Towing capacity for the T

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Towing capacity for the T
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robert E. (Bob) Blackbourn, Gautier Ms. on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 05:35 pm:

My daughter is trying to talk me into getting an "Aliner" folding camper to pull behind the T
It weighs about 1200Lb and folds down to 54 inches in height.
What say you?

Bob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Miller, Mostly in Dearborn on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 05:54 pm:

You don't mention your brakes. You're effectively doubline the weight of your roadster by adding a trailer. You're also taking weight off the steering wheels. Don't do it.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Don Booth@ Bay City, Mi on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 06:05 pm:

I might suggest a Combi-camp camper. They are very light weight and compact. I towed one behind my goldwing and I barely knew it was there. They are hard to find and if my memory serves me right they are made in Sweden.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hal Schedler, Sacramento on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 06:06 pm:

Around the farm or to the nearest park (within a mile) OK, but not on the highways and byways. Then drive like you have no brakes. IMHO


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robert E. (Bob) Blackbourn, Gautier Ms. on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 07:40 pm:

Thanks guys. About as I expected. I have disk brakes, but still only on 2 wheels.
I think I'll stick with my original idea of adding a bunk to an enclosed trailer and towing that with the GMC. Of course she would not be able to pull that with her Honda Civic !!

Regards,
Bob


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 09:21 pm:

C'mon guys. There must be some one out there with an idea for a trailer with brakes that can be pulled by a T.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Doug - Braidwood (glow in the dark), IL on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 09:45 pm:

12 volt hidden battery connected to electric trailer brakes recharged by magneto?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Sunday, May 20, 2012 - 09:49 pm:

How does Dean do it?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Stroud on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 04:36 am:

There are several T'ers out there that pull trailers all of the time. The Tent Topped Touring T's (I hope I got that right) do it all of the time, as does Dean Yoder, he has been all over the country. Check with them. Dave


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Anthony Bennett on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 08:44 am:

One of these would be the go...

http://cubcampers.com.au/camper-trailers/junior/

160kg isn't much;)

cheers

Anthony


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By James A. Golden on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 10:24 am:

Trailer towing can be very hazardous to your health, even with a tow vehicle that has four wheel disk brakes.

There is nothing more exciting that having a trailer pick your tow vehicle's rear wheels off the ground and slide the tow vehicle sideways and then back the other way again. Each time the slide stops the wheels hit the road with a loud Eke-Eke noise. Then the tow vehicle, trailer and antique vehicle do a complete roll over and come to a stop. The tow vehicle is right side up again, but all the doors are jammed shut on the tow vehicle from the top being pushed down. The antique vehicle is destroyed, but right side up again. The trailer did a few more rolls and is bottom side up. All this happened at 35 mph, a Model T safe speed.

A good rule of thumb is to tow a trailer that has no more that 40% of the tow vehicle's weight. That is about half of what your camping trailer weighs empty.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By doug hauge upstate NY stittville 13469 on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 08:06 am:

i have several vintage campers. in fact, just towed the vintage zagelmyer to rheinbeck ny show and flea market a few weeks ago, and several of us Tent Topped Touring Ts towed our vintage campers from upstate NY to the 100th anniversary in Indiana. i have towed vintage campers from here to dearborn, nova scotia, mass, and plan on attending the upcomming TTTT tour in a couple of weeks. see the upcoming tour listed in the classified adds listed as information.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 11:33 am:

James, Did this happen to you? Sounds like there was an issue with the trailer tongue weight. In 50+ years, I've towed a lot of trailers and never had a problem with the trailer lifting the rear wheels of my tow vehicle off the ground. An uncle had a problem once that led to a crash. Seems the agency had loaded a car on the trailer with the engine to the rear. This created a very light tongue loading that caused him to lose control and crash. He wasn't seriously hurt (due to seat belts in use) but the cars were totaled.
Gary


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Butterworth on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 02:48 pm:

I am building a tear drop trailer to take across country . It is a speedster light weight car stock brakes . I do not see a problem . Do not drive over your head . You know how a T stops drive in its limits.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By James A. Golden on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 09:08 pm:

Gary, that happened to me. The trailer was a triple axle home built and the center set of axles had a shackle on each end of the springs, a very bad design, but what did I know. I also did not know the brakes were attached to a fused power source, which worked fine for a no load test, but drew too much current under load and blew the fuse, which resulted in no brakes. The brakes would have save the whole event. Normally a trailer has brakes on one axle only. This trailer had brakes on all six wheels of three axles and that required a lot more current to operate hose brakes. The long wheel base 1933 Ford fire truck was not too heavy for the trailer weight limit, but the long wheel base put the wheels right at the ends of the trailer ramps. That much weight did caused too much flexing of the trailer frame and that situation added to the problem. The trailer did not have an equalizer hitch, which would have held the rear wheels on the ground. I was gong slow, down a steep hill at the time of the event. There was a 40 mph wind blowing sideways to the road travel. The 13 inch drop at the road edge from a recent strong rain and the trailer wheels dropping off the edge set the whole event in motion.

The real problem was that the right rear van wheel and the right rear trailer wheel each had a nice shiny new large nail in about the center area of the tire. I had checked all the tire pressures and added some air to some of the tires about 30 minutes earlier. While I was loading the truck, a local man stopped by with a hyper active son about 12 years old. He was a carpenter by trade and he had several tool boxes and a few assorted nail boxes in the open back of a jeep pickup. Some of those nails looked just like the nails in my tires, shiny and all. I had only towed the trailer about two miles when the accident happened and the heads were not worn off the nails in my tires at all. They had not been there very long. About an hour later, after the police, ambulance and fire dept crew left the accident scene, we drove back the way I had recently come, looking for a box of nails spilled in the road or even one other nail and never found one.

It was a comedy of errors that was not very funny at all. Remove any one of those error factors and the trailer would have remained right side up.

You might say that I learned about the hazard of trailer towing the hard way.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dean Yoder on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 09:36 pm:

My 24 touring Driver passenger trailer an gear weighed 3,740 pounds fore My 2008 trip to Alaska.
No problems


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