Georgia Fiero Club Forum

All Things Fiero => Tech Tips, Tech Questions => Topic started by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 08:47:39 pm

Title: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 08:47:39 pm: If my vehicle says it can tow 9,800 pounds, that means that the combined weight of the trailer and whatever is on the trailer, plus what is in the bed of the truck, plus the passengers, should not exceed 9,800 pounds, right? U-haul says my truck cannot pull the car trailer.

They say my wife's Tahoe can. So, I drove out the 6.2L truck, which looks the same as the 5.3L truck. Towing capacity on the 6.2L truck is over 11,000 pounds.

How much should I be towing? In other words, am I risking damage to my vehicles, if I tow my Fiero on such a trailer? I figured the weight of the trailer and Fiero combined was about 6,000 pounds, or about equal to the weight of my truck.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: scottb on August 29, 2019, 09:16:35 pm: Shouldnt be a problem with a full size truck, but I would want working brakes on the trailer. I have towed several Fieros with my Expeditions
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 09:23:16 pm: Both full size trucks. The 6.2L truck has a brake controller for the trailer, but the 5.3L truck does not. I'm only going about 400 miles. Without the brake controller, I believe that the trailer brakes do not work.

I towed the Fiero about 2,000 miles with the Tahoe, and no brake controller. Same trailer. No issues, but trailer brakes are certainly nice to have. The Tahoe is sbout 3 feet shorter than the other 2 trucks.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on August 29, 2019, 10:35:34 pm: UHaul has some peculiar rules about the tow vehicles. They will not rent anything to be towed with my Explorer Sport Trac, but they will rent to someone driving a regular Explorer SUV. Both versions of the Explorer were available with 1.5 inch receivers for the V6 vehicles and 2 inch receivers for the V8 vehicles.

Pulling that much weight, I would certainly recommend having a brake controller. Even with my old Dakota Club Cab with a 5.2 V8, pulling a Fiero on a tow dolly, rounding a shallow curve in the rain at 35 mph resulted in a near jackknife when I decelerated. Many brake controllers have a slide lever with which you can actually apply the trailer brakes without applying the vehicle brakes. Very useful, sometimes.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 10:48:17 pm: Maybe this could do the job.

https://images.app.goo.gl/tP1AP1yFjNZYicu49
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: MikeMac on August 29, 2019, 11:21:21 pm: I've towed several Fiero's on a tow dolly with my Toyota Highlander AWD with a 3.3 V6.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on August 29, 2019, 11:27:44 pm: I've towed a lot, too, including through the mountains. With both the Dakota and the Sport Trac. One scary incident with each one. The Warrior Project car started to whip on me at expressway speeds. The common thing in both incidents is that both were being towed with the rear wheels on the dolly. It allows the front wheels to change direction if there's the least bit of play in the steering.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 11:39:19 pm: Ah. I tow with the Fiero on a 2-axle dolly.

I towed a loaded 2-horse trailer through Denver. Really, no issues, but I tried to take it easy on the turns. Not sure how the horses liked the ride.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 11:54:03 pm: It occurs to me that the trucks have a much lighter rear end, and get more tail happy than the SUVs. Surely, as long as the Fiero is all the way forward on the trailer, no issues.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: NoobKevin on August 30, 2019, 08:36:40 am: The Uhaul car carrier has a brake system built into the tow boom. I have carried several different kinds of vehicles using an 04 Ram 2wd. I have also towed a Fiero using the 2 wheel dolly through Chattanooga to Woodstock GA with no problems. Same truck. Truck has the tow package which is only extra cooling. I would think that a GM 5.3 would be fine. Check the tow weights for the hitch. Most trucks are using the bumper hitch numbers.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: MikeMac on August 30, 2019, 11:37:30 am: Quote from: GTRS Fiero on August 29, 2019, 11:39:19 pm
Ah. I tow with the Fiero on a 2-axle dolly.

I towed a loaded 2-horse trailer through Denver. Really, no issues, but i tried to take it wasy on the turns. Not sure how the horses liked the ride.

A 2 axle dolly? Or a full trailer?
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on August 30, 2019, 12:59:50 pm: There is a wheel lift dolly that goes under the rear wheels. One axel set is placed in front of the wheel, the other behind the wheel. They are then connected together and a handle or lever is used to raise the axels off the ground, lifting the rear of the car. Wrecker services often use them when they use wheel lifts on the front.

If you have a vehicle that's an automatic, you can put the front wheels onto the regular tow dolly and lift the rear with the speed dolly and tow it much as if it were a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsnbBUnjojE
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 30, 2019, 05:56:17 pm: I use a full trailer that happens to have 2 axles.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 30, 2019, 06:05:41 pm: Here's a pic:
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: NoobKevin on August 31, 2019, 08:21:28 am: Heading east?
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 31, 2019, 08:25:45 am: Actually, yes, but not from there. I was driving the Fiero, but lost a driver, and have several passengers, so have to tow the Fiero.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on August 31, 2019, 08:34:06 am: You may be towing much unnecessary weight with a dual axel trailer. I've seen far too many Fieros towed on a single axel trailer. UHaul also has aluminum trailers as well as the steel ones.

One trailer that I saw had electric brakes as well as hitch activated hydraulic brakes that came into play when the tow vehicle was decelerating without using the brakes. The hydraulic brakes also had a breakaway feature that applied the brakes if the trailer became detached. The breakaway feature was one of the things that I liked about the Demco tow dollies that we used to repair for Spirit Car Rental.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 31, 2019, 08:39:12 am: That trailer has break-away brakes. Yes, U-haul trailers are very heavy. I briefly towed my Fiero on a single-axle tilting trailer, using a Colorado with a 3.6L. No issues, and the truck was still peppy.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on August 31, 2019, 09:12:52 am: A former neighbor used to pull his 20-something foot travel trailer with expander unit with his standard cab Chevy pickup. He had a load leveling hitch on it and the truck had the standard V8. Probably a 350.

Ron768 tows his Fiero on a pretty heavy steel trailer with his S10 Blazer. I wouldn't want to do that with my Ford. Fact is, I don't think my Ford would do it.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 31, 2019, 09:18:06 am: The S10 Blazer is fairly capable. I used to have several. That having been said, I would not try that with this trailer through Colorado.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Raydar on August 31, 2019, 11:27:41 pm: I used to have a GMC Sonoma (S10 clone), extended cab. I towed a Fiero backwards, on a dolly, from west GA to Huntsville. Over the mountains between Guntersville and Huntsville. It wasn't fun, but I didn't have any issues.
And yeah... U-Haul trailers are heavy beasts. Most of them (at least the ones I've seen) have surge brakes. They are activated by hydraulic pressure on the hitch, when the tow vehicle slows down. Damned near impossible to back up hill, however. (I found out, after the fact, that there's supposed to be a pin or something that you can poke through the hitch, to keep the brakes from applying.)
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on August 31, 2019, 11:29:20 pm: Well, I have backed a loaded trailer up a hill. I thought it was just the hill, but there was some resistance.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: MikeMac on September 01, 2019, 01:12:42 am: I have 2 fieros to tow from Atlanta to Ball Ground using a Uhaul dolly. I have to tow them front wheels down. One is an automatic and the other has no engine/transmission.

I've not had issues when towing like that and hope my luck holds.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on September 01, 2019, 05:16:38 pm: According to GM, the 6.2L truck has the 3.73 gearing, and the 5.3L truck has the 3.08 gearing. Both trucks are capable of towing the 6,000 pounds.

It would seem that GM is correct; however, the 3.08 rear end is not ideal for towing. The 3.73 gearing is, but the transmission is geared for fuel economy, so seems to require manual shifting.

I do not understand why my wife's Tahoe, with less HP, less torque, and fewer gears makes a better tow vehicle.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on September 03, 2019, 06:27:50 pm: Running mostly 70 MPH, I averaged 12.7 MPG, with the trailer. Not terrible, but not winning any awards, either. I ran out and back, so any hills or things should be accounted for. 709 miles, round trip. This trip was small hills, with brief stretches of flat. I opted for the 5.3L truck.

Bad me, but I used cruise control while towing. Some hills, the speed fell off a few MPH, but I could put my foot on the pedal to bring the speed back up. Very annoying that cruise does not hold its set speed.

The transmission did use engine braking when slowing, because I had the tow mode engaged.

The trailer itself did settle the rear end of the truck a bit.

The most annoying part of towing with this truck is the bad gearing between 1 & 2. The truck gets moving, then there is an apparent dead spot between moving and going.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: Fierofool on September 03, 2019, 06:55:35 pm: A comment on cruise control not holding it's speed. Most are set up to vary about 2 mph above and below setpoint. On m7 87, I made an adjustment on the cable at the dashpot and tightened it up a bit. I found that when I did that that the car tended to have a jerky attitude because it was adjusting to a minute change in speed. Any slight increase downhill and the cruise would back off. Any slight decrease going uphill would accelerate. Sometimes on a relatively level stretch, it would accelerate causing it to pass setpoint then it would quickly back off below. It couldn't stay settled on setpoint. So, I repositioned the cruise cable back to where it originally was.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on September 03, 2019, 07:00:25 pm: Your '87 Fiero? My Fiero now has digital cruise, and holds its speed very well.

This truck is newer, but it seems that it will only apply up to a certain amount of throttle while tunning on cruise. Yes, it is very annoying to be in a group of vehicles running on cruise, because they vary their speeds.
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on September 14, 2019, 07:10:45 pm: I've been thinking about replacing my truck. There are trucks I've seen around that look adequate for the task, but no one wants to sell theirs.

Surely, U-haul couldn't claim that this truck couldn't pull a trailer:
Title: Re: Towing
Post by: GTRS Fiero on September 18, 2019, 07:42:23 pm: I got busted. Apparently, I exceeded the licensed weight limit for my truck. Plates are for 6,000 pounds, 12,000 pounds, 15,000 pounds, etc. I had stuff in the bed, and was pulling a trailer. My plates are for 12,000 pounds. According to the officer, this entitles me to a trailer OR a load in the bed--not both.

Point of fact, the trailer was empty at the time. In the bed of my truck were several pylons and a parking mat. Probably less than 10 pounds combined.

The officer says he could see the items in the bed of my truck from his car. LIAR!