• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

MGB Tow bar on an MGB

Share this page

S

SpitFyre

Freshman Member
Offline
Hi everyone
I'm bringing my barn find home in a few weeks and was wondering if anyone has used a tow bar to pull a B. I am going to weld one up from scratch. I was going to bolt two arms to the frame where the bumper brackets mount on the sides of the frame rails. There will be eyes on the ends of these arms to allow verticle movement. The ball will provide horizontal movement. I'll have safety chains and lights so it will be legal.
Are the four bolts strong enough to pull the car with? I can't see shearing the bolts but the sheet metal frame might tear.
I'm only going about 2 miles from it's current home to my storage spot. Then back and forth about 10 miles from storage to my garage where I can work on it. It is a 67 GT by the way.
Opinions greatly appreciated
Mike
 
Yes the 4 bolts are strong enough....I have one that mounts where the bumper usually bolts....mine is just like any other tow bar except for how it mounts to the MGB...I also have a tab on mine that the 'frame rails' rest on so I can tow MGB's without their front wheels.
 
Back in the dark ages when MGB's were still fairly new I used to strip everything out of mine and put slicks on it to campaign in the weekend slaloms (autocrosses) in So Cal. They were pretty serious events so I would flat tow my car using a bar similar to what you are planning. It works fine.
 
Mine's anchored where the bumper attaches to frame as well. Triangulated to a 2" ball hitch at the front. Dragged a few with it. Works a treat.
 
Should you disconnect the Drive shaft if using a Tow bar? For those not knowing.
 
I never did, but the distances were relatively short. The early gearbox and diff rely on "splash" so I doubt it's an issue for long distance draggin' either. The lube is gonna get to where it should no matter what.
 
See, towing with all 4 tires on the ground & the transmission in neutral is different than towing with the front end of the transmission in the air...all 4 tires on ground provides adequate "splashing" where 2 up in the air does not.

Now, were I going a distance at highway speeds, I'd probably pull the driveshaft.
 
Yeah, I gotta say the "tipping" would be a consideration and haulin' one over 500 miles would have me droppin' th' shaft as well. Why take th' chance.
 
If you're gonna be towing it back and forth between storage and work area a number of times while you're working on it, I'd pull the propshaft...just to be sure (why take a chance). If it's just a once or twice thing, it should be OK.
 
I welded it up last night. I'll post some pics. My parking brake isn't working so the driveshaft stays in for now. The brakes are the first thing on my list though. It'll be driveshaft out after that though.
 
Back
Top