Drivability Question

You're driving up? Got a trailer? Trailer it home and then check it out.......might be worth it to rent a trailer if you don't own one........

 

600 miles is a long drive for a car you don't know much about. I would do one of the following two things. Pay for a flat bed/transport company to bring it home or rent a car trailer (if you can access a tow vehicle) and trailer it home. For the money it will cost to do this will be worth your piece of mind knowing the car will be home safe. now once home you can take small trips and work out the bugs knowing you are not far from home. Keep this in mind one breakdown and you will still be spending money to have it towed anyway but now your STUCK until your ride arrives. Not to mention the potential damage to your new cruiser. Quick story to drive the point home. I live in the Chicago area and bought a ranchero in Nashville, Tn. The guy said the car passed it's safety test and would drive it anywhere and not to bother renting a trailer. I rented one anyway and am I glad I did! When I arrived the car was burning/leaking more oil than I have ever seen a car do and the tires where bald junk. If I would have tried to drive this home at a MINIMUM the car would have needed a new set of cheap tires and I would have needed at least a case (not joking) of motor oil to make that ride home. Those two items alone would have cost more than the trailer rental. So please really think the driving home thing through. Would not want to see/hear you where hurt or the car wrecked.

 

Reminds me of something I read about in a Mustang mag. Someone bought a '66 convertible at a car show that he had a mechanic give a basic once-over at the show. The mechanic gave a thumbs-up and the guy bought it and drove it home. He parked it in his garage and went on two weeks' vacay. When he came back, he discovered to his horror that the body fractured at the base of the firewall/cowl and was nearly in two pieces! He snapped a bunch of photos and shared one with the magazine as an object lesson to have a car thoroughly inspected before purchase, and then my opinion is to trailer/ship it home, for the reasons DanR63 just said above.

 

I believe DanR63 and others summed it up pretty well. Now knowing the distance you will be driving it does not make sense to just get in and go. Obviously you are driving or riding to get 600 miles to pick up the wagon. That's half the problem solved already.
If you have a friend or a friend of a friend with a flat bed rent or borrow it. Also many vehicles are capable of towing a car on a flat bed trailer. If you don't have one, beg or borrow a tow vehicle too. This is the cheapest choice.
Actually renting a flat bed and pick up truck will be much cheaper than doing it half way home. This is the only sensable thing to do. Good luck.
You never mentioned from where you are driving to Cincinnati. Mountains and heat will also make a difference.

 

Well, I hadn't planned on trailering it because I didn't have access to a vehicle big enough to pull the monster. Suddenly I do.
I'm now trying to find a trailer that can handle it, not a gooseneck.
But,
Can anyone provide me with approximate weight of one of these? The only thing I could find online was some dude posted that they weigh "upward of 4800 lbs."
How upward of that? 5000? 6000? 7500 lbs?

Also, just to verify, length would be just under 19 ft, and 10 ft wide?

Thanks all again!

Dave.

 

I would say that's pretty close. The heaviest wagons ever made, which I think were the GM clamshells, came in at just over 5,000 lbs. Certainly the '73 Country Sedan does not weigh 6,000 or 7,000 lbs. For planning purposes as far as what size trailer and tow vehicle and type of hitch to go with, 4,800 lbs is a good number.

Length is right at about 19 feet, but these are no where near 10 feet wide. I just now went out and measured my '73 Custom Cruiser. It's about 6 feet, 10 inches wide at the widest points, and the opening of the garage door in the garage I store it in is a 7 feet, 10 inches wide. Good heavens, the typical traffic lane is 12 feet wide. If these wagons were 10 feet wide, they'd have to carry a "Wide Load" banner across the front!

 

Whoops, I wrote the wheelbase dimension of 121 inches, not the width. I wondered if 10 ft was a little big, but didn't really think about how big that was!

 

Considering that interstate lanes are generally 11 feet wide, your wagon would be in Canyonero country!As for vehicle weight, two things: all the 'full-size/intermediate-size' sedans and wagons I've ever owned are in the 4000-4300 LB range, and vary according to what era it's from and how it's fitted out; and some states require the car's scale weight to be put on the registration, so take a look for that on the registration of your car.