Just wondering if it would be possible for about 15 miles. My buddy has a broken down 85 van (probably about 3700 lbs) that we want to tow with a dolley up to my house to fix.

Is this going to work? Has anyone attempted to tow THIS much weight? I have a 2000 lbs hitch and have successfully towed a 94 Pontica sunbird accross town to the junkyard. But the van is above and beyond the sunbird's weight.

The tongue weight with the tow dolley is just about zero, if not even negative somewhat. And the camaro has subframe connectors.

 

Hhhhm, does not look like a good plan to me. First, a trailer hitch on a thirdgen is akin to putting one on a boat. Looks useful, but really isn't practical. Your brakes are woefully inadequate to the task, and you are going to be seriously exceeding the capacity of your transmission.

Can you do it? If you tow in second, or third gear, go slowly, brake well in advance of when you think you need to, you might be able to get away with it. The van probably weighs twice as much as the pontiac. If there is another alternative, I would look real hard at it.

 

Your not exceeding the capacity of your transmission if you have a 700R4

 

You guys are sounding like fNord truck owners, "I cant tow that with my F150, I need at least a F250".


It will be fine. I do question the hitch weight capacity since thier not that much different then the ones they use on carivans also 2k/2.5K. You see those people hauling all kinds of stuff around in those little vans.

I wouldent worry about it just go slow and do it when theres light traffic.

 

Good advice. Brake lightly and well in advance. Drive like your grandma, go SLOW and accelerate gradually. I'd say keep it to 45 mph tops.

I've towed a light catamaran with my IROC, it does fine, just be gentile.

 

hmm i towed so many cars before vans, trucks, cars , no problem but i think its cause i used a tow rope not a hitch...i think the motor and tranny should be fine...i pulled a Big A** flat bed ford truck i think before with now problem ...

 

How do you figure? Same 700R4 that was in all 80's and early '90's full sized Chevy trucks.

A agree that cautious driving is in order, but the engine and trans are the same as a 1500 truck, and the brakes are better.

-Tom

 

My friend was just telling me a story of them hitching another car with a a car and everything was a ok until. He said he wasnt even going 10 miles an hour and turned a corner and the car he was towing kept going straight and pushing his back end with it.

 

I was just responding to a post higher above saying it would hurt the transmission. I said it would NOT hurt the transmission. I was saying that it wasn't above the capacity. Heck I have the same transmission in my G20 and it has towed its 8,000 lbs trailer rating many times. That would be 13,000 lbs with 3.08 gears and a 305.

 

saggy 56 yall must of done something wrong cause i been towing bout a ton of crawfish all summer long and never had a problem with it going straight ...but its just maybe a third gen aint meant for a hitch but it can pull almost anything i'll tell you that...and i fit 9 people in it and still drove aight till i hit speed bumps at the border

 

Im just telling you what happened. I dont think they did anything out of the ordinary. They were very surprised it happened.

 

I'm using a tow dolly so it should act just like a trailer. And we are going to load the rear end of the van on the dolley so the weight is all out back.
I'll let you guys know how it goes this weekend

 

the rating on the hitch is for tung weight, your cars max towing rating is for the total amount u are towing for braking reasons, you should be able to tow the van with no problem, just make shure u give urself alot of breaking room, and i would say go 45 max. and i would load the frunt of the van on trailer it will put more weight on ur rear tires and help with braking


ps excuse the spelling