Maiden Tow

[ISLAPP]

I "believe" you must have lights on the toad as well as the motorhome. And even though the car only weighs 2200lbs, your class C is not designed to stop it was well as itself. I would suggest you make it a priority to get the braking system and the lights installed.
And weigh your rig. You might be surprised at the weight of it after you do weigh it! Do so as if you are ready for a trip. That includes fuel, water, etc. etc. And weigh each corner seperately to make sure you are not overloaded on a particular corner.
Mike

[zetron]

Thanks, I will dig out the stuff in the car and at least finish the wiring for the braking system.

What are the possible pitfalls of towing a car? I have heard of "jackniving".

I have a 4 prond connector on the back of the Montara. I wired the Nova lights with the four wire cable and put diodes in the lines. When it came to my maiden tow I could not get the four prong connector to plug into the outlet on the Montara? I cut it off and bought another one. I will make sure this one fits before I wire it.

The Nova uses one wire for left turn, one wire for right turn , one wire for license plate light and one wire for ground. The brakes will have to be wired with the wire dedicated to the US Gear Unified Braking System.

For the Remco lube pump I bought the pump and the controller, saving $200.00 off the price for the complete kit. I do not need all those wires, diodes, harness and the monitor. The monitor is a little device with a red LED, green LED and a buzzer. The green LED is on when power goes from the motorhome to the lube pump. The red LED goes on and the buzzer sounds if the power goes off. I can do that for less than $10.00. As far as the buzzer goes, I have a microphone in the engine compartment of the Nova and an amplifier in the motorhome cab. I used this in the past to tell if the Nova's engine was running while I towed it in neutral. I will place the microphone on the lube pump and hopefully will be able to hear the pump running from the motorhome driver's seat. I will also ave a bright LED that would go out if the power to the pump were interupted.

David/zetron

[ISLAPP]

Someone else will have to help you with the wiring. I'm not very good at that.
Mike

[zetron]

Thanks, but I am very good at wiring things; it is the mechanical stuff that sometimes gives me trouble. The mechanical plunger and wire set up for the brake pedal will be a chore.

David/zetron

[zetron]

Hello again: This was my third tow. This time I put the emergency cables in the right places and the tow bar was LOCKED in position. My lube pump and US Gear Unified Braking Sytem have still not been installed completely.

I towed from North Ranch Escapee's park in Congress to Yarnell. It was about 19 miles and very steep in places. I do not know how a transmission acts if it is being destroyed by too much stress and heat? The trans in my Montara, attached to a 460 Ford engine sort of felt like a series of shallow dips in the road. I thought maybe this is the way the trans acts when it is being asked to do too much so I slowed down to 5 mph and it stopped the shallow dips routine.

The engine temperature gauge hardly moved from where it normally stays (right in the middle of the dial).

I stopped about 3/4 of the way up and placed the Montara motor in neutral and let it run for 10 minutes. I think maybe I am being too cautious, one fellow said that with that 460 engine I should be able to climb the mountain with the Nova in tow at a respectible speed with no problems at all. The engine shifts into low gear going up the mountain and all that noise tends to make me nervious. Sure I could punch it and see what happens but I do not wnat to damamge something.

I found a 4 wire round to 5 wire adapter at NAPA and wired it in before the tow: my running lights and brake lights worked from the MH but not the turn signals?

David/zetron