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.

[rob love]

You can forget about the 5 ton reference in the manual, as that was later replaced with the HLVW which would do the 100kmh. As well, the airforce bases had commercial wreckers for these little jobs. They had the capability of that kind of speed. Again, I never recall removing prop shafts on the Iltis. If the problem was on the rear axle, (those little side shafts liked to shear off on the Iltis) then we would merely tie up the steering wheel and suspend the rear.

I can't comment on the contract aspect of the tow dollies, just the technical end which is driveshaft removal is unneccesary. I would suggest that at any speed you will not "knock" an iltis into gear. There is just too much difference between the stationary and the driven gear.

Personally I only use trailers these days to the point that I just about sold off all my a-frames. I keep one around for yard work, but can't recall the last time it left the yard. Only problem with a trailer is that you need an appropriate truck to pull it......many SUVs are not really suitable. The advantage to trailers is that they don't care about the last time the vehicle being trailered had it's wheel bearings packed, U joints checked or other technical data on the casualty. Of course, those problems now rest with the trailer itself. But with the trailer you are not wearing out those hard to replace military tires, or worried about problems with the a-frame. Nothing like looking out your left mirror to see the same jeep you are towing trying now in the left lane trying to pass you.

For those A-framing Willys Jeeps, I reccomend transfer case in neutral and the transmission in gear. That way the centrifical force of the gears turning in the transfer case don't transfer into turning in the transmission. I have towed many hundreds of miles in that donfiguration without issue.