The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk How much can a '51 3100 pull, if equipped with a receiver hitch?

I'm seriously considering one of TBRT Engineering's #61030 hitches for my old truck. I have a 94 Chevy 4x4 that is basically only used for pulling a small trailer with my old '65 Hobart gas welder on it, and occasionally a 10' trailer to haul lumber for home projects (when they're too long for the 6' beds in both trucks). I'd like to sell the 'curb ornament' '94 and just be able to use my '51 daily driver (nearly original, except for a '57 235 in place of it's 216). I have an 800# Indian Chief motorcycle that I'd like to be able to haul with it, when necessary, besides my welder on local trips for 'friends and family jobs'. So, what is the safe capacity of pulling for my '51? Thanks for any and all comments and opinions! Lee

I would say 2000 to 3000 pounds without adding trailer brakes.

Ed

I would agree with Ed. He mentioned trailer brakes, pulling is the easy part, stopping is more important and may be more difficult! You may be able to stop fine now, but add a couple thousand pounds and it may be a completely different story!

I've pulled the U-Haul 6X12 cargo trailers loaded with furniture with my 54 3100 without any issues. They have the surge brake, so stopping wasn't an issue.
Samantha

I haul all the firewood my springs can handle without bottoming out regularly in the winter. I have used my trailer and hauled more. It don't stop very well though. You have to know that going in.

Be aware that a receiver hitch doesn't increase the pulling power- - - -it just transfers some of the tongue weight to the front axle for better steering and stopping. A Class III receiver hitch increases the tongue weight capacity to 700 or 1,000 Lbs. depending on the rating of the spring bars- - - -7,000 to 10,000 lbs. loaded trailer weight. That's WAY too much for an older 1/2 ton to handle. A Class II (bumper) hitch limits the acceptable tongue weight to around 200-250 Lbs., which corresponds to a total trailer and cargo combined weight of 2,000 to 2,500 lbs. That's pretty close to the max weight a stovebolt needs to be towing unless it has a 3/4 ton or heavier rating. I'd strongly recommend surge brakes or electric if you're going to approach the high end of Class II tow weight. A well-built bumper-type hitch will probably be all you need. If the rear bumper squats more than it does when a 200 lb. man stands on the trailer ball, you've got too much tongue weight and/or more towed weight than you need.
Jerry

Good convo. one day I hope to pull a couple old Wheel Horses with the 49 3100 to some Ag/tractor shows. If I don't upgrade the Hucks I'll think about adding some sort of braking to my single axle 6x12 or go with a 4x8.
I've hauled alittle over 500lbs in the bed and the truck hardly knew it was there.

Thanks, everybody. You all are going way higher than I intend to use it for, but re-reading my question, I guess it sounds like I was asking as if I were going to max it out. Like I said, the heaviest things that I believe (right now) that I'd ever pull is either my bike (2003 Indian Chief, which, with the trailer would be at or under 1000 lbs.) or maybe my welder on it's trailer, which is probably less than the bike set up. I mean, it's mainly the stress it would put on the frame, since these bolt directly to existing holes in the frame. http://www.tbrtengineering.com/61030---1-2-ton--gm--47-54--std.html I definitely understand about the meager brakes these things have, but I'm not installing an electric brake system for what I'm going to be doing. (Unless I decide to pass the Smoky's or Rocky's, anyway). This IS my daily driver, so I'm not going to destroy it just to pull something. As a matter of fact, I'm looking at a 5'x 10' aluminum trailer to help lower the load weight to pull my bike, kayaks and any building materials I may not be able to fit in the bed, although I'd rather have a 16' lowboy than a 10'. When I buy steel for small projects that I do sometimes, it comes in 20' pieces, and a 10' trailer won't cut it. Anyway, thanks for the replies, especially you guys who gave me examples of what you've pulled without problems. I found the hitch in someone's post on here last year. I bought the material to make one, but I'd rather buy one and use it, then make another one and sell the 'store bought' hitch to somebody else to use. They're $310 including shipping. I paid about $65 for the material, and figure it will take me a day or less to fabricate. The only downfall is that I'll have to put a '54 rear bumper on the truck so that the license plate slot will open a spot for the hitch to stick out. That or pay more for one that hangs below the original bumper, but I don't want something hanging down that far. Anybody else have an opinion on the pulling capacity, or ideas that might help? I'm listening!

If you plan to buy the hitch and sell it later, I suggest that you bolt it up to your truck as is, to see how it looks installed, and then make changes to the design of the one you are fabricating to make it work for you.
I do a lot of fabricating and have found that, while planning and drawing pictures is a great place to start, the real magic occurs once the three dimensional objects are introduced to the truck.
Carl

Thanks, Carl. As a retired journeyman Ironworker, welding instructor, shop fitter/welder and fabricator myself, I think I can handle it. Plus, I'm also sure the company that builds these wouldn't sell anything to bolters that didn't work in the first place.

The guy that does my exhaust work was a dirt track racer up into the 90s. He used a stock '51 Chevy 1/2 ton with a scratch built receiver hitch to pull his car and trailer to the races. the closest rack is 30 miles away.

I installed a hitch from TBRT Engineering on my daily/only driver '53 GMC and used it two or three days later to haul this - [IMG]http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac112/Twotone_photos/My%20truck/30_zpsx4h0cuac.jpg[/IMG] . The picture is misleading because of the way the truck is parked on the hill, on flat ground it only squatted the rear about 1 1/2 inches. I hauled the truck 20+ miles at 55-60 miles an hour on hilly, curvy roads and it handled great. Of course all bushings and shackles are new as well as the entire stock brake system.

I don't plan to haul anything like this again, ever, but my point is, the truck, even with its 63 year old stock suspension, handled this load like it was built for it.

A 1000 lbs trailer will affect acceleration and braking a bit, but it should handle fine.

Twostone- Isn't that picture on the TBRT site? I saw that as I was checking out the site when I looked at the hitch. I wrote them and asked some questions about it, and the guy (I'm assuming) that owns it wrote back and answered, and told me that if it didn't fit, he'd return it. One question I forgot to ask him, maybe you can answer it, is that in the description, it says to "lift the bed" as part of the process of installation, but it's supposed to fit the bolt holes of the bumper brackets. I don't see any holes in the top of the frame for the bumpers, so why would you not be able to just set it in there and drive it in to the vertical frame holes, then bolt it up? Did you have to lift the bed to install yours? Also, I'm getting the one that allows the ball to come out just below the bed. There's a second model that is built to hang below the original bumper, but I don't like the looks of it hanging so far down, plus the idea of possibly dragging whenever I come off of a steep intersection. But thanks for letting me see that and knowning somebody else has one that works well! I appreciate it. Lee

Showme, they asked me for a photo but I didn't know it was on their website, nice!

You know, I never figured out why they said you had to lift the bed to install the hitch. I didn't. You do have to remove the two bolts at the rear of the box that mount the box to the frame. After you install the hitch you run those bolts back down through the box and frame through holes in the hitch.

I have the one that comes out just under the bed. I made a spring mounted license plate bracket that covers the hitch when not in use. Also, when not using it, I slide my ball mount into the hitch from the front, so it points toward the front of the truck, under the box, that way it's always there when I need it and not banging around in the box or under the seat or lost somewhere. Did that make sense? I'm rambling.

I made a custom hitch from scratch and would put it up against any store bought class 3 hitch, and it comes out just below the factory bumper and has no issues with bottoming out on anything.
The key to avoiding that is to avoid excessive tongue weight.
Carl

As far as the 1/2 ton frame towing your 1-2,000 # trailer, no problem. I towed 2-4K quite often. In fact, take a look at this... 17,340 total weight across the scales. (Suburban empty was about 5200) Would I do it again? Probably not! Would I recommend it to anyone? HECK NO!!
http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p494/69B-Cuda/1958%20Viking%2060/DSC_8607.jpg

red one was about 2,000 lighter but a longer trip and no load dist bars... SCARY RIDE!

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p494/69B-Cuda/1955%202%20Ton/coming%20home_2.jpg

That looks like a lot of coin for a hitch . Not a lot of material there. Seems for 300.00 a guy could make one pretty easy