Tow Hubs

[Rich Biebel]

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

[Ed Wright]

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

[SStockDart]

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.

[Rich Biebel]

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.....

[Ed Wright]

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.

[Jerry Hatch]

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.

[Ed Wright]

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.