towing with a charger

[71green go]

I Just bought a boat...and have a 71 440 charger R/T.....Is it possible to tow around a 17 Ft boat ...may weigh in around 2500 lbs, maybe not to sure just yet.....my 05 mazda extended cab V/6 truck pulled the old heavier boat around.....sooooooo, I was thinking it would be cool this summer to take it to the lake with the charger......Now backing the rear of my car into the water a bit may scare me off!

I seem to recall my friends Dad towing one with his 318 68 charger all over the place

Any body have any really nice hidden hitch designs ??


Am I crazy?

[RamchargerMopar]

yes....your crazy.

[b5blue]

You can tow the Queen Mary with a 440......you may not stop it but........anyway yea "back in the day" we towed all kinds of crap with B body's a 17 ft. boat with a good hitch set up is fine. 

[Todd Wilson]

I wouldnt even think about it in this day and age.  Power wont be a problem. Stopping will be the big problem. With ABS and disc brakes and smaller cars in general it wont be long til you wad the Charger up trying to get stopped. I'd be worried about the uni body as well.  Twisting or tweaking the car from the added weight. Also geting a hitch attached solidly enough to handle the weight would be a challenge as well. Not to mention these cars are 40 years old now and there could be hidden rust or structure problems that could show up from the added weight and stress the boat would put on the car overall.



Todd

[wayfast1500]

I'd have to agree, I would not do it.  Back in the day when these were newer and a dime a dozen with the other cars on the road with the same stopping power sure but not now too much stresses on the body.  I do have a friend who tows cars with his '69 chevelle.  To each their own but it's not for me.

[elacruze]

I've been looking into it myself, I may pull a small camper trailer on my rte. 66 tour. I haven't found any hitches yet so I'll have to fabricate one myself most likely. My car is solid, torque boxed and frame connected so I'm not worried about the weight. I'll have 12" front discs so I'm not worried about stopping either-I towed 1500 pounds of motorcycle and trailer about 100,000 miles with an '86 Camaro, without ABS or rear discs and never had an issue. I think I can be careful enough not to 'wad up' my Charger from inattention or incompetence.

Anything can happen, but it's not about whether the car is capable, it's about whether you accept the risk.

[b5blue]

Remember you can get electric or reactive brakes on a trailer also. I'm thinking if your frames are good and you beef it up some, maybe use frame caps from Auto Rust Tech a 17-18 footer is no big deal after adding 11 3/4 front disks. 

[Silver R/T]

Personally I wouldn't do it. It all depends how much weight is on the tongue, if you have good trailer most of the weight will be on the trailer.

[Daytona R/T SE]

I'd Check the framerails of the car for rust,

Get or fabricate a good strong hitch.

You might need to get an equalizer hitch.

Make sure the car's brakes and suspension are in good shape.

And above all...

HAVE OPERATIONAL BRAKES ON THE TRAILER !!!

These old cars are capable of pulling large trailers without any problems.

When these cars were new, most people didn't have a truck to pull their boats and

campers with, so the family car was used.

There are guys in the Imperial club that tow 30 foot Airstream campers all over the

place, through the mountains, etc. with their 40 year old Imperials with NO

problems.

So a little boat behind a 440 Charger would be no big deal.

Just make sure your equipment is in good shape and do it...

[BrianShaughnessy]

   I wouldn't do it.     Yeah it'd look "cool" but it would depend on the ramp and the tide (if applicable) as to how far you'd have to dip it.   

   2nd would be if you had a suregrip to make sure you could pull it up on wet pavement or whatever surface the ramp is.   Seen many cars get stuck on the ramp where a truck does the job with no problem.

   I used to haul my old 19 foot boat with an El Camino.   The ramp was 5 miles away.   What a PITA.   I sold the boat and never looked back.    And the El Camino got all rotted from being dipped a bunch of times... got rid of that too.   

   Who's gonna watch your baby while you're out joyriding with the boat? 

[Todd Wilson]

   I wouldn't do it.     Yeah it'd look "cool" but it would depend on the ramp and the tide (if applicable) as to how far you'd have to dip it.   

   2nd would be if you had a suregrip to make sure you could pull it up on wet pavement or whatever surface the ramp is. 

Thats another good bit of advice. The ramp is always a dangerous spot for a vehicle putting a boat in or out of the water.


todd

[Todd Wilson]

I've been looking into it myself, I may pull a small camper trailer on my rte. 66 tour. I haven't found any hitches yet so I'll have to fabricate one myself most likely. My car is solid, torque boxed and frame connected so I'm not worried about the weight. I'll have 12" front discs so I'm not worried about stopping either-I towed 1500 pounds of motorcycle and trailer about 100,000 miles with an '86 Camaro, without ABS or rear discs and never had an issue. I think I can be careful enough not to 'wad up' my Charger from inattention or incompetence.

Anything can happen, but it's not about whether the car is capable, it's about whether you accept the risk.

Your 86 Camaro was light years ahead of the 71 Charger in terms of braking.   I am not worried about you with inatttention or incompetence I am worried about the other drivers. All it takes is one Honda Civic to whip around the slower more careful Charger pulling a boat (YOU) and zip by you only to pull right back in front of you and stand on its ABS 4 wheel discs to turn into the Kmart parking lot and you will cream them and thats the end of the Charger. All because they cant wait an extra 25 seconds behind you to turn in. I had this situation happen to me many many times as I pulled my tractor around to field mowing jobs years ago and I was using a 3/4 ton truck.


Todd

[SeattleCharger]

just change out the cam with an rv cam, no problem   

[jb666]

   I wouldn't do it.     Yeah it'd look "cool" but it would depend on the ramp and the tide (if applicable) as to how far you'd have to dip it.   

   2nd would be if you had a suregrip to make sure you could pull it up on wet pavement or whatever surface the ramp is.   Seen many cars get stuck on the ramp where a truck does the job with no problem.

   I used to haul my old 19 foot boat with an El Camino.   The ramp was 5 miles away.   What a PITA.   I sold the boat and never looked back.    And the El Camino got all rotted from being dipped a bunch of times... got rid of that too.   

   Who's gonna watch your baby while you're out joyriding with the boat? 

You nailed it there...

On nice summer nights the wife & I will go eat near the boat ramp... We'll sit outside and just watch the people launching/picking up their boats.. You have no idea how many small trucks we've seen end up in the water, sinking... I would NEVER attempt to launch even a jet ski with a CAR on this ramp..

So no.. There's no way I'd try it.. Especially in salt water.. The salt water kills everything it touches.

[bull]

You guys are a bunch of party-poopers.

[jb666]

  Indeed!!

The funniest launch was a 2WD Ranger launching a 20' boat. It went down in the drink with all 4 wheels skidding all the way down and people yelling "YOUR TRUCK!!". Only, the owner of the truck was in his boat getting it started.. He watched his truck go all the way under water..

[elacruze]

I've been looking into it myself, I may pull a small camper trailer on my rte. 66 tour. I haven't found any hitches yet so I'll have to fabricate one myself most likely. My car is solid, torque boxed and frame connected so I'm not worried about the weight. I'll have 12" front discs so I'm not worried about stopping either-I towed 1500 pounds of motorcycle and trailer about 100,000 miles with an '86 Camaro, without ABS or rear discs and never had an issue. I think I can be careful enough not to 'wad up' my Charger from inattention or incompetence.

Anything can happen, but it's not about whether the car is capable, it's about whether you accept the risk.

Your 86 Camaro was light years ahead of the 71 Charger in terms of braking.   I am not worried about you with inatttention or incompetence I am worried about the other drivers. All it takes is one Honda Civic to whip around the slower more careful Charger pulling a boat (YOU) and zip by you only to pull right back in front of you and stand on its ABS 4 wheel discs to turn into the Kmart parking lot and you will cream them and thats the end of the Charger. All because they cant wait an extra 25 seconds behind you to turn in. I had this situation happen to me many many times as I pulled my tractor around to field mowing jobs years ago and I was using a 3/4 ton truck.


Todd

My '86 Camaro was precisely on par braking with my 68 Charger with 12" discs.
The difference between a ding-dong wrecking my Charger with or without the trailer is small.

It's all about the risk, as I said. The physics don't change. I intend to drive the ass off my Charger, not just take backroads to the weekend show. That    I'm more willing to risk an accident in my car is apparent.

[b5blue]

I'm picking up what your putting down. 

[Paul G]

Do your homework, get the Charger in top working order, use your head and it should work out fine. If your Charger is not in top shape as far as structurally solid with new or rebuilt brakes and driveline I would not put the stress of towing on it. I think that is what some of the previous posters are getting at. Make sure your suspension components are all solid and tight. Nothing can ruin your day like a spring falling off, or a brake line bursting! But, if your Charger is in top shape you will have a blast doing it.

[SeattleCharger]

boat launch?  no problem

[daves68]

In the old days, I towed a 16 ft ski boat, pop up camper and both2 and 4 place snowmobile trailers. The car was a daily driver with a 318 automatic and drum brakes. Ran up over 125000 miles without a failure. Of course that was then and this is now. The car certainly is capable of towing IF the undercarriage is in good shape. Now that mine had been rotisserie restored, I would probably not want to leave it at a boat launch by itself. The hitch I had bolted on to the frame rail just forward of the bumper braces, then it hung down and crossed under the gas tank. The tongue had a plate that bolted through the bumper behind the license plate. Still hangs in the garage rafters.

[chargergirl]

...and parts were everywhere...

[b5blue]

I'm looking for a good B Body hitch for my 70. 

[daves68]

I took the got hitch  down and took a pic. But, am having trouble posting it. Need a little help with pic posting. Hint: not a real computer whiz so no complicated instructions.

[SeattleCharger]

I took the got hitch  down and took a pic. But, am having trouble posting it. Need a little help with pic posting. Hint: not a real computer whiz so no complicated instructions.

needs to be under 200kb file size.   most digital cameras load default into you computer with a huge pixel size (width and height size), and a big file size, like 5 mega bytes.(5000 kilobytes).
  You must resize it down small enough to get it under 200kilobytes.   Or you need to use some photo working program that optimizes it (makes file size smaller but width and height the same, only looks different if you print it, but looks the same on the computer screen more or less).   You can email me the pic and I will fix it up for you so you can post it.  natetopgun@yahoo.com
Nate