding his towed load capacity and towing way too fast and that caused the lynch pin to "vaporize" allowing the 1" pin to fall out, then one tow bar leg and safety chains saved countless lives.

 

[Recovry4x4]

So, it looks like we can tow bar a 6000!

Let me also point out that the permissible fuels does not mention UMO anywhere!

(Checking classifieds for cheap towbars and drums of UMO)

 

[stumps]

This is what is in the TM9-2320-361-10 shows

No mention of speed restriction

The second manual you posted has a 20MPH speed restriction for flat towing on primary and secondary roads.

-Chuck

 

[doghead]

I wonder what changed between 1972 and 1994.

Possibly the towbars? MWO's?

Why would they have ommited the speed limit in the later TM?

 

[73m819]

You know what this means, now the price of wreckers WILL go up

 

[DUG]

You know what this means, now the price of wreckers WILL go up

Does your insurance cover you to tow?

More importantly, have you gotten it patched up yet? How is that old girl doing?

 

[3dAngus]

I wonder what changed between 1972 and 1994.

Possibly the towbars? MWO's?

Why would they have ommited the speed limit in the later TM?

As I mentioned earlier. Contractor CYA (lawyers)

And I thought the weight of pull for a Deuce is 10,000 pounds or so.
I couldn't see all the data that went along with your data.

Finally, the only thing I find to be conclusive about the original post is, it is inconclusive, without evidence, what the cause effect relationship of the towed vehicle coming off really was. The simple answer would be the clinch pin, but with his commentary of lots of useage of the towbar pin, my natural instincts play the fatigued metal approach that I am accustomed to. I just don't know. Anyway, it was a great thread, with good discussion on towing and safety.