quattro Digest, Vol 20, Issue 87

[George Selby]

At 05:32 PM 6/29/05, you wrote:
>I thought they weren't "tow hooks," but were there to tie the car down
>while on a boat to the final selling destination.
>
>Most of the trailering of cars I've seen has involved then being tied
>down by suspension parts (control arms, etc.) at all four corners, with
>all the chains under tension.

I think the tow hooks are for towing the vehicle European style, with a 
cable running from the tow truck to the car, rather than American style 
towing of either lifting one end off the ground or loading the entire 
vehicle onto a flatbed truck.  They may use the cable to pull one end off 
the ground, I'm not sure?  They are heavier duty then the shipping hooks on 
Japanese vehicles of the same vintage.

As to trailering a car, I used to help a friend of mine trailer cars from 
Richmond, VA to our home city of Greenville, NC on a weekly basis.  After 
much trial and error, what we found to work best was the straps that go 
around the tire, and then fasten to the trailer.  They are available at 
farm supply stores (such as Agri-Supply in the Carolinas and 
Virginia.)  Safety chain prevents car from going too far forward or back in 
the event of an emergency.   Once we started using these, we never had any 
more cars come loose (Just as previously described:  Chains slacken during 
a bounce, and car hops sideways.)   Incidentally, we would usually tow two 
cars at once; one on the trailer, and one with two wheels on, two wheels 
off.  Works best with front wheel drive cars.  Believe it or not, this is 
legal.


George Selby