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I'm trying to locate a trailer to pick up my truck but I'm not sure what the width is. Also the weight, someone here said a curb weight of 8500 but is that just the chassis cab weight or was that the weight with the old water tank on(which has been removed)? The truck is a 1951 GMC453.

Thanks

Hi radioisotope

My second 454-30 w/179 inch wheel base, is rated at 8500 lbs. dry curb weight with no bed, just cab, chassis and drive-chain.

I had to remove the outside rear duals to load on a heavy duty car trailer. The weight of the truck and car trailer was just over 10,000 lbs. on the scales. The rear duals are a couple of inches under 96 inches (8 feet) in width. If I remember rightly 92 inches outside to outside.

Your truck should have a 161 wheel base (center of front axle to center of rear axle) and a chassis/cab/drive-train unladen weight of about 8,000 lbs. then add any bed or other equipment.

A heavy duty backhoe trailer with surge brakes should do the trick. You will need at least a one ton truck to pull it.

I made the mistake of using a 3/4 ton pickup, could only drive between 25 to 30 MPH, over that and it would start to fish-tail all over the road. And 5 MPH down-hill

I was luckier with my first 1952 GMC 454, I drove it home. Got a one day moving permit to move it home, from my local DMV.

Be patient and drive slow, enjoy you new toy and what you have to look forward too.

I'd guess it was loaded without enough weight on the hitch, in that case even a semi truck pulling it and it'll still want to fish tail.

Grigg

Try stopping a 10,000 pound load pushing you down hill on a winding mountain road with a 3/4 pickup.

In this case bigger is better ;>

Yes, I'm familiar with not enough brakes. Hauled a load of firewood over the weekend on the trailer, didn't realize it was so much/heavy untill we were done stacking... figured after the fact probably 9-10,000 lb plus about 3,000 for the trailer. Took it only a couple miles but never made it out of second gear. Won't be pulling that trick again that's for sure.
https://picasaweb.google.com/118082002072608219229/ScrapbookPhotos#5833398940116152386

Grigg

You will have to either remove the outside set of duals or block them up the sit above the rail of your trailer. If you use a deck over trailer then width won't be a problem as the bed will be a full 8' wide.

Most non-deck over trailers will not be heavy enough. It is not very common to find a 12000lb trailer that is not deck over. You have to figure 8500lb+ for your truck and 3000lb for the trailer....once you find a trailer rated heavy enough you may find you have no way of pulling it.

I've moved a couple '40's KB8's with my truck and trailer. I have a cronkhite trailer that is rated at 12000lb and is not a deck over. The front tires hit the rails on both sides and If it were not an 18' trailer I doubt they would have fit on there length wise. My trucks had dayton wheel so I could not remove the outside dual so I blocked up to get on top of the 3" or so rails. Any wider and the front wheels would not have fit between the fenders.

As to what to pull it with I would say you definitely need a 1ton. Mostly for the dual wheels to give you stability and enough capacity for your tongue weight. If you figure 10% of 12000lb you have 1200lb on your rear axle...That is a lot for anything under a 1ton. As to fishtailing that is a simple matter of weight distribution....too little tongue weight and you will fish tale. A heavy tow vehicle will help with a poorly loaded trailer as the trailer will not push it around and make the problem worse but will not eliminate the problem altogether.

Let us know how the move goes...and we all love pictures

Tad

A trailer with 7,000 lb axles with 95" hub face to hub face will give you about 93" between fenders. Most of the larger 50's trucks were about 89" from sidewall to side wall on the steering axle Using tires with weight capacity like aa ST235/85R16 Radial Trailer Tire, is 3,960 lbs. Here is a picture of a truck a guy hauled 1800 miles for me last week.

https://plus.google.com/photos/1081...05?authkey=CIva7Kzxwq68HA&banner=pwa

The steering axle will clear between the fenders, and you don't need the drive tires to clear between the fenders. He used a gooseneck, but I have a bumper pull tilt car hauler and a bumper pull utility trailer that I pull with a 2012 GMC 2500HD. I haul 10 to 11k loads with them, but I make sure my trailer brakes are adjusted up, I turn my gain up to 5 and make sure I have the tongue weight correct. I prefer to haul these kinds of loads with a semi, but there times when it is just too expensive to run a semi.

I use a trailer like this.
http://www.hhtrailer.com/Trailers/mxSpeed/index.html

It came with 3500lb axles. I put 7K axles under it and put a 15k Bulldog hitch on it. The rest of the trailer is built strong enough to handle 10 to 11k loads.