Help Loading an XM on Trailer Needed

Post by **DHallworth** » 27 Aug 2006, 21:35

Hey Guys...

I've bought a mark 1 XM that needs loading onto a trailer.

It is sitting right on the bump stops and has been for a few months. I need to ideally get the suspension lifted to get it onto my trailer without ripping the bottom of the car off or the trailer floor off.

Thoughts....

1. Remove plugs and turn car on starter to raise suspension, problem there is fuel line is ruptured and its pouring petrol everywhere and it'd need a hell of a good battery, could possibly remove fuel pump relay to solve.

2. Remove the belt from the hydraulic pump and with a drill or an electric motor try and rotate the pulley on the pump quickly enough to try and lift the car.

3. Take some long planks of wood and just try and get the car onto the trailer doing minimal damage, easiest but least happy doing it this way.

Any thoughts you guys have is appreciated!!

Thanks,

David.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 27 Aug 2006, 21:58

The electric drill is probably the best idea if you can find a way of coupling it to the pulley. If you could fit a section of rubber tube, radiator hose or similar, over the drill chuck, you could probably get a friction drive to the edge of the pulley. Or, would it not be possible to rig up a small petrol supply with a tube going direct to the engine? I havn't owned anything with a petrol engine in it in the last 20 years or so, I am only familier with Morris Minor technolgy!.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 27 Aug 2006, 22:09

Easy! I do this all the time trailering dead or dying Citroens around and am quite adept at it after a few hunderd go's!!

I'm assuming the car cannot be run so there's no pressure in the system - to make this work you'll need the car depressurised anyhow!

For the front wheels get a jack under the front of the car some shape and lift it so the wheels drop and hang down as far as they can go. You'll then need some 6-7" long 2x1" very strong lengths of timber - brace between the lug on the front struts [where the drop links are attached] up against the crown of the wheelarch. Obviously this will only allow LIMITED steering movement so get the car or trailer into the right position before winching it into the trailer.

For the rear end, the rear subframe has a main cross tube to which the arms attach to and this tube [about 4-5" diameter hidden behind the wheelarch liner] has a pair of bumpstops and the end paddle of the rear swing trailing arms travels between them. Get another lump of timber about 3" square and about 4-5" long and brace the gap underneath the paddle once you again let the wheels drop after jacking the car. You can use a pair of the earlier mentioned 2x1x6" as well each side and you won't disturb the 'bottoming out' bump stop so easily.

Takes about 10 minutes to get the car into the high setting position so no ruined sills or exhausts...

Citroen used to use a more sophisticated method of collars for the front of the Xm when it was being worked on or stored in ther workshop or showroom but the principle is the same and the lumps of timber method is just as effective!

You can of course perfect ideal measurements for the timber by playing with an Xm that works properly!!

Andrew

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 27 Aug 2006, 22:12

The maple timber approach works well on Xantias too!

The GS and Cx have a far more elegant suspension design where you simply chock gaps in the paddle bumpstops of the front suspension top wishbones which gives total front steering on the maximum high setting should you wish with no hydrualic pressure available.

Now there's a well designed suspension...

in all respects!

Andrew

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 27 Aug 2006, 22:32

Also handy for moving strut through the bonnet cars somewhere where they can actually be fixed...

I drove the Xm VERY slowly to my garage like this - OK it didn't need lots of steering movement but I had a tiny amount!!

Andrew

Post by **DHallworth** » 27 Aug 2006, 22:41

Many thanks for the reply Andmcit!!

Dont suppose on the off chance you have a picture of the rear with this method done do you?

Regards
David.

KevMayer · Post by **KevMayer** » 27 Aug 2006, 22:58

andmcit ..... Brilliant.

What a marvellous tip.

Thanks very much.

Kev

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 27 Aug 2006, 23:27

DHallworth wrote:Many thanks for the reply Andmcit!!

Dont suppose on the off chance you have a picture of the rear with this method done do you?

Regards
David.

Sure David, I'll take some pics of my Cx 'suspended' for you tomorrow as it's the same principle although the Cx doesn't have a wheelarch liner in the way!! Ah, the arrogance of Citroen's designers believing the XM won't rot behind the rear liner...

Andrew

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 27 Aug 2006, 23:36

The cross tube on the rear subframe of an XM is open from both sides - it's level with the very front of the rear wheel arch. You just can't see it as the side wall of the arch is all plastic down to the car's floor - it can be swung up just enough to get the chock in though without the liner's removal.

For completeness, the Xantia's rear is even simpler to support - when lifted up into the air you'll see a large flat on the uppermost face of the rear arms where they bear against coned rubber bumpstop mounted up high on the floor of the car - careful positioning of a substantial housebrick [approx sized] piece of good timber will do a grand job!

Andrew

f00lzz · Post by **f00lzz** » 28 Aug 2006, 08:44

Can we have this post moved to 'handy hints and tips'

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 28 Aug 2006, 12:07

i picked up a dead DS from nottingham in march to take to east sussex,and i hired a smashing hydaulic tilt bed trailer for £40 per day or £56 for the weekend,didnt raise the car at all she went straight up on no probs no bottoming out realy smooth super dooper
regards malcolm
ps.
i have now this weekend jacked her up removed the spheres placed a rod into each of the suspention cylinders replced the sphreres,now shes moveable

Post by **DHallworth** » 28 Aug 2006, 14:30

I've got a hydraulic tilt bed trailer sitting at the shed that i am taking with me, but the XM has dropped so low that its exhaust is digging into the chaps driveway.

Hey Ho....

The joys of Citroening.

David.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 28 Aug 2006, 15:24

This view is the rear nearside of my CX Safari's subframe - [whilst it looks grubby and rusty it's fine!] and believe it or not it's exactly the same design as the rear of an Xm. The bolt head just visible to the right of the shot is the main pivot that goes through the rear wheel arm's bearings.

The paddle in the centre of the picture is the tip of the rear trailing arm and the cones above and below are two two extremes of the suspension travel's bump stops. The car is on it's normal running height so that's why it's pretty much central between these. Where you need to chock the arm with timber is beneath the paddle AFTER the car has been jacked up high with the rear wheels drooping down and the paddle up against the top cone bump stop.

For trailering using an A frame towing dolly in the past I've actually used heavy duty rubber boat trailer guide rollers which fit superbly and have some deflection to permit a bit of give in the rear of the car. These rollers were about a tenner apiece and I threaded rope down their hollow axis to use as a means of pulling them out of the rear tube [these are actually holding a CX Safari up in the air in my barn and they're not really handy to take pictures of!]

Andrew

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 28 Aug 2006, 15:27

In fact just looking again at the latest picture the rusty parallel lines look likely to have been caused by my having had timber wedged in this position in the past when I was repiping the car's back plumbing.

Andrew

Post by **DHallworth** » 28 Aug 2006, 15:57

Many thanks Andrew.

This should make life a LOT easier!!

David.