[Half-Inch Stud]

Whodone it?

I really want to put a class iii tow on the 68 GTO.
Fuel fill looks to remain practical. Lights and Brake control easy peasy.

Singular issue is the rear FRAME strength.

[68hotbird]

I know its doable my dad towed a 23 foot camper and his car trailer with a 69 gto for years. This was with a reese hitch and equalizer bars. The hitch was home fabricated and welded to the frame this was in 1975. See the picture at myrtle beach in 1975 and thats a 7 hour tow from home. The gto was a standard 400/4 speed and the torque of the pontiac made an excellent tow car. He pulled the 62 gp he has now home with it from north carolina in 1975.

[68hotbird]

Those 2 kids in that picture are me and my sister and we are now 51 and 52 years old!!! lol

[will slow gto]

Great pic! If a 170 HP smogger 350 in a late 70s Blazer can tow a trailer, why not a GTO?

[mrennie]

Ughhh...the rear frame looks sooo thin and weak compared to any truck sold today. I know lots of cars pulled trailers "back in the day", but I would be concerned about ripping the frame apart for anything more than a light trailer.

Trailer brakes would improve things, but light tongue weight to minimize frame stress may cause other problems (sway).

[Chief of the 60's]

LOL!

Jegs Sr. must have put a truck frame under his wagon.....

[Chief of the 60's]

I made my own hitch for one of my hot rods.....

[Half-Inch Stud]

Chief, very nice!
68; you need to click the box to parse the text.

[TAKerry]

I like that hitch Chief, good idea!
Suppose it wasnt a class III but I had a hitch on my trans am when I bought it. Went to the scrap yard, later found out it was a dealer installed GM option. Power wise I would think these cars are more than capable, maybe a bit heavy on the suspension. Back in the day not many pickup trucks on the road. Heck, my father was a contractor and used a ranch wagon.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

LOL!

Jegs Sr. must have put a truck frame under his wagon.....

Some of the wagons are better for this. Some already have a boxed frame. For instance, our Nomad has a complete fully boxed frame, it's very stout. I've often thought about making a hitch for it, it would make an excellent platform for towing an open car trailer and look good doing it. Long wheel base, 8 leaf springs, the boxed frame, and the shear weight of the Nomad are all a plus.

Needs a brake upgrade first though, 4 wheel manual drum isn't going to cut it. lol

[Chief of the 60's]

Almost all of the tow "cars" from back in the day pulled a trailer with surge or juice brakes. So pulling with a vehicle equipped with manual brakes was doable but not really advisable.

I'm sure they didn't box the frame on this Falcon, especially when its a Unibody vehicle.

[Formulajones]

Well the Falcon is towing a pretty light weight aluminum air stream so that wouldn't be as much concern.

I wouldn't even think about towing anything of this size, without trailer brakes anyway. I thought that was a given and went without saying. But that still doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling concerning the nomad since the 4 wheel drum brakes are honestly inadequate for just the car itself, let alone 6,000 lbs. of open car trailer and another car behind me LOL

On a side note, lots of trailers still out their today with surge brake systems. A lot of your rentals are that way since they sometimes are hooked to vehicles that don't have electric brake setups. Works fine.

[Chief of the 60's]

Still a Unibody vehicle with sheetmetal frame rails and dragging tail. Its got a load on it.

Also, Airstreams are very well built and not necessarily that light.

The average weight of an Airstream trailer is 2,500-10,000 pounds:
•Classic: 7,788 lbs.
•Globetrotter: 5,297 lbs.
•International Serenity: 4,761 lbs.
•Flying Cloud: 3,852 lbs.
•Caravel: 3,200 lbs.
•Bambi: 2,900 lbs.
•Nest: 3,400 lbs.
•Basecamp: 2,585 lbs.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

Still a Unibody vehicle with sheetmetal frame rails and dragging tail. Its got a load on it.

Also, Airstreams are very well built and not necessarily that light.

That one is light or it wouldn't have a single axle on it. As far as your list, there are only 3 there I'd consider heavy, the rest are light as far as I'm concerned, so that should give you a better idea of what I'm thinking. I wouldn't mind that little single axle air stream behind that falcon.....no big deal.

Besides my comment was more towards earlier mention of flimsy frames on some of these cars, and I tend to agree if you're looking at a lot of weight, which is why at a certain point, I like the wagons for this sort of thing, as I mentioned, most already have boxed frames and make great tow vehicles.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

That one is light or it wouldn't have a single axle on it. As far as your list, there are only 3 there I'd consider heavy, the rest are light as far as I'm concerned, so that should give you a better idea of what I'm thinking. I wouldn't mind that little single axle air stream behind that falcon.....no big deal.

Besides my comment was more towards earlier mention of flimsy frames on some of these cars, and I tend to agree if you're looking at a lot of weight, which is why at a certain point, I like the wagons for this sort of thing, as I mentioned, most already have boxed frames and make great tow vehicles.

LOL!

I don't know if I would tow that much weight with my Unibody Dodge Magnum Wagon and it has a factory hitch.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

LOL!

I don't know if I would tow that much weight with my Unibody Dodge Magnum Wagon and it has a factory hitch.

You mean my open car trailer with a car on it? I wouldn't tow that either with a Dodge Magnum Wagon.

Those wagons aren't even in the same zip code as the wagons I'm talking about from the 50's and 60's.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

You mean my open car trailer with a car on it? I wouldn't tow that either with a Dodge Magnum Wagon.

Those wagons aren't even in the same zip code as the wagons I'm talking about from the 50's and 60's.

No, what the Falcon is pulling.

[Formulajones]

Oh, that wouldn't bother me a bit. That Falcon is only 15 feet long, so that trailer in the pic is all of what......12 feet maybe?? With a single axle and the size, and aluminum construction I'd guess that airstream is around the 3000 lbs. mark. That's light in my book.

What would bother me more is the little 260 V8 and pulling hills LOL

I really don't like towing with anything that doesn't have some balls.

[Chief of the 60's]

Most of the time its not the total weight that is tough on a vehicle. Its the tongue weight and that Falcon appears to have too much of it. If anything, it should have had air shocks or air bags.

[Sirrotica]

My 05 GTO is unibody, and I've pulled more than a few cars on tow dollys with it. I actually pulled my dually with it for a few miles in an emergency on back roads. It outweighs the car by more than half. Truck weighs 6800# empty.

My 70 Judge was used many times to tow the 67 GTO with tow bar to and from the racetrack back in the mid 70s. The A body frame is designed to collapse in a rear end collision to absorb energy, but it can still be used in tension such as pulling a trailer.

The frame is also bolted to the surrounding sheetmetal which is reinforced with spot welded flanges so the frame isn't carrying all the force in tension, the force is spread out over the whole rear structure of the car and body.

Mark, I'm not sure how much you're planning on towing, but I just towed roughly 2500# U haul trailer from Phoenix to Ohio with my 99 GP. I installed the U Haul hitch in the motel parking lot, it bolts to the unibody rails under the car and is rated at 3500#. Absolutely no problems in the almost 2000 mile trip, other than being underpowered with the massive 160 HP 3.1 engine under the hood...............

Somewhere along the line everyone has been brainwashed that you need a truck to pull almost any trailer nowadays. It's not true, as has been shown by the pictures Chief has posted. Nowadays pickup trucks are commonplace, but back in the 60s not every subdivision had a truck sitting in half of the driveways on the street.

I have owned 2 Pontiac wagons of the 71-76 vintage, they were built about as strong as a 1/2 ton pickup was under the skin.