 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / RVs / March 2005Tow Vehicle Capacity
Hello, I own a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra with a V-6, auto trans. I do not have an owners manual. Is there a way to learn what this vehicle will tow. The PU dealer I am working with says it will take a class II hitch, but I need to know the tow rating. The car is old and I dont mind risking breaking it by towing a little over rating, especially considering I will be traveling less than 50 miles to camp, good roads with no hills involved, but am concerned about the safety. Any help greatly appreciated! Janet I was able to find a rating for a 1996 Cutlass Ciera with the V6 engine: 2000 lbs. Probably about the same engine. The 1990 V6 was only 160 hp. With a safety factor of 75%, that would make the rating for a NEW vehicle at 1500 lbs. However, with a 15 year old engine and, more importantly, tranny, I'm not sure I would tow a string of tin cans with a Newly Married sign on them! Nothing like the tranny failing 25 miles into a 50 mile trip! > I own a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra with a V-6, auto trans. I do not > have an owners manual. Is there a way to learn what this vehicle will [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > with no hills involved, but am concerned about the safety. Any help > greatly appreciated! > Hello, > I own a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra with a V-6, auto trans. I do not [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > greatly appreciated! > Janet When all fails check: www.trailerlife.com/output.cfm?id=42175 Cost a few bucks ;-) If I'm not mistaken, your dealer said something like "Your car can tow this camper No Problem!" The bitter truth is at 15 years old, the only thing your small front wheel drive car should be towing is you and your passengers, and maybe some luggage and that's about it. And the line "I will be traveling less than 50 miles to camp, good roads with no hills involved" is only an excuse. I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a camper and outfit their vehicle to tow it only to one place and nowhere else. The tranny is only one factor. You have a light car, and should consider brakes on the trailer as well. Plus don't let the dealer convince you that the camper is "only 1500 lbs, so you can handle it." 1500lbs is only the dry weight of the unit. Add gear, propane tanks, water, maybe an AC unit and a battery, plus your passengers and stuff in the car and you can go from "you can handle it" to "major overload" without even realizing it. I've seen it hundreds of times in this and other newsgroups. For someone who has to ask what the max their small front wheel drive vehicle can to or if their car can tow a certain trailer, the answer is always "if you have to ask, the answer is No, don't do it." Just how heavy is the camper you will be towing? Good luck - Jonathan  SignatureJonathan A. Race Lieutenant, EMS Supervisor Orange County (FL) Fire Rescue Department (This message may contain personal opinions and/or information not related to my employment or employer) > Hello, > I own a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra with a V-6, auto trans. I do not [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > greatly appreciated! > Janet 3000 lbs Jonathan A. Race asked "Just how heavy is the camper you will be towing?" > 3000 lbs Don't do it. I pull a pop-up with a 91 Olds, but it's a full-size station wagon with a fairly new V8. A brand new FWD V6 isn't up to pulling 3,000 pounds. Fifteen years old? No way. > Jonathan A. Race asked: > "Just how heavy is the camper you will be towing?" [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > a fairly new V8. A brand new FWD V6 isn't up to pulling 3,000 pounds. > Fifteen years old? No way. I pull a 3k PU with my ST, which is rated to tow 5k. The trailer has brakes and the truck is properly equipped with a class 3 hitch. It tows good, but doesn't get anywhere in a hurry. Your car will suffer greatly. Don't do it. It is not safe. Gerry and Robyn 99 Mesa 01 SportTrac I won't bother telling you what towing that kind of weight will do to your car mechanically, I'll leave that for others. But I do figure that you deserve the truth about what it's going to do to you. At 3000 lbs dry weight you will probably be around 3500 lbs loaded or more depending on just how much extra stuff you take along and how many passengers you will have. I'm not even certain a Class II hitch can safely handle that kind of weight. In case you don't realize it, this puts the weight of the camper at or over the weight of your car. The first time you go to step on the brakes - even at a slow speed - you're in for a rude shock. Your stopping distance won't be doubled, it will easily be quadrupled, and at road speeds it may not even feel like you have brakes at all. I'm not even going to mention wet, sandy or other slick road surfaces. And if this combination doesn't suffer from massive sway anyway, any sudden swerves and you risk greatly having the camper pull the back end of your car sideways forcing you into a jacknife skid, which at best just may leave your car and your new camper totaled, and at worst may involve several other vehicles, a light pole or two, a phone booth, a crossing guard and a van full of nuns. If this happens to you on the highway and you survive, go immediately to the nearest convenience store and buy a lottery ticket. This camper shouldn't be pulled with anything less than a vehicle with a 5000 towing capacity and brakes on the trailer. The dealer who told you that you could safely tow this weight with your car - even for a short distance - should be arrested and charged with either gross stupidity, culpable negligence, or even attempted murder. It's been my life's work to pick up after people who make these kind of mistakes. Please don't be one of them. And if for some reason you do decide to go with this combination, then you should at all costs avoid the central Florida area. I have family and friends here, and I worry about them, too. Good luck - Jonathan SignatureJonathan A. Race Lieutenant, EMS Supervisor Orange County (FL) Fire Rescue Department (This message may contain personal opinions and/or information not related to my employment or employer) > 3000 lbs > 3000 lbs The Class-II hitch may be rated for 3,500 lbs. and a maximum tongue weight of 300 lbs, but you are going to destroy your vehicle in the process. So not only would the vehicle be grossly overloaded, by 100%, but your tongue weight is usually 12-15% of the trailer's gross weight. So if you are pulling a 3000 lb trailer, the tongue weight alone (that menas the amoutn of weight sitting on the rear suspension of your car) it a minimum of 336 lbs ! Without anybody or thing else in the car. But you have exceed the TONGUE weight of a class II drawbar as well. You could probably tow such a setup [unsafely] once or twice before you would need to spend a couple hundred dollars on rear shocks, few more hundred on transmission work, and then the engine for overheating it. Plus your brake pads will wear very quickly if you have not crashed and injured someone/something by then. Take a couple grand and buy a used vehicle that can pull a minimum of 5,000 lbs. > But you have exceed the TONGUE weight of a class II drawbar as well. Class II receivers are rated for 350lbs tongue weight. Some drawbars are only rated for 300lbs but most are rated for 350lbs. The rating is usually stamped on the drawbar. Carl >> But you have exceed the TONGUE weight of a class II drawbar as well. > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Carl Thanks Carl, on virtually ANY drawbar it should be stamped, and many class II drawbars are in fact only rated for 300 lbs versus the maximum receiver rating of 350 lbs. Rhetorically I wonder why? You can purchase drawbars rated at 350 lbs, but regardless the OP wanted to pull a 3,000 lb trailer. I was simply stating that even *if* he had a 350 lb rated drawbar to match the maximum rating of the class II receiver, the normal tongue weight of a trailer is 12-15% of the gross which would exceed such a set-up. So, 3,000 lbs x 12% = 360 lbs He could shift the weight to the rear of the trailer behind the wheels to lightenthe tongue weight, but that would induce sway and make for a unsafe combination to be no safer at best. SignatureStephen, Wife, Daughter, Son, and in-laws San Diego, CA 2002 Grand Caravan ES 3.8L with tow package 2001 Saturn LW200 in Silver-Blue 2001 Jayco Eagle 10 UD __________ /__________\_ |__|__|_____|---+ O >>> But you have exceed the TONGUE weight of a class II drawbar as well. >> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >to lightenthe tongue weight, but that would induce sway and make for a >unsafe combination to be no safer at best. IMHO, the popup used to be a small, light trailer designed to be towed by the family car... today's 3,000# and heavier popups really don't fit that profile.. mac Please remove splinters before emailing >>I was simply stating that even *if* he had a 350 lb rated drawbar to >>match the maximum rating of the class II receiver, the normal tongue [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > by the family car... today's 3,000# and heavier popups really don't > fit that profile.. Which yields the existential question, is a pop-up trailer a: .... trailer that pops-up to yield all the comforts or.. a pop-up [tent] on a trailer? It our case [my family], we down-graded from the 2,700 lb top-of-the- line loaded "pop-up" to one still nicely equipped but more rustic. This is probably why the first question to ask those newbies coming here and inquiring it their tow vehicle can pull such a beast is to recommend they rent or borrow one or two models before buying. We still have a propane stove that can be used in or out, but we usually leave at home (use the fire pit). We also have a propane powered furnace, and typical use that for no more than 20-30 minutes per day total and that would only be in the morning if at all really. It has the on-board water storage, but the hand pump broke. I bought a on-demand pump and faucet then opted to remove the whole thing. We use the sink for added storage <g>. We do have the 3-way fridge and use this quite heavily; though once we are at our destination the high altitude and low temps cause things to freeze if the fridge is on anything but the lowest (least cold) setting. We gave up a fancy door, on-demand hot and cold water, an outside faucet also with hot and cold, a water heater, and a fancer propane stove with more burners ---- don't miss it at all. So for us a pop-up trailer is more of a more comfortable tent, that has some living space for those rainy afternoons and allows us to more easily get away to enjoy camping without a lot of time spent packing (we just hitch up). ... we do tip the scale at about 1650 lbs. >Which yields the existential question, is a pop-up trailer a: > .... trailer that pops-up to yield all the comforts [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > >... we do tip the scale at about 1650 lbs. well, you've gone back to the basics, and I admire you for it.. If my old body could handle it, we'd still be using our old tent trailer and loving it.. Mac 03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears > I was simply stating that even *if* he had a 350 lb rated drawbar to > match the maximum rating of the class II receiver, the normal tongue [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > to lightenthe tongue weight, but that would induce sway and make for a > unsafe combination to be no safer at best. Too many people try to tow with too light of a vehicle. I used to have a 2000 Ford Ranger V6 and I decided against getting a pop-up because the truck just wasn't big enough or powerful enough. Now I drive a 2004 F-150 5.4L and I just bought a 2005 Fleetwood Niagara pop-up today. The fact that I have a big enough truck was what allowed me to go ahead and get what I wanted. Trying to tow with a small car or truck is just asking for an accident to occur. I wouldn't consider it. Weirdest one I ever saw was a "Valley Hitches" brand class III for our Isuzu Trooper. Got it home, tore it out of the box and looked at the label. Weight carrying - rated for 500lb tongue weight, 5000lb trailer weight. NOT FOR USE WITH WEIGHT DISTRIBUTING HITCH! Well...I'm sure not going to tow 5000lbs w/o it! Much less the 2500-3000 that our trailer weighs. Took it back and they got me in a Draw-Tite...believe it or not, rated for 50% more than the vehicle is! Trooper is rated for 5000, this hitch is rated for 7500. Won't have to worry about that hitch... Wesley > >> But you have exceed the TONGUE weight of a class II drawbar as well. > > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > |__|__|_____|---+ > O > Weirdest one I ever saw was a "Valley Hitches" brand class III for our > Isuzu Trooper. Got it home, tore it out of the box and looked at the [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Wesley Nope sure won't, in fact when it pulls the whole rear end off your Isuzu and hits the ground I bet it won't be bent at all, maybe even hardly scratched <grin>. Sorry, Monday morning "jerk"iness. Another excellent example of the many variables that go into a good tow combination; you would be surprised at those folks ignoring the stamping on their step bumpers and pulling 5,000 lbs with their truck rated for 7,500 lbs and thinking they are okay. When of course most of us know a step bumper is rarely rated above 300/3500 lbs. > > Weirdest one I ever saw was a "Valley Hitches" brand class III for our > > Isuzu Trooper. Got it home, tore it out of the box and looked at the [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > rated for 7,500 lbs and thinking they are okay. When of course most of > us know a step bumper is rarely rated above 300/3500 lbs. Indeed...wouldn't surprise me if the hitch is made of heavier material than the frame parts that it bolts to! No, wouldn't surprise me a bit...I believe those are the ones I've seen around town that have their bumpers bent out slightly...strangely enough it happens to be right around where a ball would mount. :-) I can't imagine towing anything over about 3000lbs w/o a weight distributing hitch. I know it makes a huge difference with our small travel trailer (more stable) and I'd guess it's close to 3000 loaded for a weekend trip. I also have to wonder what the manufacturers think most trailers look like. I mean...when was the last time you saw a trailer that would stand up tall enough for the bumper hitch on most newer trucks? Though I have noticed some of the newer travel trailers seem to stand up awfully tall...seems like they would get pretty unstable at that height...? Wesley |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.