Tow bar

[john.p.clegg]

I am sure recently on Fleabay i saw a Plus 2 for sale fitted with a towbar?

Any ideas?
Has anyone got one?

Many Thanks
John

[triumphelan]

Is it for the front or back???

[john.p.clegg]

At the moment I can't think of anything witty enough.......but yes it's the traditional type tow bar fitted at the rear....
John

[1964 S1]

Why would you ever need one?



Line starts...








HERE_______________________

[john.p.clegg]

Yes,have you ever tried to put a fridge/freezer in the boot of a Plus2,if everything goes to plan the Plus2 will become the daily driver and need to fulfil a number of duties...

John

[zeteclotus]

I have seen them, they go through the boot floor and attach to the chassis.

Spyder used to make them (but now deny all knowledge apparently)

The +2 is just not strong enough to tow anything bigger than a hobby trailer, with out causing damage to the car.

+ any down force is sure to cause crazing unless you triangulate the support from the rear turrets.

I thought about it but decided it was a good excuse to run 2 old cars.

Which has now become 3 if you do not include the girlfriends...

[richardcox_lotus]

Our old club mate Clive had a tow bar fitted to his +2 & used it to tow his boat. I'll try & find a photo he sent me once. He also had a good scheme to get his car prepped & resprayed - simply get the boys @ the local college to do it as a Project......nothing like a bit of child labour (!)

[JJDraper]

I have an old tow bar fitting that came out of a +2. It looks strong enough to pull anything the dynamics of the car can handle(!)

It attaches to the rear chassis via the bolts in the boot, and is further located by the bumper bolts. The towing ball attaches to the underside of the car, but I do not have this. I have no idea who made it, but it looks a good fit, and well thought out. Unfortunately the car it was fitted to was scrapped as the owner only wanted the engine & sold the rest. One less on the register...

I have no use for the fitting so if anyone would like to offer a fair price for lugging it to Donnington, please PM me.

I attach photos of the fitting. If anyone else wants to make one, I can take some more detailed pics.

It is heavy, so budget for a magnesium diff housing to compensate!!

Jeremy

[AdrianSi]

Warning - dead thread revival!

So I thought I'd put together a follow up from this old thread.

A couple of months ago, I came up with the hair brain idea of setting about fitting a towbar to my +2 to enable me to tow my Teardrop caravan to Goodwood Revival.

After a bit of searching, I came across this thread, and purely on the off chance I messaged Jeremy to see if he still had the refinance of the towbar shown in the above photos. To my amazement, he still had the towbar and agreed to sell it to me. A friend of mine collected the bar from Jeremy and I then immediately set about getting it prepared to fit to my +2.

The towbar was incomplete in that it doesn't actually have the towball or attachment to the main towbar section. So a few hurdles to overcome immediately. From what I can tell the towbar wasn't a production part, however had been fabricated by somebody with an extremely good engineering background. The parts of the towbar fits to the rearmost fixings of the body to chassis fixings and along rear bumper fixings. There is the a plate with 4 fixing positions that pass through the body and are intended to transfer the load from the towball attachment that was missing.

I stripped the boot of the +2 out, including the rear bumper. The trial fit of the sections did not go well and would not line up with the rear bumper fixings. Maybe there was some differences in lay up thicknesses. However after some reconstruction, the fit was far better.

I had some concerns surrounding how the load would be transferred through to the chassis rather than loading the body. The angle plate that bolted to the rear chassis to body fixings had a single through fixing to the link bar to the rear rail, which would act as a hinged joint. So I added a few bits if steel to it and and additional through fixing to lock out the link bar. This would low transfer the downwards (and upwards) forces I to the angle plate, however this could now flex on the two body to chassis fixing points. So this needed some work. I added a couple of lengths of angle iron along the chassis (to the front rear A-frame mounts) and a extended them to the front of the angle plate. This would now allow the angle plate to sit on the angle iron (spaced through the body) and transmit the load directly into the chassis.

Whist I was at it, I added a spreader plate and two more fixings between the number plate lamps in the conveniently placed recess. This section of the body was also significantly thicker. The plan for this was to take away any significant loading to the bumper fixings.

Finally, this left the actual towball attachment to need fabricated. My angle of approach for this was a donor Swan-neck towbar from a Rover 800 that I picked up off eBay very cheaply (?5!). With a bit of cutting and a bit more plate, this was made into a detachable swan-neck attachment (including the electrics), which mates with the 4 fixing points that was originally intended.

And here is the result:

[alan.barker]

Many years ago i fitted a towbar to a +2S because i got fed up with people driving into the back of my car.
Strange but after the towbar was fitted nobody ever drove into the back .
I never used the towbar for towing, just to protect the back. Sometimes people don't see your car but they always see a nasty towbar
Alan

[reb53]

Many many years ago when we were a 2 car couple, my Sprint, and my wife's Standard 10, ( 1958?), I had to tow her home, ( in the car, no jokes please ).
Couldn't find anywhere to put a rope on the Elan so hooked it through both rear wishbones.
Went well until heading up a hill close to home got a bit of slack in the rope.
When I took it up there was a "bang" from the rear, but everything kept underway and we got home.
Few months later at MOT time found the crack right across the chassis just ahead of the rear A arms.......

[nmauduit]

Many years ago i fitted a towbar to a +2S because i got fed up with people driving into the back of my car.
Strange but after the towbar was fitted nobody ever drove into the back .
I never used the towbar for towing, just to protect the back. Sometimes people don't see your car but they always see a nasty towbar
Alan

maybe someone should make a fake tow bar in fiberglass for French Elan drivers...

[AdrianSi]

Just to be clear with this one, I wouldn't want to use it for anymore than I've used it for so far. The teardrop caravan weighs just 250kg unladen, and closer to 300-325kg fully laden. With some careful loading I make sure that the nose weight is minimal, ~25kg.

[vstibbard]

My first S4Se Elan and a tower fitted from new, the owner frequently tow a box trailer to his holiday home in south of France.... it went through base off boot and attached to the tubes that came down behind the differential and bolted to the body behind the bumper, clearly the ball load would have been very low...

[alan.barker]

Many years ago i fitted a towbar to a +2S because i got fed up with people driving into the back of my car.
Strange but after the towbar was fitted nobody ever drove into the back .
I never used the towbar for towing, just to protect the back. Sometimes people don't see your car but they always see a nasty towbar
Alan

maybe someone should make a fake tow bar in fiberglass for French Elan drivers...

It was in England when i had a 1970 +2S and people seemed to park by ear
Alan