Notice the gigantic motorhomes on the highway. Many tow automobiles or pickups behind, sometimes on a separate trailer, sometimes with two wheels of the vehicle-in-tow on a dolly, and sometimes, with a tow-bar.

Why not tow an ATV behind an automobile (or pickup) with a tow bar? This arrangement could be easier and certainly lighter than towing a trailer.

Surely, appropriate lighting, signalling and licensing (if necessary) could be arranged; cement mixers, air compressors, log splitters, etc., are often seen in tow.

Little tire wear should result from towing an ATV, because the wheels are not under power. Are there other considerations? Would wheel or drivetrain bearings suffer?

Just wondering; looks like a towbar setup would be less expensive than a trailer and at least as convenient to use.

Tree Farmer

 

I dont think that the tires not being underpower would really affect how much tire wear you would have.. It would also seem to me that you would cause excessive wear on your bearings and drivetrain (chain drive would probably be much worse) Most ATV'S are not designed to travel at highway speeds for 2 or 3 hours.. Besides, It would look kinda funny! Another thing to consider is this, On a triailer, the suspension softens the ATV's bouncing, Hate to see what would happen if an un-man-weighted ATV hit a pothole at 60mph...

 

Also the tires are not DOT approved, so it would be illegal to tow the atv with the tires on the ground.

 

Well ATV tires are not DOT approved so that would be a problem but I think the narrow wideth and short wheelbase would make for very poor towing.

 

ive seen it done but not over long distances. A guy i know uses a towbar on his quad while towing it between fields. He doesnt drive at highway speeds and only goes 5-10miles at a time but he hasnt had any problems as far as i know.

 

Maybe you could put special road tires on the ATV. A chain driven ATV wouldn't be too bad because you could remove the chain and only the axle will be moving. I belive it says in my owners manual to do this even if towing for a short distance to prevent wear on the countershaft bearings/transmission and seal. I don't know what could be done with a shaft driven machine. I think you would really wear out the rearend in a hurry. If you were only going 10 miles or something, it may be feasable. I couldn't imagine going Minnesota to Glamis that way though!

 

Tow bars work great. I have one on my Polaris 325 mag., my neighbor has had one on a Polaris 350 and now on a Explorer and another neighbor has one on a Artic Cat 500. All of the Polaris machines track and turn great but the Artic cat wants to skid around corners when on rock roads but works well other that that. We all use them to move machinery between fields and make sure we have a ride home. I have towed mine around the 30 mph range with no problems. I know another guy goes faster than that. Usually they are used behind an implement being pulled by a tractor or behind the grain truck. No real high speed stuff. As far as tire wear a mile is a mile when on pavement. You can see a wear pattern on the tread. Never any provlems with the drive line either. The ones we use are a folding tow bar made by Fehrman Industries in Omha, NE Phone #
800-204-3535. They don't hav a web site that I know of. $250.00. You can make your own for about $45.00 in materials and get it powder coated for under $20.00. I think for the long trip a trailer is still the best and safest.

Dan

 

i dont know about quads with auto belt trasmistions but a quad with gears needs the engine running to lube the gears even with the quad in netrual the gears are still turning and no oil is then a bad. i guess you could take off the chain if it has one, this would take care of that but if it is shaft driven your out of luck.

 

Works good behind a tractor or slow speeds. Never tried it over about 35mph.
Our Honda states right in the book, do NOT tow it without the engine running, otherwise the tranny will not be properly lubricated. It is OK to tow a Polaris auto as long as you have the shifter in Neutral. Don't know about other makes.

Because of the 'do not tow' feature of the Honda I built a small flatbed trailer big enough to haul either machine. When I go home I tow it with the quad. I think it saves tire wear, but if I didn't already have the axle & enough scrap iron laying around to build it, I would likely just tow the Polaris & leave the Honda home (or use it to tow the Polaris).

 

Upon reading this idea, I just happened to think of one equally as brilliant. Why use a baby-seat??? Just hook the stroller up to the bumper, and TOW the baby!!! Idea?