Quote:
Originally Posted by Riggodeaux
Nicely done, Garrett. As I understand it, your issue is keeping the tow bar close to horizontal given the low ride of the VW compared to the height of the hitch when mounted 'oem' - the short [8"] hitch shaft and relatively low drop of that hitch [4-5", as I recall]. Pulling the VW flat, on all four wheels, would give practically zero tongue weight, and [as I recall] NMT a ton of towed weight of the bug. Not within spec, but, as a simple caveman and not a mechanical engineer, I would think [absent sway issues] this wouldn't test your OEM hitch if you have, say, an 8" drop. I would be concerned about length of the hitch shaft, and would keep it as close to 8" as possible. See etow dot com for a wide variety of drop hitch options. FWIW, I use a cheap northern tools hitch [maybe 10" long, 4" drop, 1 7/8" ball, but 1" shaft, I think] to pull my bro-in-law's light yardwork trailer to pick up 20-25 bales of hay [a ton of load and trailer, max], local hauls. I use the 'official' hitch with a 2" ball when towing more than that ....
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Yup. That's exactly what's going on. I need to keep that tow-bar horizontal. Even though I have not measured it yet - I presume I'll need something that's a little lower than the 4-inch drop BMW shaft I got. Picked it up off eBay for $30-something shipped. Just as inexpensive as the harborfreight haul-master stuff I picked-up and then returned over the weekend. That was closer to 10 inches center to center vs 8 as the spec calls for. I probably could have re-drilled the hole closer to 8.5 but I don't think 8 was achievable.
As for the car - it's probably around 1800 pounds or so. Stock spec was 1714 but it's got a completely different engine and trans in it from what amounts to later-model-designs as opposed to what it came with in '59.
I noticed the BMW spec says 1650 pounds for something without a trailer brake. I am above that but assume that the fact there is no tongue weight may change the story slightly - the tongue isn't getting more weight put on it as a normal trailer would "push down" under braking conditions.
Looks like BMW says 5.5 inch drop is the max - but that also assumes you're able to tow to the max capacity - whereas I am closer to 1/3 of that.....
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