Can you find a way of mounting your bumper to the same bracket and have it removable, that would be a neat solution to hide it when the bumper is on.

You'll be making these as kits soon enough! haha!

Funnily enough, I`ve had that comment several times now - just wish I could weld, else I may just consider knocking a few out   

You may want to re-phrase that.   

Can you find a way of mounting your bumper to the same bracket and have it removable, that would be a neat solution to hide it when the bumper is on.

A quick release bumper ?

wow, never even considered that one   

Shall have to give that some serious thought 

You'll be making these as kits soon enough! haha!

Funnily enough, I`ve had that comment several times now - just wish I could weld, else I may just consider knocking a few out   

You may want to re-phrase that.   

What can I say ?   

I`m just so excited with the thought of learning to weld 

 

  

Mig Welding i sfar the easiest. Don't forget you can also weld Aluminium with the MIG.
I have MIG, TIG (AC/DC) and MMA (Stick) here at home. The MIG i use most and have different wires for different applications etc.

I used to be a Fabricator so have all the toys in the garage. Its all about comfort Dave make yourself comfortable when you are welding and tis a doddle. You will be out hanging upside down welding all sorts to the buggy soon enough

Be see'in you over on the http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/ then! 

Be see'in you over on the http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/ then! 

Didn`t know about that one - thanks 

Time to think about towing electrics. Actually that's not strictly true, because I thought about electrics the last time my bonnet was off, where I hard wired an extra trailer socket into the lighting system and cable tied it up under the front in anticipation of towing it one day. With the tow bar bracket now in place, there is actually a nice bit of room where a trailer socket could be located.





The socket I am going to use is the traditional one, and I managed to find a really heavy duty bracket that usually mounts behind the towball. I chopped a bit off and gave it a 90 degree bend, so it should fit perfectly.





And it fits just perfectly. You would have to look for this, as it is concealed very nicely behind the bottom half of the bonnet, which should also add some protection from the elements as well.





The only thing left to try was to connect a cable from this socket to the trailer socket of my daily and check that all the lights worked.





And they did - Well, sort of.

Unlike conventional tungsten bulbs which can hide a multitude of sins. I`m actually using LED bulbs throughout my car and due to the nature of these, they can pick up and display the smallest of signals, including the CAN-BUS bulb monitoring systems of many modern cars. I have 3 cars in my yard with towbars, the Vauxhall and the Landrover both gave a slight flickering of the rear lights when everything was turned off, but my GMC truck with very basic electrics was just fine. I will endeavor to design some electrickery to stop this from happening in due course, but for the time being, there is a very quick fix.

Turn the sidelights on whilst towing. 

When I was researching the A-Frames last summer, I contacted a few Companies to see if any Beetle brackets and parts were available, to which the answer was no. Most of them were very helpful though, with the exception of one, Car-A-Tow, which was unfortunately the one I ended up with. I phoned them up and explained that I had picked up one of their excellent A-Frames through eBay and wanted to fit it to my car. I asked if they had any fitting kits or brackets to sell me, but the reply was that the Beetles they had done in the past were all bespoke systems and I would need to get something custom made. They also informed me that any parts I was missing, or required could be ordered via their website. Seemed fine enough.

I called them back a week or so later, where the guy remembered our conversation, and I said that I needed to know where the attachments went on the pedal, and at what height to drill the holes. The reply stumped me a little, as he said, "Sorry Sir, we do not give out that information". After I pointed out to him that they sold these products as a DIY fitment, and that I would have been more than happy to purchase a kit from him if he had one for sale, he very reluctantly forwarded some instructions on how to measure the holes. Basically it was a 6.5mm hole in the brake pedal about half way down, and a hole in the bulkhead, that was horizontally aligned with the pedal for the cable to go through. Luckily for me, I knew about those measurements last time I took the bonnet off, which made drilling everything and the preparation so much easier.

With the hole in the Bulkhead, and the bracket on the front where the cable exits, I could now work out a route from A to B making sure that I had no serious kinks, twists or sharp bends that would prevent the smooth operation of the cable and could now work out its length that it needed to be.

Now that things are progressing at last, I need to order a cable. I also wanted to get the correct type of cable so I trawled the Car-A-Tow website that showed that replacement cables could be ordered for around £60+vat and delivery, but gave no mention of sizes. I contacted them to be told by a very grumpy person that it was the guys father that handled that side of the business and to ring back later. I tried several times, over several days and eventually got hold of someone who clearly didn't have a good telephone manner. I said that I wanted to order a cable but the website didn't show what sizes were available, or how to order one for the length I wanted. The abrupt reply I got was that "custom cables were a real pain to make, took several weeks and so they only sold the standard size ones, take them or leave them" - and then slammed the phone down on me. Not quite the sales enquiry response I was expecting. I rang back and after eventually getting hold of the old man again, (and obviously not knowing how long a standard cable was), I asked what sizes the "standard" ones came in, to which I received a mouthful of abuse followed by "I don`t want to deal with you" and slammed the phone down again. Now I am not really one to name and shame on here (With the exception of the Torquay branch of GSF which just hack me off with their incompetence) but I have to now add Car-A-Tow to the list of the most miserable, arrogant and rudest companies I have ever dealt with.

Anyway, I digress, but felt that was important if looking at one of their products - that there is zero aftersales support. So, plan B was to give a call to Speedy Cables, who it turns out actually make the cables for Car-A-Tow, and after giving them my dimensions and £38, I received this in the post a week later.





I reckoned that about 15cm of cable movement should give me a 10mm bit of wriggle room, and that I had about 62cm from bulkhead to cable exit. Turns out that I was spot on. Here you can see the cable attached to the pedal and secured with a spring clip.





The cable is secured to the bulkhead by a couple of large washers and nuts either side, and then exits down towards the front of the car





Its very important to make sure that there are no tight turns or twists in your cable route, else it might just jam up at some point.





And then its just a matter of adjusting the brake cable on the A-Frame to the correct length so that it can attach in seconds using a quick release pin.





Not tested it behind a car yet due to the bad weather, but the handbrake on the A-Frame seems to work, so I can`t be that far out.

I need to fit a number plate for when I`m towing. Those of you who have been messing about with horseboxes and trailers will probably be aware of the clips that are bolted to the vehicle, and allow you to slide in your number plate quickly. Some have big spring clips that clamp the plate top and bottom and are often so tight that they can be a little difficult to remove without a bit of force. Well that got me thinking.





Because if they can hold a number plate as tightly as they do, I can't see why you couldn't mount them on the back of a lightweight board that could incorporate a different number plate and a pair of triangles. I didn't want any weight to this, so chopped up a bit of foamex that I had kicking about from an offcut of an old shop sign. I pop riveted everything together so that it was also lighter than using nuts and bolts. With a couple of triangles and a quick change number plate bracket, I think you can see where this is going.





I use a quick change bracket because the number plate in there is double sided depending on which car I am using as a tow vehicle, I can just flip the plate over. This fits in seconds, locate the bottom edge on the spring clips and then lift it up so that it clips over the top edge of the plate. Its very tight, and doesn't really weigh much so I am confident that it should stay there whilst in motion.





Although this is not something that will affect me (as I do not have one) but remember to disable your steering lock before setting out, else you may have a problem with the first corner that your come to.

Looking good dave - question though - are those warning triangles far enough out?? They look a bit too in the middle of the car, I thought they would have had to be closer to the outside edges.

Paul

Not sure -

However, there are also reflectors at the outer edges within the original lights, so "technically" I think I`m covered   

likeing that set up dave very nice towing is now easy and legal very smart well done you