has anyone fitted a towbar with a vintage speed hidden pipe exhaust? Looking to find a compatible towbar.
Think this is the exhaust you mean. Don't think anyone makes one, made mine with some heavy angle welded to bumper irons and hidden behind bumper. Has the advantage of tow hitch being at a better height with a slightly lowered van.
whilst the above pics look great , I wouldn`t want to use it for anything more than bikes . would you tow a 2 ton car trailer with that ? A genuine westfalia towbar is a serious piece of heavy duty tested engineering .
Quite agree, should of mentioned i only use it with a small camping trailer, nothing heavy. However it has turned out much sturdier than i expected. The angle is welded all the way back to the fixings of the of the bumper irons which are pretty strong and once bolted all together its very rigid. More of a solution to clearance issues with this exhaust but accept the towing limitations
I am looking for a proper rated tow bar. especially after spending so much having my rear chassis legs restored.
The nearest thing i found at the time was a westfalia one with the swan neck which fitted in place of bumper irons similar to mine but even that one, the swan neck wouldn't clear the exhaust ! Might work if you spaced the whole thing back an inch ?
A Westy towbar spaces the bumper back an inch or so and clears a CSP Python exhaust – but that‘s not much help, sorry. And it’s not really similar to snigofhawson angle iron, as nice as it looks. The pic might give an idea of clearance if you scale the pipes – the primaries are 42mm.
Cheers mork68 Have you had to notch out the bumper to fit the towbar? Also can you tell me where you sourced the towbar. Do you know how much space you have between the silencer and the bumper? NEXT, would it be possible for you to measure the dimensions of the box section used on the towbar drop?
@earlylatebay We did notch out the rear bumper to fit the towbar properly, looking at the notch, it may be about an inch into the bumper. The towbar itself is one we made up, based on the JK (Watling) one we have fitted to Major (ours was tested with a static load on a test rig to ensure the welds are man enough for towing the trailer). https://www.justkampers.com/towbar-bundle-kit-for-vw-t2-bay-with-standard-exhaust-1972-1979.html There is at least an inch between the silencer and tow bar, I'll not be able to confirm until next week though, again, I cant measure the box sections until then either but I will see if there is any offcuts kicking about at work and measure them if there is
My 78 towbar looks slightly different to yours as in it will give more clearance ..is yours a late one ? Mines away being powdercoated so I can’t take any measurements at the moment but I will next week
I have a 321 073 AUSF “C”, looks the same as the 321 073 AUSF “B” http://www.vw-t2-bulli.de/data/documents/ahk-westfalia-321-073-b-vw-t2.pdf
Thanks for the help guys' I am in no rush as I want to get the correct one. I will also take some pics of my bumper/exhaust clearance tomorrow and post an annotated pic.
This was the type i was looking at but the hidden muffler leaves no clearance. Vintage speed do say not suitable for towbar. Maybe use westy type and weld a mounting block to come out thru bumper ??? Same idea as mine but much stronger
If I changed my exhaust do people think there would be a market for my Vintage Speed Sport Muffler, at 4 years old?
