Tow / Haul

Rustytruck · Aug 17, 2020

blubuckaroo said:
People from my generation understood towing way better than the youngsters.
Now days, you just buy a 3/4 ton diesel pickup. Done!
Lots of lost knowledge.

might I add dualie pickup.

once the trailer exceeds half your tug weight things get hairy really quick and bad things happen if you don't have trailer brakes you can manually activate to help you regain control.

sprdv1 · Aug 18, 2020

chrlsful said:
nahw, he's just haulin frm one sales lot 2 another. he'll make it fine - it's flat rd

lol.... or something

MikeCon · Aug 19, 2020

With those gears and 5 speed you can pull more than stock. Load trailer and see how truck sits. 2000-2500 should be fine. Over load my f150 By 1000lb. Drive accordingly.
Most important part of tow package sits behind the steering wheel.

nvrstuk · Aug 23, 2020

Back in the "day", we backed a Bronco up to a trailer and TOWED it!! lol

My Dad's '69 ended up towing a 16' Kit Companion trailer for 5-7 months a year all over Canada, Alaska, SW, Mexico, CO, etc, etc. He had a equalizer hitch, electric brakes and drove careful. Probably towed that trailer 20,000 miles... at least. Sold his with 186K miles . I learned to drive in it.

My '68 Bronco towed a light camp trailer for 6 weeks at a time and then a 13' trailer. No PB or PS for years. No equalizer, no swaying. We would tow up to the Yukon, BC, Montana, CO, 6 weeks at a time... NO issues. Can't remember the weight, we didn't care back then- we did what everybody else did. Bought a trailer that didn't look to big and towed it. No accidents, no "I met God" moments. Just drove with some sanity. My trailers never had electric brakes.

My Dad's 16' Kit did. Only once in 186K of driving did he have an "Oh sh#t" moment and when I upgraded his 302 to a 4bbl, headers, dual exhaust he could downshift at 50mph and pull out of trailer sway situations (readjusted tongue, equalizer hitch etc after that) but he ran all over BC, Yukon, NW Territories with 8-9% grades for MILES... no issues.

Just saying some common sense is needed when towing. Yeah, we were probably overweight back then... most everybody with wood paneled station wagons towing Airstreams were too... lol

SHX669 · Aug 24, 2020

I had no problems towing my little tear drop travel trailer with my '68 . It weighed #1600 empty and had electric brakes . The Bronco has disk brakes , PS and plenty of Power . I waited until I installed disk brakes on the front before I towed the trailer - and highly recommend doing that before you do.
Another thing to CONSIDER that some don't think of is liability . A few years ago I had an incident where a guy crossed over the center line and drove through the travel trailer. Luckily for me the Gal I've been dating decided to go with me for the camping trip ; I was driving the '68 and she was following me in my pickup while towing the travel trailer.
The guy sideswiped my PU , drove through the trailer , hit the guy behind us head on .
Quite the little mess as it involved Life Flight , State Cops , Ambulances , helicopters AND three insurances and three ATTORNEYS .
In the following conversations I was asked more than once about speed , what vehicle was towing the trailer ,was it licensed and etc.
Now just some info to consider that I found out from all of that -- the Owners Manual for the '68 DOESN'T mention towing -- and the Manual for my '76 says 2000# max and 200# tongue weight . So just because your Bronco can physically tow # XXX and XXX length you should consider where and when.

1970 Palmer · Aug 24, 2020

nvrstuk said:
Back in the "day", we backed a Bronco up to a trailer and TOWED it!! lol

My Dad's '69 ended up towing a 16' Kit Companion trailer for 5-7 months a year all over Canada, Alaska, SW, Mexico, CO, etc, etc. He had a equalizer hitch, electric brakes and drove careful. Probably towed that trailer 20,000 miles... at least. Sold his with 186K miles . I learned to drive in it.

My '68 Bronco towed a light camp trailer for 6 weeks at a time and then a 13' trailer. No PB or PS for years. No equalizer, no swaying. We would tow up to the Yukon, BC, Montana, CO, 6 weeks at a time... NO issues. Can't remember the weight, we didn't care back then- we did what everybody else did. Bought a trailer that didn't look to big and towed it. No accidents, no "I met God" moments. Just drove with some sanity. My trailers never had electric brakes.

I might be new to the vintage early Bronco hobby, but I been active rebuilding trailers in the Vintage Camper Trailer world for the past ten years. A vintage KIT Companion trailer is 1500 to 1750 pound range depending on how it's loaded. The 13' and pop up tent trailers are even lighter. This trailer weight is well within the limits for a early Bronco with a proper class sized hitch. These are single axle trailers and they are very sensitive to tongue weight. At this light weight a equalizer hitch serves no purpose, but a sway bar for winds is very important.

You are correct that common sense is a very important ingredient in the safe towing of any trailer. It's very important that the user properly load the trailer to maintain the 10-15% of tongue weight.

The only reason that some vintage camper trailers were not equipped with axle brakes was because these trailers were built to sell at the lowest cost possible. It's not because they are not a good idea. Camper trailers have a good deal of side surface area and are very sensitive to highway side wind sheer. ANY vintage camper trailer being towed today should be retro fitted with electric axle brakes, and a dash mounted brake controller for safety.

John

nvrstuk · Aug 24, 2020

Sad that we are the most litigious society in the world... in '68 we obviously could figure things out with common sense...

Attorneys drive everything we do, see, hear and buy... I bought a pc of steel from CA the other day and it said "...could cause cancer).

Glad you were OK in the accident-thats what matters!!

Looks like I need to re- license mine back to it's '68 roots.

SHX669 · Aug 24, 2020

nvrstuk said:
Sad that we are the most litigious society in the world... in '68 we obviously could figure things out with common sense...

Attorneys drive everything we do, see, hear and buy... I bought a pc of steel from CA the other day and it said "...could cause cancer).

Yes unfortunately there are quite a few products and services we no longer have access to because of Liability.
After the incident I wasn't surprised when they wanted documentation of the Pickups' and tow hitchs' tow ratings and the weight of the trailer and if it was licensed or when they asked how fast were we driving and how long we had been on the road and when our last rest break was . It did surprise me a little when they asked if She could have gotten further off the road to avoid the collision . Luckily when the axle got twisted sideways the passenger side tire made some real good drag marks on the pavement - about a foot from going off the road with no shoulder or fog line. There were also multiple credible witnesses following the guy who crossed the line . Directly behind him was a nurse going to work and behind her was a Doctor also going to work .
So -- if there is anyway they can show or suggest " joint fault " they'll do it.
Again - All this just to say - think about where and when you're going to tow anything of substantial size and weight .

chrlsful · Aug 24, 2020

and that the traffic & drivers have changed quite abit since these were built.
Guidelines are there, we can use them for some good choices...or not~

nvrstuk · Aug 26, 2020

Sounds like we should all have a cheap dash cam like all the Russians do so we can prove that we weren't the "fault" ..

Maybe I'll start a new thread... and ask what people use/like...

Yeller · Aug 26, 2020

Or live in a state with “no fault” insurance laws..... doesn’t matter who’s at fault unless there is a traffic violation%) and even then it’s up to your insurance company to sue the at fault insured’s company. It’s about as ridiculous and your insurance rates reflect that non sense.

chrlsful · Aug 26, 2020

insurance, banks, a few others make sense when its "follow the money". Those states do a %...10% my fault, 90% his. I get the money (but not even all of it...
"Welcome to corporate americker lill man"...
(gotta protect the company)

sprdv1 · Aug 27, 2020

Yeller said:
Or live in a state with “no fault” insurance laws..... doesn’t matter who’s at fault unless there is a traffic violation%) and even then it’s up to your insurance company to sue the at fault insured’s company. It’s about as ridiculous and your insurance rates reflect that non sense.

yeah makes no sense at times right.. uggh

patterdale · Aug 28, 2020

I just had to follow a guy in heep towing a side by side on a small utility trailer. We never got over 45 mph. It wiggled a lot. Probably from not enough tongue weight.

Rustytruck · Aug 28, 2020

The public needs a good online training guide about towing trailers. The general public has no clue about towing trailers until they get a new to them trailer and have to figure it out by good and bad days and hopefully not a real bad day.

nvrstuk · Aug 28, 2020

Agreed Rustytruck... and the public now isn't starting off their towing experience with an 8' utility trailer wiggling behind a passenger car like so many of us old guys did but they hop in the 1 ton diesel with a 30' bumper tow behind it and because they can do 75mph up a 5% mtn pass... they do!! ... and never seem to go slower.

Rustytruck · Aug 28, 2020

a friend of mine had a 1/2 ton pickup towing a 20 foot toy hauler which was fine when he had his quads in it. one day he had to deliver some folding tables to his daughter and threw them in the back of the empty trailer maybe 100 lbs he flipped his trailer when it it got up to speed.
when things go wrong they go wrong fast.

chrlsful · Aug 28, 2020

"...and that the traffic & drivers have changed quite abit since these were built.
Guidelines are there, we can use them for some good choices...or not~..."

Too many times its 'or not' and there's the rub...ppl actually die

blubuckaroo · Aug 28, 2020

I had a nice Tacoma rated to tow 6500 pounds. I bought a travel trailer that weighed 4700 pounds. The Tacoma had plenty of power, but it got a little squirrely rounding a downhill curve. A little research and a trip to the scales showed me that I had exceeded the 1200 pound payload capacity of the truck.

Part of the blame goes to the RV sales person. They'll quote the trailer weight and the tow rating of your vehicle. Sure, the trailer is in range of the capacity of the truck, but you'll exceed the cargo capacity long before you'll exceed the towing capacity. When you add 6 to 7 hundred pounds of tongue weight, it leaves very little cargo capacity for passengers, bikes, kayaks, and chairs.

Sure, you can add air bags or helper springs, but you haven't increased the legal payload capacity.

1970 Palmer · Aug 28, 2020

Rustytruck said:
The public needs a good online training guide about towing trailers. The general public has no clue about towing trailers until they get a new to them trailer and have to figure it out by good and bad days and hopefully not a real bad day.

X2

Truer words never spoken!

The problem is not the vehicle, it's the operator's mind set. We see exactly the same issue with NEW motorcyclist's, as we do with NEW RV operator's. All they can think about is the fun of riding/traveling. They have no idea, or desire to slow down, and ask questions, maybe consider attending some training to become educated about the details of their new hobby.

It's a real problem, but I do not see us changing human nature,

John

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