Robert--(and folks) You are absolutely right. A *braked* trailer makes a big difference in our discussion. In fact, a buddy of mine pulls a house trailer that is roughly the length of Florida with his Chevy Slob-Bourbon. It has a special proportioning valve and hydraulics to equalize the brake application. Works great. Up until your post, I hadn't seen any mention of braked trailers in the discussion, just boats and cars and such. So I assumed that we were talking about un-braked loads. My misunderstanding. What I wrote still holds true for un-braked loads. A vehicle's handling and braking can be unpredictable, uncontrollable, and dangerous when you tow more than the manufacturer recommends. A heavy object, only vaguely tethered with a single hemi-joint at the midpoint to the rear of another object has a nearly infinite range of unpleasant motions and paths it can take when the object in front slows suddenly. As we all know, there is no way to predict the proximity of other cars, incline, speed, weather conditions, curvature of the road, etc. when you will have to brake suddenly. Why take a chance at disaster? As far as the internal vs. external load, I can't run out and look at the van to check the actuals on ours, but I would wager that the internal load allowed is significantly higher than the un-braked towing capacity, for the reason I have mentioned above. If you need to pull stuff, I saw a neat ad for the 1981 Dodge Ram van last night... G. Matthew Bulley Bulley-Hewlett & Associates Cary, NC USA www.bulley-hewlett.com (888) 468-4880 toll free
-----Original Message----- From: Robert A. Alexander [SMTP:satcong@vol.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 7:05 PM To: G. Matthew Bulley Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Not exactly...was: towing with a vanagon Matthew - I don't follow your "internal load capacity" vs "trailed capacity" comparison. I checked Helmut Zeidler's hypertext link he posted today and, best as I can figure, my '85GL is rated to handle a tongue weight of 50kg and to tow 2000kg (w/brakes) or 600kg (w/o brakes)! And THIS on a 12% grade!!! (according to the TN DOT, all Interstates are built with a max of 6% grade) His chart also notes tongue loads of 75kg for Vanagons man. after June '85 and 100kg for those man. after '88. Have NO idea what changes were made in the rear of those later Vanagons, though, to increase their capacity. Also, since the proportioning valve's function is to keep the rear brakes from locking up, the downward force on the rear of the van induced by an un-braked trailer creates even LESS chance of the rear brakes locking up! With a properly adjusted braked trailer, I fail to see any problem which could develop. I mastered most of the physics involved in "one object pulling another through a pivoting tether", shifting loads, sudden acceleration/deceleration and "emergency braking" from my years of pulling calves from *issed-off cows! It's just as breathtaking, I think, as emergency stop in a Vanagon whilst trailing a load. BOB - WA4RRN '85GL - "Bourgeois" http://dogmandoesAtlanta.com |
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