Towing an air cooled VW

[Pauliewog]

Hi all-
I would like to know if any of you pull an air cooled VW (i.e., rear engine/rear wheel drive) vehicle behind your rigs? Any special considerations or things to be aware of? I have an older VW that I was thinking could make a good tow vehicle.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[Kevin D Pem]

In the day it was the most popular. Does require manual trans unless you use a dolly. Tow bar that was made for them connected directly to the front torsion tube.

 

[Rich W.]

VW toad

Hi folks, Does anyone know how best to tow a 1969, 4 speed manual, VW beetle?

rvforums.com

”In the day” is right - I haven’t thought about this in forty years. But nothing has changed. Unless its one of the rare automatic trans cars (rare because most ended up in junk yards), a simple vw specific tow bar is all you need. That and some from of turn, brake, and tail lights.

 

[Dirtdad]

I towed a Manx style buggy (1967 bug), behind our old 30' class A. Didnt even know it was there. My friend tows his baja bug behind his 24' class c. As mentioned above, just a vw specific tow bar, found at many online places. Make sure and add safety chains or cable, as they dont come with any, both to the hitch, and something that wraps around one of the torsion tubes on the bug. You can feed a cable or chain down the tubes that make up the tow bar. On my buggy I tapped into the electrical, and have a pigtail that hangs below the front bumper, and I just plug it to my RV. Theses old cars have very simple electrical systems, no computers or modules to worry about. My friend uses magnetic lights on his bumper. Only other thing is make sure your brake is off, the trans is in neutral, and your '69 probably has a locking steering wheel, you need to leave unlocked, in which case you need to disconnect the battery, or add a battery disconnect switch. Because my buggy is open, I always worry about some joker putting it in gear, so I check every time I walk away from it. Oh yeah, backing up sucks.