I have been hesitant commenting on this thread but now that it seems the
gentleman has decided against picking th ecar up himself I would like to
make a few comments.
I have towed both my car trailer 1000's of miles over hte past few years.
I started out with an open trailer and then upgraded to the enclosed one I
have now. HAving towed that many miles I have experienced a few "bad"
situtations that have taught me a few lessons.
First of all, I would NEVER pull a trailer that did not have brakes. When
you consider that fact that even if you attach an open trailer with a car
on it you have just added about 3500 pounds behind your vehicle, that is a
tremendous burden on the braking system of your vehicle. Granted under
normal conditions your vehicle will stop you but what about the sudden
stop? Not only do you have the daadditional weigh to stop, you have a
trailer behind you that has no resistance excepot the vehicle in front of
you. Also, I would never load a car on a single axle trailer. One of the
advantages of the double axle is weigh distribution and load capacity.
Nothing is worse that overloading the vehicle OR the trailer when towing.
There is much discussion on whether or not a vehicle will tow a certain
trailer or not. The issue is not whether it will tow it, it is whether it
will tow it safely. IMHO, towing with a light duty SUV can be a disaster
wating to happen if ever in a panic situation. Back in February of this
year, while coming out of Florida, the lady beside me lost control of her
vehicle. After spinning a time or two, she hit my trailer which caused it
to flip immediately. So at 65 MOH, I was "trying" to steer a truck with a
trailer on it's side. Needless to say, the trailer steered me - down an
embankment to a clove of trees at which point he truck stopped and the
trailer kept coming - right on top if the truck. The point of the story
(other than the good Lord was surely watching out for me that day)
is that if my truck had not been heavy enough for hte trailer, it woudl
have probably flipped it as well. ( I always pull with a Dually - it was
a 99 Dodge Club Cab Diesel - totaled with 2500 miles on it now). Would a
smaller truck had pulled my trailer? Absolutely! As safely? Not sure but
as I was riding down the embankment, I sure was glad I was not on my side
as I was doing it!
I guess the point I am making is that no old car is worth risking your
life or the lives of other jsut to get home. If you have any doubt
whether your vehicle will tow the trailer or not, leave it at home. I can
only imagine what COULD have happened to me in February if I had been
pulling with a light duty vehicle. Fortunately for me I walked away
without a scratch. Can't say the same for the truck, enclosed trailer adn
vehicle inside - all fo which were totalled
Just my $0.02 worth
Bob
75 Triumph TR-6
74 MGB GT
77 MG Midget
79 MGB
71 Jaguar XKE Roadster
97 Jaguar XJ-R
On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Jim Barbuscia wrote:
>
>
> I'll second that! I used Joe's trailer to haul my "7" across Washington
> and it worked great. But again I'd recommend keeping the speed limit
> under 65mph.
>
> -jimb
> 74 1/2 TR6
> 80 TR7 F/I Spider
>
>
> > From: Joe Curry <spitlist@gte.net>
> >
> >
> > Michael,
> > I have a single axle tilt bed trailer that was home built in 1959. It
> > has hauled LBCs for its entire life without incident, including my Spit
> > and My son's Mk3 for trips totaling over 8000 miles. THe only problem I
> > ever had is a blowout on one wheel which was a distraction rather than a
> > problem.
> >
> > The single axle makes the trailer so light that brakes are completely
> > unnecessary. The thing is hardly noticeable behind the Blazer I used to
> > pull it with and the S10 pickup I currently use.
> >
> > Leveling the load is a matter if adjusting where you stop the car. If
> > it has too much tongue weight, move it back a bit until you achieve the
> > correct amount.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Joe Curry
> >
>
> ## Jim Barbuscia SE Sun Microsystems Kirkland, WA. ##
> ## http://sunup.West.Sun.COM:80/~jb ##
> ## Standard Disclaimers apply (Jim.Barbuscia@Sun.COM) ##
>
>
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