The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Towing a trailer with a classic

Anyone tow with there stove bolt. Got a trailer and would like to know if anyone else has done this.

Moving cross country and im gonna see just how good the old stove bolt still dose.

You have a trailer brake on that rig? might come in handy, wouldn't want that trailer pushing you off the road.

I have full intentions of pulling a small trailer with mine, I just got my truck on the road this week. It will be a 3500 lb. trailer with it's own brakes.

Ya trailer has a brake. Thats the only thing i think it must have to tow with a old truck. Anyone elso have some photos

Before I retired the 59 Burb, I did a lot of towing with it. I had a 1970 307 engine, SM-420, and a 3/4 ton GMC Dana type 60 with 3.78:1 Ford gears in it. It also had a Valley Tow-rite weight-equalizer hitch and an electric trailer brake control. It was marginal at best because I had the 1/2 ton drum brake front axle and the original non-power-assisted master cylinder. It was underpowered, under-braked, and overloaded most of the time. My signature line definitely applied to that situation. When I do it again with that rig, it's going to have a 3/4 ton power disc brake IFS, and a Cadillac 500/Turbo 400 powertrain. Same rear end, though!
Jerry

I pulled trailers with them back in the 50's when thats all we had. I don't want to go back to those days. I like driving my old jalopies for fun. Pulling a trailer with them was work as Jerry described. I use my 09 2500HD to pull trailers and it makes pulling trailers fun. I recently scrapped a 76 Cad with a 500. I kept the drive train in case I ever want to build something like Jerry describes. The car was a very low miler. But it belonged to a guy who drove a couple of years too long and it had a lot of parking lot scrapes.

Some here have given me a hard time for these loads, but I've always gotten by fine. A little caution goes a long way when you're loaded.

Avette4me, are you running overloads on your truck? Looks to handle a load well. I know I am only gonna run 55mph so I can stop if needed. And avoid highways at all cost.

My daily driver is an F-250 so I really don't need to pull a trailer with my bolt. However I do plan on pulling a small 4'x8' for mainly show purposes. I would judge a bolt's trailer towing capacity like I would any vehicle: motor, tyranny, suspension.

No overloads GrandpasTruck. It does squat it a bit, but really not too bad at all. I've never had it get squirrely at all.

FWIW, I'm running a 350 with about 350HP, a Saginaw 4 speed, and 3.35 rear gears. All the suspension is original and rebuilt. Brakes are still drum but have all new SS lines and rubber with a dual master cylinder. Stopping is the weakest link, but as I said, a little caution goes a long way.

These old dogs can work.

Those trucks were made to work, so there's no reason you can't do it. But, as was mentioned, you need to use common sense. Know what you're driving, know what it's limitations are, and drive it accordingly. If you do that, you should have no problems.

The only trailer you have that might concern me would be the horse trailer. In the picture it doesn't appear to overload the truck but what does it look like with horses in it? Yeah, brakes would be my only concern. If possible I would see if I could hook up electric brakes. I really like the system U-Hall uses in brakes. It uses the vehicles deceleration to initiate the trailer brakes; no need for electric brakes.
BTW, my favorite of your trailers is the one with the little blue car on it.

Surge brakes are better than nothing, but not much. It's impossible to apply them without hitting the tow vehicle brakes first. At times, I want to use just trailer brakes to prevent the loaded trailer from pushing me around, particularly in a downhill turn. In case of a tail-wag situation, electric brakes can be locked down tight and the tow vehicle accelerated to pull the sway out. None of these things can be done with the hydraulic surge coupler.
Jerry

Good information.

I've pulled a few trailers with my 64' and as long as you don't get completely ignorant with it and use LOTS of caution in the braking dept. you'll be OK. Nothing I can do with it now will compare to what it's been through over the years. After paint it's a different story all together. Nothing more than a sack of groceries or a suitcase for a road trip.

Cool, Thanks for all the impoot folks. Will go a long way. Im sure like you all said Common sence will go a long way. Thanks for the tips

Throwing an update on this thread with some recent towing experience over the last year.

The tow vehicle is a '63 C10 Suburban, with the stock 230 six-cylinder, three-speed manual, 3.73:1 rear end, and two vital modifications: I swapped in the larger radiator from the 292/283 engines (although still on the stock water pump and thermostat), and converted the brakes to dual-circuit power discs on all corners. Probably could have just done the front brakes, but I hate screwing with drum brakes.... Those brakes give quite a bit more confidence, as I know they're not going to fade as long as I don't do anything strange. I also stayed with the 6-lug hubs when I did the brake conversion.

The trailer is an 850-lb, 14-foot, 2-axle aluminum car trailer with surge brakes on one axle, carrying a 2260-lb car and a utility box -- call it 3300 lbs all-up. Towing with the 230, weight management is important, and I spent some time finding a lightweight trailer to make this work.

Overall, the combination tows very well. Starting off the line with the three-speed isn't difficult with a little practice. It takes most of a minute to get up to 60, but once up to speed I have no trouble at all holding 60-65 on flat terrain and shallow grades. Steep hills would be a problem. The combination stops with no drama, wet or dry. Long steep grades are an unknown -- even with the disc brake setup, I'd be creeping down, and/or fitting electric brakes and a controller.

Depending on traffic, it may use a half to a quart of oil on a 700-1000 mile weekend, but I've had no problems with overheating (although my clutch foot sometimes gets mighty tired!). Overall, I've been very impressed -- although I have a larger engine and an SM420 that will eventually end up in the truck, for now I'm not in any hurry to change the existing setup.

When PullG "pulled" back into our virtual garage just recently, I was curious where he had posted before. This was his second post in this thread. It was fun to go back and see a bunch of the other "old timers" in here.

A lot has transpired in all that time since PullG first joined in 2006. So, I just wanted to revive this thread and see who else has some insight (and pictures, of course) to share.

Speaking of stuff transpired, in 2014, we added two interesting Tech Tips regarding trailering. Trailer Face-off: Gooseneck vs Tag Along and Hauling your truck successfully & safely!

Since you have a second axle, and surge brakes on only one of them, it might increase the versatility (and safety) of the setup to consider fitting electric brakes to the second axle. There's no law that says you HAVE to plug in the electric brakes unless you're dealing with a heavy load and/or steep downgrades. That's sort of a "belt and suspenders" approach, but I'm always a big fan or "redundancy" and/or "overkill". The time to discover you don't have quite enough brakes is not halfway down Wolf Creek Pass!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHb_0Lhegig

Jerry

PullG -- Dittos to what Jerry said. It must be very flat where you are...

It is a pretty 'Burb. Not sure I would be man enough to use it as a tow rig, though. A long time ago, I had a bad experience towing a 3,000 lb Chevelle with an S-10 4-door Blazer. I've since not towed *anything* with less than a 1-ton. Just sayin'

I *do* understand, though, that "when you don't have a dog, you hunt with the cat ..." Which works as long as you understand the cat's limitations ...


John

There's nothing quite like a "no brakes" ride down a steep hill to get one's attention (and increase the "pucker factor") . Late one night, I rolled through a "brake check" stop at the top of Grapevine Hill in California with a load of frozen meat (79K pounds gross weight) and discovered that some kind soul had switched trailers for me while I was catching a nap in the company bunk house in Los Angeles. No, the brakes hadn't been adjusted recently. 5 miles of 6% grade with a couple of nasty S-curves along the way at 120 MPH is a real eye-opener!
Jerry

Yea, I remember driving the Grapevine back in the '60's. A lot more white knuckle fun than today with 5 or 6 lanes in each direction.

I have a '50 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission. The truck has all new everything in terms of moving parts. I pull a fairly heavy jon boat with it. When I mean heavy I'm talking about I cannot lift the tongue to get it on the hitch ball. The truck rides much smoother pulling the trailer than when not. I should put the tongue on a scale, then add that weigh to the bed of the truck' so that it will ride like it does when pulling the trailer.

I would not dream of pulling this boat if I had not rebuilt everything that moves.

A good friend is 82 and a recently (as in a 4 years ago) retired truck driver. In his last few years trucking he hauled logs for his son's logging company.

We elk hunted together for 20 years, and I heard a Lot of truck driving stories. A favorite involved the Grapevine and no way I can share it as Billy Joe can but here's the kid's version.

BJ and his brother, JF were going down the Grapevine with a load when they hit ice, a bit of light rain was freezing on the road. No chains on and the trailer was wanting to pass. Unable to really use what brakes the old rig had because of the ice, they were going faster and faster. Billy Joe was driving and while he fought their rig down the mountain, he glanced over at brother JF. JF was getting into the passenger seat with both feet. BJ "what the H--- are you doing"..........JF "I'm gonna JUMP"...BJ "Like H--- you are, you ain't leaving me in this ....dang thing by myself!" Shortly they were low enough that the road was just wet and not icy. All was good.

RonR

I have pulled the Grapevine at 80,000 lbs, many times without incident. But it seems there is always some bozo ready and able to create an incident and these days the cops do patrol it and enforce the down-hill speed limit, which varies by weight. I have not pulled our big Avion travel trailer over the Grapevine yet but I did run my 1-ton with camper northbound over it this February. It was a clear, sunny day and my main concern was the dance with the semis in the right two lanes. "Whose comin' up behind me; can I pull out around that Swift-ie goin' 25MPH, etc. Then on the down-hill side there's the smell of acrid brake smoke from the motor homes in a big hurry.

About ten years ago we used the 1-ton to pull the 8500 lb Avion home from Thompson Falls MT through Spokane, across US 2 and over a couple of 4,000 ft passes. I was able to stay ahead of the loaded log trucks on the hills. That was with the 235 engine. It got about 9.5 MPG.Now with the 261 it's lots faster. No weight distribution hitch or anti-sway and no towing problems. I did stop to cool the brakes on the 8% down grade on the way into Grand Coolie. And you can't be in a hurry on the I-90 grade westbound out of Spokane.

So towing with a classic (or any other tow vehicle) is a matter of knowing the road, knowing the tow vehicle and knowing the trailer. My Avion travel trailer tows very well, my 14 ft. flatbed is more work, especially with the 8,000 lb. excavator on it.
A healthy dose of common sense is mandatory and some prior towing experience is very, very helpful. Trailers over a certain gross weight are required to have brakes. The weight varies by state. Make sure they work. Trailer brakes must be capable of stopping the trailer without assistance from the towing vehicle. Less than that and you'll overheat the TV brakes. Electric brake controllers are adjustable. Read The Manual. None of us needs the white knuckle experiences ALL of us old OTR truckers have had. It's really bad for your blood pressure and you may need clean underwear.

In 1985 a friend of mine had bought an old 16ft (or thereabouts) ski boat. My 216/4.11 truck had a farmer's bumper with a ball, so we hitched that thing up and went to the lake. Man, I'd give anything to have taken pictures of it!!!! Ah, to be young and dumb again, or just smart enough to load up the Kodak X-15 with film that day.

ps: national speed limit was still 55 mph and the roads were friendlier to slowpoke old trucks

thousand of miles with my 16 ski behind my bumper pull. But those long steel land yachts (the car type) back in the day had some serious steel in those bumpers.

but the young and dumb is when your 18 and you did not check someone else work.

And I hopped in and headed down the road.

I see this car on the opposite side heading to me on a down hill of a long 4 lane straight road. no median
He is shifting lanes all over and slowing and weaving. I am like what is this guy doing.
Then the boat passed me in the passing lane. AKA not attached and did a nascar draft pass move on me.
Luckily it went off the other side of the road after about 1/4 mile and into some really soft sand and dirt. almost like one of those truck emergency stops on a mountain side.
Pulled it back out and with the tow strap and hooked it back up correctly this time.
Tow chains, Lights, wheel jack not in the half down position.

The offending trailer hookup guy was my Dad. I asked all hooked up and ready his reply "YEP good to go" i have hooked up trailers with him as long as I can remember and soon as I could reach the pedals I was tasked with getting it done. Not sure what he was thinking that day.

My friends have asked me for 40+ years why i check the trailer every time even if I hooked it up that same day
LOL good habit to have.

Same reason you check to see if a gun is loaded even though you unloaded it yourself earlier in the day.

Same reason you check the fluids before a trip and again before the return trip.

etc. etc.

I towed a number of trailers with my 59 Suburban, and tow my 35' 1951 travel trailer with my 58 Viking 60 all the time. (went from Seattle to Tulsa, OK. with it)

Unless I missed one, it appears everyone that says they have pulled a trailer also have modern upgraded engines and drive trains. Anyone pulling a small trailer with a stock AD? I have a 100% original drivetrain and original drum brakes. I purchase one of those bumper bolt on trailer hitches and was considering towing my small 5 X 8 Tractor Supply trailer. No brakes. 1800-pound capacity. No over the road trip. Just short hauls. Longest could be a back road run of about 50 miles not fully loaded.

I pulled this a few times with my '38.

Wayne nice unit I love the old Johnson outboards 57 or 58 .i have a 7.5 in that year as well as a few green ones lol

Wayne, sweet! You ought to add that one (and more ) to your Gallery Forum page.

There's a story behind this boat.
It's identical to a boat my parents had when I was 14. I found this in Columbus, Ohio in January 2023. It was destined for the scrap heap. It needed a total restoration. I became nostalgic and rescued it. It now has a new owner.