Let's say you have an old car and you want to pull a trailer. How do you determine how much weight can safely be pulled by a car? For example....let's say you have a 100" wheelbase Model T with a 250 hp V8 automatic that weighs 1800lbs. ***uming you have a suficiently stout frame, suspension, brakes and solid hitch mount....how much could you safely pull? 3000 lbs? 1000 lbs? How are ratings made for vehicles for their towing capabilities? I tried Google but came up blank.
You've mentioned weight/suspension/brakes.... etc but I would also add the consideration of model T's short wheelbase to the equation. s.
if the pulling car is 1800lbs i would not try pulling more than 1000lbs even that might push you through a stop light with your brakes locked.....
In New York any trailer over a 1000lbs is required to be ***led and required to have brakes. Most rental places have trailers with surge brakes and typically they won't let you tow anything heavier than what your towing with.....so if thier empty car trailer weighs in at 1500lbs and the car you intend on hauling on it is 3500lbs and your tow vehicle (according to DMV records or thier chart) weighs 4200lbs then they won't usually let you rent the trailer for that purpose. That is for trucks. Cars are a whole new deal.....here's a website that has some information on car towing capacity. Enter in a 'typical' vehicle and go from there. http://www.campinglife.com/towrating/index.cfm I entered in a 1991 Mustang to compare to. According to the site the max trailer weight for that car is 1000lbs. The Mustang may have as good as or better brakes than the Model T example and the power output can be equal depending on engine used. A typical fox body V8 Mustang weighs about 3100-3200lbs in full dress. I'd use that as your yardstick. I wouldn't tow much more than 1000lbs (if that) with a T based HotRod. I'm going to be putting a hitch on my '48 Tudor sedan (has modern brakes) for some light/medium duty towing, but that car is literally built like a truck and much heavier than the Model T in your example......I'd still probably keep the trailer weight below 1000lbs for the '48 Ford unless I had trailer brakes and I'd probably try and keep any towing at all below 2500lbs. -Bigchief.
Point of reference that comes from experience, empty open car trailer (1000-1300lbs maybe?) without trailer brakes behind any generation elcamino (3300-3900 lbs) can be a scary, scary thing. A hot rod, you're probably talking something the size of a cartop carrier trailer to prevent scariness, more or less what you see behind goodguys type rods. Probably 600lbs max. good luck
You barely have enough weight to pull the empty trailer- if that. Don't put anything on it unless it's a few bags of trash or something. Even if you carry home just a bare engine on it, the trailer will be pushing you around a whole lot. I wouldn't even think of doing it until I get a heavier tow car.
And it's not just the pushing... if the thing starts to get a mind of its own (like if the weight distribution is messed up and it starts fishtailing), then the tail can most definitely wag the dog.... which is part of the reason why I finally broke down and bought a full size truck. Of course right now it's sitting in the driveway with a ruptured brake line while I drive the hot rod to work this week, but I digress.
I have a Dodge 3500 Dually, ***mins Turbo Diesel, and I was pulling a 1964 Newport station wagon on an aluminum car trailer, and a tire blew on the trailer, and it nearly pulled my 8000 lb truck off the road and into the ditch. The trailer weight was close to 7500 lbs, so if not for that minor difference, my *** would have been gr***. So in an 1800 lb car, I wouldn't tow anything. If you do, I would keep it less than 1000 lbs.
Any well built T bucket or T roadster or T Tub can, and do, pull luggage trailers (Hercules, etc.) and larger Mullins style trailers which carry lots more stuff, and even some small pop-up campers. Model As built right can handle all of the above, and maybe a motorcycle trialer with a Honda 50 on board(or a Harley, Yamaha, etc.). The 32-up cars built to trailer can haul a big bike on a trailer, or a small, say 8ft-10ft, teardrop or Scotty. 50s-60s cars can, and did, and probably do, haul 20 ft+ Spartans and other small house trailers as well as any flavor of camp trailer.
Well I ask because I am curious if a realitively small, approximately 1500lb fully loaded, camping trailer could be safely pulled behind a T.
A good rule of thumb is the total of trailer and load should not exceed the pulling vehicle's weight; in your case 1800#, otherwise the load can muscle the puller around too easily. Try your camper trailer around the neighborhood (easy now) and see.
Just be sure and build yourself a good hitch which pulls off the frame rails not tweaking the rear crossmember, and use a receiver tube so you have the convenience of varying the hitch ball height with different inserts to accomodate the trailer and load you're pulling, plus you won't be bashing your shins every time you walk around the car for something. I've pulled a loaded Mullins 'gl*** trailer 1000s of miles with my wife's Saturn and the T bucket and found them to be the easiest to pull, easy to get at the cargo, and overall the best cargo trailer you can get. AND, they look good behind whatever you're driving. When I pulled it behind the T to the St. Paul Nationals in 1990 it was carrying, a large canvas tent, lawn chairs, 2 5gal gas cans(full), toolbox, 2 cots, suitcases with clothes, 2 8X10 tarps, poles, and ropes, fittings, a pretty big oscillating fan, cooler for food and cooler for water, Coleman lantern and fuel and still had room for oods and ends. My trailer runs the short fenders and mid-fifties Chrysler wire wheels. Lighting is Model A pickup light brackets and lights off the corners and a 41-48 Chevy taillamp in the high center for a brake light.
whatever you tow put electric brakes on it don't use surge brakes !and don't run without brakes on the trailer using a light car like a T.Modern brake control dash units are very easy to hook up it just takes a wire to the brake light switch.Surge brakes and light tow vehicles get real to be a hand full .I know of someone who tried to tow a trailer that was close in weight to the tow rig when he tried to stop as soon as the trailer started to brake it would release the surge unit then the truck would lock the unit again and this repeated a bunch of time before he finally got the rig stopped.this was on a big hill on a deserted road as a test before going on a trip with the new trailer the driver has many years as a tractor/trailer jocky and said it was the scariest ride of his life!
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