very lightweight pit cart behind a Ford ?

[PDM075]

O.K., this may be a dangerous question to ask, but I'm wondering are there any racers out there that have towed very small lightweight pit carts to the grid behind their formula car ?

I'm not talking a huge pit cart - I have a custom hand built 3 wheeled aluminum pit cart with composite 10mm sign board as a deck that I have used for several years hand carted, or towed behind my Yamaha BWS scooter for my solo SM 240SX and CRX.

I'd like to know can you in fact secure anything to the back of a Formula Ford (1984 Van Diemen RF84) so that I can tow this very light trailer. (I custom hand built this from thin walled aluminum tube with pneumatic wheels, and is sturdy enough to carry 4 - 285/30R18 wheels/tires with jack and more, yet only weighs 29 lbs.

Is there anywhere on the back of a formula ford that is strong enough to carry such a cart, or is the entire rear end a braced and not capable of such a feat ?

Or am I safer to build a long handle that comes off the main roll hoop ?


tia....don

[Mark_Silverberg]

I always towed my gear down to tech a the first race of the year in a wagon hooked to the back of my FV. The shift guard made a very good tow hook - no problems.

Don't see any reason why you can't tow with the FF - but if it is to bring something to grid your crew is going to have to walk there anyway - why don't you have them bring the wagon.

[Barry Ott]

It's pretty common for people to use small trailers behind their FF to bring their stuff to grid in an Auto-X. I've always done it.... The Bearing carrier (I think that's the right term, it's the cover on the end of the Hewland) might have a couple holes through it where FC wings are often mounted, that's an easy place to attach the trailer if your car has them. My Reynard didn't have them so I made a big "horseshoe" shaped thing that went around the lower rear A-Arm pick-up points on the hewland. If you don't have the Bearing carrier with the holes, it might not be to hard to find one??? I can take some pics tonight....

[Brian]

I jack the back of the car up using the transmission, so I think that it is strong enough to tow a tiny trailer.

[chrisw52]

Just make sure it's a strong wagon.

I recently had been using a nice collapsable wagon
which failed when the front wheels collapsed, dumping all my pit gear (including starting battery) on the ground.
my recommendation now would be to stay away from anything with plastic wheels or sheet metal wheel mounts. In my case the front wheels failed after the sheet metal was over stressed. Stupid part is that for $10 more than I paid for this convenience of a collapsable cart, I could buy one of these



As far as the FF is concerned, I built a hitch mount on the rear cover of my transmission. It's strong enough, after all, if this car was a FC, I use the same mounting point where you would put the rear wing.

[Steve Demeter]

If you are towing the stuff behind the race car, how are you going to get it back from the grad anyway???

Or are you just being nice to your crew??

I would be worried about it tipping over and not knowing unitl it already is gone with the limited rearward visibility behind a FF.

Keep us informed how you make out.

This could be a very interesting subject.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I think those things are unstable. Not sure I want one rolling over while attached to anything on my car...

[chrisw52]

If you are towing the stuff behind the race car, how are you going to get it back from the grad anyway???

Or are you just being nice to your crew??

I would be worried about it tipping over and not knowing unitl it already is gone with the limited rearward visibility behind a FF.

Keep us informed how you make out.

This could be a very interesting subject.

In autocross, my crew includes me, myself, and I, maybe a co-driver on occasion. More often than not, it's just me, so towing a cart is done out of necessity.

[Barry Ott]

In autocross, my crew includes me, myself, and I, maybe a co-driver on occasion. More often than not, it's just me, so towing a cart is done out of necessity.

And we all tow them very slowly, pretty much walking speed, which is the speed all the supps I see say we all need to do. It's really not a big deal, happens all the time.

[TedV]

1st gear for autocross is low, so idle is walking speed. My gear trailer is similar to the steel green one pictured above. Auxiliary battery towards the front, air can towards the rear, other gear in the middle. If you weight it correctly it tracks just fine. Get the balance wrong and it will dart side to side like any improperly balanced trailer. I always drove extra slow since I had a muffler on the car (sound limits to keep lots) and nobody walking looks for a car below their knees.

Road race first gear is higher than an autoX gear so the speed might be kinda high and the trailer might bounce and dump. Putting the start battery under the bottom to get weight low might help the top heavy instability.

[PDM075]

Unfortunately, in our discipline (auto-x), you don't always have a co-driver available at all events, and wifey and kids rarely come to regular local events. Locally we will run two sessions per day, so it can be a hassle to move the racecar to the grid, then climb back out and sprint back to the pits to grab pit cart, especially when we have to work on our off-session, and usually try to cook food etc. OR help out Novice drivers on our only heat off we rest.

I'm working on the logistics of racing an open wheel car after racing 34 years of sedan racing - where you have an interior to actually shove air tanks, water sprayers, air gauges, etc. to move down to the grid.

As for strong....yup. Made a bunch originally out of mild steel tube which have lasted close to 20 years. This version is aluminum to help shed overall trailer and towing weight, and again is 29 lbs, yet is capable of handling well over 200 lbs. (I weigh 215 lbs and I can easily stand in this cart.... Bed is 10mm sign material (aluminum skin sandwiching plastic corrugate) and has been tested on my very large front splitter on my 400whp SM 240SX with good success. (I can stand on my front splitter of that car) If Joe Cheng and Gary Milligan can use this on the Vancouver Special A Mod car.....good enough for my projects

Full double bearings in the pneumatic wheels, and bearing swivel on front fork (with added caster for stability at speed) I have hit well over 40 mph with full load at Lincoln behind my modded BWS scooter


Barry would love pictures....

don

[CM/FFdriver]

Don, all these options seem like a lot of stuff to bring to the grid, is the trailer you have park in the back of grid out of the way? it looks really big to park between 2 CM cars. For me I bring a very small air tank, a starter battery, tire gauge, some miscellaneous tools For the local events. Nationals and pro solo's I park the truck very close to my grid spot for the tires, extra batteries, more tool, etc. etc.

I'm not planning any kind of trailer behind my CM car at this point because of the problem listed above, I like to focus on the up coming course, shock adjustment, tire psi, and the little list of things I do before an event then picking up or looking for a very small trailer around a National paddock area.

Ben

[Barry Ott]

This version is aluminum to help shed overall trailer and towing weight, and again is 29 lbs, yet is capable of handling well over 200 lbs. (I weigh 215 lbs and I can easily stand in this cart.... Bed is 10mm sign material (aluminum skin sandwiching plastic corrugate) and has been tested on my very large front splitter on my 400whp SM 240SX with good success. (I can stand on my front splitter of that car) If Joe Cheng and Gary Milligan can use this on the Vancouver Special A Mod car.....good enough for my projects

Full double bearings in the pneumatic wheels, and bearing swivel on front fork (with added caster for stability at speed) I have hit well over 40 mph with full load at Lincoln behind my modded BWS scooter


Barry would love pictures....

don

Nice! Clearly, you don't need any help figuring stuff out!!! I'll take a couple pictures tonight.

Edit, take a look at picture #7 of this ad. See how the wing is bolted to the back of the trans? My bearing carrier is similar to this so I use the top hole to attach my trailer to:
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59418

If your bearing carrier doesn't have those three holes you can probably find one that does. Or, I'm sure you can figure out something :-)

Regardless, I wouldn't worry about pulling that trailer. I've seen bigger and heavier behind CM cars....

[Dave Welsh]

There is a venue that we occasionally use that we are not allowed to take our trailers out to the the paddock. The trailer is parked 1/2 mile away, the porta potty is also 1/2 mile away.

FF's don't have a trunk, so what to do? Be the Beverly Hillbillies? I needed to get the air tank, pop up canopy, ice chest, chairs, tools, etc for 2 drivers and 2 FF's to and from the paddock for the day.

Here is my hillbilly solution. Not pretty. First gear is 13/37 in this car.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I guess I've never been to an autocross event where you camp on the grid....

Every one I've been to the grid was "hot" with drivers in their cars running and ready to go... If you needed to do anything between runs you just went back to your rig, dealt with it, and returned to the grid....

No "yard sale" of equipment.....

[Dick R.]

I never towed a pit trailer but at many big SCCA autocrosses there are assigned grid spots for each run group that the car comes back to between runs and for impound. If rain tires may be needed or removed the other set plus tools needs to be handy. At some sites tools for removing rubber or seam sealer between runs are needed. National level autocross is pretty serious business for most classes and lots of stuff comes to grid.

[mwizard]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wVHzC5lqL.jpg
I hook one like this over my rear sway bar(LD200). It has come loose a few times(I now bungy it on), but no other problems.
Mark

[captain_pants]

Bumping this thread up as it's suddenly very relevant to me. I'm going to Nats now, and recalled that your paddock spot is usually very far from the grid. My Citation came with a knock-off Radio Flyer wagon to tow stuff. The previous owner (Sho) said he just held on to it with his arm out the side while driving to grid, which sounds a little too risky for my liking.

So, I want to build a hitch, but my car has a very low and long exhaust that seriously limits access to the back of the transmission. Side view: https://shuttr.com/iangulinao/photo/73850
Rear view:
20160520_175217s.jpg

I'm looking for thoughts of those that have either done something similar or seen it in their previous experiences. First thoughts:

1. Attach as wagon handle to the very outboard edge of the lower left A-arm. Still risky as a sharp right turn will put the wagon into the exhaust.

2. Make a U-shaped quick-release bracket that attaches to the lower rear 'subframe', just inboard of the rear lower A-arm pickup points.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/experiences/feedback. Thanks!

[john f]

Extend wagon handle and the attach to transaxle or whatever.

jfb

[Steve Demeter]

Conduit works great as a wagon handle extension.

The real trick is to get a wagon that will not tip over.

[Ralph Z.]

I think those things are unstable. Not sure I want one rolling over while attached to anything on my car...

Seen some of these with extra wide karting wheels to improve stability.