Technical Towing capacity AGAIN

If it was a New Yorker wagon it had a 440 with single 4 barrel, dual exhausts, heavy duty rods etc basically the 440 six pack engine with a 4 barrel and stock cam. 727 torqueflite, torsion bar suspension, probably the best stock tow car you could get at the time, comparable to a heavily optioned Pontiac wagon. Pontiac took a lot of trouble over their towing packages and was a top choice for tow vehicle but the right options added $1500 - $2000 to the price, to get where the Chrysler was stock.

 

Watch The Long Long Trailer for towing wisdom of 1954. Notice the Slimp dolly required to carry the hitch weight, with its 8" wheels and notice how Ricky freaks out when Lucy goes over 30 MPH. 120HP flathead V8 Mercury with 3 speed trans and drum brakes. State of the art for the times.

 

Yes, that is correct. My 55 weighs about 3300 lbs. just by itself. I don't know the weight of my trailer. However, it would be interesting to know what a 96 Chevy 1 ton dually weighs. Wish that I'd taken a photo of my "Old" GMC pulling the "relatively new" dually. LOL.

 

I agree that 7-8,000 pounds is a lot for an older vehicle. And not to hijack this thread but the current tow rating war between the major truck makers continues to escalate. It also amazes me to so see a jacked up 1/2 ton 4x4 crew cab towing a triple axle toy hauler doing 70+ in the fast lane on the freeway. Given the poor quality of today's trailer tires and that most aren't rated for such high speeds its just a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the tow speed limit in CA is 55 and vehicles towing trailers are restricted to the 2 far right lanes. OK, rant done and back to the original thread unless of course the mods feel this needs to be deleted since its really not related to the OP.

 

You don’t need one of those LS engines to tow good. I’ve got a 428 Cobra Jet in an older truck and pulled a trailer that weighed 6000 lbs empty, 16,000+ loaded.I could top Tiger Mountain on I-40 at the speed limit and not be on the floor.








Bones

 

You probably meant 5 KW, not 5000 KW, right?

Because....

......photo of a 4000 KW unit from Caterpillar. Twenty cylinder 105 liter diesel, quad turbochargers, weight is 51,588 lbs. Oil capacity is 178 GALLONS, fuel burn at capacity is 274.6 gallons per hour.

You'd need one hell of a hot rod tow vehicle...

http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/content/Caterpillar/C10248782

 

You'd need one hell of a hot rod tow vehicle...especially since it doesn't have wheels!

 

whats a few zeros, between friends?

 

Good catch, but I’m blaming autocorrect for this one


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Couple dozen responses with good info and not a reply from the OP?

 

With his initial attitude, what did you expect?

 

Physics error.

 

Lol obviously not much, but at least a reply !

 

But, he did increase his post count by 15% !

 

excuse me while I go to you tube and watch trailer crashes and assorted calamities for an hour.

brakes are a part of factory towing capacity

 

Lucy and Desi pulled this with a mercury

 

They pulled that with movie smoke and mirrors, actually

 

Look closer, they used a Lincoln to tow it up the mountain. The Mercury did ok on the flat, at 30MPH.

 

You could move that big Cat genny with this vintage hot rod tow vehicle...

1950 Kenworth repowered with a Hall-Scott V12 Defender Marine Engine. Good for an honest 600 hp, and probably 2000+ ft-lbs of torque from 2281 ci. Stopping will still be interesting....

 

I watched the movie, its all real
they didn't have CGI back then

 

Yeah, ok.

 

it pulled the trailer and a couple tons of rocks
up a mountain and through mud

 

Were you there, on set?

If so, you look really good for your age!

 

yes, I was the technical consultant in a past life.
I remember it well under hypnosis

 

I might get one of these cars and put a 5th wheel hitch on the trunk, this car is amazing

 

You mean like this?








Bones

 

I am not sure how helpful my advice will be, but a good 10+ year back I wanted to hire a car trailer from U-Haul.
I just walked in off the street and they had a computer set up whereby you provided tow vehicle info followed by vehicle to be carried details and they could tell you if it was OK or not by their rules at least.

I had an 1960 F100 and wanted to haul a 1950 Chev sedan and was told NO...
The issue in my view was the fact that those darn U-Haul trailers with that big center pipe chassis were so heavy empty they were stealing so much of the tow weight before you even loaded a car on.

Some of you may recall that in the early 2000's there were several insurance cases against manufacturers whose vehicles had failed during towing. I think in particular one of the big Ford vehicles was involved from memory.

 

Should you tow more than what the tow vehicle weighs? My mini service van could tow a 4x4 explorer but going down hills got to be fun. 4000 lbs pulling 6000 lbs not a good combo.

 

I often tow more than the tow vehicle weighs. If you have the right equipment, it's not a problem.

 

And the best piece of equipment is decent grey matter between the ears.