How and where do you drill hole for second tow point in front of Smart Car?

[mr. cob]

Howdy All,

For all practical purposes other then having the Smart Car deck installed the Peterbilt is ready to tow.  I am working with a local bed builder, custom truck shop to have the bed built and installed with luck this will all happen within the next three weeks.  So now I am starting to gather information on how to get the Smart Car, ready to be hauled.  I have seen how others have drilled a hole in the front plastic of their Smart Car, and have added a second attachment point so that the winch cable can pull from the center of the car, that being the case I have a couple of questions.  ONE, how do you determine WHERE to drill this hole?  TWO, what do you have to do behind the plastic to facilitate adding the second attachment point?  THREE, where did you buy the needed hardware to faclitate attaching the winch cable and how was it assembled onto the car?

As always, PHOTOS and links would be greatly appreciated, THANKS.

Dave 

[HERO Maker]

What smart do you have Dave?

[NoDirectionHome]

Layout a center line on the bumper, then on a flat surface mark an equal vertical

 

[HERO Maker]

Dave, my question should have been, "What year smart do you have?"

[mr. cob]

1 hour ago, HERO Maker said:

What smart do you have Dave?

Howdy Rocky,

It's a 2013 Barbus edition.

Dave

[mr. cob]

1 hour ago, NoDirectionHome said:

Layout a center line on the bumper, then on a flat surface mark an equal vertical

 

Howdy NDH,

That's kinda what I was thinking but thought it better to check before I start drilling holes.  Thanks.

Dave

[hone eagle]

Are there not 2 holes in the back bumper ? thats what I used ,I thought everybody did?

[GlennWest]

2013 should have it. Understand behind plastic

[mr. cob]

9 minutes ago, hone eagle said:

Are there not 2 holes in the back bumper ? thats what I used ,I thought everybody did?

Howdy hone eagle,

Yup there are what appears to be two plugged holes in the rear of my car.  Most of the folks who I have actually watched load their Smart Car's, do so with the car going forward up the ramps, I have seen videos of them being winched up backwards but have not seen it done.  It just seems to me it would be esier going forward especially if you have to make a steering correction.

Dave

[mr. cob]

Howdy All,

On my car there is one hole in the front,

What appears to be two plugs in the rear.

I was thinking of using bolts to hold a piece of channel iron to the car with a winch cable attachment midway between the two bolts.  Photos of how others have done this would be most appreciated, thanks.

Dave

[NoDirectionHome]

Mr Cob,
     Be aware the thread on the tow hook and frame are NON- standard and you will probably want to order those bolts from https://smartmadness.com/forum.php   

Anyway, thats what i did and i have a full machine shop available to me

[mr. cob]

2 minutes ago, NoDirectionHome said:

Mr Cob,
     Be aware the thread on the tow hook and frame are NON- standard and you will probably want to order those bolts from https://smartmadness.com/forum.php   

Anyway, thats what i did and i have a full machine shop available to me

Howdy NDH,

Thanks for the link, that's the kind of valuable information I need.

Dave

[rickeieio]

Dave,  before you get too far along, maybe Darryl will post a picture of how he winches his on.  Far simpler than mounting the winch, pulleys, rub strips, etc. to the truck.

[mr. cob]

3 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

Dave,  before you get too far along, maybe Darryl will post a picture of how he winches his on.  Far simpler than mounting the winch, pulleys, rub strips, etc. to the truck.

Howdy rickeieio,

I would like to see what Darryl, has done.  I have been thinking it would be MUCH simpler, easier to mount the winch to the car.  Make it so the winch plugged into a receiver, pop a pin to install or remove the winch, and the wiring would a quick disconnect.

Dave

[rickeieio]

2 minutes ago, mr. cob said:

Howdy rickeieio,

I would like to see what Darryl, has done.  I have been thinking it would be MUCH simpler, easier to mount the winch to the car.  Make it so the winch plugged into a receiver, pop a pin to install or remove the winch, and the wiring would a quick disconnect.

Dave

That's pretty much what he did.  If I remember correctly, he has the winch mounted to a bar that spans the two eyes.  If you're using the front mounts, it's only a couple of feet to the battery.  No remote required.  Then, you run your cable to the other side of the bed and winch away.  Since the cable isn't in motion (the car is), no pulleys or rub blocks are needed.

[mr. cob]

Howdy All,

It took a while but here is a direct link to the tow studs-bumper bolts that could be used to make a winch cable mount from a channel iron or simular metal.

http://smartmadness.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=bumper+bolt&category_id=0&product_id=291

SPENDY little buggers ( $54.99 for a pair ) but they will make the job much easier, these fit in the REAR holes on a Smart Car, I don't know if the threads are the same on the front but I would "assume they are.

Dave

[mr. cob]

6 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

That's pretty much what he did.  If I remember correctly, he has the winch mounted to a bar that spans the two eyes.  If you're using the front mounts, it's only a couple of feet to the battery.  No remote required.  Then, you run your cable to the other side of the bed and winch away.  Since the cable isn't in motion (the car is), no pulleys or rub blocks are needed.

Howdy rickeieio,

I think I am going to work something up along those lines, just seems easier to me.

Dave

[HERO Maker]

Dave, I think you haven't seen a lot of guys loading their smarts to have a feeling that most of them load it from the front.  We should have spent more time together at Rick White's and you could have seen me load mine.  Shoot, I just loaded mine for our travels tomorrow!  I should of videoed it!

I have the Curt hitch (also known as the U Haul hitch), but I'm not sure it will fit your Brabus.  I just looked at their website and the Brabus is not mentioned.  I think it has something to do with your exhaust.  The Brabus also sets lower (it's sexy sportier look) so you will need to make sure the first time you load it to be very careful so as to not take something off the bottom of your car.

Yes, guys do load it from the front and guys driving it up load from the front, but if you think about it, steering corrections are pretty east either way.  Plus if you load from the front on one side, you have to back it off.  Driving it off frontwards is easier (I feel) than backing it down.  I don't hang out the window, I open my door and I can see both front and rear wheels and know exactly where on the ramp each tire will go.

It used to be a the dealership you could see a frame of the smart and that is what I looked at to determine where the front screw hole was behind the plastic.  I know one of our guys just drilled out a hole about the same size as the shaft from smart madness and it worked fine.

Just remember, your car sits lower than the rest of the smarts.

[mr. cob]

Howdy Rocky,

I have only seen three people load their Smart's, all were at one of the four national rallies I have attended and they all loaded the cars front first.  So I "assumed" this was the usual way it was done.  Yes I am aware that my Smart is lower then the others I found that out the first time I loaded it into the toy hauler.

I just now ordered the bumper bolts, I already have the winch, so now its time to think about how I'll load the car and how complicated to build the loading system.  I much prefer SIMPLE, the less complicate the better in my book, it would be simpler to mount the winch in a detachable manner to the front of the car but doing so and using the car battery to power the winch WILL put extra stress on the car battery.  My thoughts on this are loading is not something I'll be doing everyday so if I have the car engine running it should keep the battery charged while its being used to power the winch and so not be that detrimental to its useful life.

Once I get the deck built and installed and see what angles and heights I am actually working with a lot of what I am wondering about now should make itself clear.  I ordered the wheel chocks and winches from Jack, they should arrive within a week, once I have those in hand they will make visualizing the procedure easier.  One thing that should make it easier for me to load and unload is that my ramps are 19 inches wide, when I bought the ramps they were used to load motorcycles, until hanging around with you HDT folks I NEVER considered owning a Smart Car.

Dave

[DesertMiner]

YouTube has some examples of the “smart” being loaded.

Might also find some useful info by during a search on this site. Lots of folks have talked about this very subject. 

Check on your buddies over on FB for additional info. 

[GlennWest]

Daryl uses a piece of aluminum tube steel. Puts slots on side to match Smart car tow hooks/bolts. Drill holes in top of tube steel to drop pin into to go thru and secure steel to tow hooks. Mount winch on tube steel. Simple method to slide steel on hooks, drop in pins. Ready to go. The cable could lay on Deck with no issue. 

[mr. cob]

26 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

Daryl uses a piece of aluminum tube steel. Puts slots on side to match Smart car tow hooks/bolts. Drill holes in top of tube steel to drop pin into to go thru and secure steel to tow hooks. Mount winch on tube steel. Simple method to slide steel on hooks, drop in pins. Ready to go. The cable could lay on Deck with no issue. 

Howdy Glenn,

Thanks for that information, I now have a pretty good idea of how Darryl does it, I am thinking of something very close to that setup.

Dave

[noteven]

If it were me, which it isn't it's Mr. Cob, I would:

Fab my ramps so they extended across the deck and are hinged at the side like a teeter totter. The part from the hinge to the ground would have a A12-37B connection so that section disconnected and slid into storage, just like a ramp.  The on deck part would tilt onto the deck with the car resting on it. They would be like a channel so they held the car fore and aft which is sideways for the car. The teeter totter effect would eliminate the need to accomodate "break over" angle/grounding the car because the wheels stay on the same plane and the ramps tilt down or up as the weight transfers.  

Then I would attach the winch to the car so the winch line stands still and does not chafe on the deck or need rollers or fairleads.

[dan412]

On 4/5/2018 at 11:40 AM, mr. cob said:

Howdy All,

For all practical purposes other then having the Smart Car deck installed the Peterbilt is ready to tow.  I am working with a local bed builder, custom truck shop to have the bed built and installed with luck this will all happen within the next three weeks.  So now I am starting to gather information on how to get the Smart Car, ready to be hauled.  I have seen how others have drilled a hole in the front plastic of their Smart Car, and have added a second attachment point so that the winch cable can pull from the center of the car, that being the case I have a couple of questions.  ONE, how do you determine WHERE to drill this hole?  TWO, what do you have to do behind the plastic to facilitate adding the second attachment point?  THREE, where did you buy the needed hardware to faclitate attaching the winch cable and how was it assembled onto the car?

As always, PHOTOS and links would be greatly appreciated, THANKS.

Dave 

Hi Mr. Cob, 

If you don't mind could you give the name of the custom shop that you are working with. I don't live to far from you and would find a shop to do a bed for my truck. 

Thanks Dan

[mr. cob]

5 hours ago, dan412 said:

Hi Mr. Cob, 

If you don't mind could you give the name of the custom shop that you are working with. I don't live to far from you and would find a shop to do a bed for my truck. 

Thanks Dan

Howdy Dan,

There is a truck shop in Smoky Point, Northern Trucks, I think its called they do all kinds of truck work and builds, however when I told them what I wanted they wanted NOTHING to do with building a deck that would be used to carry a car behind a sleeper.

I have been taking my truck to a guy who lives a few miles from me for occasional work that I can't or in the case of replacing the clutch return spring I didn't even want to attempt, he also does custom work.  Picket Truck Repair, is the shop, Kevin, is its owner.  Be aware Kevins work is not cheap but its done right, he's the one who repaired the rear of my Freightliner, after it was run into and I highly recommend him and his shop.

Dave