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Old October 11th 07, 01:42 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Which Tow Vehicle

On Oct 9, 5:30 pm, Mike the Strike wrote:
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


Sadly, some of us remember what a Fiat 500 is (I even owned one)...
See ya, Dave "YO"