Recovery complete. Drove an hour from my house with my son in the HMMWV and we met with a friend's son who bought this 2011 A3 two years ago and never got around to converting it to ball hitch and 12V to tow behind his late model Jeep 4dr.
Cleaned up the pigtail, plugged her in and the lights all worked! Brakes appear OK. I can't tell if they are working, or simply not engaging and/or not binding. Until I need to tow a large amount of weight, brakes are not essential. I'll open and inspect brakes in the next month, preparing to use it to haul gear to Grave's Mtn Rally. The fill cap for the brake cylinder is crushed, I will need a new reservoir I guess. Haven't tried hard to open it yet, but it's pretty skooshed. I will check the wheel bearings too, and generally clean it all over. Per usual with my purchases of any vehicle, I will do all preventive maintenance on it prior to using it to haul a load.
The good news about the brakes for now is that after driving 40 miles I had no heating of drums or wheels anywhere, all cool to the touch. Got up to 50MPH on the drive home, watching it carefully in the mirrors and saw nothing notable in its behavior.
Does anybody know where I can find a TM? Didn't see anything in the TM pages here, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
It won't be hard to put some wood on it to give me a flatbed, and throwing together some modest stake sides shouldn't be an issue either.
Tires are worst part, only about 30% tread, but as little as I plan to use it I don't expect I'll need to replace them anytime soon. It's nice that they are the same 37x12.5's I have on my HMMWV, so in effect I'll be hauling two spare tires anytime I use the trailer.
Now just have to find a place to park it!
Bulldogger
