"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
oups.com...
Bob:

As a physicist, I am also a great believer in Newton's laws.

I once towed a trailer containing my Jantar-1 (19 meters) with a VW
bug, or rather I should say the trailer propelled my bug down the road
only marginally under control. I terminated that experiment very
quickly!

Since that attempt, I have used larger vehicles (station wagons in the
old days) or SUVs more recently.

I now use the moderately-sized Toyota 4Runner (Prado Land Cruiser to
the rest of the world), which has a V8 gasoline engine as an option
here in the USA. It's the perfect size, weight and power for towing a
single-place sailplane ( I tow a Discus 2). The standard gasoline
engine here or the diesel available in much of the rest of the world
would be OK at sea level, but in my view you need both sufficient mass
and power in the tow vehicle to maintain control and stability.

Yes, I know we'll get posts from the guys who'll tell us they towed
their Duo Discus over the alps using a Fiat 500. That doesn't meant
that it is necessarily a good idea!

Mike

My experience exactly. I started towing glider trailers with a 85hp Volvo
544 with drum brakes - really bad idea since the car self-destructed under
the stress of towing a trailer. My next car was a '66 Shelby 350 Mustang
with disk brakes. The 'stang worked OK but it was still way too light. It
made for FAST retrieves though.

In the early days a V8 Chevy BelAire station wagon was the ticket but
limited cooling capacity meant that on long uphill grades in the desert it
required shutting off the air conditioner, turning on the heater and
everybody leaning as far out the windows as possible to avoid being cooked.
On the downhill grades, you used the air conditioner as added compression to
save the brakes.

The long term experience in the western USA is that anything with a V8, disk
brakes and a BIG radiator works but anything less leads a short, ugly life.
Modern SUV's are politically incorrect but they sure work a lot better than
what we used to have.

Bill Daniels