Cool tow rig.-Page 2| Grassroots Motorsports forum |

HiTempguy HalfDork
6/29/10 9:23 a.m.

sachilles wrote: the impreza wagon pulling the impreza rally car: His comments on special stage indicated he added a brake controller/braked axle recently. He said he also outback springs on the rear of the tow car, which he said can be a little firm around town sans trailer.

Its been 3 years since I road in it, but pretty sure it has helper air bags in the back.

Mikey52_1 New Reader
6/29/10 10:29 a.m.

914Driver wrote: I've got a trailer, lighter than the one you put up Keith, with a car that is a bit heavier than a Locost, but not much. I'm pulling it with a Toyota 4-Runner 3.0 V-6. A friend that tows a GT 911 in an enclosed trailer with a hugass truck just kinda shook his head and said "squirrely". Do you have brakes on either of these trailers? If the Forrester guy just showed up, I'm guessing he isn't wired for electric brakes. I don't mind getting 20 mpg while towing, but I do mind when the tail wags the dog and we all go off into the rhubarb. Dan

Having had a bad, bad experience pulling my idiot son's 1 Ton Ford diesel, on too small a trailer with too little tongue weight, I can second the 'tail wagging the dog" not being a good way to spend an otherwise nice day. It had the fortuitous effect of pretty well clearing the road for me, but it scared the bejeezus out of me and the missus. It did nothing at all for my nerves for the next 45 miles until we could unload the damn thing and drive it home after all. Narrow roads, no turn-outs and traffic both ways made it a long portion of the trip, when we couldn't get above 40 mph without the trailer going nuts. Just a bitch of a day all around.

Vigo HalfDork
6/29/10 12:10 p.m.

Having driven in that contraption for a total of ~16 hours, I can say it is definitely feasible. For you folks that claim trucks are needed to tow anything, this will make you shudder!

Ive been pushing that angle here on GRM ever since i got here Drove this one from TX to FL and back, 3k miles, over 40hrs.

Duke SuperDork
6/29/10 12:25 p.m.

Forester STis are cooler than just about anything but the other side of your pillow.

ddavidv SuperDork
6/29/10 4:28 p.m.

2002maniac wrote: Iirc, my wife's impreza was built in oklahoma.

Methinks you recall wrong. If the VIN starts wih a J, it's build in Japan. I think all Imprezas were Japan built.

car39 Reader
6/29/10 4:42 p.m.

Legacy and Outback are built in the US, Forester and Impreza's are built in Japan. Correct on the "J" vin call, the US built cars start with "4"

Keith SuperDork
6/29/10 11:04 p.m.

The red trailer with the Locost in the first picture does not have brakes. It doesn't really need them, honestly. It's well balanced and tows so well you could easily forget it was back there. I've used it to drag my Locost - which weighs 300 lbs more than that black one! - all over the place, from California to Texas and up and down a bunch of mountains.

For most of that time, the tow vehicle was a 2000 Grand Cherokee. It's never given me a moment's concern. Sure, the giant trucks and massive trailers are nice, but they're not always necessary when you're dealing with cars that weigh this little and the trailer is loaded properly.

By the way, Mike is the Forester STi owner. He's the new guy at Flyin' Miata, and when I left work he was wire-wheeling the paint off the extra Miata shell at work so he could seam-weld it before installing the remains of his totalled Miata inside. He's our kind of guy for sure.

Jay Dork
6/30/10 6:42 a.m.

Nitroracer wrote: I like the forester, I'd like to give one a try some day but all the well priced ones are high mileage automatics. I'll give it some more time. I do like how subaru engine and suspension parts appear to be like legos, much like honda parts. Saw this on a blog this morning, trailer looks a bit too heavy though. At least it is alu-mini-um.

This is the standard way of towing anything around here. If you showed up with an F350 duallie to pull a wee little AE86 around you'd probably get lauged at for overcompensating. Hell, yesterday I saw a Passat towing what must have been a 24' speedboat around town. He seemed to do okay.

Of course we all know Germans (& Swiss) are big on risk taking and wanton disregard for safety procedures... right?

Nashco SuperDork
6/30/10 8:18 p.m.

Keith wrote: So, you need to get your CBR900-powered Locost to the track. But your friend with a heavily modified Forester (basically an STi wearing a Forester for a hat) wants to come. There's only one obvious solution.

So...is it bad that I thought the "obvious" solution was putting two butts into the two seats that the Locost has and driving it to the track?

Bryce

kreb Dork
6/30/10 10:20 p.m.

I can't find any pictures, but several years ago I was doing a track day at Thunderhill with my cousin. I drove the 100 miles or so to the track in my Stalker, and he trailered his Mustang. A couple miles from the track, his tow vehicle get's stuck in low gear. Long and short of it, we ended up leaving the tow vehicle and towing his Mustang back in the Stalker.

There's something to be said for putting a S-10 motor in a Locost!

modernbeat HalfDork
7/1/10 9:20 a.m.

Here's the rig we used to haul the bike to the Pikes Peak Hillclimb this year. It's a 2000 Forester with WRX wheels and tires, a Thule box and a 12 year old motorcycle trailer. The entire rig cost about $1200.

Here's last year's rig. Same trailer, but the car is a '93 that still has it's 1.8 liter engine, but has been converted to AWD. It was cheap and cramped.

modernbeat HalfDork
7/1/10 9:26 a.m.

A nicer pic, post practice.

twclaycamp
9/15/11 1:58 p.m.

Check out my buddies rig. He picked up the Fozzi from two butch lesbians and the boat from a hillbilly in nevada that used it to fish catfish. Together this combo is unstoppable. We took this thing 500+ miles down Baja Mexico to LA Bay where we got 21 mpg on PeMex gas. This photo was before my dumb ass buddy broke off the passenger side mirror trying to rally the car like Ken Block.

oldeskewltoy HalfDork
9/15/11 5:59 p.m.

sachilles wrote:

hmmmm, I remember using my 1973 V6 Capri to tow (tow dolly) my OTHER 1973 V6 Capri......

Uneventful ride

turboswede SuperDork
9/15/11 6:46 p.m.

Wish I had a picture, but we towed our Shelby CSX ChumpCar (Dodge Shadow) to the track behind a turbo, 5-speed Caravan. Worked fine going across town and through the Vista tunnel on US-26 and up I-5 to the track. On Friday. At rush-hour. The Friday night before Halloween weekend.

Oh and the caravan donated some of its top end parts to the ChumpCar during the race. We had to put the car on the trailer and steal the parts back to tow the car home!