Hi,

I'm keen for a tow bar for a the baja, i got a few sets of barwork in the back yard and don't know if there is anything i can do to make them work with a tow bar. shouldn't be hard seeing the tow bars on normal beetles just run off the sheet metal of the rear apron.

It would only be for very light towing... maybe a tinny at the most...

Is there any rules / regulations?

I'm not currently happy with all the anchorage points on the barwork, so will have to mod as such... but still thinking about having mounts extending to the rear torsion tubes... so as any towing stress won't be loaded on the rear forks as much.

Anywho, so yea. whats involved?

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

The only ones I've seen run off the forks (with brackets) and a reinforced plate on the backside of the bumper. Yeah, it'd wanna be a pretty light/small trailer.

As he said. Normally 2 tubes that run back from the torsion bar tubes. Then there is a tube that bolts between the rear numper brackets to hang the tow bar from. The rear tubes under the engine make an excellent rear bash plate mount.

There is 2 types of standard towbars, one (the lighter one) clamps on the ends of the tuning fork, and the other (the heavy duty one) clamps to the torsion tube - it does weigh more though.

I agree with the protection the tow bar offers the case and the exhaust. It has saved me heaps in exhaust repairs especially.

Let me know if you want a photo of the heavier type mounting, and I will take one tomorrow night and post it for you.

theres another even lighter version yet again, lets call it the pissweak one

i still have one for my bug, it just bolts to the inner gaurd below the bumper mounts and to the bumper bracket itself



ok for a little box trailer with not too much weight but what else can you tow with a beetle anyway?

Jeff dont answer that question

Chris, ive seen a few bajas and buggys around that just have a tab welded to the crash bar with a hole for a tow ball, probably all you need if you towing light stuff

just check out the minimum thickness for the tongue,i think its 20mm these days,was 16mm , but havent been making towbars for about 15 yrs now

thanks for all the help guys, thats perfect!

Know i know how to go about it and what to do. I'm pretty confident with my welding these days too.
very much appreciated.

it does scare me how light duty some of those tow bars were you'd be worried about sitting on it without it busting off...

I've got two Beetle tow-bars lying around at my place and both just bolt between the stock bumper brackets, using holes drilled through the bumper brackets between the bumper and the body. One of them looks to have been professionally made and is quite light-duty, but the other one is a home-made effort out of enormous 100mm square box section steel with at least 5mm wall thickness, which bolts to the bumper brackets using 10mm thick plates! I'm not sure what the manufacturer was planning on towing with it, but if it was solidly bolted to the chassis of a truck then this thing could pull a B-double. As it was I wouldn't want to tow much behind it or you would rip the rear bumper off of the car! I have to say that both of these towbars look quite old though, as they still use the "curly hook" method of attaching safety chains, rather than having holes for shackles.

Will take some pictures of my old setup in the morning for you Chris.


Smiley

gidday Chris
Been looking at tow bars for my baja. I got hold of a second hand rear bar that mounts off the rear torsion bars and has brackets that bend over the rear tuning forks near the engine mounts (not totaly happy with that arrangement). Heavy duty crash bars also can mount to the fire wall so am thinkin off welding two tubes off the top bar so as to attach to the fire wall with backing plates inside the car.
All tow bars I looked at had brackets welded to round tubing approx 2mm wall thickness and around 50mm diameter. Brackets were angle iron approx 5mm thick and 2-3inches to allow bolting of towing neck for ball. The better ones also had a piece welded horizontally to give strength along the tubes. This is what I will be working with as i just got given an old towbar that was cut off a vw. So i will be welding it between my verticals on my rear bar. Hope this helps!

I'm looking for a towbar at the moment. I want something that will cope with around 400kg gross and 40kg ball weight. This is the absolute max I ever expect to tow with my bug.

Are any of these towbars you guys have kicking around capable of towing that?

Cheers,

thanks Balhall and Daniel. Yea, i'm keen to see those photo's Dan. I rekon i could smash this out pretty well :P

Does anyone know if the original owners manual for the bug stated any max tolerences with towing? i neva had a copy, and i assume they are pretty 'limited' nower days...

Being rear engine and rear wheel drive, beetles tow very well. My tool box/trailer weighs about 3/4 of a tonne I reckon (full of tools) and I tow it all the time with no problems. Some of my carpenters with utes had trouble pulling it up, as did my daughter with the Subaru Liberty she used to own.

It is build on a Type 3 rear end, so I put a Sherman disc brake conversion on it (same as my bug), and it stops great now. I just have to be carefull reversing quickly, over bumps, or uphill - I have to put the brake preventer bar over.

I once towed my 7 x 4 box trailer about 30 km in the pouring rain. It was half full of dirt (that was now soaked with rain), then loaded up to about 1800 high with left over timber (mostly hardwood) up to 6500 long. Weighed about 2 tonne I reckon. Wasn't game to go over about 50 kmh though. lol

As I said, they will tow very well, and as long as the load is reasonably balanced, I havn't had a problem.

I agreed with Jeff. They tow extremely well. I didn't even notice the trailer there....except for the massive lack of power

This is a picture of the back of my old Baja. You can see the towball plate welded in the middle. I think as long as your cage is solid you shouldn't have any troubles Chris. Having said that my cage was extremely well mounted by whoever built it and rock solid. I could jump up and down on the back of it and it wouldn't move at all.





I still have the cage although it was bent when I rolled the car. Just went and took some pictures for you.




The plate where the towball bolts through is actually three plates. The thick square piece in the middle and the two triangle gussets on the sides. The triangle pieces are angled down slightly from the main plate. This would be to help prevent up and down flexing of the tongue.








Here is the car towing a trailer with my buggy floorpan on it. Probably around 300kgs all up.





While I was borrowing the trailer above I also took a load of old cut up beetle bodies out the dump. I got them to weigh me on the way in and way out. I worked out I was towing about 450kg (including trailer), which is about more than half what the Baja weighed! It was only 780kg. Never had a drama.

I'm going to be making a cage very similar to my old one. I'm using the same mounts. Will be putting a similar style towbar on it too. But I might use some thicker plate than the old one.

I hope some of this helps you.
If you want in more info or measurements Chris, don't hesitate to ask.



Smiley

Yep, mine tows OK. I just drove to Newcastle from Port Macquarie (about 3 hours) with my tool box/trailer on and didn't have a drama except slowing to about 80 on some of the hills. Most of the time I sat on 100 to 110. Used an extra 10 or 20 dollars worth of fuel though. lol

you just pumpin a 1600 or sumfin? bug box? This is actually sounding very promising... should hopefully be able to pull well... the kombi box should help as long as they rear frame horns and chassis doesn't bend or die.

750kgs is no more than the average of today's cars. I remember a photo of an old custom offroad vw towing a car trailer with another baja on that as well.

Yeah, I have a 1916 with Kads. The trans in it at the moment is a stocker though.

I have recently made a tow bar for my buggy, if you give me your email address I'll send you the pics, got no idea how to get them on here and I have give up trying.
ps, I used a square hitch from a motorbike trailer towbar.

I towed a trailer with the Formula Vee behind my stock '68 1500 Beetle in 1969. The tow bar was a '6 point' mount -2 rear torsion tubes, 2 fork (engine mount) bolts, and 2 rear bumper.This worked very well, even on long trips, i.e. Bathurst etc.

A couple of points;- Road speed was a bit slow up hills such as Mt. Victoria, and front end got a bit light under heavy braking, due to weight transfer onto the tow bar.

Cheers, Greg

Quote:

Originally posted by donn I have recently made a tow bar for my buggy, if you give me your email address I'll send you the pics, got no idea how to get them on here and I have give up trying. ps, I used a square hitch from a motorbike trailer towbar.

Quote:

Originally posted by donn I have recently made a tow bar for my buggy, if you give me your email address I'll send you the pics, got no idea how to get them on here and I have give up trying. ps, I used a square hitch from a motorbike trailer towbar.

Sent to Chris, feel free to send them or post if you want.

This was worth posting up, i thought it was quite clever actually. Light duty as Don has enthasised, but clever.

I spose if you wanted to beef it up, you could run arms to the shock mounts diagonally and in turn it could also work as a supportive cradle for the rear frame horns as well. Would suggest a cross member between the diagonal arms above the gearbox as the shock towers wouldn't be too happy with tangential forces. (given their shape etc)

Pics:

Looks like a good setup.

I'm going to be running similar plates off the gearbox cradle bolts. But a lot thicker and holes for bolts not hooks.



Smiley

Oh! i didn't put up all the photos only just an overview, But after fabbing up the hooks, Don seal welded them on pretty firmly to the rhs sitting on top of each hook. I assume he made them separately so he could align it perfectly and welded it up while it was on the frame horns. You can sorta see in the last photo in the bottom left corner (the hook welded so it bolts up to the frame horns).