Tow bar designs - Page 2 - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

crownjewel4 · 01-03-2010, 13:50

Here are a few shots of my recovery last week in Richmond. I built on a thread from BOB M. Check out his thread 644 miles on a towbar. It worked great for me, I drove 7 1/2 hours towing a M1009 behind my 2008 Super Duty.

Good Luck,
Crownjewel

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4bogginchevys

I am looking for some pics of tow bars that you guys have. They can be military issue or custom. I looked around and found the one niferous did(well done) and a couple others and am still looking for more ideas. I like the one rally rebel showed in his pics of recent misfortune (condelances). There are a million and one ways to make one and I am not interested in buying one from Valley or any other run of the mill stuff. I want to tow my mud truck behind the 1008 this summer, and the mud truck has a lot of lift so it presents a problem with safety. I will be towing local so no need to go 70 across 3 states or anything. Thanks a bunch!

acmunro · 01-03-2010, 14:16

Timntrucks, I am not familiar with the towbar you speak of. Could you post some pics of it. I have medium towbars. I wouldn't mind having something lighter as I only tow CUCVs, but don't want to use a lightweight 5000# bar. Thanks

timntrucks · 01-03-2010, 14:50

i sure will ill take some pics this coming week .. its yellow but need to clean it up and paint it od... i dont know the weight but i was told it was the original duece tow bar from the 50s. looks just like the med with the adjustable legs and takes the same ends but lighter in weight meaning not as strong.. i would tow a duece ( short distances) or cucv but would not use on 5tons or long hauls

4bogginchevys · 01-03-2010, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by acmunro

Timntrucks, I am not familiar with the towbar you speak of. Could you post some pics of it. I have medium towbars. I wouldn't mind having something lighter as I only tow CUCVs, but don't want to use a lightweight 5000# bar. Thanks

This "medium" tow bar.......does any one have a good pic or two if it. It would be cool to use military design if possible.

Does anyone have any great ideas about how I could design a tow bar to run uphill (from 1008 to lifted truck bumper)and eliminate the tendancy for the front of the truck intow to lift when I hit the brakes........

m16ty · 01-03-2010, 21:04

Here's one I built. I've used it to pull a deuce and I'm sure it would hold up to a 5-ton also. The ring is made from 3/4" plate with two 3/8" reinforcement rings added, the legs are from 2"X2"X1/4" wall square tube, and the feet are made from 1/2" plate.

4bogginchevys · 01-03-2010, 23:37

I took a couple of measurements to see what I was up against........

pintle height on 1008 is 27.5"
Approx height at hookup point on bottom of winch bumper of mud truck is 34"
6.5" is alot of slope in 3-4', what distance is generally between vehicles when hooked together?

I could also try to make something double purpose for towing 1008 behind the M.T.

front of 1008 is approx 26" at hook-up points
I think rear of M.T. is super adjustable with drop hitches and stuff(I will have to buy pintle hookup that plugs into reciever here) Does anyone know how much drop I can achieve with a pintle type drop hitch? I dont remember really seeing any more extreme than 2" up or down from strait style. I am beginning to wonder if just using a couple different drop stingers with pintle, run upside down or right side up would make this easier, and maybe I wouldn't have to make a "special" sloped tow bar. Then I just wont use the pintle hooked on the 1008 bumper for anything.......Input? Thanks again
BTW, 6.5" is a minimum drop from truck to truck, thier parked on odd little hills right now, I think it's probably closer to 8".

skark_burmer · 01-04-2010, 03:16

I'll post some pics of mine in a day or so.

Homemade in about 3 hours
Beefy
Cheap, made with leftovers
Fits a wide variety of stuff
Chicks dig it!

simoncrk · 01-04-2010, 03:27

Just be careful with the heavy duty military tow bars. I smashed my thumb in between mine in August and it still hasn't grown out!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL I swear, fire shot out of my ears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

acmunro · 01-04-2010, 06:24

Here is a link to another thread with pics of two trucks of mine hooked together with a military medium towbar. You should use safety chains between the two trucks. They have not been added yet in this picture.

CUCV transfer member to member

skark_burmer · 01-05-2010, 13:33

Sorry for the delay, here is the one i made out of some angle iron, 2" square tube and 1" bolts.
the bolts are expensive so you'll likely want to use something else for pivots. The 1" are way overkill and wasteful, but i had em and didnt want to run all the way to the hardware store. (1.5 miles)
If i was building another one and had an unlimited supply of 1/2" dia bolts i would probably use 1/2" bolts on the pivots. Under a double shear they will be plenty strong.

I picked up a cheap tow adapter from somewhere. Honestly i probably stole it from a friend while they were not looking. Warn makes one for like $50, but just get some cheapo from the internet store for $14 if you can find it. You dont even need the shackle for this project but im sure you'll fine a use for it somewhere. I would suggest using a 1" bolt for the front shackle pivot and you will need to drill it out to size. the one i stole was a hot punched hole and varied from just under 1/2" to just under 3/4" on the other end. I drilled it to 1" and said "im done with you!"

The shackle mounts on MY cucv are about 1.5" wide so there is slop because i used 2" square tube. I use some large washers to take up the space because i wanted to be able to road race the streets of Malibu with my truck in tow. Tokyo Drift baby!!!
"Normal" people under "normal" circumstances will not have any issue with the extra room, but i think i fall a bit outside that description and i like to be careful.

As you can see i boxed the snot out of the front receiver pivot. On the previous towbar i built i did not box this section very well and the pivot is under an extreme amount of force if you try to back up with the truck in tow. The default answer is you CANNOT back with a truck being flat towed. In reality you can, a little but when you do the towbar is under a significant side load and something will break wherever the weak point is. If you are on gravel the towed vehicle's tires will slide, (or your towing truck rear tires will) but its not a situation you should put yourself in.
Or if you are an idiot like me, just box the crap out of it and reverse to your hearts delight. Then when it breaks as you are trying to back up in some hick town in the middle of west texas millions of miles from home you can say to yourself "yup, i was told not to back while flat towing. That was dumb. now where can i find some jumper cables and nickles to weld this back together"

you can use pins, but i prefer to use long bolts with a non threaded portion to act as the pivot. then i tighten everything up and there is no play what-so-ever which makes towning soo much nicer. You will need to buy 4" long bolts and cut them down, but i think this is a much better method than using pins because over time if you have any slop in your pivots and travel many miles on rough roads things will get looser and the holes will start to get blown out. Once that happens things get worse till stuff starts breaking.

the shackle pins on the front of MY cucv are 1" diameter, apparently there are some out there that are 3/4, so measure yours.

otherwise i think thats about it.