Would something like this be a good idea?(hitch on the roof)

[Dale M.]

The concepts is alive and well today.... Its called the "5th wheel"....

Dale

[Mike46]

It was a good idea for it's time. Think how far we've come in what we require to be considered safe. Through government mandate and industry innovation cars have become vastly superior to the cars of the mid 70's. Cars today, with their rollover mandates, would probably be better equipped to a "trailer ball on the roof", just writing it sounds absurd. We accepted riding around without seat belts, or in the back of pickups, a car with a hitch on it's roof seemed like a great idea!

[tdprice54]

There is a man in san Antonio ,Texas that has a 51 ford club coupe that mounted a hitch between the back window and decklid. It's in the "Catwalk " area. He pulls a home built camp trailer and has logged several hundred thousand miles. Sorry I don't have a picture but a neat little rig. He said it pulled very well. He makes a living selling at swapmeets

[canned o minimum]

As luck would have it... I came across a guy who "claims" to have bought one ! Complete with roof mounted hitch ! Said he would call me when it's available !

I have a 65 VW Beetle that I tow my TD with.

[jstrubberg]

The concepts is alive and well today.... Its called the "5th wheel"....

Dale

Yeah, but look at any 5th wheel hitch, and then look at that drip rail again....

[canned o minimum]

My thoughts precisely ! But IF I can git a LOOK at this thang...and maybe MOUNT it on MY Bug...I'll see FIRST HAND..

[rgambord]

I'm sure it could handle the forces.. that curved roof is really, really strong. I'd bet you'd be limited to 45-50 mph, and it'd take you a couple minutes to get up to speed. I once got my bug up to 90! State trooper behind me was awfully impressed.

The handling would be amazing, as it's basically a 5th wheel, but even closer to the CoM of the TV. Torque on my '67 1500cc was 106 N*m for an 840 kg car. It could probably tow up to 1000 kg, 2200 lb. Best part is, if it's cold out, you can drive it down a hill, take a lug nut off two of the wheels, and stick em in your boots.

[jstrubberg]

I'm equally sure it can't handle the force involved in an emergency stop of a 1500-2500 pound trailer. Even welded in place, I wouldn't gamble on that hitch holding up to any kind of serious shear force.

[tony.latham]

I think we need to be conscious of hauling our homebuilt creations down a two-lane highway and what could happen with a failure at 60 MPH facing traffick that is also doing 60.

T

[Phil & Ningning]

This was actually in production by JEEP. I find it quite interesting as I often pull my TD with a CJ5.

http://www.cj5camper.com/index.php