Date:         Wed, 30 Jun 1999 10:18:09 -0400
Reply-To:     Tom Carrington <tcarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Carrington <tcarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Organization: ReliTech, Inc.
Subject:      Re: Actual or Theoretical Vanagon Trailer Hauling Capacity
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

The surge brakes on the trailer should help out quite a bit. When I
worked on boats for a living, I did a lot of towing, delivery and moving
of those "Fiberglas money pits". Take identical boats, where one
purchaser opted for the more expensive trailer with surge brakes versus
another that did not, and there is a big difference in the stopping
ability.

Several of these boats I towed behind my 1981 Vanagon. Of course, I have
also towed a bunch of Bugs behind the Vanagon, and those gotta weigh in
at over 2000Lbs as well.

Of course, now you will have a bigger load on the tranny and drivetrain
components like the CV's, so one could expect the life of those to
shorten. By how much, I have no idea. Maybe Todd can weigh in on if the
091 trannys need to have the 3rd or 4th gears "welded" like the Bug
trannys did? I can't remember the construction of them in the 091..it's
been about 4 years since I tore into the gearstacks of one of those.

Happy sailing!


> Volks,
> A trailerable sailboat of 3000lbs towing wieght looms in my future. This
> rig has surge brakes. Just considering the Vanagon differential, and the
> auto tranny and manual tranny (I have one of each), are our Vanagons
> capable of pulling such a load for a distance?
> I am aware of the rated 1500lbs towing capacity, I just wonder if more
> HP is added, however done and not in this discussion, if the drive train
> itself is capable of such towing wieghts.
> I already have a bullet-proof Tim Smith 2" reciever hitch, and I would
> feel comfortable pulling this boat around locally to launch it, but for
> a long trip I wonder if it possible whatsoever to alter a Vanagon
> (drivetrain and HP) to pull such a load??
> Any and all input appreciated.

--
TomC
tcarrington@relitech.com
http://www.relitech.com/tomc/tomvw.htm
85 Vanagon Crew Cab
82 Vanagon Westy diesel=>gas conversion
65 Notchback