Thinking About Buying a Trailer, 73-87 Specific Questions

[Slonaker]

I have some 73-87 specific questions regarding a car trailer.

My Truck
I have an '86 C10 SWB with a fresh 350 crate engine, TH350C trans with about 20K on a rebuild, transmission cooler, 3:08 gears, and the light duty brakes. It is already set up with a brake controller because the PO used it to tow a travel trailer of unknown size. It also has a very heavy receiver hitch that bolts to the frame and the rear bumper tying them both together.

I want to buy a car hauler, maybe a 16' (next topic of discussion, see below). I want to be able to haul the occasional (maybe 2-4 times a year) dead 73-87 pickup, Blazer, or maybe even a Suburban on it. If I raise it back up to stock height, is it going to be up to the task? I am mostly worried about the brakes and transmission. Whatever trailer I buy will have electric brakes, FWIW.

Trailer
What size trailer do I need? I'm pretty sure a Blazer or a SWB will fit easily on a 16 footer. Will a LWB or a Suburban fit on a 16 footer? I don't really want to get a bigger trailer than I need due to the increased weight.

Slonaker

[tucsonjwt]

2-4 times per year sounds like you should rent/borrow one when you need it instead. 3.08 rear axle is not intended for towing, but it should work if you take it easy, but won't accelerate very fast. If you are towing a long distance your truck/trailer will be a challenge.
If I were you, I would leave your truck alone and rent/borrow a suitable tow vehicle and trailer. I think you need a nearby friend with a 3/4 ton truck and trailer. Also, do you have a lot of spare room to store a trailer for the 99% of the time you are not using it? Just some thoughts.

[RandyP]

Mine is a 16' with a 2' dovetail. My 05 4x4 struggles with anything on the trailer other than a vehicle with no engine in it. The last 3/4 we loaded on it and brought home... was a scary ride. I've hauled a empty SWB frame with my 87 and this trailer, I'll never haul again with it though. Maybe if I got the transmission rebuilt and put a heavy duty trans cooler, maybe.

My trailer thread

A 3/4 LWB loaded on it for reference

Hope that helps you. I do like my trailer though, especially now that I have the winch on it. I put the old rally wheels on it so it'd look good in a parade, glad I ordered it with 5x5 lug pattern.

[78 Chevyrado]

If you have the room to conveniently store it, you can't go wrong buying a trailer.

I have a 16 footer and I do so much with it... its sitting right now loaded with pine straw we bought yesterday.

Get a trailer with stake pockets and you can build side bodies for it and double its usefullness.

For a 1/2 ton, I wouldn't want to go too far with a vehicle on there without a weight distribution hitch. I recommend an Equalizer hitch. I have one and IMO it beats any other system out there. And its simple to hook up once you get it setup for your truck. If they aren't required by law I wish they were. My dads truck is only rated for 600lbs capacity (yeah, six hundred) and he can tow a quad cab dodge ram with it with the equalizer hitch. without it, its dangerous no matter what you do.

Here's my hitch http://www.equalizerhitch.com/

16 foot is a good size CAR hauler for occasional use. For regular use, you want a longer trailer so you can balance your load better over the trailer axles. your pretty limited with a 16 footer and a long truck.

Here's my 16 footer and hitch







Get a weight dist hitch... they make all the difference. Once I tried one I aint going back, no more white knuckles...lol I have to have one for my truck and it's a 3/4 ton with 1 ton HD springs. The hitch I have also cuts out ALL sway. For our trucks with a 7000lbs GVW trailer, I got a 10klbs hitch and it works like I want it too.

I literally couldn't have towed the tractor without it. When I hooked it up with a regular ball hitch, the front went up 2 inches and the rear went down about 2.5 inches or so.

No i dont work for the hitch people or nothing, i just think its that good. I don't use it however for really light loads, because it makes the truck to bouncy plus it would tend to lift the back end up.

to make it short, a longer trailer is better, a shorter trailer is more practical and your trailer brakes and the trailer hitch will make it all work safely.


See you want a longer trailer for long trucks like the ram above, because you balance the load over thew trailer axles. well that truck was so long i had no choice but to pull it up to the front of the trailer, putting a lot of weight on the front. I towed that ram home with dads 1/2 ton one time and it was 35MPH the whole way, and scary as heck.

[dropd80s]

If you have you controller set up correctly and brakes on the trailer, you wont have to worry about stopping. With properly set up system your truck stops your truck and the trailer stops the tailer. The brakes and the rating on your hitch, reciever, and ball are the most important things to consider. As far as the length of the trailer. If you have the room and budget get an 18'. My bumper pull is 16'+2' dove tail and I have loaded 3 or 4 crew cab long beds. While you think you'll never haul anything that long, as Kenny said above, you will appreciate the extra length to balance your load to get the tongue weight correct. The weight distributing hitch will also help since you're pulling with a 1/2 ton. Helper bags are another option as well. A manual fill helper bag set up can be done rather affordably. Your motor and transmission should be fine. You may want a manual override switch on the converter for 350C, for a little more control over what its doing. As far as the gears, they are going to slow how fast you pick up and lose speed, but with a little practice you will be able to compensate for this. Even with all this done, a fully loaded 'burb will be a lot for your truck. Not saying it can't be done, but long distances and the interstate will be out of the question. Just know your limits and remember that any risk you take, everyone on the road takes with you.

Now the best piece of advice I can give you. Its all down hill after you get a trailer. Every truck you see, you'll think, I could go pick that up! Also you may want to hide it from your freinds, they alrl want to borrow it and all want you to help move!

[Shawn5488]

Big tranny cooler, 3.73's, and posi for starters. I would go for a rear disk conversion as well. As some one else said go 18ft, the extra 2ft doesn't weight anything or make turning harder but it sure does come in handy!

[Jonboy]

My truck is quite a bit lower than yours, and Scot used it to pull his trailer quite a bit. He added a manually inflated helper bag setup, and it works great. Take a look at it when you pick your truck up.

[pig rig]

first thing you'll find out is everyone is your buddy when you have a car hauler and they all what to borrow it. but they'll all treat it like a rental and thrash it and when you call them out on the damage they know nothing'
just a heads up

I towed my 20' with a 1/2t and no trailer brakes with my crew cab on it and it was scetchy! good thing I only went 12miles and down 1 hill

a good hitch and brake set up will make a big differance like said earlier

[MalibuSSwagon]

Well this thread has learned me a few things.

I have a heavy duty homebuilt trailer, this thing is like a small equipment trailer. Very easy to pull with my C-10 shortbed. The sway when loaded is pretty scary tho. Also the trucks brakes are barely enough, and when loaded you can forget about emergency stops. Not good.

So I need to find an electric brake setup to fit, looks like the guy used some 60's era Chrysler hubs.

Going to look into the Equalizer hitch, my rear end does drop a few inches when loaded. My using a 2" receiver hitch mounted under the bumper, a 2" drop hitch, and my truck is stock height.

The heaviest thing I've hauled so far was a 3k pound Honda, my GF's 80 Camaro, and a 97 S10. The Camaro was a bit much, the truck had a bit of a tough time with that one. My rear gearing is 2.73, with a SM465. Do I need more power than the stock 305, or just better gears?

[James McClure]

I have a 16' dual axel trailer W\elec brakes and use it to haul vehicles and lumber for a decking company. Truck is an 84, 350, SM465, 3/4 ton W/3.08 gears. I don't have any trouble with loads up to 8000# with GVW about 10,000#. I did have a few problems when I first got the trailer. First was using the 4 way flashers. Because of how the electrical system of our trucks is set up (brake light circut) and how the trailer brakes work, the brakes would pulse with the 4 ways. This was corrected with a diode installed in the circut to prevent a back feed into the controler. Someone here gave me the part # and suppier name which I don't remember. Next problem was with the trailer suspension. The axels on the trailer are mounted in such a way that 1 axel will "cam over" and only 1 set of wheels will contact the road empty and will over load when loaded. This caused MAJOR handeling problems because the trailer would "whip" at highway speeds. It actually spun me out once. When the whipping starts it is nearly impossible to stop. I figured out which axel was camming over and used a piece of pressure treated 2X4 screwed to the bottom of the trailer as a stop to prevent the cam from comming up high enough to flip over. Under normal conditions, loaded or not, the cam clears the 2X4 by 2" and if you hit a good bump it will block the cam and keep both axels equally loaded. When the trailer was empty was when the axel would cam. Next problem was weight distribution and toung weight. The toung weight on mine is supposed to be 500#, BUT, I never knew when I was at 500#, so, I took a measurement from the hitch to the ground, then, loaded 500# onto the toung and took another measurement. Now when I load up all I need is a tape measure to make sure I'm not over 500# by to much. First time I loaded a full sized truck on it the toung weight was 800 to 1000# so I had to put the truck on backwards and that fixed it. I have a winch mounted up under my trucks frame where the spare is supposed to be so backing it on is not a problem. If I was to do it again, I would get an 18 footer. (16 with a 2 foot beaver tail) With 8 lug 16" wheels not 15" 5 lug on it now so I only have to carry 1 spare tire not 2. Jim

[Slonaker]

I'm not really considering borrowing a truck and trailer to be an option. That is what I do occasionally now, and it is a pain depending on others to get things done. I want to be able to do what I want and when I want to.

I recently bought a new house (new to me) on a little over an acre of land. For the first time I have room for a trailer and I want to get one. It will seldom be used for hauling vehicles. Most of the time it will just be used as a utility trailer for lumber, metal, runs to the scrapyard, that sort of thing. When I do use it for hauling a vehicle, it will be for short distances and in town. I doubt I would ever need to go more than 25 miles with a vehicle behind it.

For the little bit that I would be towing a trailer, I don't consider it to be worth it to change out gears, transmission, etc., though I do expect to have to raise it back up to stock height. I would love to leave it lowered, but I need it more as a truck now than a cruiser (I will take a look at your setup, Jonboy). If I want something cool to drive, I have other stuff for that.

I will definitely want to add a set of helper bags to it since I will be working at the top of the truck's ability (or maybe a little beyond it. I hadn't thought of a load leveling hitch, but that is a good idea. We used one of those setups when I was a kid to tow a travel trailer, and I remember that it made a big difference.

Luckily most of my friends already have trailers. That is how I have gotten as far as I have without one! Hopefully not too many people will want to borrow mine.

Thanks to everyone for the info. I think I'm going to go for it. I just have to decide if I want the 16' or the 18'.

BTW, anyone who borrows your stuff and mistreats it isn't really your friend!

Slonaker

[Gregs71]

I think you will be fine!! Drive defensively, and know your stopping distances.

I have used my 1/2 ton p/u short bed with 350 / 700 -stock suspension without issue to haul 3 trucks. one truck was a '73 Scout II, 100 miles thru the hills. Ya it was slow, but I wasn't in a hurry. The other 2 trips were hauling a 1/2 ton long bed 4x4 square body. All flat ground. It wasn't fast but I went 55.

All trips were using a rented U-Haul flat bed 16 ft trailer.

With your gearing I might be inclined to drive it in 2nd, if the load is a good size.

Not sure how your suspension plays in to a trailer, but I think your truck/motor/trans is fine for 2-4 short hauls a year.