Our Touring Past

Just a little video I made today towing the RoadCruiser with a Hutchinson caravan dolly. I always wondered how a caravan dolly towed, and now I know.

Reading through this thread today and there were one or two questions asked about reversing with a dolly fitted, well here is a pic of the one I have, you can see two chains fitted to the rear of the axle
when the dolly is fitted to the van and car I drove it forward about 15 feet (I'm old school) I then used the two chains to lift the wheels clear of the ground by attaching them to the draw bar of the van and proceeded to reverse the van back to where it was sitting originally, what happened was you could reverse as if there was no dolly there at all, it behaved as it would normally if connected directly to the car.

Hi humpyboy
Thanks for that bit of info. I always thought that the chains were to tie each side back to the chassis, but it makes sense to lift the tyres of the ground when backing.
Cheers.
Richard.

I also read somewhere that by attaching the chains back to the draw bar while towing you could avoid the van jack knifing, I would think though you would do it with the chains a little on the loose side so you could still turn easily without putting to much strain on them.

I'm still trying to sort out a set of Hutchinson Dolly wheels and I ran across this advertisement for the later 'deluxe' version in Australian Motor Manual, March 1964, which has the torsion bars.
Unfortunately I'm just more confused, the brackets to take the torsion bars look positively dangerous, anyone have a set for a better photo of how they mount? The torsion bars look different to those I recall seeing on another set, or is my memory failing? George

1961 ad for the Jones Dolly Wheel.

After a visit from Ray Bartlett (who took over the Jones Dolly Wheel business after Herb Jones passed away) I now have just about the complete history of the Jones Dolly Wheel, including this never seen before bracket to stop the two hold down bolts from twisting off while the ball is not being used.

At last I bit the bullet and took to the set of Hutchinson's I have as I wanted to use them for the trip to Parramatta for Australia Day.
The delay has been a lack of mud guards and while reading through the patent application is says they aren't necessary I had no desire to chuck any more rocks at the front of the old van than it has had over the years, or take the risk with the front windows.
I obtained patterns for the brackets and guards from Richard's set and after making the brackets then had the problem of making the guards. I'm sure they are within my panel beating skills but I just didn't want to put the amount of time in that it appeared they would take to make. I looked for a couple of quickie alternatives but the time I spent messing about I think I could have made at least one from scratch.
I was pondering it the other day when my now retired next door neighbour wandered in for his daily check on what I was up to. He suggested in the end I make some flat ones using some Polycarbonate sheet he had lying about. The strips were just the right width so I gave it a go. It is tough stuff and needed quite a bit of persuasion with a heat gun to set a curve in it. It could not be formed to give the curved section so I knocked up some flat brackets and soon had it all bolted together. It needed something to finish them and after some thought I found an old roll of chrome finish contact I got some 35 years ago to tart up the old flutes on the bonnet of the 1937 Vauxhall.
It worked and they look quite respectable I thought, despite a few bubbles. After all I just need the things to be functional, they are never going to get much use. So this is the end result. The guards were made a little longer front and rear. I was anxious to try the unit but on checking the wheels and tyres I found one was badly cracked on the side walls and the bearing was grumbling way too much. Of course I've had over 12 months to check these things but instead had only concerned myself with the guards! Out with the bearings and off to my local supplier to find they have closed up shop and moved to Weatherill Park, an hour away in the traffic. My fingers did the walking and found another local who had just two in stock which was really all I needed, the other two seem fine. Oh, there are two bearings in each wheel in case you were wondering.
Now for tyres. After undoing all the bolts though I couldn't get the rims apart despite lots of tapping with a mallet. Some penetrating oil was doused on the area where I thought it should separate and left. After a few hours the oil had largely disappeared so more tapping and the rim separated. I might add I had taken them to a couple of tyre shops and they had no idea how to get them apart.
The accumulated salts were wire brushed and washed off then the units went into my grit blaster for a good clean and then a tart up with some paint.
So a couple of photos to show the process. This is the original wheel, tyre and SOME of the grease, there must have been half a cup of the thickest, most foul grease I've run across! The tyre is an Olympic Industrial, made in Australia, a museum piece now!! The rims once apart and washed. I thought there might have been some corrosion but apart from a lot of salt built up they were fine. The rims cleaned and painted, just clear on the inside of the rim, chrome paint on the outside. And the finished product with some nice shiny new bolts with the heads on the outside for a neater appearance. New tyre is a Deli Tire, made in Indonesia, rated for some 335kg at 5 bar!

So, after a couple of days delay it was time for a try out. According to a red nameplate on Hutchinson's I've seen the chains have to be anchored to the chassis of the van with sufficient slack to allow the guards to be no closer than 6" to the drawbar. Sorted that ok. The same plate says the ball weight should be 200lbs and the chains should be anchored tight to reverse and tyres should be inflated to 16lb I think, it's not really clear on the photo.

All hooked up I took it for a run and nothing broke, fell off or bent so all was well. I found that the whole unit pitched quite a lot on the rough roads which abound around here and I don't recall that being the case before. Maybe that's why later versions had torsion bars, they may have helped that problem. I took it to a car park at a local swimming hole at the river so I could try reversing and after re positioning the chains to remove the slack it seemed to reverse as well as I can normally reverse it. An observer confirmed that the dolly wheels did a lot of scrubbing across the ground and I could hear that. The observer turned out to be a caravanner and when I explained the Hutchinson's he just remarked that he didn't think much of the whole idea!

The jury is still out after just a short run on whether they have improved things much as far as towing goes. I could always do the trip to Broken Hill again for a comparison!

At least they are usable now and not just sitting around for me to trip over. I did learn that when they are on the caravan as in the top photo, you don't release the van coupling unless the dolly is supported. I don't know why, but I did just that and of course it came crashing down onto the concrete, narrowly missing my tootsies in their Chinese safety boots.

I've not been able to use the chains to raise the wheels as suggested but I'll try again and see how that might go. Hopefully I won't have to reverse at all, ever, and if I do then it will without pressure of others wanting me out of the way.

Any further tips welcome.

George

Hi George.
Great job on the restoration. Ill have to bring my Go Pro up and stick it on the back of the car to see how its travelling.
When I towed the RoadCruiser in the video above it did still tow well but like you said it still did a little bit of pitching, which could be caused by the section from tow ball to tow ball raising and lowering over the bumps.

Thanks Richard

I'm quite pleased with the end result, the Go Pro sounds like an interesting idea.

George