Get a truck? For what?

From the place that brought you hot lorry-on-lorry action, behold, Towing in the Way of the Samurai:

The guy said it wasn't scary at all, he just put some extra air in the rear tires and it was no problem!

That wouldn't be scary at all.

Until something bad happened:(

I don't own a big fat dual rear wheel truck simply for towing.  Sometimes I drive it just to intimidate the drivers of smaller vehicles.  Other times, I drive it just to do some righteous gulping of dead dinosaurs and thumb my nose at all the Prius drivers.  There are lots of good reasons to buy a truck.  Safe towing is just one of them.

Tow vehicle with an 80" wheelbase and squishy off-road suspension and a rickety-looking trailer. What could possibly go wrong? 

I presume all the roads go downhill wherever he lives.

And there are no cross winds...

Why do I think there are no hills in his teritory???

There are some very serious hills, but depending on where he lives they could be very much avoidable. There's a huge one that I know a basically unladen Samurai can't climb any faster than 40kph!

I like trucks. That's why I buy trucks. Trailer based poor decision enabling is a cool side effect. I'm truckless right now and I hate it.

That would be terrifying at any speed over 45 mph. Under 45 probably wouldn't be too bad until someone pulled out in front of you. I wonder if it has trailer brakes.

Pretty sure it has no trailer brakes, I'm familiar with the shop that made that trailer and they don't do such fancy technologies

Toyman01 said:

That would be terrifying at any speed over 45 mph. Under 45 probably wouldn't be too bad until someone pulled out in front of you. I wonder if it has trailer brakes.

 

I see neither safety chains nor an electric hookup at all. (Don’t see tail lights either)

Why are the trailer axles spread so wide?

In reply to SVreX :

The axle spread is probably the only thing keeping the Samurai bumper off the ground. 

I did notice that the trailer made "chuffchuffchuff" noises when he turned. Bonus pic under the hood of the car:

In reply to Toyman01 :

I think you’re right 

In reply to SVreX :

The spread is good thinking to keep the trailer more self balancing.  Now if one of the axles had some passive steering they could use less power to keep it moving on turns.

In reply to Wally :

Yeah, except it makes it harder to turn.

In reply to SVreX :

That's where the passive steering comes in. It would just pivot on the fixed axle.  Admittedly turning is likely the least frightening thing that set up does, trailing stopping and starting by a wide margin.  

You know, if you take the front driveshaft off a Samurai, it has low range...

(or disconnect front hubs, but it looks like he's running permanent drive flanges)

Streetwiseguy said:

I presume all the roads go downhill wherever he lives.

I wouldn't want to drive that rig anywhere but uphill, myself.

The only real sketchy moments I have ever had while towing were when the trailer tried to push the tow vehicle around and succeeded.

GameboyRMH said:

You know, if you take the front driveshaft off a Samurai, it has low range...

(or disconnect front hubs, but it looks like he's running permanent drive flanges)

It would help quite a lot, they already dont even do 1: 1 on 2 and 4 hi as i remember so even suzuki knows for normal driving its underpowered

GameboyRMH said:

You know, if you take the front driveshaft off a Samurai, it has low range...

(or disconnect front hubs, but it looks like he's running permanent drive flanges)

Or just drive in 4WD, it doesn't matter all that much with a vehicle that light.

I had a dual range Subaru and drove it in 4WD all the time, and used to amuse myself by splitting gears between high and low range.  (The range gearset was on the transmission's INPUT shaft, and was synchronized, so you could change range at any speed you wanted)

Someone has to send that pic to Consumer Reports, they'll have a field day with it!

i bought mine because it was $250.  it also makes Ickeyah/municipal dump/apt. move runs easy.  plus you get to help people which being single is cool.  i've seen people in the parking lot of Ickeyah trying to stuff big stuff into a beetle and a 'stang also a Pious - plain stoopid.  the only time I was there in my lil' blue truck I got to flirt with two winsome lasses in their much nicer new blue F-150. 

In reply to nutherjrfan :

I went into town with my '85 RX-7 to pick up a roof-mount A/C condensor unit because I didn't want to have to drive a truck.  I had to stop at a hardware store to pick up some other stuff, and I found that by folding the seats forward, I could just barely get the hatch to close, too.

MUCH better take a car if at all possible, IMO.