Tow truck options

[RollyTG]

Hi folks. I have a simple question. I need to put my S-type on a tow truck so I can bring it home to my new garage. It is still not running.Grrrrr! If I pull it onto the truck frontwards, as I did once before, when I offload it into my garage the rear (and the exhaust) will be towards the back of the garage. I would like to have the exhaust facing out the door. So my question is - can I (should I?) pull it onto the truck rear first? If that would be OK, where would I attach the tow cable? I really want to get it into my home garage and seriously get into finding out why it won't go, so help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[cass3958]

If it is a tow truck ie a flat bed truck then nose to the rear is not a problem. The tow cable could be run via a soft material loop through the rear IRS cage but it depends on how steep the ramp up onto the tow truck is as the IRS cage is a fair light gage metal. You could run the cable right under the car and attach it to the front subframe cross member. Thicker metal and more substantial and as long as you are pulling the car in a straight line it should not matter that the cable is pulling the front backwards if this makes sense.
If by tow truck you are referring to a trailer then you need the weight of the engine as far forwards on the trailer as possible so the weight is between the axle of the trailer and the tow hitch on the car. If the weight is to the rear with the car facing backwards then the trailer will be very unstable and at any speed will start to have a wobble which is uncontrollable and will result in the trailer flipping. These short videos on you tube will demonstrate what could happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06_lbECEqSg

[RollyTG]

Thanks. It will definitely be a flat bed. I may just have to hire a few strong young men to push it the short, slightly uphill distance into the garage. That might be the easiest thing. All the car club blokes and friends and neighbours are old and/or infirm like me. I did wonder though, if I take off the rear bumper whether the bumper mounting bolts might be suitable as towing attachment points.

[John Quilter]

I would not recommend taking the rear bumper off. That is a difficult and awkward job usually needing two people. Furthermore the mountings for it were not intended to be used for towing or dragging the car. My towing company had no issues loading the car to return it to me engineless while the shop did an engine overhaul.

[cass3958]

As John states the rear bumper is a pain to get off as the nuts are well hidden under the bumper and it is a case of a quarter turn of a spanner each time as access is limited. Add to that how long the bumper has been on the car and any corrosion you might have in the bolts. The bolts go into a metalized rubber mount which are the same as the engine mounts. These can rust the bolt in and then when you turn the main bolt it shears off the rubber section.
Then even when you have removed the bumper the mounts are only held on to the body with two 1/2 nuts and bolts which go straight through the body work and have no real structural strength for towing purposes.

[Orlando St.R]

Just one point about putting S-types on tow trucks...the rear wheels are well inset and so you need to make sure the web straps used to hold the car down are not rubbing on the bodywork fore and aft of the rear wheels. See on John's pic how the straps at the rear overlap the bodywork. Hopefully they weren't touching, but you can use a cloth or similar between strap and bodywork to avoid that happening. Here's my tow truck experience.

DSCF8072.JPG (2.26 MiB) Viewed 364 times

[RollyTG]

Thank you gentlemen for the advice. Much appreciated.