The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Towing Capacity

I've got a 58 Chevy with a 235 and the original differential and three on the tree. I've been thinking ahead to when I have my wife's '68 Mustang completed and we might begin going to car shows as entrants rather than spectators. Rather than drive both the car and truck to the show, I thought why not tow the car on a trailer. However, I do not know what the towing capcity for my truck is, and whether or not this is reasonable. Given the antiquated brakes on the truck (and the weight ratio of the truck to the car and trailer), I imagine I would need a trailer with brakes as well.

Secondly, what is everybody's opinion. Am I being completely ridiculous, or would the cost be worth the sight of a Chevy towing a Ford?

I have a 52 Chevy 1 ton with a 55 stock 235. My rear axle gears are 4.56.
I have towed our 18' flat trailer once around town to pick up some lumber, and I won't do it again. The trailer weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 lb empty. I could hardly get up to 4th gear. Even with the trailer empty it was to much.

I would limit yourself to towing about 2,000 lb with a stock 235. I have had a full 4' X 9' piled till it falls off, bed of mulch in my 1 ton, and that was about the limit on weight for the engine too.

A three speed is another thing that hurts you, as you don't have a low gear to get you moving.

I would recommend you get a bigger truck to take to the shows so you can tow both the 58 and the Mustang. Something with a Detroit Diesel, perferabily a 6-71 would be my choice for the job.

Grigg

I have a 235 in my 48 1 1/2 ton and I haul up to 6 tons of rock on it. With the weight of the 12' bed and hydraulic dump and dragging six 20" tires around also, I think you could tow a small car on a trailer with yours. You won't win any races and the brakes need to be up to par, but that's a given,
Scott

My 58 Chevy 1/2 ton handles a trailer with brakes just fine. Course it has the 261 in it now with the three on the tree, but I have towed with the 235. It wouldn't run 90 down the road with the load, but as long as it was balanced correctly and brakes work on the trailer, it will tow okay.

Get the load too far forward and it will road walk. It will make the 235 work for it, but it will tow the Mustang on a good trailer.

I agree with Scott, you can move a mountain with a 235 and the right gears.

But to answer your question about hauling a car. I have found that my 235 and an empty trailer are not worth driving more than about 15 miles one way. More than that and I am better off with a stronger truck. I don't think there is anything wrong with my engine, as I drove it 8,000 miles around the country in 28 days with no major problems.

Grigg

I've towed a small boat and trailer around that weigh a little over 1k combined. I have a 4 speed w/O.D. and 3:90 gears. It does just fine, and being able to split 3rd and 4th helps immensly on the hills. Lower altitude helps. So does wind at your back. But you gotta face it, a 235 is going to struggle towing anything uphill. And as said before, good brakes can't be overstated.
I'm currently building a warmed 261 stroker that I'm expecting to do much better in that regard.

I've pulled a loaded trailer behind my '55 1st 1/2-ton. I have a GMC 270, an SM420 and 3.08 rear gears.

Pulling the trailer empty wasn't bad. Once it was loaded it was working the truck pretty hard to achive highway speed and really wasn't comfortable.

You don't say if its a 1/2- or 3/4-ton. In either case I would not count on the stock brakes to be adequate to the job, even with brakes on the trailer. If it were me I'd be thinking brake upgrade and a V-8 if I were going to use it for towing.

I towed a 74 midget with my 59 gmc 1/2 ton. The truck was a 270 6 with a 3 speed and 3.07 rear. The car and trailer combined was probably about 2400 lbs. It did the job, but I had a heck of a time getting it started on a hill in San Francisco. If you have lower gears like 3.90s and are staying on pretty flat ground, I would say no problem. If you are trying to make Donner Summit, NO WAY!

I sold a boat once that displaced 15,000 pounds to a guy who came to pick it up with a 3-axle trailer pulled by an 80's Ff.. Ffff, Fuh, ff, uh, one of those other things, a van with a 300 6 cyl. and a 3-speed standard trans. He was going over the rockies to Manitoba, a trip of 1,300 miles, give or take. I have no idea if he made it, but I know he looked OK when he left. Get brakes, and go ahead.

I got a splash oil 235 in my '46 2 ton truck that will pull anything you can load, chain, or strap to it.

You won't break any land speed records.. but then again, the truck has a top speed of about 55 mph when it's empty.

For serious driving (more than an hour one way) i'd definately suggest either using something else as a tow vehicle, or better yet.. keep the 235 and just replace the tranny with a t5 5 speed tranny and get a early 70's car rear end put in.

Then you'd be able to tow stuff down the road at 70mph no sweat.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, I realized when I got back on to check on my post that I forgot to mention it is a 1/2 ton truck. I know that I can haul a full bed of compost at least a couple of miles, and I used the truck to move all of my stuff to and from college back in the early 90's, but I also know there is a big difference between payload and towing limits. I had no idea how these vehicles were used back in the day in terms of towing or if you had a streamline or some other type of larger camp trailer, you would use a 3/4 ton or larger truck not just the 1/2 ton. I asked out of curiosity, and as I said in my original post the idea of towing my wife's Ford to a car show with my Chevy made me smile.

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