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I just bought a Cooper Clubman ALL4 6 spd. BMW corporate is stating that they have heard of owners of the ALL4 towing 4 down. I knew that the FWD's have been towed for years, but never heard of an ALL4 towed. It would be nice if that was indeed an option if not time to slide this cutie into the trailer.
Review page 224 of your owner's manual... All4 Clubman are not to be towed. They recommend loading on a flatbed trailer or on the back of a flat-bed tow truck. If you had a front wheel drive vehicle you could consider a tow dolly like many RV's use. I believe this has to do with damage that will occur to the All4 transmission/differentials rotating out of sync. Similar costly damage will occur if you have tires on the car that are different sizes (diameters). Some all wheel drive cars are so sensitive to this that if you destroy a tire on a set that is pretty well worn out and then slapping on one new tire instead of all four you create the same drive line eating issue. In the end it is your car and your checkbook!
Mini states that no Mini is to be towed 4 down, but there are 100's of FWD that are towed 4 down. Just wondered if anybody knew of one being towed 4 down or if anybody had done the leg work to make them towable.
Review page 224 of your owner's manual... All4 Clubman are not to be towed. They recommend loading on a flatbed trailer or on the back of a flat-bed tow truck. If you had a front wheel drive vehicle you could consider a tow dolly like many RV's use. I believe this has to do with damage that will occur to the All4 transmission/differentials rotating out of sync. Similar costly damage will occur if you have tires on the car that are different sizes (diameters). Some all wheel drive cars are so sensitive to this that if you destroy a tire on a set that is pretty well worn out and then slapping on one new tire instead of all four you create the same drive line eating issue. In the end it is your car and your checkbook!
Yeah I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee that was fulltime 4WD and ruined a tire. The tire insurance I had bought paid for 4 new tires!
You will have to replace more than the wheels. MINI does not recommend towing the FWD MINIs either unless the drive wheels are elevated on a tow dolly.
I wonder if I could start the car and put it in neutral and just let it idle. The next question is what else would go wrong if I let the car idle for hours.
There are a ton of mini FWDs that are towed 4 down with out any issue.
Even while the car is running and put in neutral, at the very least you are moving a running car with no one behind the wheel. If the engine dies or you forget to turn off the auto start/stop or a number of other reasons, you will be in the deep..ah...stuff... Nevermind that you are operating the car way beyond how it was designed to run. Will the cooling pumps operate sufficiently with the car in N? Personally, I don't know why you would chance it.
Just because you've seen someone else do it, doesn't mean you should. If anything happened, you can be sure warranty will not cover it. Why take the risk?
Agreed about towing it running. That is a disaster waiting to happen.
Talked to the "driveshaft king", he has looked into making a kit for the mini AWD's and he gave up on the idea. He said that he could not find a way to connect an external pump to the transmission.
From: Manassas, VA where the Civil War resides.....
Originally Posted by biggerbob
I wonder if I could start the car and put it in neutral and just let it idle. The next question is what else would go wrong if I let the car idle for hours.
There are a ton of mini FWDs that are towed 4 down with out any issue.
I would not let a car idle for hours. At idle the engine is never running at full optimization. You will be washing down the cylinders with excess fuel causing unnecessary wear on the cylinder walls.
Reminds me of a friend I had while in the AF. When he got to our base, I notice his Nissan 1200 did not have a front bumper. I asked him what happened. He stated, he was towing the Nissan and to keep the steering wheel from locking up in a turn he turn the ignition key on but not the engine. In the process of driving from GA to ME, the ignition key vibrated back to the off position so when he made a big turn the steering wheel locked and once he straighten the towing vehicle, the Nissan just stayed in the turn and ripped the bumper off.
