Gentlemen,

I've noticed some Miata-specific intercoolers, such as the Fab9 or TSE offerings, are designed to mount where the Miata's baby teeth go. What is the preferred tow hook/strap solution for these types of intercoolers?

Thanks,

 

tow from the the IC!

 

Wheel straps.

 

Presumably he's talking about the front hook that tracks like you to have so that they can pull you out of a gravel trap without needing to dig under the car.

My FM intercooler mounts using the hood latch bolts, but the Spec Miata tow hook that I have is basically just a flat piece of 1/4" plate cut to shape. Perhaps it would fit between the mounting point on the car and the "wing mount" on an intercooler like a washer? Might need longer bolts.

--Ian

 

You only need 1 tow hook correct? Use the side the front mount isn't on. Or you could stick it out of the hood like HyperMiata:

 

On our IC, we just bolt the tow hook in place on top of the IC mount. For cars with air dams, we bolt a piece of flat stock to those two holes, then bolt a soft strap to the flat stock and cut a slit in the air dam.

For trailers, I use wheel straps.

 

Wheel straps, run through the spokes. Make sure to use the spokes most closely aligned with strap. Otherwise the tension could make the wheel rotate as the trailer bounces, loosening the straps.

 

I honestly thought this was an easy question.

I still have the tiny Kraftwerks intercooler from their Rotrex kit on my HPDE car. It doesn't use the mounting holes for the baby teeth, so I have a Project G aluminum tow hook mounted on the passenger side. I wanted to know what folks do for a tow hook that are using an intercooler that mounts to the factory baby teeth holes. Sav pretty much answered it, but, there has to be someone out there with a less modified car running one of these Vibrant or Precision I/Cs that could chime in.

Thanks,

 

Savington is spot on. Just use longer bolts, if needed and add tow after the IC flange. For the 3rd bolt, just add some washers to space it same as mounting flange of IC.

This is not a great picture to show it, but what I had in my build thread. This is one of the standard tow hooks.

 

Sir,
Thanks much. My concern was whether or not the tow hook needed to be closest to the frame of the car when bolting it down.

What about something like this? Seems odd most hooks are attached with three bolts...

 

It is probably a 3 is better then 1 or 2 mentality. The cost of production between most standard bolt in tow hooks to use 1 hole verse all 3 is probably pennies. So easier to be safer.