Towing a Iltis with a dolly

[rob love]

I was waiting until I got to work in order to check the operators manual with regard to towing the Iltis. Over the years I recovered more than a few of these lemons, and I did not recall ever having to remove the drive shafts.

A quick check of the manual just now confirms I am right. For suspended towing, which would be equivelent to using the dolly, you hook up, place the transmission in neutral and make sure the diff lock is off, and go. Because the dolly will have the front wheels on the ground, you will have to ensure the Iltis is in two wheel drive.

In most standard transmission vehicles, you could damage the transmission since in neutral, only the output shaft will turn, and the tiny needle bearings in between the input shaft and the main/output shaft will quickly burn out. But in the case of the Iltis (and the M151A2 FYI) the transfer case is part of the same gearbox and will continue to splash oil to keep the bearings lubricated.

There is a danger to removing the driveshaft. In my experience, those bolts may want to break off on removal, and on installtion, many guys do not use blue loctite and a torque wrench,and end up shearing the bolts off once they work loose.