David '96 993

Has anyone attached a towbar to their 944?

I am planning on flat towing my 944 to track events, but I am not sure how I want to safely attach the towbar.

I pulled the front bumper off and found that the easiest way looks to be to pull the front bumper pads off and mount the bracket to the bumper directly using the holes for the bumper pads. My only concern about this is what is the bumper made of and will it be solid or stable enough to pull on? I don't know what it is made of nor do I know if the bumper shocks can withstand the pulling and pushing involved when towing.

Has anyone mounted their towbar to the bumper directly, and if not where and how did you mount it?

Kurt R

I used to flat tow a rabbit, you can do something similar to what I did. Take off the bumper and bumper shocks. Weld the shocks solid, just to make sure they don't pull apart. Put the shocks back on the car and make a bracket out of angle iron to go between the bumper shocks. I can draw you a picture if you need it. I wouldn't mount the tow bar to the bumper because it's aluminum and I would be afraid it would crack. It's easy enough to remove the towbar and mount the bumper when you are at the track; two bolts and remount the turn signals if you need them.

adie

Had to go and take some pics, hope this works, I did these 6 years ago and it still works well.

adie

and again

adie

brackets

David '96 993

Thank you guys. That confirms my thoughts about the bumper. Unfortunately, I don't have access to welding equipment so I will have to find someone to fabricate me something ASAP as I have to tow the car next week to the track.

I think the angle iron idea may be the route that I go. Basically, create a plate that the brackets can be attached to and attach the plate to the bumper shocks (welded solid) with the bolt that I use to attach the bumper with.

adie

Just a quick note, make sure the bits that bolt together are parrallel so the frame can swing up and down, if you lookk at the pic's there's a twist in the bar coming out, I never had shocks as I'm in Euro spec's but I wouldn't trust a hrdraulic unit to do the duty, from what I see they are designed to compress and that would make the car steerif it did it while you were moving. I extended the bars to come further out that the usual, the originals I used were beefed up standard bumper brackets and they worked well. I'd make some fresh brackets though and weld them onto the chassis after you have bolted them on just to be sure. I made another frame when I first arrived to Canada and it cost me about $25 in parts and I had to make it bolt together as the welder was sitting at home so it's very do-able.

M758

The front bumper and shocks are quite strong. I had an off at Willow Springs last July.

I had the tow truck lift the car from the front bumper and pulled me back into the pits. It was a short trip From turn 9, but the bumper held up well. I replaced a control arm and won that afternoon's race.

I also know a guy in Az the flat tows his 944 spec car. I think he uses the stock bumper shocks.

944Ecology

Unfortunately, the bumpers are aluminum and can fracture and separate without warning.

If you think having an off at the track is bad, try letting your 944 go off on its own when the bumper separates from the body at 70 mph. If you kill someone, chances are that the police are not going to be happy with you, nor are the survivors of the deceased.

Do not attach a towbar to the bumper. Have a proper towbar fabricated which attaches to the frame at strong points. The bumper shocks are only slightly better than the bumper, bute neither is satisfactory.

gb

BruceWard

Why would you tow the car if you are not going to trailer it. The only reason I understand for trailering is to save tires?

David '96 993

Tow with street tires, haul the race tires, long drives (many tracks are 6+ hours away) in the race car are tough on driver and car, extra miles on race car, if there is a mechanical failure or OTE and damage, potential tickets for driving a race car on the street although my car is "legal"etc...

I would actually rather have a trailer, but don't have a place to put it right now other than renting storage at $200 month...therefore the towbar seems to make the most sense.

M758

David,
My only concern with long flat tows the impact on the gearbox. It is not good to reverse drive these for too long. I can understand why you want to flat tow however.

The guy that does flat tow local here does it locally only. Really 30 min to 45 min tows is all he does. He does tow throught bumper but his hooks are attached to the bumper shocks and again the short tows helped. He used my trailer when making the trip to Calif Speedway in March of this year. I am thinking that you really want something to get the car off the rear wheels. This will prevent tranny damage on long tows. Then again you may just want have spare tranny "just in-case". That may in fact prove cheaper. If it goes you have one. If it does not...

David '96 993

A spare tranny with LSD would be nice

Thank you for the advice. I do know a guy that dollied his 924S (rear wheels on ground, I beleive) for years with no apparent issues.

SurgeGT

hey adie (or anyone for that matter)..i noticed you fab'd up the tow bar, what are you using (or anyone who's done this) to allow the a-frame to pivot (at the bumper)?

high grade bolts through holes? is it strong enough? is that angle iron sufficient for you? i'm building mine this weekend and would appreciate first hand experiences!

thanks!

adie

In canadian tire (I never got mine from there but i know they have them there, I'm guessing any auto store like it) they have high tenstile pins with holes drilled in them for 'R' clips, the bumper bracket is parallell to the tow frame and the hole 5/8th as I remember but it could be 1/2 (probably 1/2 inch as I work in metric it would have been 13mm) passes through, before that I just used shanked bolts and that has just jogged my memory it was 14mm or 9/16ths to the non-convertors) I used the bolts and double nutted them as I was unsure how safe it would all be, now I just use the pins and clips as I'm to lazy to try and undo any bolts, never had a issue with it yet, towing generally consists of about a 2 1/2 hr run at 70-80 mph and no issues from the gearbox.Just make sure that the frame is parallel to the direction of travel and to each other or it will bind on bumps and strech the bolts. Also make sure that the mounting point on the porsche is higher that the tow vehicle or as you brake to go into a corner it will try and lift the tow vehicle making the rear end light and more likely to break out, not likely but in an emergency situation think what you reaction will be, hard on the brakes and turn away from danger, add a little water on the road into the mix and you have a disaster waiting to happen. having the frame angled down pushes the rear of the tow vehicle to the ground on heavy breaking allowing for some more stability. just go up on tire pressures a little. Angle iron is sufficient (I used to try and fing old bed frames, if they can support the weight of a person sitting on the end of a bed at that span, then for puling with less load will be fine. Have a ook at some trailers and see what some of them are made from, some look like they will just bend and break, then remember you car will have all it's weight supported so there is little downward load on the frame unlike a trailer which has a lot of unsprung weight going through the front of the frame.