Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[ultrarunner]

Seeing Garandmans picture of his Tahoe pulling his sailboat reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about.

In the mid 70's I hitch hiked to Texas from Oregon to go hunting with my grandparents. About midnight I was dropped of where I10 and I 20 split in west Texas.
It wasn't yet all freeway and I remember a just single streetlight there. I am not there 5 minutes and a GTO pulling a 36' sailboat pulls over and picks me up.
The guys job using his own car was to deliver the boats made in Ca to Fl. We drove for an hour or so and he said he was tired, could I drive80. We swapped seats and I took over, 2 lane road then and narrow cement bridges with lotsa trucks going the other way. It was amazing that thing pulled like a dream, I would feel the oncoming trucks wind wave hit the car but the boat hull was hydrodynamic so I never felt anything when the trucks went by the boat. When I stopped to fuel he wanted to get up in the boat to sleep so off he went into the bunk and I kept driving. I was driving the loop 410 later that morning and kept getting the strangest looks from other cars, I pulled into a shopping center close to where my grandparents lived and as I got out I saw why. Here the guy is sitting in the cockpit of the boat drinking coffee!

I never even had a camera in those days but I would give anything to have a picture now!

Got a hunch it would have made this thread if I had one.

Growing up few used pickups for tow vehicle... back in the 60's and 50's a big V8 Olds or Buick were just as likely to be pulling horse trailers and car trailers.

One of my friends who was an avid high dollar car collector with Packards, Cords, etc... had one of the first Aluminum Tommy Trailers and picked up cars all over the US and his tow vehicle by choice was his Cad Eldorado Convertible. He said it towed like a dream and enjoyed the cross country jaunts...

 

[Travelover]

Growing up few used pickups for tow vehicle... back in the 60's and 50's a big V8 Olds or Buick were just as likely to be pulling horse trailers and car trailers...........

A properly set up car makes a fine tow vehicle to this day. In the US, we've gotten spoiled with cheap gasoline so the default tow vehicle is a pickup truck, but the in the rest of the world where gasoline is expensive, cars are still the rule for a tow vehicle.

 

[scaredychicken]

and this happened this week in Surrey BC (near Vancouver, BC) - this is not a small town, has the biggest RCMP Detachment in BC. Crazy, illegal but I guess it worked ... until the fine . no plate on the trailer either.

 

[tman1020]

Seeing Garandmans picture of his Tahoe pulling his sailboat reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about.

In the mid 70's I hitch hiked to Texas from Oregon to go hunting with my grandparents. About midnight I was dropped of where I10 and I 20 split in west Texas.
It wasn't yet all freeway and I remember a just single streetlight there. I am not there 5 minutes and a GTO pulling a 36' sailboat pulls over and picks me up.
The guys job using his own car was to deliver the boats made in Ca to Fl. We drove for an hour or so and he said he was tired, could I drive80. We swapped seats and I took over, 2 lane road then and narrow cement bridges with lotsa trucks going the other way. It was amazing that thing pulled like a dream, I would feel the oncoming trucks wind wave hit the car but the boat hull was hydrodynamic so I never felt anything when the trucks went by the boat. When I stopped to fuel he wanted to get up in the boat to sleep so off he went into the bunk and I kept driving. I was driving the loop 410 later that morning and kept getting the strangest looks from other cars, I pulled into a shopping center close to where my grandparents lived and as I got out I saw why. Here the guy is sitting in the cockpit of the boat drinking coffee!

I never even had a camera in those days but I would give anything to have a picture now!

Got a hunch it would have made this thread if I had one.

That is a great story. Sounds like a very interesting individual.

 

[Garandman]

Seeing Garandmans picture of his Tahoe pulling his sailboat reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about.

In the mid 70's I hitch hiked to Texas from Oregon to go hunting with my grandparents. About midnight I was dropped of where I10 and I 20 split in west Texas.
It wasn't yet all freeway and I remember a just single streetlight there. I am not there 5 minutes and a GTO pulling a 36' sailboat pulls over and picks me up.
The guys job using his own car was to deliver the boats made in Ca to Fl. We drove for an hour or so and he said he was tired, could I drive80. We swapped seats and I took over, 2 lane road then and narrow cement bridges with lotsa trucks going the other way. It was amazing that thing pulled like a dream, I would feel the oncoming trucks wind wave hit the car but the boat hull was hydrodynamic so I never felt anything when the trucks went by the boat. When I stopped to fuel he wanted to get up in the boat to sleep so off he went into the bunk and I kept driving. I was driving the loop 410 later that morning and kept getting the strangest looks from other cars, I pulled into a shopping center close to where my grandparents lived and as I got out I saw why. Here the guy is sitting in the cockpit of the boat drinking coffee!

I never even had a camera in those days but I would give anything to have a picture now!

Got a hunch it would have made this thread if I had one.

Never ridden over-the-Road in one, that would have been something to see!

Another boat tow. This is an optical illusion because the boat looks way too big for the car. But the car is the H6 Outback, not 4, rated for 3500 lbs in the US and 4400 (2,000kg) everywhere else.

The boat is a Melges 24, a carbon fiber sport boat that only weighs 1,800 lbs. That mast is carbon fiber and only weighs 50 lbs. Because it’s a drop keel, it’s out of the windstream. The single axle Trailer was only about 600 lbs. Even with all the gear it probably wasn’t over 3K.

 

[California]

CHP has at times promoted their auctions of used patrol cars that have been reconditioned by prison labor. They specifically said the HD suspension, cooling, transmission, and back then the 440ci engine, were great for towing.

 

[George2615]

CHP has at times promoted their auctions of used patrol cars that have been reconditioned by prison labor. They specifically said the HD suspension, cooling, transmission, and back then the 440ci engine, were great for towing.

That is true. Years ago in the mid 70's I bought a 1970 Plymouth Fury III Black and white with the 440 at auction and used it for towing a car trailer to the race track. It also came in handy at stop lights when a 396 Chevelle or souped up Mustang came along.

 

[California]

Another boat tow. This is an optical illusion because the boat looks way too big for the car.

But the car is the H6 Outback, not 4, rated for 3500 lbs in the US and 4400 (2,000kg) everywhere else....

... with all the gear it probably wasn't over 3K.

My earlier (1999) Outback is rated 2000 lbs in the US and more for the same vehicle in Australia and elsewhere. Here it is right at, not over, maximum car and trailer ratings when I brought home the latest Yanmar over 20 miles of back roads. I handled this like a Special Permit load - low traffic hours, low speed, fall back 1,000 ft if there was another car on the road, pull over to let them pass (photo) if someone was behind me. I wouldn't take this rig on the highway with other unpredictable drivers nearby, but this haul was simple.

Subarus are amazing. Near 20 years of light Farm Vehicle use like this, or carrying 600 lbs of cargo 100 miles back to my home in town (apple & other harvest) hasn't hurt it at all. California cars don't rust and the paint looks like new - hopefully it's good for a few more years.

(I've posted this photo before. Yes the tractor is chained down front and rear).

 

[California]

..mid 70's I bought a 1970 Plymouth Fury III Black and white with the 440 at auction and used it for towing a car trailer to the race track. It also came in handy at stop lights when a 396 Chevelle or souped up Mustang came along.

I'm ancient. That reminded of the the car I bought used right after high school, and used to tow the car club roadster to the drags. 1950 Olds Rocket 88, the identical model used by CHP when they were new. By the 60's it was a bit of a sleeper since it looked like a 1949 6-cylinder Chevrolet. But V8, and the 4 speed Hydramatic had a super low 1st gear that launched the thing like a slingshot for a couple of car lengths before upshifting to what would now be Low in a modern A/T. Fun times.

 

[George2615]

I'm ancient. That reminded of the the car I bought used right after high school, and used to tow the car club roadster to the drags. 1950 Olds Rocket 88, the identical model used by CHP when they were new. By the 60's it was a bit of a sleeper since it looked like a 1949 6-cylinder Chevrolet. But V8, and the 4 speed Hydramatic had a super low 1st gear that launched the thing like a slingshot for a couple of car lengths before upshifting to what would now be Low in a modern A/T. Fun times.

Just a few years ago I had a 55 Olds Super 88 V8 with the same 4 spd. hydramatic. As you say, super low first gear and would get second gear rubber.