Rich Burdick wrote:

Can anyone give me some idea how much I can tow behind a Vanagon without burning out the transmission? Could I haul, say, a Beetle behind it all day on the freeway? The owner's manual simply says that towing "beyond the normal useage of the vehicle". I know lots of people tow stuff. Thanks.Dave way up in Maine
Dave, If you do good care things like: Don't let the thing get drasticly overheated going up long hills at too high (5,000 +) RPM with no breaks,Change the oil & filter every 3,000 miles or so,Make sure it's got good oil & coolant, Then you should be able to tow just about anything you can hook up to and move with: I have loaded ~2,000 lbs of stuff inside my westy Syncro, and towed a Suzuki Sidekick from east Tennessee to western Colorado - crossing mountains up to 12,000 ft plus - crossing Kansas bucking 25 mph+ headwinds - several times. No ill effects except that gas mileage isn't too great, and it does take a bit longer to get where I'm going! Now I do take it easy, watch my temperature and try to make it as easy on the vehicles as possible. I'm a little over 220,000 miles on the vehicle so far.

Rich,
What speed to you keep in your towing?
I pretty much run my Westy at 65 MPH on trips, usually heavily loaded w/family/gear. I was thinking that I could tow a light trailer w/camp gear and Motorcycle (below) at 65 as well. If I remember 65 is around 3900 RPM and she likes that real fine. 70MPH is okay, I've got 144K on orig everything and just don't want to push too hard.
Opinion(s) appreciated.

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