Pushing a auto

[Clan]

Originally Posted by S60HUB

Thanks for reply put my mind at rest I'll av ago at the heavy beast later many thanks again

pump the tyres up to 40 psi it will make pushing a LOT easier .

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Exactly, Paul! 'Round the corner' will be fine. For distances greater than your 'rule-of-thumb', or at higher speeds, the vehicle may be safely towed after first removing the prop-shaft. For longer distances, and for safety's sake, I would opt for a suspended tow (with the driven wheels suspended).

Regards, John.

For long distance, i'd suggest a flatbed recovery vehicle and not tow an auto more than 30 miles at a maximum of 30mph if a flatbed wasn't available.

To add to the confusion, the Merc in the OPs query is a 4x4 so both propshafts would need to be removed if any great distance is to be covered.

Note also some manuals these days can't be towed and even on older manuals, if they have an overdrive unit, they should be treated as an auto as far as towing goes.

[Triple-S]

L-S, interesting you saying that applies to manuals with overdrive - are you sure as friend had his O/D 164 towed over 50 miles and not too slow! Maybe he was lucky, but never heard of this before.

P

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Triple-S

L-S, interesting you saying that applies to manuals with overdrive - are you sure as friend had his O/D 164 towed over 50 miles and not too slow! Maybe he was lucky, but never heard of this before.

P

He was lucky then - when you consider most overdrive units are a simple 2-speed epicyclic gearbox and most automatic gearboxes are 3 or 4 speed epicyclic gearboxes, you can see the similarity.

If memory serves, the first time i saw it in print was reading the handbook for my 145 but that was a very long time ago. It was also common knowledge in the trade back then as well.

There are some automatic gearboxes out there that are in simple terms, electronically controlled, hydraulically shifted (under electronic control) manual boxes with a torque converter. However, despite their apparent mechanical simlarity to a manual, they can not be towed either.

There are also some manuals that can't be towed as well, can't think of them just now but they do (or at least did) exist.