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Towing a 945 with a 245 NA

dman535

New member
Joined
May 11, 2008
Location
Nashville, TN
Am I nuts to think I can pull a 945 with a tow dolly behind my 87 NA 245 for a couple hundred miles? I have a trans cooler on the 245 - am worried that I am going to thrash it.
 
I'd be more worried about stopping Volvo x2.

Hope your route is very, very flat.
 
a couple hundred miles... man...

There was an aussie on the site that towed a car with his m46'd car and by the end of the trip 3/4 gears were gone
 
I wouldn't unless the trailer also has brakes that will activate when you step on the 240's brakes, especially if the 240 doesn't have newish brakes. A 945 weights more than a 245 so at any kind of reasonable speed the trailer may be difficult to control.
 
Am I nuts to think I can pull a 945 with a tow dolly behind my 87 NA 245 for a couple hundred miles? I have a trans cooler on the 245 - am worried that I am going to thrash it.

It should cope with it fine. It's about the terrain. The thing that is hardest is starting from rest. Though personally I hate towing dollies, always use a trailer.

IMG_1080.jpg
 
yes braking is gonna be interesting!! tried out a late 245 yesterday, had fresh brakes apparently, but holy b jesus did it take an age to stop, it was like, jump on brakes at 60mph, mmm slowing down, still doing 40, 35,,, brake brake brake brake aaarrrrgghhhhhh.
well maybe not that bad, but hella crap brakes compared to a 90's audi estate LOL.

wouldn't worry about g'box, keep revs right (not too low to stresss em out, and not too high) 2.250-3,750 is fine under wot/load shouldn't harm box too much.
brakes is gonna be the worry, and rear suspension, you on a dolly or a trailor?

only thing i don't like about trailers (braked/unbraked) is when you brake HARD front end of tow car dips, lifts up the back end and will try and spin th car unless your flat and levvel roadway, or just throw the back end in the air makign the rear wheels lock. in that respect dolly is better.




acutally scratch the whole transmission thing, I towed a merc estate (weighing 100kg more than my 740) thru the kazakhstan desert for 2days off road in right narly conditions, thrased the absolute tits of the 740 for 2days straight, got bogged down a few times (one time spent litteraly 10-12minutes in 3rd gear ~ 5,000rpm full throttle spinning the tyres to get thru this thick mud, it kept moving about a snails pace the entire time) traversed steep hills, soft sand, extremly rough terrain (for a roadcar).
what got hot was exhaust, nearly set fire to the carpet in the front footwell LOL.

with an na car like mine it won't get too hot underbonnet (mine not a degree hotter than normal temp, viscous fan WIN's), but a turbo car will if you beat on it with load, could set fire to a number of things underbonnet, likely plastic and wiring, and brake resivoir/brake fluid = quite flammable LOL
 
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Doesn't even look like uhaul will loan me a dolly or a flatbed because the 245 is to light. Looks like I am going to have to find a friend to drive me down or borrow a larger tow vehicle. I know the brakes on the 245 are in decent shape - but I don't want to risk a problem. If it were across town I would consider.
 
Doesn't even look like uhaul will loan me a dolly or a flatbed because the 245 is to light. Looks like I am going to have to find a friend to drive me down or borrow a larger tow vehicle. I know the brakes on the 245 are in decent shape - but I don't want to risk a problem. If it were across town I would consider.

I'm assuming you're in the US by what you wrote, so I'd have to definitely suggest finding some alternative means of towing it. Doing so with the 245 would be illegal in most states and possibly against federal DOT regs. Its a safety nightmare and a major fine if you're caught. Have you considered renting a truck?

UHaul is a stickler on combined GVWR. "Your towing vehicle: Must weigh at least 3,500 lbs. (curb weight), and must equal or exceed 80% of the combined weight of the trailer (2,000 lbs.) and the vehicle being towed (up to 4,000 lbs.). The dolly only requires a tow vehicle weight of 750 pounds more than the towed vehicle."

They wouldn't even give me one for towing my 744 with a Chevy Blazer (1998 model, 5400# tow rating). I've had 15,000+ pounds behind it on a very short trip once--accidently of course and I would never do it again--but it worked fine. [[Blazer curb weight: 3885 pounds, Volvo curb weight: 3329 pounds, UHaul trailer weight: 2000 pounds]]
 
Tell them you are towing an old Mini :)
I towed a very large caravan with the 245 up and down some seriously steep hills, and it was fine, just going down in low gear and keeping the speed down from the start.
Had no probs.
 
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