How to move a three wheeled car (carporn for your troubles)

"vdub_nut: scooter snob" (jollyroger1210) 05/21/2016 at 15:02 • Filed to: None

1

13

Asking for friend. No, really, I’m far too broke to have a project car (plus I live in the city)...

Friend of mine is replacing the control arms on his project car, busted a 25 year old bolt inside the subframe, can’t replace it without pulling nearly everything and replacing that, risking breaking still-more brittle bolts inside the FRAME frame, yadda yadda yadda, TL:DR there’s now no way in hell to attach the Passenger front wheel to the car, but it needs to get to a shop. Are there tow trucks that can tow a car missing a wheel? I’ve obviously seen wrecked cars on rollback wreckers, but at that point it’s largely irrelevant if the bottom gets messed up a bit. Any other novel solutions (I recommended ratchet strapping a dolly onto it where the wheel used to be, not sure how joking I actually was)

Also, if your answer is something along the lines of “your friend shouldn’t have a project car because reasons”, know that you aren’t helping. We’ve all been there, mr internet tough guy

Stapleface > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 15:13

0

I’d wonder if anyone in your area still has a hook tow truck. If they grab the front end it’ll be off the ground, so he wouldn’t theoretically have to worry about the missing wheel .

Short of that, I’m not really sure what he could do

vdub_nut: scooter snob > Stapleface 05/21/2016 at 15:15

0

would that allow them to drive around though? Or just lift it onto a flat-ish surface? I’ll suggest it. Worst part, he’s in michigan, I’m in philly.

I Will Always Be The Honey Badger > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 15:49

0

What’s the project car?

vdub_nut: scooter snob > I Will Always Be The Honey Badger 05/21/2016 at 15:58

0

vw cabrio. Turboed, tuned, now working on suspension stuff (handling and safety, not hellaflush)

Stapleface > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 17:08

0

With a hook truck, the vehicle would be driven around with the wheels suspended, and roll on the rear two wheels. Again, this is assuming he could even find someone with such a truck . Flatbeds are far more popular now.

vdub_nut: scooter snob > Stapleface 05/21/2016 at 17:25

1

Excellent, thanks. I’ll recommend it, but he has some hare-brained scheme worked out involving a welder and a slip-on tube and cutting the old control arm in half (??!?!?!??!?!)

My brain is too frazzled to try to comprehend, to be honest.

DynamicWeight > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 17:28

0

Perhaps he could fab up some sort of skid? Sort of think like a ski. Maybe with a piece of wood on the bottom so the car can be dragged onto the flat bed?

Or maybe use a hoist to hold up that corner of the car while the flat bed slides under it? Then prop that corner up for the tow and repeat on the shop side?

DynamicWeight > DynamicWeight 05/21/2016 at 17:29

0

Replying to myself but wait a second. Have we completely given up on bolt extraction!? Drill it out and re-tap the hole if you have to before resorting to try and tow.

vdub_nut: scooter snob > DynamicWeight 05/21/2016 at 17:34

0

The bolt snapped off about half an inch below flush, in an area inaccessible to easy-outs.

Funktheduck > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 17:37

0

Yeah. They'll put it on casters

Stapleface > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/21/2016 at 19:59

1

Yeah, that hurts my brain just trying to think about it. Lol

MKVJunkle > vdub_nut: scooter snob 05/22/2016 at 14:15

1

Not sure if this would be helpful or not. I snapped a subframe bolt off on my gti(steel in aluminum), but the bolt went all the way through the subframe. So I managed to carefully drill in to the bolt with a slightly smaller bit and eventually it caught the bolt andspun it all the way out the backside, instead of trying to spin it out backwards. I nicked a few threads but just ran a tap to clean them up and it was like it never happened.

vdub_nut: scooter snob > MKVJunkle 05/22/2016 at 15:05

0

Thanks, man. Yeah, steel and aluminum can’t help falling in love, you’d think auto mfg’s would know that by now. That’s why BBS two/three piece wheels don’t have steel bolts.