John - Talked to Brother John, down in Palm Harbor, FL.  He can get me a
new stainless steel "fish-weighing" spring scale used to weigh the "big
ones" brought to the docks at Tarpon Springs (50-300# plus/minus 1#) for
$200.

His suggestion for a "tow-rope" was ordinary winch cable, about 300' of
it to avoid the draft/wind turbulence of the tow vehicle.

The "fifth wheel", he suggests, is a piece of cake, utilizing a mil-spec
tiny dc generator and a decent voltmeter, calibrated either via radar or
GPS means.

He suggests the use of one of the simple B&W miniature TV cameras
(temporarily mounted on the front bumper) and a dc portable TV (in the
cabin) to monitor the "fish spring scale" attached to the front of the
Vanagon.

Of course, being the electronics engineer he is, working on "black"
projects for the military for the past 25 years, he really wants me to
let him build me a self-contained solid-state device that fits between
the cable & an attachment to the front of the Vanagon , with digital
input from a decent GPS, which will interface with any "lap-top" using
MS-DOS, giving us speed vs drag figures accurate down to 0.1%.  He says
that's how the military would want it done.  Of course, it comes with a
greater price.

BOB - WA4RRN
'85GL