@JSANBO, if you tow with a tow bar, all four wheels on the ground, you must let the steering work. You cannot tie down the steering wheel down in that one case. However, if you use a tow dolly with the rear wheels up on the dolly, you MUST lock the steering to keep the car from wandering all over the place as you tow. I say this because it sounds like you may be slightly confused on when to tie down the steering.
And, as a Ford Explorer owner, I sympathize with you. No trailer rental agency will rent a trailer or tow dolly to be used with the Ford Explorer after that whole Firestone tire debacle. My Explorer even has the tow package and a 5,500 lbs tow limit, but these trucks have been completely blacklisted.
No problem towing your beetle with a 2 wheel dolly. BACK your beetle onto the dolly and tie the steering wheel straight. If you want to be ultra cautious, repack your front wheel bearings.
Go ahead and tow it with the tow bar. My parents towed a 1961 VW beetle behind a motor home many thousands of miles without mechanical problems. I have towed the same vehicle behind a 1967 Dodge A100 van (which is very short wheel base) without sway problems. A friend has towed his Baja bug behind a Toyota 4 Runner without problems. One reason a lot of sand toy enthusiasts trailer their vehicles is that you don’t have to street register a trailered vehicle in CA. As mentioned do not lock the steering wheel. Also make sure the drivers seat back does not flop forward as that will also lock the steering wheel. The front of a VW is so light the front tires would easily scuff sideways in a turn but that would add sway forces to the tow vehicle. BTW I have never experienced or heard of the tranmission going into gear by it self. However, do make sure that the shifter is in neutral every time you finish hitching up.
The differential side of the transmission will lubricate just fine because the ring gear dips well into the transmission oil level. The rear wheel bearings will get lubed by oil working down the swing axle tubes. The gear box portion of the transaxle gets its lube from the oil slung by 3rd and 4th gears afixed to the pinion shaft and the reverse gear on the 1st/2nd clutch sleeve so no worry about lube to the gears spinning on the input shaft and the bearings of the pinion shaft.
One thing we did for towing was to make/wire up a set of 12 volt tail/turn signel/brake lights on a bar mounted to the roof of the beetle (called them mouse ears ala micky mouse). It was quite effective as required lighting and got around changing the 6 volt beetle system to match 12 volt tow vehicles. Also note how small those rear light fixtures on the early VWs are. In addition, when it came time to use the tow vehicle, the car would be unhitched, tow bar lashed back, the light bar removed, and off you went.
A real adventure would be to drive the '58 that 1400 miles. You would have a struggle on any mountain grades but that is what they made all those gears and the truck and break down lane for. Anyway enjoy that beetle – just stay away from head-on collisions because that gas tank is almost in your lap.
I didn’t realize you were using an Explorer to tow with. I ran into that very problem the hard way a couple of years ago. Stopped at a U-Haul to rent an enclosed trailer to haul some handmade furniture. The counter guy asked what the vehicle was, I said Ford Explorer. “I really wish you hadn’t said that. U-Haul won’t let us rent any towable thing to Explorer owners.” I ended up selling the thing and buying a Chevy Trailblazer for that very reason. (I like the Trailblazer better anyhoo.)
And I also worry about the tires - how old are they? Google ‘tire date decoder’ to find out how to read the tire age. Older than 8 years = new tires, to me.
One aspect of the Explorer problem is they were specified close to their limit, so don’t push it.
Towing it on the wheels won’t be a problem and if there is concern about the transaxle jumping into gear then remove the one bolt at the nose of the transmission where it’s attached to the shift rod.
The thing about refusal to rent to Explorer owners is downright stupid on the surface but I can see why they do it in a litigation happy society.
Maybe you could get some “Mountaineer” badges from the salvage yard and replace the Explorer badges. They will gladly rent to you then.
@keith, I have a Class III hitch with 2" receiver and rated for 5,000 lbs. It’s all Ford Explorers that are blacklisted and has nothing to do with the tow equipment installed. Trust me, I’ve been down this road awhile.
I think it goes back to those law suits involving people losing control of the trailers and rolling. Over-loading, improper loading, tire pressure, speeding, not to mention U haul maintenance. I see lots of trailers fish tailing down the road because they didn’t load the front heavier than the rear but off they go.
U haul isn’t the only game in town though but you should be ok if you just drive a little slower. 1400 miles isn’t that far and you really don’t want to wreck the car. You can always buy a used trailer and sell it again.
@Bing, it is not just U-Haul. Penske and Ryder have also blacklisted the Explorer. The only option I’ve had when I needed to tow has been to borrow from a friend or rent using my neighbor’s truck and swapping over. I only need to tow about once a year or couple of years, so it is not a big deal for me, just an annoyance. I mostly use the 2" receiver for my bike rack or cargo carrier.
My neighbor used the buy and resell method when he brought home an inherited car 2,300 miles from Colorado. A rental dolly was too expensive, but to buy one there and resell it here worked out to a zero dollar rental for him. I cannot remember the name of the brand, but it was definitely better built than most two-wheel dollies I’ve seen, and even had electronic brakes! He knew he could sell it here for the price he bought it in CO.
Sounds like this '58 is a survivor and possibly a project to show car. I don’t know about you, but I think that I would protect this '58 a little more than using a dolly or tow bar. What if a tire blows? A bearing seizes? Anything could happen and (maybe) there goes a classic. How much of an issue would it be to transport this car otherwise? Flatbed? I once carried a dune buggy in the back of a Penske box truck because I was iffy about towing it. Just my two cents, but I vote against wheels on the ground in this case. Rocketman
I need to tow a beetle 1400 miles and need to know if it will hurt the transaxle if it is rotating. the tow bar i own , the car dolly i would have to rent. my other concern is whether to tie the steering wheel down before towing and how to stabilize the shifter from accidentaly going into gear.
Can you ship it? My son shipped his car from NH to California when he returned from Afghanistan and it only cost $1200 including door to door pick up and drop off. Shop around and you might be able to do it for a lot less without the door to door service.
BustedKnuckles, Explorers not withstanding, U-haul will not rent a car dolly to vehicles with a 1.25" receiver either. So I guess if you have an explorer with a 1.25" hitch, you are double out of luck.
db, no, but during the investigation into the rollovers it was revealed that Ford had lowered the recommended tire pressure in an attempt to make the vehicle ride smoother, and he lower pressure led to higher tire temperatures and significantly contributed to the tread separation.
The same Firestone tires used on other similar sized vehicles but with higher recommended tire pressures did not have an abnormal tread separation rate and other brand tire that were used on the Explorer at the Ford recommended pressure did have higher tread separation rates than they did on other vehicles.
Not every Ford Explorer experienced a tread separation so the low tire pressure does not mean that the tire will flat out fail, but it does increase the odds.
But the tread separation alone was not the cause of the roll overs, and it wasn’t driver error either.
In view of the very uncertain condition of your Ford explorer and the difficulty in gettting a trailer rented, I would now stronly recommend having a car transport company ship it (the bug) for you.
The biggest risk is still the Ford transmission, followed by the engine. Both very expensive to fix.
Db, I seem to recall that what came out in court was that Ford was recommending a lower tire pressure for the Explorers than was recommended to them by Firestone in order to compensate for a different operating problem. Ford was attempting to blame Firestone for the rollovers, claiming tire failure, but Firestone showed that Ford was recommending too low a pressure.
Some of my colleagues deliberately inflate the tires to significantly higher pressures than the ones on the door jamb.
In many cases, this leads to severely shortened tire life. I’m talking the textbook picture of a tire with extreme wear in the middle and almost no wear on the edges.
This is what the tires look like after my colleagues overinflate them and they are driven for 6 months. I know this for a fact because I always check who worked on it last and what was done.
I never talk to them about it because they’ve already made it clear that they inflate tires as they see fit.
