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Re: Trailer/Tow Vehicle Survey

To: jprice1@txcyber.com
Subject: Re: Trailer/Tow Vehicle Survey
From: WEmery7451@aol.com
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:48:55 EST
In a message dated 11/23/01 1:14:29 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
jprice1@txcyber.com writes:

<< Total Responses - 19
 
 3/4 ton or larger truck (mostly Diesels)                    10
 Dakota/Tahoe/Suburban/Expedition/Assorted Vans    8
 1/2 ton or smaller truck                                            1
 
 Open Trailers                                                           9
 Enclosed Trailers                                                    10
  >>

My guess would be that part of this decision would be how much weight you 
want to take off of your wad at the time.  I imagine that we are all a lot 
lighter with the rag heads wrecking our economy and causing the market to 
crash.

My present tow vehicle is a 1987 Ford 250 Econoline Van without the tow 
package (351 ci, 4-barrel carburetor gas gobbler, 10 to 12 mpg towing or 
not).  I bought it new in 1987, and it has been successfully dragging my 
overweight car, and extremely overweight single axle trailer up steep hills 
for 14 years.  The van is also loaded down almost to the ceiling with welding 
tanks, tools, and spare parts.  If none of our children are present, I move 
enough stuff out of the way to sleep in the van at the track.  I might try to 
add a transmission cooler that is sitting in the garage this coming season.  
It did start to run somewhat hotter on hills this past summer, though a 
vacuum leak was discovered.

I collected all of the metal, drew up a plan, and my trailer was built as a 
government job in a plant in 1965.  It also gained a great deal more weight 
with my patching and modifying it with heavy plate metal and my Sears buzz 
box down through the decades.  It uses one of the two axles from a house 
trailer, and I blew out a lot of tires that were bought from house trailer 
dealers.  I recently corrected this problem when I found 14 1/2" earth mover 
tires.

Four wheel are always better than two, as long as the trailer is 
professionally built.  If you build it yourself and get one little thing 
misaligned or wrong, it will go catywampus all over the road.  It is a wonder 
that my trailer tracks as well as it does due to its origin.  I still have to 
keep the steering wheel perfectly still.

My earlier tow vehicles were:

1) 1971 Chrysler Newport ( 383 ci ): It dragged everything along as it was 
not towing.  A sudden reminder would happen when stopping.

2) 1956 Ford Wagon from California with the 292 ci T-Bird engine:  I bought 
this car in 1966 for $40.00.  Shortly after, it through a rod and smashed two 
rods and two pistons.  The crank was 0.008" out of round.  I finally decided 
to replace the rods and pistons, put it back together, and try to run it with 
heavy oil.  I was able to tow with it for 13 years, and it was running when I 
sold it.  On the back of the car was a sigh which said "The Trash Barrel".

3) 1959 American Rambler: This was the first car that I ever owned.  It 
worked for about three years when a drive shaft universal and front yoke 
exploded.  I then started towing with The Trash Barrel.

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