Towing A Sidecar Rig

I know that many auto dealerships and garages used to pickup and deliver vehicles with a Harley Servicar (trike) that had a permanently attached towbar. Many businesses also usedvarious sidecar rigs for delivery purposes. I don't know of any that towed sidecar rigs though.
The last auto dealership I know of that used a towed Servicar for this purpose was in Vancouver, WA. While we were painting the Highway 99 Interstate bridges between Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA in the summer of 1966 a towed dealer trike headed northbound at about 40MPH became disconnected and came tumbling down the roadway. Luckily none of the painting crew or any of our equipment was injured. Thry came back later and picked it up with a tow truck. I haven't seen another anywhere being towed since then.

Lonnie

I got my first sidecar rig from a Chevy dealer in my home town. I was the car jockey/ lot boy at the time. It had a towbar on the front forks that would clamp to the rear of a car.

My first experience riding with a sidecar was prefaced by my boss saying, "Just don't turn right, you'll be OK.

They sold me the sidecar outfit when they replaced it with a servicar, but it didn't last long. The Servicar was a 45 c.i. and was too slow for the bosses taste. We covered a large area and the boss didn't like it taking an hour to get back to the shop. Shortly after buying it, he started hiring retirees to follow us when we delivered customer cars. By that time the bumpers were becoming harder and harder to clamp to.

Isn't there a photo here somewhere of Hal Kendall kneeling in front of his bike with the same kind of towbar?

edit: I have this backwards. They replaced the servicar with the sidecar because it was faster. Then they replaced the sidecar with retirees. My uncles were the service and general manager so I was able to purchase both.

These photos show a Ural with a homemade Tow Bar setup. It flips over to allow the angle to move the front wheel up off the road and then stores beneath the hack frame when not in use. It is an interesting tow bar mod.

Works OK here but most sidecar rigs have quite a bit of wheel lead unlike the Patrol 2WD rigs.

Lonnie

Yeah, your correct and you would certainly have to look at such first in making one for yourself. The fellow who made this particular one up for his Ural has already used it when he recently broke down on a trip out of state to VA. He got someone to tow him with it and he says that it worked very well for his rig. I plan to make a similar one for my Troyka in the near future. I won't store it on daily neighborhood rides near my home, but I'll have it handy for any longer trips.

I've wondered about doing this myself. Usually when my old bike was broken down a long way from home. LOL Done like the Ural rig above there are really no issues other than getting it up on the hitch. In effect it has just been turned into a two wheel trailer. My idea is to attach to the fork tubes just below the lower triple clamp. This would allow the front suspension to work as normal. Of course this system is going to mean a little more creativity in making the actual tow bar so there is no interference with the front wheel/fender movement. I am thinking like a long tuning fork with one arm coming down each side of the wheel. I don't think wheel lead will be an issue because the towbar is holding the forks much more secure than a rider ever could. Going one step farther I might look at making a custom lower triple clamp with attachment points on the outer ends. The only other issue I see that might be a problem is the width of the rig with the hitch of the tow vehicle in the usual location the sidecar would be hanging out the right side some. Not really a problem with my own truck as I can install a second hitch receiver more to the left side. Hmmmmmm............ Bob

A tuning fork is an excellent description. That is exactly what mine looked like but it attached to a longer axle that extended out either side of the front wheel. Since it was often used on cars without hitches, it had a clamp on the end instead of a normal coupler.

For flat three wheel towing I've only seen front axle mounted towbars. No ossillation to be had there like there might be from a suspended mounting.
I still wonder how an asymetrical sidecar rig with wheel lead would act at freeway speeds.

Here are a couple of pics of another tow bar used on a Ural.

Another question on use of a tow bar, is, will the tranny ever accidentally jump into gear when moving? Me, I don't believe that would happen, but it is actually easy enough to make/fabricate a cover to go over the gear lever on the Ural to prevent such from happening. My contention is that if it was going to do such, by accident, the rig does not know when it is being towed and would do it when driving with a pilot on it, too. After towing Model A's for years with a tow bar, I am not all that fearful of a tranny suddenly shifting gears on me by accident when the vehicle is towed.

As to handling, I really can't say, as I have not built one yet for my sidecar. I assume it will tow just like a two-wheeled trailer, but the wheels of the sidecar are not at the same plane on a Ural. They are offset a bit from each other and not directly in line with each other. (Hope that says what I wanted it to). Any rate, the fellow who made the first one that I'll be copying in the near future, didn't mention any quirks in handling with it. Like towing any trailer, you do need to follow some common sense safety techniques in stopping and in making turns. He also has safety chains on the tow bar. The HF magnetic lights for towing are likely a good investment, too.

I have to put this DIY project on hold for a bit, due to some scheduled eye surgery this week, but I hope to make one for myself, soon.

A few years ago the injectors in my x's '85 GL1200LTD/Friendship I rig fuel injectors got plugged up and stopped running. I eventually got a tow from a local GoldWinger to his home a mile away using a tow strap. THAT was exciting. We made it there okay, but I don't think I'd want to do that again! We finally made it back to San Antonio in the Electraglide rig. Those were fun times!

I bought a 1936 Ford coupe back in the early 70's. It was near a railroad track and had sat there in that field forever. I found the owner and actually got the car for $50 bucks at the time. My father-in-law decided we could tow it home behind his old Chevy pickup with a long tow strap. He had me inside the thing to steer it. No brakes and the tires were completely shot. Had not been moved in years and years. We had just started out when the steering wheel came off in my hands. I kid you not, it was like one of the old Keystone Cops episode, as the nut had been removed that held the steering wheel to the column. I could not honk at him or even get him to pay attention as the old coupe decided to head on off on its own path in life. Rode up onto a curb and just missed a tree before my father-in-law finally looked behind him to see how the coupe was doing. The little bit of flowers we rolled across were destroyed, but the coupe finally rolled to a stop and didn't kill anyone or really wreck. It could have been really serious, but we both laughed our heads off about how silly it all must have looked. Got it fixed and got the car towed from there. We didn't have YouTube at the time, but I'm sure we would have had a viral video that showed the best and the dumbest back then. We used to tow cars pretty often with a long chain and a long piece of pipe, but those days are long since gone. No internet and no YouTube to show off our nuttiness back then. 🙂

I had been thinking about fabricating a towbar much like those shown above. I like the idea of having the front wheel off the ground, so it isn't contributing to the vehicle dynamics. My rig has a fair amount of sidecar wheel lead, so that may complicate things, but my gut feel is it won't cause an issue. I think the rig will just track a little off-kilter.

I really DON'T like the idea of towing from the front wheel. My rig has a conventional front fork, and I think that is a bit too flexible to handle the load.

I also thought about the chance of the rig slipping into gear under tow. My solution, bungie-strap the clutch lever to the handlebar. That takes the tranny out of the loop regardless.

Best,
Ed Bianchi
Delaware USA
'87 K75C/Dauntless "Lady Carol"

i have almost finished making a copy of this Ural tow bar setup. How it would work or not work with other sidecars, I have not a clue. I can't address how it works just yet, as I have not fully installed it just yet. Mine still needs to be painted, so even when I put it on for testing, I'll have to disassemble it all for painting. Unfortunately, the local area has been really wet for the last few days and weather is getting cooler. I have not mocked it all into place just yet, but the main bar is welded and all the hardware is there to be assembled. I'll add more pics to my flickr account in the future, as I get the work done. Hopefully it won't be long before I can test it behind my old beater Nissan pickup and find out just how it does do when it trails behind me at various speeds . Although the receiver pieces hold the tow bar for storage under the hack frame, I doubt I'll store it there all the time. I figure to use it most often for off-roading, which my Troyka has the ability to do. I like having the option to carry it in my truck or on the Ural. It may even add ballast, but not sure how that will effect things or not. If one has the welding skills, equipment and talent, this is an easy and cheap mod to make. I have essentially none of those qualities, so my cost outlay has been about $100 bucks, so far. Not bad when compared to the cost of a trailer that takes up a lot more space and is probably more apt to be a theft target.

Here is the flickr set, but none of the parts have been primed or painted at this point. I'll add more pics as I finish out this project. Gobium was the fellow who gave me the most input for this DIY project with his photos and advise. I modified the receivers a little differently than he did, but everything else is pretty much the same. I have not weighed out the total parts to see what it added to the weight of the rig. I had to make my receiver support pieces a bit different than Gobium's, as my frame is a hair different than his and I wanted the pieces to not interfere with my engine jugs and such. They make a rubber inner part to keep the main tow bar from rattling inside the receivers, but I have not ordered those pieces, yet. Gobium used a big hose clamp to pull up his bar and keep it from rattling. I think I'll order the anti-rattlers, myself though. Lots of various styles of them to pick from.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a1930ford/6445801935/in/set-72157628257545359/

Like say, I can't say this would work on every rig, but it does work for a Ural. Can't say how it tracks behind a vehicle, as I have not experimented with such just yet. It is easy enough to make if it interests you to try it out though. My tow bar has not been chopped down to the final length just yet. I could add a hook or receiver tot he rear for pulling the bike out of any mud or such, if I wanted. Gobium's pics show his tow bar made with a receiver piece for his winch to attach to. I didn't put one on my tow bar setup, but I could at a later date, if I needed to. Lots of options to modify it as one desires. If I had a welder and such, I could have easily cut the cost down to very, very little on this project. My local welder/fabricator charged me $40 bucks to weld on some tabe for safety chains on my old Nissan, cut and weld the main tow bar piece, add a piece for looping in the safety chains on the bar, making up the support pieces with the hangars attached, cost of two pieces of 2"X2" bar stock and trimming all pieces and drilling the holes. Not bad, in my opinion.

A one piece drawbar tube heated and curved to the 25 degree angle would have less chance of failure from the constant impacts of weighted towing than a 2 piece drawbar with an unreinforced buttweld.
A straight drawbar wouldn't be as affected by the torsional stresses that can also lead to failure of the two piece drawbar.

Steel is cheap, your Troyka isn't.

L.