Towing capacity

Nice photo.

 

Thank you sir. I brought it over to our place this evening and got a number of comments from people passing buy. One gal was walking her dog and said it was a "cute little camper"

 

I just love the whole rig! Great wagon and a cool camper!
:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Kinda Towing expert

Hi

I like to think I have a lot of Experience with Towing RV's, My family owned a RV dealership for many years and I use to set op 99% of them. My experience goes back to the early 60's when most travel trailers were towed by cars and not trucks.

First off its all in the Gears and cooling system!

Biggest Radiator you can get, if necessary aux electric cooling fans will certainly help.

Extra large Auxilary Transmission Cooler

Rear End Gears 4:56, 4:11, 4:10, 3:91, 3:73 out tow a Caddy with a 501 V8 and 3:55 gears. My father said his 72 Safari with 4:56 and a 455 would out tow his 74 Ford 460 F-250 with 3:54's when dragging a 28'tt and back then it was considered a huge trailer!

Heaviest load range tires you can get, load range "E" is ideal, soft side wall radials can easily cause poor towing performance, rear of the car gets squirrely and then it sets off a domino effect causing the trailer to sway, btw MAX TIRE PRESSURE! anything less will cause excessive heat build up and then blow outs occur

The previous picture of the weld on Hitch is pretty much what most cars had on them back in the day. Maybe the secondary brackets could use little heavier steel but the spread from the primary and secondary points make a huge difference in what it is capable to tow. I would say it's safe for at least a 5000lb trailer using a Equalizing hitch and sway control. Back in the day hitches required significant amount of welding, ball mounts had to be dialed in using mathematical calculations and then welding the mounts together. Today its pretty simple everything bolts together and is adjustable for the trial and era types

As far as stopping, a good brake controller is all you need to finish out the package. In the old days the controllers where hydraulic over electric, you tapped into the car's brake lines and thru a proportioning valve and a electric controller that was hooked to an adjustable resistor and would activate by hydraulic pressure .

imho opinion still prefer a welded ball mount, you can preciously dial it right in for ultimate hitch performance

 

Finally! Someone who knows what's what in towing! Would you mind if I cut & paste your post on another website? There's a bunch of lunkheads on there who believe that the only worthy vehicles to tow with are crew-cab 'Cowboy Caddies.'

 

Feel Free to do so!

Just a couple of other suggestions, heavy duty springs!

 

Huge thanks nascar24! I was kind if thinking along the same lines,Big rad,Big trans cooler and better gears.I think the right hitch and brake controller i should be in there!

 

Great pic, Jeremiah! I love it when a tow vehicle and a trailer match, as yours do.

 

Thanks Marshal. It's neat that my Grandfather held onto all of this stuff. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have any cool vintage stuff. It's also cool that the truck and the trailer are the same year. I am really hoping next summer I will be able to participate in one of the Tin can vintage trailer meets.