flat towing my cj-5

All,

Well the Jeep is finally road worthy. It is now registered and insured and has a license plate: but-074. This is an interesting coincidence because the Jeep is a 74. Anyway, my wife and I will be towing the Jeep to our first adventure, the Jeep Jamboree in Rocky Mountain House (Alberta, Canada). Aside from disconnecting the rear driveshaft what other precautions should I take? What about steering. Dr. Vern suggests disconnecting the Ross setup, but what about a Saginaw box? Should I tie the steering wheel to something? Will the wheels turn on thier own? Should they? I have seen pictures of Jeeps being flat towed, but I have always had these concerns.

Karl

 

Mike: RUN! R)

I think the only "Total Solution" is to get a trailer.

 

When I Flat tow my 72 I disconnect the rear Drive shaft, insure the front hubs are unlocked and use a 6 foot tiedown for the steering wheel to the Seat mounts My jeep will lock into full turn when turning corners and just drag the fron wheels I try to slack the tie down enough to give the wheel some room to spin but not enough for a full turn of the wheels I think this makes sense. Not sure if I am typing this correctly

 

jtgroover: I think you've got it. I heard that before, but using a couple of bungie cords down to the seat for the same reason. Must have something to do with the type of tow bar or something.

 

I believe a longer tow bar helps greatly, although mine has flat towed fine with the stock Smittybuilt tow bar mounted on the front bumper. The ball receiver/ tow bar should be fairly level when connected. I have never secured the wheel, and only once have the wheels turned the opposite way when turning out/into of a steep angled driveway.
test towing makes good sense to me

 

I must have been lucky, because I used to flat tow my '73 CJ-5 behind my Dad's F-250. It would track fine without any steering wheel tie-downs. I had one of Brian Chuchua's tow bars. I also would just put the TC in neutral... I've read so many warnings against this now that I'd probably remove the rear driveshaft.

 

I undo the rear drive shaft on long trips (150 miles +). For shorter trips I have just put the TC in neutral and drive on.

Be sure to address the brake light and turn signal issue. Some folks have rigged up a harness to their existing tail lights, but I have rigged up seperate lights because it was the easy way out for me at the time.

 

No tie down here either. I was having some troubles on one turn vs. the other but I did an alignment so its fine now. Yeah, trailers are a pain to mow around so I will flat tow indefinitely.

I also swing a little wider on turns to give the front tires extra time to start the turn track.

As Scott mentioned above, I have a standard flat-4 trailer harness wired under the hood which is spooled up around the headlight can. I added additional flat-4's under the dash for quick swaps to select rear lighting. (tow vs. drive).

 

I put Insulated Quick connects inline to my tail lights in the rear for two reasons. 1. when flat towing I just run the wiring harness up to the 4 pin on the truck and Two If I am driving the jeep for an extended weekend Close by I have a Hitch carrier with a set of lights mounted to it that I can plug in and have lights on the hitch carrier versus lights on the jeep being blocked. this gives me A removable cargo for coolers and what not. My Spare tire carier doubles as my Tow bar currently makes nice if you drive to a trail and break down someone can flat tow you home.


Side note I agree that trailering is a pain and I don't feel I will ever go larger than 35" tires I am buying The Warn Lockout HUbs for the rear axle once I have decided whether I am using a full width Waggy D44 or the ford 9 " rearend that I have behind the garage. Only wanna buy it once.

 

There are obvious concerns for using the trailer -- but limited, in my opinion, to cost and storage. Everything else is a positive when you transport a vehicle as often as I do. As for flat towing, the concerns for me are (and are why I went to the trailer...):

1) Braking capability of the tow vehicle -- not only capacity, but issues with fade and premature wear.
2) Condition of road when turning -- especially low speed tight turns. If the road is wet, is dirty or sandy, or God foribid it has ice, you could end up with the towed vehicle along side (and backwards) of the tow vehicle with all kinds of body damage. The towed vehicle will have a tendancy to "push" the tow vehicle on those turns.
3) The ever popular transfer case lube issue that won't seem to go away. I, for one, always disconnected the rear shaft -- usually because I needed to tow the Jeep at speed for some distance. Doing this is a pain, time consuming, and usually dirty. Different cases have different lube issues, but with my D20 I just figured to play it safe -- For sure with the D300.

My 2 cents.

 

MNTrailboss: I agree with all of your points. But for the time being I'll just flat tow, since I really don't plan on any long distance trips. But, the PO did flat tow it over 5500 mi. with just the Neutral/Neutral system. He was a member of the Morengo Valley Search & Rescue Team. Jeep seemed to suffer no ill affects. 8)

 

Flat tow

Jim,

I hear ya. I've had numerous folks tell me about leaving the shaft on and flat towing forever without a problem. Also heard from folks that burned out bearings or seals and didn't have an official explanation -- other than possibly flat towing. I've never really cared enough to try and correlate the issues. My feeling is that if it works for you, go for it.