Tow Hubs
 

There was so much discussion of tow hubs in the "Live From..." that they forgot to record the SS final at Z-Max!

Any way, for you youngsters that don't know what they are, follow this link to an ad from a few years ago for an NOS set of NMW hubs:

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...&Number=452693

There are some great pictures. One is a clear shot of the instruction sheet, which proves, at least for a time, that NMW was located at 355 East 54th Street in Elmwood Park, New Jersey.

Re: Tow Hubs
 

I put a lot of tire rotations on a set of free wheelers between Queens NY and National Speedway,West Hampton,E'Town,Maple Grove and on and on.14 years worth.

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I've got a set of NMW tow-tabs for my old Nova buried in a box out in the garage! I wish I had kept the tow-bar!!

Flat towing sure was fun, until the front wheel bearing froze while coming home from New York National one Sunday afternoon! I built my ramp-truck right after that!

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Held off til the "Live from...." was done.
Really appreciate that from Ken, Jack, et al.
Good to see a separate thread .
Picked my stuff up in Hackensack.
Here's a Car Craft ad Jan. 70, shows River St, Hackensack.
Bottom black line, have to blow it up.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...psa43b40d7.jpg





Still have a set of tabs.
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/e...mblyIII022.jpg

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they moved to Raritan in 1977,from Hackensack...they were next to Tony Feil;s shop.

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I made my own back in the 70's. Put a lot of miles flat towing my 67 Chevelle wagon and my buddy's 65 full size Chevy. Sold them a few years ago for almost nothing. My 57 Chevy wagon still has the tow bar brackets on it.

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I was Flat towing back from Hampton Raceway around 82 or so and got a flat on the front, I was on Sunrise Hy.and by the time I stopped, the Crager Super Trick was torn in half.

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I was lucky (?) Paul, the only casualty was an almost brand-new Stahl Frontrunner! I was also on Sunrise Hwy., near Shirley, where my boss and friend Skip Nordenberg lived, and he came and helped me out. I think I got home well after midnight! :D

Re: Tow Hubs
 

So far, we have the history of NMW as Elmwood Park NJ to Hackensack NJ to Raritan NJ. The Elmwood Park building is still there; now a printing company. The Hackensack location may have been razed or converted; there's a restaurant on the site now. The Raritan NJ address was 35 Orlando Dr; the building is still there and occupied.

One of the principals of NMW was Bob Dauernheim, who, along with Tony Fiel and others, has been involved with an LSR effort recently:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/bob-dauernheim/

Re: Tow Hubs
 

Around 1967 I was flat towing my 55 E/G CHEVY on the highway
when my rear tires locked up, I didn't have towing hubs or
disconnect the drive shaft when my 4 speed froze up. Lesson
learned, a friend of mine made a pair of towing hubs. I only found
one but the other is somewhere in my garage.:rolleyes:

Re: Tow Hubs
 

Does anyone remember using the Rambler spindles? My set of tow hubs were homemade from a pair of Rambler front spindles & hubs. These worked great for my Mopar and the Fords too since Ramblers also had the 4 1/2" bolt circle. The back side of the Rambler spindles did not require machining, just drill them and bolt them on. I used them for several years and they never failed me!

Bill Ringer

Re: Tow Hubs
 

notice on the front of my SS/MA Malibu "NMW tow tabs" and there were a set of tires on black rims with a hole in them so you could put a deep socket through without taking the rim off the tow hub sitting back in the pits. :)

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The original name stood for New Milford Welding. The two brothers were Mike Brusher and his brother Bob. The building was near New Milford where they were from. Mike was a genius with a welder. He lives in California and builds Helecopters now. Just FYI, Thanks Joe Fasano

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I still have all of my NMW stuff. Tow tabs, tow bar and free wheeling hubs. Back in the day they were the "Cats ***** "

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Back in the day, a street car with tow bar tabs, was a car to be feared.

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I flat towed with hubs until about 1970. A 5' long tow bar, and ten degrees of positive caster in the front end, a heavy tow car (we used Olds 98s & Pontiac B'villes ) and you could hardly tell there was a car back there. A long tow bar took the jerking on uneven roads away, when the tow car was going up & the race car down. Like Louisiana roads. LOL
All that caster and the race car front wheels never flopped the wrong way leaving parking lots, and you could back it up like a trailer. Not a bad way to travel if you didn't have to take a lot with you. I never had a trailer, went straight to a self built ramp truck about 1970.

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Duane is correct here.....and the Chassis work shop there was run by Randy Dietzel and was associated with Bob Daurenheim if I recall right....

NMW had at least one robot welding station there and was running once when I was there talking to Randy.....I wondered who was back there because I did not see anyone....Randy filled me in. Never saw that before. making engine stands and transport legs.....and yes NMW was in Hackensack before Raritan. Not sure who owned it when it was in Raritan.....maybe Bob Daurenheim.....I knew his brother Al.....he worked for Van Iderstines.....

Now since Ken is not doing a live from report I think we are ok babbling about all this useless trivia......LOL

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My hubs from 1969-70 are in the garage....just packed the bearings and going to put them on Craigs list.....any offers?

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what bolt pattern?

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What was great about flat towing was when I came up to a toll plaza that was jammed, I would give the attendant enough money to cover the two cars, if he gave me back the wrong amount, shame on him. Well going over the bridges from Long Island to NJ, most of the time I would only pay for the tow car by their mistake.

Casey Miles
248H "F" NHRA Stock

Re: Tow Hubs
 

This is kind of crazy.....50 year old tow hubs would get such interest.....

These hubs require a 5 bolt 4 3/4 inch wheel. They will bolt onto 3 different sizes....5 bolt 4 1/2 inch, 5 bolt 4 3/4 inch, and 5 bolt 5 inch. Here is a picture...

Re: Tow Hubs
 

lets everyone know your asking price, better keep them in the family

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Sure, I want to keep them in the "family"...I never used these hubs, but carried them with me in case I broke the rear end. (never did)....I ground towed thousands of miles, like most old time racers....many will remember taking a slow speed turn too sharp, and the front wheels turning the wrong direction......you would hurry up and run back and correct the steering wheel....LOL

I don't have an asking price.....like everything else in my shop, I would rather things go to a good (racer) home... I found one set of these hubs when I searched the internet, and the asking price was $450.00...................that is just stupid...crazy. So, to answer your question...I really don't have an asking price. No, I am not trying to get rich on these things.....I am getting old and would like to clean out my shop a little.

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Pm sent Gary -

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Lots of positive caster stops the wheels flopping the wrong way. I used ten degrees.

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Still have my NMW Towing hubs.
Need new seals.
D

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I have lots of flat towing stories....none of them good but some pretty funny really........LOL

We did not use tow hubs as they were out of our budget at that time.....we removed the driveshaft and slicks.....

Flat towed that way for 2 years.....and went to Indy from NJ that way as well as other tracks.....Atco....Capitol....Vargo....E-town...Island....York....Maple Grove....all with a tow bar and various tow cars.....

I would not recommend it though and yes the front wheels will flop in the wrong direction especially if you are pulling out of a gas station across a highway and a cop is watching you and pulls you over asking you why that did that......something must not be right.....no ticket....fix it....

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See post #25.

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Ed the only way you're going to get that much positive caster on many cars is with a hacksaw and a welder....and some surgery on the upper control arm....

And if you pull out of a gas station as I did with a steep sloped driveway you're still likely to have the same problem....tow vehicle and towed vehicle are at 2 different roadway heights.....all the positive caster in the world does not help there....

I was towing a '63 Chevy II bracket car with a Chevelle wagon....for that episode of flat towing fun and games.....

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Rich, offset upper inner shafts, and tweaked upper control arms. Not a big deal to do. It absolutely ended the wheels flopping over leaving gas stations, etc.
I lived on a 2 lane street, had a one car garage, and one car wide driveway with a tree on each side. After fixing the front end I could pull up, and back in the driveway like you would a trailer. I fixed other guys front ends the same way. Made towing much nicer. Long tow bars also took out a lot of the lurching on uneven roads. Those two things made towing much nicer. I towed all over the country that way for about four years. I used an open trailer a time or two that a guy was trying to sell me. We preferred the hubs and tow bar for ease and comfort.

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Well Ed I will defer to your experience as I never did those mods on any car I flat towed. I did not learn about cutting apart an upper a-frame until the late 70's when it was a popular deal on Camaro's to allow them to run a lot of positive caster....By then we had either a ramp truck or a trailer

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That was my '56 Chevy. Still had it when I built my first ramp truck in 1970 or so. Wish I could remember who put me onto that. Maybe Jere Stahl? Can't remember now. I did about four cars like that. Carroll Caudle had his '55 done that way too. First time we all went to Pomona, Carroll & Gwenda, Pete Perry & his first wife (who died in a highway accident later) and Jeanie & I all flat towed there with hubs & long tow bars. Tell kids that today, and they don't believe it. They also don't believe my family had an out house & no running water until my senior year in high school. LOL

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Ed, some of us are old enough to remember...out houses, the only running water was with a pump in the kitchen, baths were ever Saturday (girls first). No TV....what great memories when families had to talk with each other without cell phones and video games.

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Well I was lucky....never had to use an outhouse but did live in a cold water apartment. We did have hot water but it was with a manual gas heater and we used it once a week....like you mentioned...Saturday was bath day....

Heat was with a coal furnace and steam, radiators.....

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Gary, we had a pump with a lever. Pumped many buckets of water. Mom had to heat water on the stove for baths. We were so poor we couldn't pay attention. Don't miss those days at all.

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Out-houses and Sears catalog in the winter...unforgettable memories. The catalogs were ok until they started using glossy pages. We heated water with the wood stove. Still have my tow hubs and tow bar in the barn. Don't recall brand name, they were orange in color.

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I made my own tow bars. A friend (Bill Cowett ) that was handy with his lathe built me and himself towing hubs. Took some of my twisted stock axles, knocked the axle studs, cut them to length, faced off the outside of the flanges, and machined them like the spindles. Used '55/'57 front hubs (those front brake drums just slipped over the studs). Used stock '55/'56 tires @ wheels. Turned stock lug nuts over so the flat side was against the flange, and a long 3/4" box end wrench to put them on. Easy peasy. Cost about nothing but time to do. Axles were easy to come by. At the time he made them I was running my 225 hp '56 2X4bl Vette engine & 3 speed in a 9 passenger wagon. I learned to paint stripes on them, and after each race pop them out to keep an eye on the stripes. 1/4 twist and they came out. Kinda often. LOL
None of us had money to buy that stuff.

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I had a set that were Chevelle Spindles machined flat on the back then welded to a plate with a Chevy bolt pattern. They worked great and I used them till may of 1978 then I went to a ramp truck. :)

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I am probably one of a handful of racers still flat towing in North America..I bought a set of used MNW tow hubs off Craig's list, I got a 5 ft tow bar fabricated for me and a pair of tow tabs.


http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psdeae0420.jpg

Re: Tow Hubs
 

Do you have to plate the car or buy a Trailer plate for it?

Just wondering if they every hassle for that.