Merc W124 saves the day!

[Peter C]

I'm a Chartered Surveyor, today I've been looking at an old (1880s) house, including a high level inspection from a cherry picker.

 

 

I asked the driver / operator to drive his truck through gravel to get to the side of the house. Matey didn't do a risk assessment and ended up getting his Nissan stuck. The rear wheels kept spinning, the truck was just digging deeper into the gravel and the clutch was beginning to smell.

 

My W124 came to the rescue, even if it meant towing more than recommended.

 

 

Job done!

 

 

What's the most inappropriate thing you've towed with your shite?

[eddyramrod]

25 years ago when I had my 1981 Daihatsu Charade, I often used to tow a neighbour's car to start it for him.  Cortina mk4...

[gordonbennet]

What a lovely house especially the tower, and what a monstrosity built presumably beside it, beauty and the beast.

[Lacquer Peel]

I towed a broken down Land Rover Defender 110 with my Peugeot 405 saloon, it coped quite well.

 

RWD probably helped you there, a FWD car would have scrabbled for grip.

[saucedoctor]

Mark 3 Granada 2.9 with my Metro GTi, and a 3.0 Capri with my 954cc Samba. Twat steering the Capri ran into the arse of the Samba.

[Six-cylinder]

He weighed 7.5 ton fully loaded with steel, he had pulled into a farm gateway to let a van past, now stuck with the body twisting when I found him. You'r never get it out with that the driver said, so I was up for the challenge!

[chancer]

Once had to pull a Vauxhall Senator out of snow with a Yugo 55

[Peter C]

Sure is a pretty building, have another pic of the rear.

 

[bub2006]

Renault espace with a burnt out clutch being towed by my fiesta mk2 1.1. My clutch soon followed suit

[twosmoke300]

Seigfreid Farnon spec rover pulled 20 or so miles round cornwall with a Reliant Kitten

 

Oh it had either a landy 2.25 or a perkins 4208 diesel in it too

[auldford]

Once towed a mates stricken Peugeot 405 estate with a mk4 1.2 Fiesta. Made it the 8 miles over country back roads with only a few minor brown trouser moments....

[spike60]

I towed a LWB Land Rover with a 1300 MK2 Cortina. We got about 35 miles cross country until one hill start too many meant dumping the LR and limpng home clutchless. No surprises there then.

[BavarianRetro]

More than I care to remember. Towed a four wheel trailer with a Range Rover on it seven miles, including down Kirkfieldbank Brae, with a 1500 Allegro Estate. Did the Allegro clutch the next day.

 

Bought a long stored (8 or 9 years) Land Rover 109 2.25 diesel just for the engine to put in a petrol one. No interest in chassis or bodywork. It was in Perthshire about 60 miles away. Left at 6:30 ish as we closed the garage, with Perkins Powered (= slow, but would pull anything) Range Rover and trailer (neither the same as the Allegro incident).

 

Got there, checked there was oil in the 109, put fresh fuel,in it, bled it up, connected a booster pack and it ran pretty much immediately. Loaded it on. Chatted a bit. Left about 10. By midnight, I'd nearly got home, just by Bothwell Services on the M74. Eight miles to go and the overdrive on the Range Rover chucked it. No drive whatsoever.

 

In those days a motorway breakdown in Lanarkshire resulted in a certain Mr. Dunsmore arriving via the Police and charging you fortunes to tow you off.

 

Police attended and told me, "I really should call it in now, but I'll go in to the services for a cuppa. If you're still here when I leave, I'll need to phone it in."

 

Unload 109 that hasn't been on the road for about 10 years, has no tax or MoT. Unhitch trailer. Hitch trailer to 109. Winch Range Rover on and bugger off home quicker than a copper can order, buy and drink a coffee and eat a doughnut.

 

I sometimes wonder how I still have a licence.

[Supernaut]

Sure is a pretty building, have another pic of the rear.

 

image.jpeg

Oh, I see he did fine on the grass though!

[Lord Sterling]

K11 Micra pulling a Mk1 Vauxhall Agila mostly uphill.

[For Fiats Sake]

My first experience of towing on the road was pulling the bosses old mustard coloured merc estate with his beige Maestro Van.  It was a bit of a struggle getting it around corners - apparently the boss kept jamming his anchors on.  I admit I'd not long passed my test and I had to drive everywhere at the posted* limit.

[320touring]

When I worked at the car auctions we used to tow start a 6 car teansporter with a rr v8 3.9 efi

[Junkman]

I haven't towed anything with my W124 yet, but it had to be towed repeatedly.

I wouldn't attempt to tow anything with it either, because I think it's a piece of shit that will immediately grenade as soon as the slightest stress is applied.

[stripped fred]

Many years ago my mate got stuck in a flood with his petrol 406 company car. After much encouragement from me he kept trying to start it which we later found out completely knackered the engine as it was full of water. I had a Rover 111 which ran on lpg and i attempted to tow him out, round the corner and up the hill. We didn't get far!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I haven't towed anything with my W124 yet, although it has already excelled at bizarro world towing. 

 

I would attempt to tow anything with it, because it's a flawless piece of German engineering which would undoubtedly only be strengthened by the additional stress of towing. 

[320touring]

I haven't towed anything with my W124 yet, although it has already excelled at bizarro world towing.

 

I would attempt to tow anything with it, because it's a flawless piece of German engineering which would undoubtedly only be strengthened by the additional stress of towing.

similar to the way japanese swords are folded many times forto increase stengths!

[gordonbennet]

The weidest towing escapade was when the bloody A series Ford 7.5 tonner i drove broke down on me OMGCHG, lightly loaded so only about 3 tons, at Barlboro Sth Yorks, my gaffer sent one of the lads up in his Granada 3 litre estate and we towed the thing back to St Albans, faster than it could have gone under its own steam, on a rope...how we never got spotted and pulled by traffic plod who did exist in those days i shall never know.

I was about 19 at the time.

[jonathan_dyane]

I once towed my father off the motorway after he managed to run out of diesel in a BX estate. The BX had four occupents and was towing a trailer tent. Thankfully there was an off ramp only a few hundred yards away because my towcar was a mighty Citroen Dyane... 

[mercrocker]

I once towed my mate's dead Mirafiori complete with trailer and 2 Husqvarnas with my Pontiac Grand Prix.   Worst "other end" I have been was a Crown Custom station wagon with no servo, natch,  about nine inches from a CF van with no back windows.   I also once, stupidly, tried to drag a W123 off a muddy front garden (don't ask...) with my Landcrab and merely succeeded in ripping the Crab's fuel pump off.   Probably better than grenading the clutch, I suppose.  

 

My dad towed my shite home many more times than he probably cares to remember.  Maybe why he bought a FD Victor to replace his 1159 Viva.  Maybe why he also emigrated to Canada.    

 

Nowadays I am just happy paying my AA dues - I am way too old for tow rope shenanigans now.

[xtriple]

I can beat you all ('cos I am a flash bastard that has to 'one up' everybody - a proper 'elevenerefe' if you will!) and I was towed by a MK1 Escort while I was in a MK2 Cortina 1500 estate whose clutch had just shuffled off this mortal caoil as it was in turn towing a MK10 Jaguar.

 

Yes, all three were connected by dodgy bits of rope and piloted by dodgy blokes with only bike licences and only one of the cars was road legal and that was my girlfriends Escort. My girlfriend who had happened upon this unfortunate scene and had been 'liberated' of her car was now riding home  on the back of a KH250  piloted by a lad with no licence of any sort, no tax, insurance or anything and she had no helmet....

 

That was an extremely interesting day

[forddeliveryboy]

I towed a racecar with tools and spares for a 24 hour race across Europe with a similar car to Junkman's Mercedes of Hate, but in estate-version with Citroën suspension, running on wasteveg. We cantered at a steady 85, 90 where possible. The 124 had done 300k miles and had been rescued from a Cheshire scrapyard, apart from a couple of occasions when we all thought it was about to expire (clouds of smoke out of the exhaust in the first 100 miles) it was totally relaxing. Even if it took about 5 miles to reach vmax. 

 

On return and unburdened, the thing set off like something possessed - the most fun engine rebuild ever.

[Steve79]

Towed a ldv flatbed with my 1994 renault safrane 2.5dt on the back down a dual carriage way and up a reasonable gradient onto a side road on a solid bar with my 60 plate golf 1.6tdi company car (clutch abit stinky that day)!

[Eddie Honda]

Reliant Kitten estate towing a broken down a 1985 Vauxhall Carlton estate.

[HillmanImp]

Not really relevant but Nationwide Platforms are a client of one of the chaps in my office.

 

I once towed a Renault 18 with my Imp. It was a waftomatic too but thankfully no kittens died.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The weirdest towing experience I've had was using a MK4 Dci GrandEspace to tow a 4x4 Hi-Lux, it was like we were in a parallel universe or something.

Admittedly the Toyota had only been miss-fuelled. And the Regie GrandeMerde did grenade as expected a few months later, but anyone witnessing that must have had their heads messed with.