Flat towing my '79 F-150 truggy 400mi??

[VerticalTRX]

This spring our 4wd club is making a 400mi round trip and I'll be taking my truggy for its inaugural wheeling trip. I'm building a stout tow bar, and it will be rigged up for lights and turn signals, but I'm wondering if this will be a viable option anyways? I've never flat towed a vehicle before so I know very little about doing so.

Questions: Is flat towing a vehicle that far a bad idea? What are the limitations of towing (mileage and mph) with the rear d-shaft attached (see sig for drivetrain). What are the legalities of this in VA and NC? I shouldn't have any trouble stopping it, truggy should weigh ~4,700lbs, my F-250 is 6,440 empty. Also, for rigging up the lights, the plan is to put a trailer plug socket on the front bumper of the truggy and use a double ended cord to plug it into my F-250's trailer lights. However, should I just tap directly into the wiring harness on my truggy to make that work (as you would trailer lights)?

Option B, would be to use my 26' tandem dually gooseneck to haul it down there, but that’s a lot of extra weight (and reduced mpg) if I could just flat tow the thing...11,000lbs vs 4,700lbs.

Thanks for any info.

[VerticalTRX]

Anyone?

[getblown5.9]

the NP435...is that an auto tranny?

sorry that im not familiar, but flat towing an auto tranny is never a good idea...ive read somewhere that if you must do so, then you need to stop every 40 miles or so and start the engine and place it in every gear to allow fluid to pump thru to prevent it from burning up. however if its a manual tranny, i dont see why it wouldnt hurt.

also why not take out the 2 driveshafts for a 400 mile trip? this would eliminate the problem completely

[VerticalTRX]

The NP435 is a 4 speed manual. I wasn't worried about the tranny, as I would have the T-case in neutral, however I was wondering if there was any trouble with spinning the output of the t-case without the rest of it turning (i.e. output bearing burning up or something). BTW, if I do flat tow it on the 400mi trip, I would disconnect the rear D-shaft, however I was wondering what the mileage/mph limits are without doing so (for future shorter trips).

[crashnzuk]

My uncle used to flat tow his 4 speed blazer without removing anything. He said he put trans and t-case in neutral and hit the road.
Travis..

[Jrod-13]

I've done it a few times, with cars, and a BII once... pulling the BII with my 89' f-150(wheeling rig) on 35's with a spool. it pulled just fine, and stopped fine too. however, the truck weighted a bit more than the towed rig..
My buddy also used to towbar his bronco wheeling rig, with another bronco.. it did "ok" but after two 550 mile trips like that, he built a trailer... what went from a stressfull 50mph ride, turned into a set the cruise at 70, and forget about it ride.

another thing that seems to make a HUGE difference is caster on the towed rig, without enough, it won't track for shit when turning.. the same for running big mud tires VS. stock street tires on the rig...

[demonranger]

in all honesty you're going to get roughly the same mileage within 1.5mpg if you drive reasonably with your f250 then when you break something you can get your rig home without having to fix it.

Flat towing is an option however for a 400 mile round trip we'll say that towing the trailer you're going to get 5 mpg → 80 gallons of gas * $2.50 = $224 flat towing we'll say that you're going to get 6.5 → 61 gallons * $2.50 = 153

those figures are based on extremelly low mileage for either option realize that if you get better mileage than either the $ figure difference for 1.5mpg makes less of a difference.

Also calculate in that you're going to be investing the time & $$ to build the towbar and that your drive time is going to be much longer you cannot maintain interstate speeds while you're flat towing so your buddies are going to leave you in the dust. and you're going to be exhausted when you get there and even more so when you get home.

If you do decide to flat tow then you need to keep the trailer lights from the tow rig form backfeeding the entire electrical system of the truck otherwise you're either going to overload the truck wiring or blow fuses. to do this when you splice into the truck wiring you need to install recitfier diodes at the splice.

[Kyron]

I'd put it on a trailer....... so you can relax and break your junk knowing you can drag it home on a trailer.

What if you break the R&P gears? flat towing aint going to help you. What if you thrash your tir rods......... your front tires are going to get smoked

[VerticalTRX]

Well, I guess yall have convinced me to trailer it. I get about 8mpg avg. when towing 10-15K, and about 11mpg when towing 5K, so there would have been some fuel savings. However, there is going to be the chance for some major drivetrain carnage (Q78-15 TSL's on locked D44 & 9" equals boom), so the piece of mind being able to trailer the thing back is my final deciding factor.

[saprobe]

i flat towed my 85 grand wag all over with my 87 suburban before aquiring a trailer. while i wont try and convince anyone flat towing is just as good,there is nothing wrong with it either,as long as things are well maintened and certain precautions are taken.

key things are to make sure steering,ball joints,wheelbearings,etc. are in tip top shape,and to carry spares of everything that may fail and make it not rollable. i used to carry frotn knuckles,hubs,spindles,steering linkage,and rear axleshafts when i still ran a SF rear. when i swapped in the 14 bolt i started carrying an extra 14 bolt hub.

if you do decide to flat tow,IMO you are stupid to leave the drivesahft in and spinning. most transfer cases have the rear output above the oil level and while it may not happen immediately,you are drastically shortening the life of the bearings in the rear output. its well worth the few minutes it takes to disconnect the shafts and either remove it completely or tie it up out of the way. up front leave your hubs unlocked,or remove the front shaft too. leave tranny and t case in gear.

couple other things to consider:
-in most states a vehicle towed with wheels on the ground must be licensed and insured. ive never been hassled in the trips that ive forgotten to put the plate from my xj on GW,but that doesnt mean that you wont get pulled over if you dont have a valid plate.
-also,flat towing 400 miles is going to put 400 miles on your tires ;) so make sure your front alignment is on,and/or swap on different tires if you care about wearing them out on the street.

my GW has seen alot of street miles onthe towbar,and while that was way better than driving, im glad ive got a trailer for it to ride on now. i can beat on it alot harder knowing it just has to to make it back to the trailer.

im on a budget as well,so i can completely understand the desire to save fuel,but as you said,the peace of mind is well worth a few extra gallons of gas.

[wheelerfreak]

I've flat towed both my Jeep and Yota plenty of times. Biggest issue is giving yourself plenty of breaking distance. The actual weight varies by state of course but some state laws when towing anything over 1500 Lbs requires brakes, some are 3k, 3.5k, etc. Some thing to consider.