flat Tow M?

[SOTVEN]

HELLO ALL!!!! JOSH!! IN MY OPINION, USE A TRAILER. A FRIEND OF MINE PULLED HIS M43 WITH HIS AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR FOR ABOUT 2 MILES ALL AND ALL. BACK ROAD, NO TRAFIC NO PEOPLE. ULTRA SLOW SPEED. SECOND TURN HE MADE, THE FRONT WHEELS STEERED ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT SIDE AND STAYED THERE. HE RIPED A NEIBOUR'S FENCE FROM SIDE TO SIDE, ABOUT 10 YARDS. SO PERSONALY I WOULD NOT DO IT. GOOD LUCK FRIEND!!

[slozukimc]

HELLO ALL!!!! JOSH!! IN MY OPINION, USE A TRAILER. A FRIEND OF MINE PULLED HIS M43 WITH HIS AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR FOR ABOUT 2 MILES ALL AND ALL. BACK ROAD, NO TRAFIC NO PEOPLE. ULTRA SLOW SPEED. SECOND TURN HE MADE, THE FRONT WHEELS STEERED ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT SIDE AND STAYED THERE. HE RIPED A NEIBOUR'S FENCE FROM SIDE TO SIDE, ABOUT 10 YARDS. SO PERSONALY I WOULD NOT DO IT. GOOD LUCK FRIEND!!

Man! You folks worry too much.......

With some common sense an M37 will move very easily with a good 3/4 ton and an old U-haul bumper mount towbar.

Yes, it might be handy to have a friend along to straigthen out the wheels when they go full lock in a tight turn because they will do that and if you don't have enough sense to go slow the M will push the towing truck sideways in a hurry.

All told i have towed M37's this way probably 1500 miles without issue, just using common sense(mostly). There have been times when we reached speeds that we really shouldn't have been at....85 or so on the highway and had to back down but there was never a time when the M became unstable. NO, I AM NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD GO FAST TOWING ANYTHING!

6K pounds really isn't all that much to tow with a good truck and a sensible driver.

Just my $.02,

Mike

[Lifer]

I'm sure glad I was nowhere in the area when you were flat-towing an M37 at 85 mph...or even 55 mph!

You say you've done so for "over 1500 miles without issue." You were extremely lucky, my friend. EXTREMELY lucky! "Issues" have a terrible way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it and are least prepared to cope with them. They are never planned, rarely forewarned, and are often fatal or permanently debilitating.

My advice? Use a trailer for anything more than a short distance. For 1/2 mile or less, I'd still recommend someone to steer the truck and apply the brakes when necessary.

[peter e mark]

Well for what it's worth, I towed my WC52 (that's close to an M37, right? ) 4 1/2 hours @ 55MPH with my M35A2 several times to re enactments. No problem at all and the wheels stayed straight...

[VROD02]

I trailer my m715 ALL the time with a 1/2 ton chevy. Also the m37 when I got it , 220 mile trip. I average 65 on the highway no problems. Just be critical with the tongue weight, no more than 15% and remember speed is not your issue its BRAKING hense 3/4 ton is better. I had the skid issue flat trailering a m38 years back and it blistered the front tires and man what a pain in the arse to unhook and reinstall the drive shafts every time. My .02

[kc8sfq]

Back in the day when I had both time AND money, I towed my M-37 to shows in four states with my M-292. That having been said, the '292' is HEAVY and easily over powered the 3/4 when the wheels went to the stops. That usually only happened in soft soil such as display areas. A trick I used was to have the M-37 front hubs (that were removed for the lockouts) faced off to clear the axle stubs on the rear. I put these "towing hubs" on for the highway section of a trip and once at a show, I just put her in 4WD and putted around the show. Come time to go home, just twist the hubs out after hooking up to the duce. This worked well for many hundreds of miles. It made enough difference that I could tell from driving the '292' if the m-37 in tow had the towing hubs on or not.

The bottom line here is don't do anything fast or stupid, and the two together is a recipe for disaster. I have towed one M-37 with another and it's a hoot when the steering goes to the stop. When I tow one with another, I always lock the hubs in but run in 2WD. That policy saved me one time when I came around a corner and the steering locked and threw the towing M-37 sideways in the road in front of an oncoming semi. I was able to grab 4WD and drag the towed M-37 to the shoulder ASAP. No harm...No foul, but we had everyones undivided attention for a couple of minutes.

[MSeriesRebuild]

HELLO ALL!!!! JOSH!! IN MY OPINION, USE A TRAILER. A FRIEND OF MINE PULLED HIS M43 WITH HIS AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR FOR ABOUT 2 MILES ALL AND ALL. BACK ROAD, NO TRAFIC NO PEOPLE. ULTRA SLOW SPEED. SECOND TURN HE MADE, THE FRONT WHEELS STEERED ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT SIDE AND STAYED THERE. HE RIPED A NEIBOUR'S FENCE FROM SIDE TO SIDE, ABOUT 10 YARDS. SO PERSONALY I WOULD NOT DO IT. GOOD LUCK FRIEND!!

Man! You folks worry too much.......

With some common sense an M37 will move very easily with a good 3/4 ton and an old U-haul bumper mount towbar.

Yes, it might be handy to have a friend along to straigthen out the wheels when they go full lock in a tight turn because they will do that and if you don't have enough sense to go slow the M will push the towing truck sideways in a hurry.

All told i have towed M37's this way probably 1500 miles without issue, just using common sense(mostly). There have been times when we reached speeds that we really shouldn't have been at....85 or so on the highway and had to back down but there was never a time when the M became unstable. NO, I AM NOT SAYING YOU SHOULD GO FAST TOWING ANYTHING!

6K pounds really isn't all that much to tow with a good truck and a sensible driver.

Just my $.02,

Mike

Quite the contrary, you don't worry enough would be more the thought of the day here. ALWAYS expect the unexpected, stuff happens even with your best intentions sometimes. Better safe than sorry, things of this nature have a very fine line between stupid & sensible. Be careful you don't step over that line in the wrong direction. Being stupid & causing issues for yourself is one thing, getting on the road, being stupid, & causing life altering circumstances for innocent people is quite another, food for thought.

[poor rich]

Wow I cant believe the replies to the question.
When I brought my m37 home (aprox. 40 miles) Having no other truck to messure and having only seen mine twice I built a tow bar (or bars) from memory. Each bar is 5' long on 1 end is welded a 1" nut with a 1" forged I bolt screwed in but left loose to swivel.
The other end is a heavy piece of angle Iron welded to the end with a 3/4"bolt a rubber bushing made from caster wheels and a steel plate to act as a large washer. This end is sandwiched around the D rings on the front of the "m" and bolted tight.
The I bolt end fits over a 1" pin I have on the hitch of my Excursion ( I use to tow a civil war cannon but thats another story).
We didnt get more than 12 feet when I discovered the problem of the steering wheels turning against rather than following me. I tied the stearing wheel to the brake pedel and away I went, at 1 point I forgot what I was doing and found myself going 67 mph (shows how smooth it pulled) the rest of the trip I kept it down to 45-50.
And all this on tires made in 1953.
Have a good set of tools along, a friend thats a good mechanic, a sunny day with no deadline, and alot of caution and common sence and you can do almost anything.

[m-37Bruce]

Wow I cant believe the replies to the question.
When I brought my m37 home (aprox. 40 miles) Having no other truck to messure and having only seen mine twice I built a tow bar (or bars) from memory. Each bar is 5' long on 1 end is welded a 1" nut with a 1" forged I bolt screwed in but left loose to swivel.
The other end is a heavy piece of angle Iron welded to the end with a 3/4"bolt a rubber bushing made from caster wheels and a steel plate to act as a large washer. This end is sandwiched around the D rings on the front of the "m" and bolted tight.
The I bolt end fits over a 1" pin I have on the hitch of my Excursion ( I use to tow a civil war cannon but thats another story).
We didnt get more than 12 feet when I discovered the problem of the steering wheels turning against rather than following me. I tied the stearing wheel to the brake pedel and away I went, at 1 point I forgot what I was doing and found myself going 67 mph (shows how smooth it pulled) the rest of the trip I kept it down to 45-50.
And all this on tires made in 1953.
Have a good set of tools along, a friend thats a good mechanic, a sunny day with no deadline, and alot of caution and common sence and you can do almost anything.

Hey poor rich,
Sounds like a great set up, how about posting a picture or two of it?
BTW, I like your sign off, life is better'n good!

[poor rich]

http://www.g741.org/photogallery/main.p ... temId=4320

http://www.g741.org/photogallery/main.p ... temId=4324
Id have built the hitch end a little diffrent but I had no way to know the angle the two bars came in at so this was the strongest best way I could think up.