Shortest Long Build Thread Ever-Sears Rascal

[EVfun]

[wythac]

Yeah....I'm gonna run with that idea instead....thanks!

I do clean it up between projects, but I really make a mess when I'm building something.

Wiring the trailer plug this weekend and taking the buggy on some trial runs with the Heilite Viking and my Eriba Puck. Can't wait.

[wythac]

Seven years ago, before I finished my buggy, I bought an Eriba Puck with the idea that I would tow it behind my buggy. Tonight I got to realize that goal.

Just finished welding the safety chain loop on the hitch and wiring in the trailer plug.

Took it for a quick spin around the neighborhood to see how it would tow.

It went really well. Pulls and stops fine. Ran it over some rough terrain to see if it would "hop" the nose and it didn't.The only thing I need to change is the rear tire pressure. The 17psi I have in the rears make it a bit squishy with the trailer on the hook.

I'm leaving the hitch assembly unpainted until I've towed a bit, then I will take it off the car and check all the welds for cracks.

I'll test it at freeway speed on an old concrete slab road with lots of expansion joints early one weekend morning before I take it on any longer trips. A more likely companion to the buggy is my Heilite Viking, which weighs about half of what the Puck does.

When the Heilite is behind my Vanagon, I would occasionally hit the brakes while traveling at night just so I could see the trailer and make sure it was still there...I'm sure the buggy will tow it well. Cant wait to roll the buggy and the Puck to a few car shows this summer though...

[joescoolcustoms]

That is cool! Nice to know that a buggy will handle a light load pulling on a hitch.

Any idea what the Puck weighs?
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[wythac]

I weighed it empty once at #680. My car as you see it outfitted is probably 1600lbs without the fat guy.

When I get the roof rack attached next I will have the opportunity to test this combo in full trim. While I think the Puck looks cool behind the buggy, I think it more likely that I will use the Heilite for any serious travel with it. I may be trying that out when my boy visits in a few weeks.

But, as 5 pages and seven years of BSing about it on another thread will attest, I'm OK with it not working out with the Puck. From my tests today I am comfortable running it on secondary roads. Brakes have enough stopping power, the nose doesn't wander, it doesn't want to jackknife in a panic stop...but of course tests can only approximate real world conditions.

I didn't run it long or hard enough to see the effect on engine temps..that may be a real deal breaker. We will see.

Any ideas about attaching sway bars for the hitch?

Lest anyone think for a moment that this hitch was my stroke of genius, it was mostly Joe's idea...theft is in my book the most sincere form of flattery.

[wythac]

Dragged my Heilite home tonight from the shop. Tows real well. Feels like a normal tow vehicle/towed trailer relationship, in that you leave a little more room to follow, to stop, etc.

It appears to be worth an extra 10 degrees of oil temp so it is working the motor a little harder. I did run it up to freeway speed on an old highway with dips and humps, with no light steering or lunging at that speed.

I had to strap over the top of the canvas between the two side door handles because my keys that lock those doors (required when moving) were with my Vanagon keys....I had never towed it with anything else, so why have the keys anywhere else?

[joescoolcustoms]

Sweet! The ultimate off roading combo.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[wythac]

Thanks Joe.

I put 35psi in the rear tires before leaving the shop and the squishy feeling went away. I was running 17psi, which worked fine without the extra weight and length.

This trailer has better ground clearance than the Puck. Its also worth several thousands of dollars less than the Puck, so it will be the likely offroad companion when I go into the Cascades. Unlike the Puck, its lower than the "roof" of the buggy too, so when I devise a way to carry my 18' long kayak I can have some of the boar drape off the rear of the car instead of having more of it out over the front.

One drawback; Tonight I added a right angle tailpipe to the muffler, because it was pointing down enough that the exhaust was stirring up a lot of dust when I was off the pavement. Now that it faces the rear and not the ground, no more dust, but I found that the front of the Heilite now provides a rebound panel for the exhaust note. So it is a little louder in the cabin...I'll just "fix" it with better ear plugs...

[wythac]

Car Show last weekend. Puck was more popular than the buggy pulling it. My friends black on black 69 Riviera and my brother's Cobra were pretty popular too.

[wythac]

Seattle Vintage Meet. More buggies this year than any I recall. Lots of fun. Trailer once again got more attention than the buggy however. I told one guy in good humor " I just bought the trailer but I BUILT the car!"

[wythac]

First outing of 2015. That's a Lockheed Super Constellation in the rear. Off to the mountains this morning. Still a little cold, but scorching compared to the East and Midwest, so I'm not gonna bellyache.

[clonebug]

Looking good Wythac!!!!
I could easily see myself and the Wife pulling a trailer like your Heilite to go east of the mountains for our anniversary weekend. That would be the cats meow.
I'll have to keep a lookout for something like that.
Leisurelite makes a motorcycle trailer that would be a great addition for a buggy but they are a little pricey.

Where is that plane at???

Are you at the Fight Museum???? I have been wanting to go back there for quite some time now but with two Women that don't appreciate the complexities of the flight world I won't be going with them.
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[wythac]

You are correct, that is the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. There is a B-47, a B-29, a Concorde and a 787 just out of frame on the right of the photo.

Froze my nether parts off this morning on a trip to Index. Much warmer on the way back.

[Skulptorchaz]

Great thread!! Thanks for the info, pix and inspiration!

[Tom_T]

My wife found your other topic on the Puck, since we're looking for a nice vintage Puck/Pan/Familia to pull behind our 88 Westy.

I know, that's repetitively redundant, but we go to vintage trailer rallies with our restore 1960 Avion T20 (sim. to Airstream), but a smaller option would be nice at times & the Westy is considered too new as many of the vintage trailer rallies, plus we can use it with our 85 BMW 325e - both of which we're OOs of them. We have the GoWesty hitch on the Westy already, which we use for a Yakima Swing Daddy bike rack + the 4-pin electrical hook-up.

She & I were actually reading there more for your experience of towing the Puck with your Vano, which I'm guessing is an 88-91/92 Carat/Wolfsburg. It sounds like it tows well with your tintop, & brakes reasonably well with the Vanagons' notoriously weakish braking - especially with a loaded full camper like ours. On our annual summer long XC trips, we'd typically end up at 40-ish mph on the big grades - down to 20-35 on the 3 big I-70 grades - loaded with 2 kids & gear/food for 4.

She wants to know how you found a SoCal garage find Puck!?

We're in Orange, OC, CA & have been looking for one since March, so if you hear of any &/or lose interest in yours, please shoot me an email or PM.

However, my main reason fro posting here was to offer some suggestions for your Buggy set-up to tow the Puck.

Not seeing any updates since 2015 on your Manx/Buggy+Puck exploits, I wanted to suggest a couple of things for stability - if you do experience any issues beyond the tires above (yes, use the higher pressure on pavement when towing, & a tad less for traction for soft stuff when towing - experiment with what works best off-road towing).

Suggested Options:

1 - You can load some cargo forward on the Puck to get more tongue wt. (secured down of course), since your Buggy has enough power for the Puck anyway.

2 - You can load cargo on the forward rollbar/rack over the passengers to load the front end more,

3 - You can weld another 2" receiver on the front of the Buggy frame & use a cargo rack there for gear which will really add wt. over the steering wheels.

4 - You can get 1 or 2 of the friction type anti-sway devices/bars made by many WD hitch mfgrs. & add that to the Puck's coupler tube (possibly with an outrigger to get the angle usually found on the trailer a-frame - if the straight on attachment doesn't resist the sway), which link to a 3-ball coupler (2" + 1-2 smaller 1" balls @ L & R).

5 - As others had said at your other Puck towing topic thread, you can add electric brakes to most any trailer, but then you'll need an electric brake controller & a 7-pin hook-up. I'd recco the Tekonsha RF which you mount on the trailer, & can use it with multiple tow vehicles, such as your Vano & Buggy, etc. We have had one on our Avion since we've rented trucks to tow it since we got it in 2012, but we are now on the hunt for a nice used `08-14 Cayenne S V8 as our own TV since we're at the cost break-even point own vs. renting with the number of trips we're doing (I'll also tow my 73 914-2.0 "914-S" to shops for resto & then to show - 2nd owner since `75 on that one), & as an "extra car."

6 - Another option would be the Eriba surge brakes which had a bellows on the coupler tube to actuate the trailer brakes. I have no idea of how hard it would be to find the parts, but they're still making new Pucks etc., nor how hard it would be to retrofit them. I've seen that option on some of their Familia, Puck & Pan & their larger trailers, but mostly in Europe/UK pix.

BTW - To answer your question on your other thread - Yes, they did make a USA Export Puck version back in the 1960-70's, which I found by some googling research on Pucks etc. when we decided to try to get one.

http://www.eribasar.de/touring-oldtimer/eriba-puck-us-version/export-history-and-brochure/

Cheers!
Tom
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_________________
1973 914-2.0 - 2nd owner since 12/75
1985 BMW 325e 2dr - OO
1988 Vanagon CamperGL Westy - OO
1970 Eriba Puck & 1960 Avion T20

[Tom_T]

I tried to send you a PM 2x earlier today, but nothing shows up in my sent mailbox, did you get it?

I don't know what's up with TheSamba on that, because a PM to another member in between the 2 tries did go thru.

Tom
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_________________
1973 914-2.0 - 2nd owner since 12/75
1985 BMW 325e 2dr - OO
1988 Vanagon CamperGL Westy - OO
1970 Eriba Puck & 1960 Avion T20

[wythac]

Took a road trip over near some wildfires (not too close of course) today. Did OK, discovered a few glitches to work on but nothing that kept me from spending some time on a 100 miles or so of dirt roads on both sides of the Cascades

My aircleaner system worked well. An industrial machine (think forklift) air cleaner box similar to one suggested by another poster here that took their car down Baja...Its doing a much better job than the K&Ns perched on top of my carbs did. Wrapped the crosstube with FG insulation because it is mounted to the exhaust tipi. Tubing is 2" ABS, corner pieces are Fernco fittings, available in any hardware store. I will document the components in another post if anyone is interested.

Smoke was pretty bad, but so far most of the burns have been away from homes.