Terrible Towing pics thread

[flan]

I wouldn't necessarily call this terrible towing, just doing what I had to do. When your truck is dead 1300 miles from home, you may not have a lot of options. The dude above with the 2 pickups was more ingenuitive though.

View attachment 52438

Did you have to buy the towbars? How’d ya get those rigged up?

 

[Blythkd1]

Did you have to buy the towbars? How’d ya get those rigged up?

Oh man, where do I start? I'll try to summarize:

The tow truck guy dropped me off at a motel, downtown Phoenix area, Saturday night.
Spent Sunday online researching/shopping.
Monday I walked from there a couple miles to Uhaul and rented the 26' F650.
Drove from there a few miles to a lady's house that had a towbar listed on Craigslist.
Then went to a NAPA store and bought supplies.
Parked the Uhaul at the motel and walked to impound yard and picked up my truck. It had a hole in a piston but it didn't run too bad at light throttle. Get on it too much and it would blow a nice white plume out the tailpipe.
Came back to the motel and stripped down the front of the truck and removed the tow hooks then bolted the towbar to the tow hook holes.
Hitched up then ran the 20ft tow chain I had through the front end of the truck and hooked the ends to the Uhaul. Safety first, you know.
Hooked a 25ft roll of 4-flat wire to the Uhaul, ran it to the back of my truck and hooked up to the flatbed taillights with 2 new pigtails so I had full lights on the back of the pickup.

All this took most of the day and it got over 100 degrees, July 4th weekend, so late afternoon I just went back in and showered, went to bed then got up in the middle of the night and left. And there was still traffic getting out of Phoenix.

 

[Brutal_HO]

Oh man, where do I start? I'll try to summarize:

The tow truck guy dropped me off at a motel, downtown Phoenix area, Saturday night.
Spent Sunday online researching/shopping.
Monday I walked from there a couple miles to Uhaul and rented the 26' F650.
Drove from there a few miles to a lady's house that had a towbar listed on Craigslist.
Then went to a NAPA store and bought supplies.
Parked the Uhaul at the motel and walked to impound yard and picked up my truck. It had a hole in a piston but it didn't run too bad at light throttle. Get on it too much and it would blow a nice white plume out the tailpipe.
Came back to the motel and stripped down the front of the truck and removed the tow hooks then bolted the towbar to the tow hook holes.
Hitched up then ran the 20ft tow chain I had through the front end of the truck and hooked the ends to the Uhaul. Safety first, you know.
Hooked a 25ft roll of 4-flat wire to the Uhaul, ran it to the back of my truck and hooked up to the flatbed taillights with 2 new pigtails so I had full lights on the back of the pickup.

All this took most of the day and it got over 100 degrees, July 4th weekend, so late afternoon I just went back in and showered, went to bed then got up in the middle of the night and left. And there was still traffic getting out of Phoenix.

I feel your pain.

Have worked on vehicles and changed truck and RV tires, boat trailer bearings, etc. on the side of the road or hotel parking lots all too many times in 100F + summer weather (NM, AZ, NV...)

 

[flan]

Oh man, where do I start? I'll try to summarize:

The tow truck guy dropped me off at a motel, downtown Phoenix area, Saturday night.
Spent Sunday online researching/shopping.
Monday I walked from there a couple miles to Uhaul and rented the 26' F650.
Drove from there a few miles to a lady's house that had a towbar listed on Craigslist.
Then went to a NAPA store and bought supplies.
Parked the Uhaul at the motel and walked to impound yard and picked up my truck. It had a hole in a piston but it didn't run too bad at light throttle. Get on it too much and it would blow a nice white plume out the tailpipe.
Came back to the motel and stripped down the front of the truck and removed the tow hooks then bolted the towbar to the tow hook holes.
Hitched up then ran the 20ft tow chain I had through the front end of the truck and hooked the ends to the Uhaul. Safety first, you know.
Hooked a 25ft roll of 4-flat wire to the Uhaul, ran it to the back of my truck and hooked up to the flatbed taillights with 2 new pigtails so I had full lights on the back of the pickup.

All this took most of the day and it got over 100 degrees, July 4th weekend, so late afternoon I just went back in and showered, went to bed then got up in the middle of the night and left. And there was still traffic getting out of Phoenix.

Quite the nightmare haha! Did you have to pull driveshafts, etc or flat tow on a chev does not require that?

 

[Blythkd1]

Quite the nightmare haha! Did you have to pull driveshafts, etc or flat tow on a chev does not require that?

After rolling around on the parking lot under the truck and removing both shafts, I found that my transfer case had a "neutral". The "N" was on the far right of the 4X4 knob and only shows up when you select it. I looked for it but didn't realize you can see the 4LO, 2HI and 4HI indicators on the knob at all times but can only see the N when it's lit up. I just assumed my truck didn't have a neutral position in the TC.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

After rolling around on the parking lot under the truck and removing both shafts, I found that my transfer case had a "neutral". The "N" was on the far right of the 4X4 knob and only shows up when you select it. I looked for it but didn't realize you can see the 4LO, 2HI and 4HI indicators on the knob at all times but can only see the N when it's lit up. I just assumed my truck didn't have a neutral position in the TC.

Not belittling you or speaking about your situation. Especially since Im not sure what model your transfer case was etc. we do what we can in the moment the best we can.

but! there are transfer case models that don’t have a true neutral. Early Np231 are an example of this type of transfer case. When those types of transfer cases are in N they’re actually in 4x4 (front and rear outputs linked) so flat towing these with the transfer case in N is like dragging them around in 4H

That’s why it is best to follow the guidelines in the manual regarding towing the specific vehicle. This goes for any vehicle

 

[DougB]

I don't know about terrible towing but terrible something
View attachment 52399

“However, the radio still works. Funny as that may seem with all this mess, the radio is the only thing that's really working good. And it's clear as a bell—don't ask me how.”

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

 

[Great White North Eh]

At least they got the chain wrapped so that’s good ……I guess.

 

[jsalbre]

Yeah, that chain is secure. It won’t go anywhere.

 

[jsalbre]

Who needs a hitch reducer when you can just let it flop around in there.

 

[tchur1]

View attachment 53365
Who needs a hitch reducer when you can just let it flop around in there.

Cant imagine why he has a big dent in the bumper right above the ball.

 

[jsalbre]

Cant imagine why he has a big dent in the bumper right above the ball.

It’s a mystery.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

View attachment 53365
Who needs a hitch reducer when you can just let it flop around in there.

Sometimes even a reducer ain’t enough haha

 

[jsalbre]

Sometimes even a reducer ain’t enough haha
View attachment 53379View attachment 53380

Apparently a 1/2” gap is acceptable.

 

[Darkside]

Apparently a 1/2” gap is acceptable.

Leave it to Ford to put a 3” receiver on their trucks when all other HDs are 2.5”

 

[Brutal_HO]

Sometimes even a reducer ain’t enough haha
View attachment 53379View attachment 53380

Who's mom is that?

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

Whose mom is that?

One of my customers. He has a sweet race car. Hope he doesn’t tow it with that.

 

[flan]

 

[unclelala]

View attachment 53437

glad that ain't a Ram....and how the hell would that have happened