The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Towing 1951 firetruck

Next question: How do you all get the bigbolts from show to show or to a parade 100 miles away? Can you tow a 6400 series fire truck with a 1986 C70 chevy truck? How about a fifth wheel trailer and an F-150 supercrew? I've got my firetruck in the restoration shop but when it gets out, I'd like to show it off without damaging it. Help?

Driving to the show would be fun although it might be slow!

I don't know what your truck weighs, but I'd guess it's in the 10,000 pound range. Any trailer heavy enough to haul the truck will weigh at least 2500 pounds so I think the F-150 is OUT! The C70 should be ok, is it setup for towing?

drive it..heck i drive mine all over. they are made to drive and drive hard. in real life they was started and run wide open to a fire without even a warm up.
http://www.angelfire.com/mech/64_chevy/

it sound slike once you got this rig behind your C70 it would be just as slow as driving the firetruck itself, unless you have a pretty hardcore diesel in the tow rig. If that's a 366 gasser in your C70, you're askin a lot of it. Ditto with the F150, most half tonners are only rated to tow like 7 grand I think.

I drive, & tow, my trucks to shows. Driving, is alot more fun, but is slower. I have a few tow trucks, but when towing, you usually scratch the bumper. Is the C 70, a tow truck.

I'd absolutely drive it.

I hear all this talk about the big old trucks being slow.. by slow they mean 55MPH.. well I don't know where you folks live, but 55MPH is generally the speed limit, unless you're talking the interstate where it's 65 (in some areas, 70)

So you're going 10 or 15 MPH slower than you can legally.. big deal.

Towin' a perfectly good ride to a gig is just about as bad as those posers who take their bikes to sturgis on the back of a trailor, then ride in the last 10 miles.

I suppose if the engine runs like crap, and the brakes suck, you have an excuse.. but if she's tip top, no reason not to drive it unless the show is a REAL long ways away.

I would tow it with a large truck dolly. That way you don't have to tow the weight of a heavy duty trailer too. Make sure you tow it with something that weighs about as much as the firetruck so it doesn't push you around too much. Just my opinion,
Scott

Fumblin's got a point there, what's the fun in having an old truck if you dont drive it some?

Thanks to all of you for your response to the question. It would be a fun ride but it does seem like it would be really slow on the interstate. The 1986 C70 has a diesel in it so it seems like it could pull a trailer but that is my Plan B.

I want to drive it around the range of 100 miles or so but doesn't it seem like a lot to expect from a 54 year old engine?

Just a hundred miles? I'd drive it. Even if you average 35 mph its only three hours. If you were looking at 500 to 1,000 miles I might feel different.

500 or 1000 miles is really along way. I don't like to drive anything that far. It is nice when driving the old fire truck as folks stop and look even through it needed paint and restoration. I can't wait to get it back so I can drive it around town! Thanks.

Those old motors were built to last forever, and yours was a FIRE TRUCK, so you know it was built to take more than it's fair share of hard running.

My '46 2 ton needed the gas tank flushed out (because somebody stole the cap), the radiator flushed out (because somebody stole the cap) and a new flywheel ring gear (you guessed it, because the "cap" was missing).

But with some fresh gas and a new battery, that thing fires up and runs smooth as silk with THE ORIGINAL PLUGS, WIRES, POINTS and ROTOR.

I should mention that it was parked in 1976 and hasn't been so much as cranked over or moved until 2005.

No, these trucks were built in a different time in American history, when giving customers a real value for their money was the #1 goal. Not building something that will force you to buy a new one every 5 or 6 years.

Besides, it's not like your going to the show full throttle with a tank full of water and a troupe of Russian dancing elephants on the back.

I'll drive it and smile all the way!!!

Good for you Virginiafiretruck!

That's a good decision I think. I have driven my 46 2 ton on a 150 mile trip and it was one of the most enjoyable trips I've taken. Stopped a few times along the way for a coffee or such and had lots of admirers gather around. Didn't go over 45mph although it probably could have handled more. It seemed 'just right' at that speed by the sound of the engine. You can tell when it seems 'happy'.

Cheers, George

Thanks. I've driven it at 35 miles an hour and it seemed to want to go faster. I don't trust the brakes so I didn't push it.

I can't wait to get it back in the fire house so we can take it for a spin.

Haha Fumblin, you mean your 46 has never had a full tune-up?

Not since it was parked in 1976 it hasn't.

I have new plugs, points, wires, rotor, etc but I haven't put 'em in yet.

Now the possibility exsists that the plugs, points, and wires were replaced sometime between 1946 and 1976.. but the generator hasnt.. the starter hasnt.. the MOTOR hasn't.

Know how many starters i've replaced in vehicles made after 1976? A bunch. Alternators? You betcha.

If I left my '95 exploder sitting in a cow pasture for 30 years, with the gas cap and radiator cap off, i'll bet dollars to donuts it is going to be crap in 30 years. Same goes for my trusty '91 Jimmy.

Heck, I let my '91 Jimmy sit for 3 months and when I tried to start it I found out I needed a new fuel pump.

Im not a professional mechanic.. i'm a shade tree kinda hobbiest, but growing up i've replaced my fair share of 260's with 350R's and even crammed a 400 in a S-10 once.

My old Big Bolt just reaks of quality, no nonsence design and construction. Built by practical people for a more practical time.

Close to 30 years of sitting, hasn't been started since last weekend when it only ran for 30 minutes. Today I changed the oil, but a new set of belts and hoses on it, hit the stomp switch and she popped right off like a new truck.

i don't know if you know who clive cussler(mystery writer) is but he has an extensive collection and his opinion and so is jay leno's, they are supposed to be driven. as far as towing it is not the power to pull but the power to stop. i had a 1979 ford courier pickup and i pulled a utility trailer with 1 1/2 ton of gravel pulled fine, needed 2 city blocks to stop at 20mph. i drove very slow and the back way home. ron

Fumblin I haven't had much experience with vehicles that old, but the only other example of such quality that I've witnessed is a 1959 F@ord stakebody F-250 they keep as a utility truck at a school I used to do volunteer work for. That truck ran twice a year, but it fired right up and pull like a hoss, and the cab was well preserved with the original paint. God knows how old the ignition components are or the last time it saw a shot of carb cleaner, but that old truck still has a lot of life.

We B Old your point about stopping is well taken too. I drove a 2001 Chevy 3500 wrecker 8.1 V8 for a local towing shop, and man could that thing pull, but damned if it didn't need new brake pads EVERY MONDAY MORNING.

It would seem that the ability to stop is more important than the ability to go...

No doubt!

I imagine dropping it in first gear and dumpin' the clutch would slow ya down a bit, but not probably good for the tranny.

I put my new clutch in the '46 yeasterday, and after sawing of a chunk of broom handle to make as an alignment tool, I got the tranny all back in.

I didn't connect the drive shaft, just because I KNOW there aren't any brakes.. but looking down at that tranny spinnin sure made it awufl tempting to hook up the shaft and take it down the driveway!

Breaks are one area you don't wanna fudge on.. i'm going to be replacing every brake line on my truck.. I don't wanna be doin 40MPH and come up to a red light and have to rely on 60 year old brake lines to keep me from kissin the patoot of the car stopped in front of me.

You'd have to be going pretty slow to successfully get a non-synchro transmission into compound low (1st) anyway.

Its entertaining to think about the success this process would have at identifying weak driveline components. They could be spread on the highway behind you!

Downshifting that tranny while moving would definitely put your double-clutching skills to the test!!

Let's see. I want to go 100 miles. Let's say I average 50, so I'm there in two hours.

Or I can trailer. Thirty minutes to load, I average 70 mph, takes about 1:25 to get there. Take another 20 minutes to unload.

I look at my watch, realize I could have been here with the truck on the ground 15 minutes earlier if I'd just driven it! Plus I wouldn't have beaten my tow vehicle to death.

You can always have the spouse drive an escort vehicle for security.

Drive your truck...100 miles is a piece of cake. Who cares if it takes a little bit longer to get there. That's the fun of all this restoration stuff we all do.