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Jason R
Samba Member
Joined: April 05, 2006
Posts: 36
Location: New Hampshire
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 Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 7:35 am Post subject: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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I got this bus tow bar with a bus parts lot I purchased. I know the previous owner used it to tow a 65 one time, but I don’t recall him mentioning how it went and unfortunately he has since passed away. Looks like the shipping label date is 2000? so it’s an older one and I’m not sure where it came from.
It seems narrow to me and I’m wondering if anyone has a similar one and can tell me how it worked on a longer trip.
Thank you.
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68 Single Cab, (2) 66 Beetles, 65 Double Cab, 64 Autodynamics Deserter GT, 63 Kombi, 59 Manx copy |
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fifteenwindow
Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2005
Posts: 22
Location: Oshkosh, WI
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| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2023 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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I had a tow bar of that style back in the late 90s. Bought it off thesamba for $75. Don’t remember the fella’s name who was making them.
I used mine to pull buses and beetles hundreds of miles.
They are for forward motion only. If you try to back up with that bar, it will easily fold into a pretzel. Mine lasted a couple years before a buddy tried to back up a bus with it. |
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mandraks
Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004
Posts: 7114
Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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| Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 4:55 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph....
_________________
regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20800
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
I have a similarly sized bus towbar built by a friend locally about 25 years ago. The big difference, and this goes for beetle towbars, too, is mine uses large U-bolts to clamp the front axle beam tightly to the towbar. No slop, no movement. Much better than the sloppy clamping setup with most towbars. I towed a 66 beetle about 1400 miles about two years ago with zero issues.
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"! |
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Mile High Puma
Samba Member
Joined: November 11, 2009
Posts: 240
Location: Salida, Colorado
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| Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 7:18 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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That is what I needed when I went to California to pick up a Puma I bought on eBay. I brought a Beetle tow bar and when hooking it up found it was too short for the longer Puma front body work. Had to get some pipe and working in a parking lot extended the tow bar about 15”. This would work for a lot of kit cars such as the GT40 kits.
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1965 Velvet Green DC
1990 Westfalia Syncro |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20800
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 10:23 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| Mile High Puma wrote: |
| That is what I needed when I went to California to pick up a Puma I bought on eBay. I brought a Beetle tow bar and when hooking it up found it was too short for the longer Puma front body work. Had to get some pipe and working in a parking lot extended the tow bar about 15”. This would work for a lot of kit cars such as the GT40 kits. |
A longer towbar that fits both bus and bug (and thing, ghia, etc.) is the way to go.
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"! |
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mandraks
Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004
Posts: 7114
Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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| Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2023 6:12 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
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Is that not why you tie up the steering wheel?
_________________
regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20800
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2023 6:32 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| mandraks wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
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Is that not why you tie up the steering wheel? |
I have never tied the wheel on a VW with a towbar. Even if I did, I would not trust the towbar to be strong enough for the lateral forces involved in backing it up around a corner or some such.
_________________
You can't spell sausage without "USA"! |
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mandraks
Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004
Posts: 7114
Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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| Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2023 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
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Is that not why you tie up the steering wheel? |
I have never tied the wheel on a VW with a towbar. Even if I did, I would not trust the towbar to be strong enough for the lateral forces involved in backing it up around a corner or some such. |
i guess we both never pretzeled at tow bar, good work 
_________________
regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20800
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 8:31 am Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| mandraks wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
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Is that not why you tie up the steering wheel? |
I have never tied the wheel on a VW with a towbar. Even if I did, I would not trust the towbar to be strong enough for the lateral forces involved in backing it up around a corner or some such. |
i guess we both never pretzeled at tow bar, good work |
HAHA yay for us! I have however, had someone else bend up my towbar after they borrowed it and ignored instruction. The U-bolts on mine have been replaced twice during my ownership.
_________________
You can't spell sausage without "USA"! |
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Jason R
Samba Member
Joined: April 05, 2006
Posts: 36
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 7:40 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
I have a similarly sized bus towbar built by a friend locally about 25 years ago. The big difference, and this goes for beetle towbars, too, is mine uses large U-bolts to clamp the front axle beam tightly to the towbar. No slop, no movement. Much better than the sloppy clamping setup with most towbars. I towed a 66 beetle about 1400 miles about two years ago with zero issues. |
When you say yours has U bolts, do you mean in place of the uprights and pins that mine has to hold the beam?
This bar was used this past weekend to pull a 59 SC and we found the bar will slide back and forth a few inches on the beam, so a muffler clamp was added to the beam on each side to act as a stop for it and keep it centered.
Seems if the bar was made wider to reach the ends of the beam like a beetle bar it would eliminate this issue. Not sure why it was designed this way.
_________________
68 Single Cab, (2) 66 Beetles, 65 Double Cab, 64 Autodynamics Deserter GT, 63 Kombi, 59 Manx copy |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20800
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 7:53 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| Jason R wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
I have a similarly sized bus towbar built by a friend locally about 25 years ago. The big difference, and this goes for beetle towbars, too, is mine uses large U-bolts to clamp the front axle beam tightly to the towbar. No slop, no movement. Much better than the sloppy clamping setup with most towbars. I towed a 66 beetle about 1400 miles about two years ago with zero issues. |
When you say yours has U bolts, do you mean in place of the uprights and pins that mine has to hold the beam?
This bar was used this past weekend to pull a 59 SC and we found the bar will slide back and forth a few inches on the beam, so a muffler clamp was added to the beam on each side to act as a stop for it and keep it centered.
Seems if the bar was made wider to reach the ends of the beam like a beetle bar it would eliminate this issue. Not sure why it was designed this way. |
In a word, yes. If you picture that muffler clamp you used as being two large U-bolts used in place of uprights and pins, you have the concept. Your muffler clamp was holding things tight, as they should be.
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"! |
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fifteenwindow
Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2005
Posts: 22
Location: Oshkosh, WI
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 6:21 pm Post subject: Re: Anyone recognize this tow bar? |
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| Jason R wrote: |
| cdennisg wrote: |
| mandraks wrote: |
^^^
interesting. considering that you can also use the front bus for braking. a 4000 pound bus nailing the brakes while another 4000 bus wants to push going 60 mph.... |
It's not the weight of the towed vehicle that bends the towbar when attempting to back up, it's the fact that the towed vehicle's wheels turn to full lock and bind everything up. Same thing will happen with a beetle on a tow bar.
I have a similarly sized bus towbar built by a friend locally about 25 years ago. The big difference, and this goes for beetle towbars, too, is mine uses large U-bolts to clamp the front axle beam tightly to the towbar. No slop, no movement. Much better than the sloppy clamping setup with most towbars. I towed a 66 beetle about 1400 miles about two years ago with zero issues. |
When you say yours has U bolts, do you mean in place of the uprights and pins that mine has to hold the beam?
This bar was used this past weekend to pull a 59 SC and we found the bar will slide back and forth a few inches on the beam, so a muffler clamp was added to the beam on each side to act as a stop for it and keep it centered.
Seems if the bar was made wider to reach the ends of the beam like a beetle bar it would eliminate this issue. Not sure why it was designed this way. |
The towbar we had was designed to tow splits and bays. If I remember right, the width was shortened to leave room for the bay braking system. We, too, used muffler clamps to limit its side to side movement on the beam |
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