Looks like I'll be busy

[94touring]

Hey Dan maybe you could bolt a bar across the tow bar that way its still adjustable in width but takes care of the torque on it.  If you can picture what Im saying.

Sure do, was probably going to fabricate that.  Just got back from the Jersey trip with zero problems.  Its amazing how much better they tow when the body is solid. 

[MPlayle]

How strong/solid the front sub-frame mount is has a lot to do with it as well.  I had a tow-bar failure problem on a later style Japanese-spec SPI Mini.  After quite some analysis of the failure, I had several things I did wrong on it that I had done right on the Moke before it.  The SPI had the rubber front sub-frame mounts which allowed flex in the tow-bar mounting along with having spaced the tow-bar mounts too far in front of the bodywork (in an attempt to leave the front bumper in place while towing).  I also did not have the cross-brace that others have mentioned.  Some folks use a cross-brace on their tow-bars and some don't.  I did not need it with the Moke as it had the solid mounts and I used short spacers to have the tow-bar mounts barely in front of the valance (maybe 1/4 inch). 

My failure was the 1/2" grade-8 bolts gave out (two sets).  The first set badly bent, but did not break on the way to a show.  On the way back, the replacement set (again 1/2" grade-8 bolts) had one bolt badly bend and the other broke where the threads met the smooth shaft.  Damage to the towed Mini was fortunately minimal as I had decided to pull into a parking lot and double check the mountings.  They failed as I was coming to a final stop.  The tow bar bounced off the front valance and buckled under the Mini, bending the right front control rod.

[94touring]

Wow that would suck.  Breaking 1/2 inch grade 8's is impressive though.  My mpi had the rubber in there as well, and I had put washers/spacers in the middle of it all and torqued it down really good with 1/2 inch bolts and never had a problem with compression.  My brackets on all these tows allowed for the tow bracket to be a quarter inch to half inch roughly from the front valance.  Never had to take off the chrome bumper.  Also the way I have the hitch on the towing vehicle setup allows it to be parallel to the ground so there are no major angles the tow bar is at while riding behind the car.     

[MPlayle]

I had used longer spacers so the tow-bar bracket were about 2 to 3 inches in front of the valance.  That added to the problem by allowing additional torque-flex of the bolts.  I also had a small angle to the tow bar - probably not as parallel to the ground as it should have been.  I was towing behind my 2002 MINI.  I think the "killing" factor was the longer spacers as I had used the exact same tow bar and mounts to tow the Moke behind the MINI as well and had no issues with the Moke (short spacers like you described).