Either the AS is too big or the TV is too small

[Jim Lee]

What do you think?

[dkottum]

Car pulling an Airstream, old news in the days before daily driver pickups.

[tvketchum]

I would give it wide berth....


Sent from my iPhone using Airstream Forums

Tom
TVKetchum

[murreywalker]

Originally Posted by Jim Lee

What do you think?

They probably pulling back after a trip to Ontario (Can-Am), and the beefed up hitch, huh?

[dkottum]

Murray, that would be good because it means he is as stable as any rig on the road and better than most, based on the reports of our many forum members who have similar rigs set up there.

Nonetheless, clever way to start another meaningless tow vehicle argument.

[SilvrSausage]

Volvo V70XC towing there; I repair Volvos for a living. It is a capable car with 5cyl engine, all wheel drive, and optional dynamic stability control- but no special factory towing features. I'd be manually shifting, have an added transmission cooler, and stick to 27' or less if I was going to do some serious touring with that rig.

I've pushed Volvos to the edge of the safety envelope, including flipping one on its side with 6 people inside, sliding around the Gorman off road vehicle park; we exited via the tailgate, slammed it back down on the wheels, and continued driving. I've also done some heavy towing; 1968 140 stick model took a canned ham 120 miles to the desert then over some insane dirt roads, VERY heavy utility trailer full of masonry or engines and transmissions. I developed a complacency about the limits when towing.

Then I spontaneously bought a 31' Streamline on Ebay, and towed it home from Oxnard to Long Beach area. It could accelerate fine for being a 4cylinder (even up the Conejo Grade doing 50mph in second), and braking was good with trailer brakes and cheap controller.

HOWEVER, I was new to this scale of trailering, and figured I'd lighten up the tongue weight by piling the chattels like spare tire and heavy boxes in the rear bath. The results were predictable- tendency to sway, which I controlled by keeping the speed below 55. Great until the 100th person cut in front of me and hit the brakes, closer than ever this time so I braked and steered at the same time.

This immediately started an amplifying sway. Luckily traffic on the 101 magically parted as the trailer ended up jackknifing left and right a full 90 degrees; with me fighting the wheel left, right, left, right, whipping across the entire width of the freeway like an angry crocodile tail and slapping the soundwall once, until it finally came to a crooked stop and I got it over to the shoulder.

Redistributing the load got me home fine. I immediately purchased a used 1990 4wd Suburban to tow the thing with!

THe V70XC shown will be fine on more local trips; I wouldn't care to use it for extended touring or serious mountain roads though. THAT experience makes me unwilling to tow a 31' with a Volvo, loaded correctly or not! The "passenger cars" of historical Airstream yore were more like the Suburban than the Volvo, with full frames, V8 engine, lots of steel; it's not a good comparison to say, "But they used cars in Wally's day!"

Although I DO recall as a kid in the '70s, a VW beetle (parked) hitched to a ~25' trailer with a slimp wheel.

[Wingeezer]

Wonder what the 18 wheelers have to say about it!

I say that because some time back I used to tow a 27 ft "Award" trailer (UK design) with a Safari Mini van.

In those days, - it was some time ago! - I had a CB in the van and used to monitor ch19, mainly to hear of any issues up ahead.

Many was the time I would hear 18 wheelers passing me and talking to a chum following behind and commenting that I was towing way to much trailer for the van! Sometimes the remarks were less polite!

Actually it was an extremely light trailer and did tow well behind the van and waswell within the van's rated tow capacity.

Having said that, it did sway at times although I never got into any scary situations in all the years I had that setup.

With the current rig that we have, I have a better appreciation of how relaxing towing can be, and I don't think I would go back to those earlier days! Seemed fine at the time though!

Brian.

[MrUKToad]

I couldn't comment on the suitability of the Volvo as a tow vehicle for that 28 footer as I know diddly-squat about Volvos. I do know that my Toyota Sienna tows the same size Airstream and does so very well but would, I think, attract similar questions about its size relative to the trailer. Before casting aspersions, you'd need to know a whole lot more about the car and its connection to the trailer.

[mutcth]

Assuming CanAm did that set-up, I'd assume that the hitch is better set-up and reinforced than 99% of the tow vehicles out there. I've asked Andy in the past about towing with these, and he reported that they are quite stable and strong: that generation of the car can be equipped with a turbocharged 6-cylinder.

As for "relaxing" towing - I found that towing with my Odyssey (back in the days of owning my Argosy) to be more relaxing than with my Durango, partly because of the hitch being dialed in so well. Likewise, I find towing with my better handling Durango to be more relaxing than towing with a clumsy truck.

I already see that some of this forum's predictable CanAm detractors are viewing this thread now, so I'll let them post their sneers.

I really should just block out all tow vehicle threads...

Tom

[bwoodtx]

My thinkin' is if the tail is bigger than the dog, that can't be good.

[Road Ruler]

Here is another cool /similar shot. A Hemi Magnum with a Can Am set up. The owner reported a sweet ride. If I recall he said the Durango that replaced the Magnum...... not so good.

[Stefrobrts]

Originally Posted by bwoodtx

My thinkin' is if the tail is bigger than the dog, that can't be good.

Funny, I can't think of any 30' tow vehicles. Sometimes the tail is always bigger than the dog.

[The Ice Man]

This is from our neighbors up North:
The XC70: Not Your Mother's Volvo - RV Lifestyle Magazine

[Road Ruler]

Originally Posted by Jim Lee

What do you think?

It's not about the size. What maters is that the TV can handle the load.

[andreasduess]

I used to drive a Volvo in my twenties. Built like a tank, they are. Great cars.

[Road Ruler]

Andy... about 25 years back I was working in the Oakville area. A volvo sedan had fallen off the Bronte QEW bridge. I saw the car after the fact on the ground below. It was in tact and I would bet dollars to doughnuts it could be driven away. Amazing.

[Isuzusweet]

Friends owned an 80's Volvo GLT wagon, rolled it down a 200' ravine, bounced off trees all the way down. Recovery guy had to pull it the rest of the way down the ravine. Once at the bottom they uprighted it, roped the doors and back hatch shut and drove it back to Victoria BC.

SAAB and Volvo are the only cars you can drop from 8' and still open the doors. See Top Gear dropping a 3 serries bimmer and a SAAB 9000. The Bimmer was pancaked.

Tough cars. I'm in the market for either a XC90 V8 or S80 V8 myself.

Cheers
Tony

[rmkrum]

Had a fleet of 5 volvos at one point in my life. 240 series, 740 series, and 850's as well.

Simply loved the 1990 760 Turbo Intercooler Sedan--had independent rear suspension, huge front disc brakes, super seats, fast, handled like no other Volvo I owned, and regularly blew the doors off BMWs if I needed speed. That car was a brute force of nature when it was running right.

Never towed with it, but did drive cross country with it with a crap-ton of stuff in the trunk and a heavily loaded huge car-top carrier sized for a van on the roof rack. It was quite capable of keeping up with interstate traffic across Texas with that load (and then some )

Gave up on Volvo when the Swedes sold the brand off to the Chinese, and the time it was taking me to keep them running properly got to be too much. You know you are spending too much time fixing them when the parts guy recognizes your voice over the phone and asks you which of your 5 Volvos you are fixing today...and then when you tell him how quickly you fixed the last weird electrical problem he offers you a job at his shop...

Now I drive Toyotas, and take them to the dealer to get maintenance. had exactly ONE real part failure across the fleet of 4 Toyota cars and trucks in the past 10 years...not that lucky with the old Volvos...

[Kevin245]

Closed for maintenance.