I have used extensively a car dollie to tow my 74 MGB behind my Motor Home
from Canada to Florida to Texas. Never disconnected the drive shaft but
disconnected the speedo cable to keep total mileage reasonnable (car has only
45K real miles on it)
Problems?; The car gets extremely dirty if you happen to drive on wet roads
from the spraying caused by the towing vehicule. You will get dirt, water,
sand everywhere in every crevices. I once drove about 400 mi in a snow storm
with the car in tow and it turned out to be a block of solid ice. The front of
the car receives a lot of stone chips from debrits thrown by the tow vehicule.
The front suspension is also heavily taxed. As the front wheels are tied down
to the dollie, very high forces are being applied to the front suspension
components. A arm bushings need to be replaced after a few thousand miles.
No more dollie for me. Trailer is the way to go.
Jacques Dupuis
74 (chrome) B
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De : owner-mgs@autox.team.net de la part de Mark Moburg
Date d'envoi : 1 août, 1997 16:51
A : mgs@autox.team.net
Objet : Re: Midget Trailer?
At 05:03 PM 7/29/97 -0700, you wrote:
>On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Arthur Pfenninger wrote:
>> > Has anyone used one of the "car dollies" I saw a guy with one at the All
>> > British on OKC and he liked it for his daughters Midget.
>> >
>> > The pros on this would be lightweight and easier storage. Any Cons?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > Dick Watson
>> > '68 Midget (redoing front end)
>> > '78 Midget
>> >
>> The con would be if you want to transport the car for any distance
>> you need to remove the drive shaft.
>> ...Art
>
>I thought this was only on automatic transmission cars beause they are not
>being lubricated when the engine is not running?
>If the car is in neutral, I don't see why the drive shaft would have to be
>disconnected.
>
> Ulix __/__,__
>.......................................................... (_o____o_).....
> '67 Sprite
>
>
===Reply===
Nope, because you're turning the third-motion (output) shaft of the
transmission but not the layshaft. The turning of the layshaft in the oil
is what transfers oil to the rest of the transmission, so towing for several
hundred miles without disconnecting the driveshaft means the third-motion
shaft is turning in its bearings without being oiled.
In addition to an earlier comment about towing backwards on a dolly doing
funny wear to the front end parts, it's a very bad idea if you have
knockoffs, 'cause they'll unscrew themselves & your wheels will go bouncing
by you.
Mark Moburg
MarkMoburg@mindspring.com
New York, New York
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