Tow bar

[Norton]

Hello.
Have anyone attached a towbar? Looking under rear of car, it’s pretty tight between fuel tanks and trunk.
Found Watling towbars website. They list tow bar for S type at £ 130.-
Also found someone who was not very satisfied with their product. Allthough that was not for an S type.
Anyone any experience with Watling or any other?

Have some classic English mc’s, with age I am tempted to trailer the bike if long distance. And whats better than towing with the S?

Rgds Harald

[David Reilly]

Tow bars were made specifically for the 'S'-type. Attached is a photo of the components. We wrote a about it in Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3. which you can find is the archives.
You may also be interested that "back in the day" 'S'-types were a real contender in caravan racing. see the other attachment.
Cheers,
David

[cass3958]

Several years ago in the infancy of the forum there was a guy called Pete who fitted a tow bar to his S Type and wrote about it for the forum. Unfortunately this is now in the old forum site and I do not know if this can still be accessed. Pete sold his S type and is no longer a member of the forum.
From what I remember the tow bar he fitted was a "Y" shaped frame which was bolted to the bottom of the spare wheel well. Modern tow bars are all bolted to the chassis legs so bolting it to the floor must rely a lot on the strength and thickness of the metal in the wheel well floor. Any corrosion will weaken the fitting and the wheel well is a point of corrosion on a poorly kept car.

[Norton]

Thank you for info.
It is, for some reason not possible for me to log on to the «old forum» were the archives are.
Checked out Witters web site, seems they don’t have anything for classics.

I don’t like the idea of not attaching it to a chassis member.. I’ll email Watling for info

Rgds Harald.

[cass3958]

Unfortunately during an update of the forum soft ware a couple of years ago we had to change to a new index. We did have the archive forum on a link but that has now been removed but I am not sure why. Perhaps David or Tom can shad some light on that and tell us if access to the archives are still possible.

[Norton]

Did not get around to it before lately. Emailed watling, but now it seems like they are out of business.
Harald

[David Reilly]

The article on towbars in Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3 gives most all the information available on the Witter towbar that was made specifically for the ‘S’-type
An update: I finally (after having it for 50+ years) installed a Witter towbar on P1B79909DN. I built a trailer for our 1928 BSA (which was a 40-year restoration!) to take it to British car and bike shows. The photos show the hitch on the car, with and without the spun aluminium ball cover. I installed it with just the two ⅝ in. bolts, pads and spacers though the bumper and rear body structure as the bike and trailer weigh only about 400 lbs and the tongue weight is 30 lbs.
For heavy loads, with high tongue weights, the vertical plate and centre bracing bar would be required to keep the bumper from twisting and distribute the load into body.

[NigelW]

I have a tow bar I fitted to my car many years ago to pull a small caravan. Not sure what make it is as I found it at spares day for a tenner, I think it's part XJ6 and part S Type, I had the fittings that go through the bumper but didn't fancy drilling holes in it so it has an angled cross bar bolted to the rear valance. This was reinforced with thick wall steel tubes welded between the outer valance and the boot rear side. The under frame is bolted to the boot floor.

[cass3958]

Modern tow bars are generally attached securely to the chassis legs but yours Nigel is basically bolted to the relatively thin metal of the floor. Probably good for towing small light weight trailers but I would not want to tow another car on a trailer or a large caravan with this attachment. It would put a lot of stress on the boot floor even with mounting plates.

[NigelW]

It would be better to secure to the chassis rails but this was all you could get back in the seventies when I fitted it. I had to make a new rear valance the cross bar is fitted to as the panel was unobtainable so took the opportunity to reinforce the whole of the rear of the boot area with 3/8" steel bars welded in place behind the valance as well as the tubes for the fixing bolt's. The base of the wheel well inside is further reinforced with extra steel to spread the load. I used to tow the caravan fully loaded with all the stock and trappings of a trade stand to car shows all over the country and towed a few cars with no problems. I've never tried a car trailer on the back as unfortunately I've never had access to one but I don't think it would be a problem, I'd be more concerned for the clutch.

A firm that supplies a large range of towing hardware might be worth a call is GT towing at Potters Bar Hertfordshire, they have been around a very long time and used to supply bars for the S Type back in the day for our cars. I'm not sure if Watling towing near St Albans are still going as the last time I went there the yard was all shut up.