Nobody has grease my palm to release my grip from the Cutlass.
No trades interesting enough and certainly no reasonable cash offers.
Such is life. Could be worse.

I'm in need of a truck since I got rid of my Silverado. My brain starts thinking what about putting a hitch on the Cutlass. I have a small utility trailer that at most I would haul is a yard of gravel. No problem for a 1/2 truck but would a 65 Cutlass be o.k. hauling that?
I'd guess some helper bags in the coils should keep the squat from being too much.

I'd also think it would be ugly as sin having a hitch that hangs down.
If I had a side fill gas tank it might not be so bad. Hide when not in use.

My brakes are good but I'd add F disc also.
It already has sway bars and boxed trailing arms.

Thoughts?

 

Borrow a pickup.

 

Oh, come on! These cars commonly towed when new. Keep in mind that with factory 10.75" front disks, your Cutlass will have the same brakes (and a stronger engine and trans) than an S-10 half ton pickup. Get a quality hitch (you'll unfortunately need to have one custom made these days) and you will have no problems whatsoever. I put a hitch on the 70 Supreme that I used to own and had no problem towing my 66 442 from Sacramento to L.A. or towing my friend's 36 Dodge from Phoenix to L.A. The Cutlass is a full frame car - it's no different than an S-10 from the frame, suspension, or brake standpoint. Just be sure that your cooling system is functioning properly. A HD radiator and trans cooler would be good to add.

 

Thanks Joe. Rear springs seem o.k. when you towed?


I have lent my truck out but never borrow.

 

I used to tow a 21' Sea Ray inboard / outboard closed bow boat...in fact, it was never towed with anything else. Both of these cars used to tow it...of course the bamboo car had posi so it pulled it out of the steep boat launch better but either one did the job. The "Moldy Banana" (below) had air shocks on it to level out the load, but the Bamboo car had new springs and shocks and never had a problem. We used a frame mounted hitch with a removable receiver, it wasn't too noticeable without the hitch in it.

P.S. The "Moldy Banana" is now the Silver car in my sig.

 

I'm planning on adding a class II hitch to mine, with a removable reciever so it doesn't look so ugly.
I've towed 300lb utility trailers up to 15,000 lb boats.
What you need for a utility trailer if you're going more than a few miles(under 2k lbs):
Brakes: dont worry with the front disks, your car was probably rated for 2k towing. Just make sure the 40 year old brakes are working correctly!
Suspension: again, dont wory, you wont have that much tongue weight. Sit in the trunk, if it doesnt sag too much, you'll be fine. Make sure you have good shocks though.
Engine: Any V8 will pull ok
Cooling: Kinda depends where you live, temp, hils, etc. An old crudded up radiator can give you problems. At minimum, flush the cooling system, it's 40+ years old after all. Also your mechanical fan clutch can be bad and you wont notice until you tow. Get a new thermo fan clutch if it's available.
Trans: Not sure what you've got but a TH400 might be the best towing trans out there for these size cars. Temp and rpm are a trans enemy, you might consider an add on finned cooler if your towing any distance or hills.
Differential: They're all plenty strong. A 2.56 might be a bit lacking in acceleration but the engine has enough torque at cruise to pull a small trailer, so no problems there.
just my $0.02

 

When I was a kid my parents had a 71, and 72 Supreme and S and they used to tow our big boat and travel camper every where during camping and boating season. Mom would drive one and dad would drive other. Both would be loaded down with supplies and kids and food, gear etc. I have pictures of this in my storage. I should scan them and show everyone. The Cutlass was not even sagging with that 22 foot camper hooked to the rear or if. I believe dad had HD springs installed and air shocks IIRC. We talked about this a couple years back when I discovered the photo. He said they never had a single issue pulling anything with the cars.

I do remember quite well one time we loaded the camper for hunting trip and put a tad to much weight in the front of the camper and we had 4 of us in the car and lots of gear in trunk which caused the Cutlass to sag and the front to raise. We came upon the forest turn in for camping and with the front high the car didn't turn it slid past the road. I remember everyone freaking out because we tried to turn and the car just kept going. It was cold out but roads were fine just to much weight. We ended up moving most of the equipment to the center of camper and rear of camper and that helped a ton on the way home.

 

I guess in that case, save up and follow Joe's suggestion.

 

You may try an ad in the parts wanted for a receiver hitch
for the A body. You might get lucky.

 

Before pickups were popular, people were towing everything with their cars! Go for it!

 

I installed air shocks, but if I were to do it again (and I am on the Custom Cruiser), I'd use AirLift bags inside the springs themselves. The shock attach points aren't designed to carry the weight of the car (and trailer tongue).

 

It's really no big deal to get a custom made hitch. I had one made by a local U-Haul for my Supreme. The square tube crossbar with receiver is premade. It's just cut to length and brackets welded on to attach it to the frame. I strongly recommend a bolt-on hitch. Mine was weld-on and I couldn't remove the gas tank once the hitch was installed. If anything, weld it to the bumper brackets.

 

Yeah ... haven't you ever seen the movie "The Long, Long Trailer"? Desi and Lucy towed a 40' travel trailer with a '53 Mercury Monterey. A little extreme, even for the day I think. But very few people towed with pickup trucks back then.

 

anything can tow - something

 

I would be curious to see what a good receiver hitch would look like on a 68-72 Cutlass. I remember those gawd awful hitch-things that they used to attach to the bumper!

 

That was a funny movie! Ranks up there with it's a MAD, mad, mad, ...world!

 

If you are going to tow anything heavier than a trailer you can pick up and pull along yourself then a trans cooler is a must IMO.
Doesn't have to be super duty unless you are pulling 2000 lb+ loads some distance, your local auto transission shop should be able to advise you on your needs and more than likely sell you one and install it if you don't want to.
X2 on making sure the radiator is in good shape.

Over here any trailer over 450 lbs gross is required to have its own brakes. Normally they are "run on" brakes that apply the brakes as the trailer tow hitch is loaded, its a simple but effective system as long as it's maintained properly. Electric brakes are unheard of here except on semi trailers.
That means I can tow anything my car can pull up hills without worrying about coming down the other side.
I get the impression you don't have similar systems over there, can anyone enlighten me on trailer braking requirements in North America?.

Roger.

 

[QUOTE=rustyroger;447191]can anyone enlighten me on trailer braking requirements in North America?.QUOTE]

Most states here require trailer brakes (electric or innertial) on anything over 1,000 lbs GVW and breakaway brakes (that apply themselves in the event of a disconnect) on anything over 3000 lbs GVW. Most trailers here are equipped with electric brakes but inertia brakes are common on boat trailers. Turn signals and brake lights are required on all trailers.

 

Yard of gravel plus trailer is well over 3000 lbs. Use a real truck, properly rated trailer with brakes and balance it correctly with 10-15% tongue wt. Nothing worse than having the tail wag the dog.

No problem for lighter loads (say < 2000 lbs) as suggested in previous posts. You could set up a Cutlass for more but I would not do it. Likely costs more than truck rental unless you tow often.

 

I wouldn't think twice about towing 3,000 pounds with an A-body.

Obviously 10-15% tongue weight is advisable (about 300#), but that should be no problem, especially with a decent brake controller.

These cars towed giant Airstream trailers back when they were new, with no problems at all.

- Eric

 

I remember towing my brothers full size truck with my Cutlass supreme 455/400TH and you could barely feel it back there.

 

Yeah, the 455s are towing monsters.
I towed a friend's car with my '68 88 once, and it was actually a little creepy that I couldn't feel it back there at all.

- Eric

 

Hi Roger. Here's a map of trailer brake rules across Anglo North America, and
here's a more comprehensive list of rules.

Cheers!

- Eric

 

Thanks CO53 and Eric, I'm always interested to learn how other countries/cultures approach dealing with the same issues.

Roger.

 

A 68-72 A-body with factory disk brakes, the right gears, and any engine other than the I6, will easily and safely pull a 5000 lb trailer with a frame-mounted hitch. Been there, done that. Once again, the brakes, frame, and trans are equal to or better than those on an S-10 pickup, which is rated at a similar trailer weight.

 

Not only a good trans cooler but make sure your rad is adequate. Mine cools OK but not great without towing. Hook up the boat and it will climb to 230 in hot weather pushing it. I need a better rad. My truck can tow for now.