Impact of towing a car

[Haque]

Hello All

Yesterday, I had the to tow a ford icon with my baleno. This was the second time in the past 7 months. The distance towed:
1. 70kms from maddur on mysore road to bangalore.
2. ~40kms from hoskote to frazer town, bangalore.

Now I am beginning to wonder about the impact of this activity on the car chasis....

From the car's maintenance perspective ( my baleno ) was it the right thing to do? Anything that I should watch out for? Would be giving my baleno for service this tuesday. So got some time to identify potential problem areas...

guess what i am eager to hear is reassurance that towing is acceptable, no harm done etc...

Thanks
Haque

[moralfibre]

More than the chassis I think your clutch would take a beating.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

More than the chassis I think your clutch would take a beating.

Why.........the car would be in neutral while towing........

[hari_rama]

@lbm, i think he means he had to tow an ikon with his baleno and not the other way round

actually i dont know much on the chassis structure and rigidity,if i make a guess it wont damage.because if it would had then the suzuki wouldn havent given an option for towing.and also the ikon weighs only around 900kgs rite??

[wolfinstein]

Don't think its much of a problem, since the cars can log certain amount of weight as Small boat trailers abroad, However One should not put excess load on the engine, Such as AC

[arunforu1]

No damage can incurr on chassis while towing, unless you bump into tracting vehicle.

clutch damage???????? ...how come..please explain!

I dont see anything damaging clutch while towing.....

[tsk1979]

Unless you are slipping clutch(For example towing a bus) its not going to have any clutch damage!
One scenario could be driving uphill towing another vehicle. Here you would have to slip clutch and hence problem, on a level road, with no slippage there is not going to be any clutch damage.

[jango]

i doubt if there would be any problem, coz once the car gains momentum everything sets on rolling :-)

[binz]

Clutch will fry a bit,..especially if your towing a much larger vehicle.Take care,..try not to strain the engine on the higway(I.e. high rpm lower gear OR low Rpm Higher gear)

Just yesterday fried the kine clutch pushing a honda with a mclaren

Btw,..why were you towing the ikon??

[Haque]

Thanks for the opinions...just feel reassured... the reason why these doubts arose, were comments from a driver that towing is not desirable, as it might result in chasis strain. while towing, its not always a smooth ride especially in a stop-n-go traffic.

@binz: was towing my bro-in-law's car which broke down on the way to banglore.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by Haque

while towing, its not always a smooth ride especially in a stop-n-go traffic.

Agreed on the above point.. especially on uphill rodas your car will have greater strain..but this is only for a short while.. This should not have any effect on chassis.

Godfather

[vid6639]

Originally Posted by Godfather

Agreed on the above point.. especially on uphill rodas your car will have greater strain..but this is only for a short while.. This should not have any effect on chassis.

Godfather

lol!!! you drive a tow truck. obviously your car can pull anything without any problems. hehe.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by vid6639

lol!!! you drive a tow truck. obviously your car can pull anything without any problems. hehe.

Yeah..be happy i got it.. Helps to pull non mivec vehicles. .

Godfather

[BUSA]

Your car is not meant to tow any other vehicle. Check the owners manual, its clearly stated there.

[zenopio]

guys even i towed my frenz zen with my zen..i had problems with the clutch later .....