How much do you fellas pull with your W-250's? I'm giving up yet another way cool project in order to further my log home effort....sooo, I'll be pulling my old '63 Newport out to Clarion, PA over the next few days. Got loaded up today. The trailer is about 20ft, tandem axle bumper pull. Maybe 2k? I'm not sure, as it's not mine. It has a full wood deck. The car..I dunno, 4k? Either way, it felt heavy. I know guys like 59ford are laughing at me, but hey, I don't tow a lot, so gimmie a break. I had the car towards the back of the trailer, trying to get the weight over the trailer axles, and it felt extremely unstable. So, I moved the car up to the front. Better, but still seems a little unstable. My tires are brand new 235-85-16's with 70psi out back. Just wondering if I'm missing something, or maybe the whole rig is heavier than I think. As it turns out, my truck is NOT set up to tow---big surprise . I've already pulled the AFC line and plugged the hole in the head, and I think I'm gonna pop the pump gear back to stock for the trip. Still too much fuel and not nearly enough turbo.

 

I've pulled just over 8K with mine and it did ok. Not very powerful on slight hills, but it was mostly stock then. LOL

 

I pull between 8 to 10k with mine, no problems other than keeping an eye on the pyro.
With a tag-a-long trailer, weight balance is important for good towing
Do you have a weight distributing hitch? If you do load it tongue heavy and make up for it with the load bars

 

I pull 10K with my 89. Get the car moved around on the trailer so you have what you think is the right tongue weight. Should tow that with no problem. Thanks Steve B.

 

No wd hitch. I wonder if I ran a bit more tire pressure it might feel more steady?

 

i used tow on a trailer like yours a, 3100lbs race car with a tire rack in front full of tires and rims, bed full of tools and parts. for sure weighed more all together than what you have. with alot of tongue weight. all with a reg.cab 1500 gasser shortbed, at 75 down the freeway. very stable never swayed, no distributing hitch. you should be fine if you make sure you have enough tongue weight, too little will make it sway. make sure you stop earlier, especially if its wet out.

 

Huh, maybe I'll pull the car a bit further forward...and take all those old heads out of the trunk

 

I regularly pull loads of 9,000+ on my equipment trailer. Youll be fine, and if loaded right, you wont know its back there. You dont need any weight distribution bars, etc. Deff keep the car within 2 ft or so from the front of the trailer. 70psi is fine, but if they are brand new tires, you will get that "squirm" feeling no matter how its loaded until you "season" those tires. Happens to me everytime.

BTW, What leads you to deliver a car to Clarion? Clarion is pretty close to me, just curious.

 

Like everybody else says, tongue weight is cruial on a bumper pull trailer, too much you can get away with, too little, you already found out.

I pull most of my stuff on goosenecks now.
Here's the load I pull around, trailer is 5000lbs., each tractor is 5500lbs.

 

Thanks for the replies, fellas!

csramsey640:I'm trading my old 63 for a k-5 blazer. The guy with the blazer has two other 63's and is building one 'show' car. He wanted a bunch of stuff off mine (gas tank, etc) and I said rather than cut up my car, why not take the whole thing and cut it up yourself, so I don't have to watch...He agreed and when discussing the worth of the car, the k-5 came up, so we're gonna swap. I can toss my old plow on the k-5 and turn it into cash a lot faster than I could a 40+ year old sedan, especially this time of year. I think I'm taking off on thursday. If I end up staying the night, maybe we can meet up, if you're in the area?
greg

 

Hope you get your swaying straightened out. Drive slow as the weather is just great in our neck of the woods right now. Give yourself plenty of slow down time for lights and stuff. You should be fine, even if truck isn't set up really for towing. Just keep an eye on the Pyro and let up if need be.

 

You need about 10% of the gross trailer weight on the tongue to stabilize the load. Too far forward and it doesn't ride good. Too far back and it lifts the tongue when you hit rough road and gets squirrely.

I have had mine grossing somewhere around 17-18k.
I have a slide in camper that weighs 3200 empty. Add food, water, coolers, tools, etc. It goes up.
I was towing a modified jeep on a trailer.
The trailer weighs around 1800# and the jeep would be near 4000# with tools and spares.
My old truck was a 92 extended cab that weighed near 8000# with full tank, me sitting in it, and the normal junk in the ex. cab.

I towed from WV to Tellico, Tenn. Went down 75 and cam back up 77.
No problems and the truck is essentially stock except for 3.5” exhaust and K&N.
The key is to kick it out of overdrive when the speedo hit 60 MPH (that is with 3.54 gears). I could accelerate to max RPM up all interstate grades when I wanted to pass as long as it was not in OD. I pulled most hills between 50 and 55 unless passing.

I have towed the same load, except with a Suzuki samurai (much lighter than jeep) all over the east with no problems. The biggest improvement I have done over the years was getting a trailer with brakes.

 

Also, the center of gravity of most cars is right at the back of the front fender. I just eyeball the vehicle on the trailer to make sure that the center of gravity is just ahead of the front axle.

As you move the vehicle onto the trailer you can watch the truck settle. Move it back and forth to make the truck squat a little.

 

Now thats an impressive load. I'd almost be willing to drive down there and tow it for you just to see if my truck could do it. Plus you gotta love those old Deer's. My father-in-law has 2 old internationals, one a hand crank 44' and one an electric start 45'. Both have worked the farm since they were new and both still run like a champ. He got them both from his neighbor's, a 80 year old couple. The hand crank sat for 10 years because the old guy couldnt crank it over anymore. LOL

 

Not that it's gonna make a huge difference, but when all tires all cold, fill them up to the max cold air pressure stamped on the sidewall of the tire. The truck tires if load range E will be 80 psi. Fill em up!