What can I tow with my 1971 Cutlass?

[1960es]

Hi,

I am brand new to the forums and have a good friend that bought a 1962 Globe Trotter last year...well, now I am interested in buying an older Airstream from the 60's or 70's and use my Cutlass as a tow vehicle. What should I be looking at? I don't need big anyway!

If I am doing this correctly, you should be able to see a pic of my car.....

[easyride]

In the older models,I would think I wouldn`t want to pull anything longer than a 22',make sure you have a good hitch setup,if that won`t level the car out,than you may need to beef up the suspension.Dave

[n2916s]

Why not mosey over to:

[URL/www.canamrv.ca/[/URL] and click on "test drive"

folks do some interesting work...

mike

[62bam]

Your Cutlass is HOT,HOT,HOT and ours is not,not,not.

[dznf0g]

Is this a 350 ci and a thm 350 or 400?

[Aage]

ooOOoooo... N-I-C-E car!

Too bad you couldn't find a nicer place to take the photo, though...

[1960es]

Thanks for the kind comments. Pictures can make a car look nicer than it is but it is a pretty decent car. I have owned it (mostly) since High School which was a long time ago! It is a 350...it just has the 442 rear bumper because the dual exhaust looks nicer with it.

I appreciate your comments and advice. Honestly, I would like to find something a lot like what my buddy has as far as size so it sounds like that is possible as long as my car is set up right. I have a lead on what appears to be a late 60's Airstream in this size range and might be able to check it out this weekend.....

[SteveH]

1960es,

The things I would be concerned about in regards to towing with your Cutless are the cooling system, both engine and transmission, and the rearend gear ratio.

I would make sure the radiator and fan are in good operating condition, and add a transmission oil cooler...the biggest one I could fit in there.

Then, as I remember those cars had like 2.73 rear end gears stock, and that would not work well towing any trailer. I would think 3.42 gears would be a minimum acceptable gear.

[dznf0g]

Steve is right on. Boy, I'm really trying to pull some old memories out here. I seems to me that if you got A/C, you got HD radiator. I would put on the external trans cooler and try the car on a trial run with the trailer to see how warm she gets before I'd install another rad. "Bonneville" gears gotta go. I don't know where to go to look for tow ratings, but if you ensure the things Steve says, I gotta gut feeling that 5000 pounds is in the ballpark. A weight distributing hitch with sway control should be uesd. As I recall, those rear suspensions back in the day were pretty "floaty". Don't rely on air shocks to level the car....get a proper hitch setup.

[1960es]

Great information! Let me mention that I have another tow vehicle for serious camping but what I have in mind for this is to take it to local car shows where they allow and we do camp at Kerr Lake which is about an hour away and nothing but a few hills between us and the campsites. I don't think that really changes anything but I will not be pulling to the mountains or whatever.

Also, my buddy's Globetrotter is the biggest I would want anyway. I would probably even prefer smaller.

Okay, now off to check out that Airstream.....

[dznf0g]

If you're just using it local, you could probably get by without chsnging the gears out, just take your time and don't try and set any land spped records while accellerating and going uphill. I think I'd still put on a trans cooler. No locking converter in those days and a LOT of heat is built up in the torque converter...especially if you keep the stock rear end (assuming you have low numerically, high geared rear end)

[1960es]

Well, I checked out the Airstream that was only about 2 miles from my house and it is a 1971 Tradewinds model. Pretty cool that it is the same year but when I saw it I knew it was probably too big. Anyway, the guy is having second thoughts about selling as it turns out.

[dznf0g]

Keep on looking..the right one will find you.