VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Towing a '31

Hi all. Hope this is the right spot for this post. I’m looking at a ’31 Chevy this weekend, and if we move forward on a deal, I will be towing home approx. 200mi freeway on a tandem axle open trailer (similar to UHaul). Tow vehicle is a ’97 GMC 1500. I’ve towed late model cars, RV trailers, etc., so I’m comfortable with the act of towing, just would like some input on what I should be considering for towing a vehicle of this vintage. The ’31 appears to be in good condition, though may find otherwise when looking it over. Thanks!

I tow my 32 on an open trailer at highway speeds with no problems. The only suggestions I would have are to remove the wiper blade if installed and be sure the windows are closed and just follow normal safety towing practices.

Thanks Steve D

I've towed my '31 from Seattle to Virginia on an open trailer. No problems.

But -- I also towed it from Wilsonville, Oregon to Seattle, Washington and darn near ripped the roof off of it.

I was coming over the I-90 pass headed East towards Seattle when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that my roof material was starting to "pucker up" along the leading edge. I made a panic stop alongside the freeway (along with 3 other cars that were caravaning with me) and checked it out. A couple of roofing tacks had come loose and the roofing material was raising off the front edge of the car just above the windshield. It was going up by almost 3 or 4 inches. I suspect that within a couple more minutes, it could have been grabbed by the wind and ripped totally off the car.

Note: We were traveling East at about 60 MPH. When you go over Snoqualmie Pass there is frequently a head-wind of about 20 or 30 MPH. And it was definitely blowing that afternoon. So the wind speed that the car was subjected to was about 60 + 30 = 90 MPH!! No wonder the roof was beginning to take flight.

So my advice is to:
a) use the open trailer but watch out if you are driving into a headwind,
b) never put a car cover on it when it is being trailered,
c) and pull over if you run into a dust (or sand) storm. You want to reduce the relative speed at which "things" hit your paint job.

Good luck.

Bill B

I brought my '31 home on an open trailer. Visor blew off and was hit by 18 wheeler. Got it straightened out but took a while! Maybe load on trailer backwards?

Be careful about loading backwards more weight on rear of trailer than on the front means less weight on the tongue. Can cause bad things to happen. Been there done that !!!

dick

be very careful loading backwards. The trailer WILL try to do the steering with very disastarous consequences.
Tony

One of the important things about towing is to have a positive center of gravity forward of the centerlind of the tamdom axles or axle. Enought to give you about 200lbs of tongue weight. Whether the car being towed is forward or backards is not important other than the ease of forward being eaiser to achive such tongue weitht owing to the weight of the engine.

Leveling devices and an anti-sway bar can enhance distribution of the weight and lessen the effects of wind coming off vehicles meeting or passing you. These, however, should not be used in place of the 200lb of tongue weight.

It ain't a thrill you want to endure to look at your review mirror and see you traile sidways tring to pass you. Been there and done that.

I'm thinking a 31 is pretty heavy. You may want to make sure the tires on the trailer are not too old and with no cracking in the sidewalls. Take a suitable jack and a couple of spares.

If you need to buy tires, I recommend Carlisle brand. Lowes sells them.

Good luck,

Charlie

BB, What were you thinking? I don't think the 31 was ever expected to reach 90 per hour wind speed. Emmy heavy as it is, it's amazing that that critter didn't become airborne with that top all bowed up and all. Say, how does a 31 measure up to a ... say a Model "T" for top speed?

90 mph?? That's all that I'm "admitting" to.

I use 750 lbs as my minimum tongue weight. That's using my enclosed trailer. Since your open trailer probably weighs less, you might shoot for 500 lbs. I wouldn't go with any less than that. My rule of thumb has always been that "It's better to have too much tongue weight, than not enough.".

Bill B

Weight and distribution is dependent on the hitch and tow vehicle. Either under or over the tongue weight can be dangerous.

I read somewhere that the tongue weight should be between 10 and 15% of the load weight.

Yep, that's correct. Here are my TOWING WEIGHTS.

TOWING PACKAGE ONE
2011 Silverado 3500: 6,945 lbs
Enclosed Trailer: 5,335
31 Chev: 2,610
------------------
TOTAL: 14,890 lbs

TOWING TONGUE WEIGHTS
Trailer + 31 Chev = 7,945 lbs
..10% = 795 lbs
..15% = 1,291 lbs

===============================
TOWING PACKAGE TWO
2011 Silverado 3500: 6,945 lbs
Enclosed Trailer: 5,335
66 Corvette: 3,309
------------------
TOTAL: 8,644 lbs

TOWING @ 10-15% = 864-1297 lbs


I'm waiting for the next logical question. Who's gonna ask it?

Bill B

Isn't there a maximum tongue weight specified on the towing vehicle?

Cheers, Dean

Yes there is a maximum tongue weight. I believe my HD pickup is 1000 lbs. You also need to figure the tongue weight into the max cargo weight of the truck.

Class II hitches are weight carrying hitches rated up to 3500 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 300 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW)

A Class II hitch usually has a 1-1/4" square receiver opening.


Class III hitches used as weight carrying are rated up to 6000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 600 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW).

Class III hitches used for weight distributing are rated up to 10,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 1000 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW)

A Class III hitch usually has a 2" square receiver opening


Class IV hitches used as weight carrying are rated up to 10,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 1000 lbs maximum trailer tongue weight (TW).

Class IV hitches used for weight distributing are rated up to 14,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 1400 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW).


Class V hitches used as weight carrying are rated up to 12,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 1200 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW).

Class V hitches used for weight distributing are rated up to 17,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a 1700 lbs. maximum trailer tongue weight (TW).

A Class V hitch has a 2-1/2" square receiver opening.


DEFINITIONS can be found at THIS SITE.

[quote=I'm waiting for the next logical question. Who's gonna ask it?

Bill B[/quote]

How does one know how much weight in pounds is actually on the tongue. Does one ask the Mrs for her scale & tell her you are going to weight the tongue weight of your loaded trailer? You might just be wearing that scale over your head. Seriously what does the average person do to actually find out.

Dick

BB,

Let me see if I have your data correct here. You mean that if you are hauling 10K item and using a class three weight distribuiting hitch that you would use a half ton of tongue weight?

That would be like having three of four Tinyes (each on the shoulders of the other having to stand on the ball reciever of the hitch. Just picture that mass if you can and see if it make sense to you.

"Let the trailer carry the weight." is an old saying. One needs only the amount of weight to positively anchor the tongue to the ball to achieve sufficient tongue weight. Anything more and your are overloading the pulling vehicle.

My theory is that when the trailer is at a center of gravity between the wheels (axles) of a tandem trailer or at single axle, two to three hunderd is fine. And, much less annoyance to Tiny(s).

You're apt to tear your hitch off when you travel through some states that fail to fill pot holes. Especially in concrete.

Maybe I'm wrong here in my theory toward a lighter tongue weight but I think you are just as well too heavy on your end. No pun intended.

No disrespedt intended.

Charlie

BTW: If you have a dually then the rear end of the vehicle is sufficient to carry about all you can load on the trailer and still avoid swaying. Especially if you have the leveling devices and sway control properly installed.

Dick,

They sell a scale specifically for tongue weight. I bought one and used it while pulling a large trailer (and load) back and forth LA to Atlanta. Best thing to do is borrow one from someone like me.

Dave

OK, thanks for the info

Dick

The brand I bought was Sherline;

sherline.com/product/sherline-trailer-tongue-weight-scale/

In my early days I had a couple of trailers do the steering until I started loading the trailer so that the rear of the tow vehicle dropped to between 1" and 2" below the static position. I have not acquired or used the towball scales and only used the hitch levelers the 1 time.
Tony

I've always just dragged my trailer and stuff to a self serve weigh station late night or early mornings to get the weights. This way I can weigh each axle on the truck before and after adding the trailer as well as the trailer total weight, left/right weight and tongue weight. This allows you to be able to move tool boxes, loads, spare tires, adjust weight distribution bars, ect and measure the weight changes.

See Bill Barkers post from 08/06/17 to see proper calculations. Best to keep a documented log of these calculations in case of accident or police scrutiny.

The one common mistake I see: "tongue weight" includes ANY weight that is added behind the rear axle of the tow vehicle. Easy enough to calculate if you add something discrete like a 500lb tool box behind the rear axle in the bed of your truck. More complicated if you add the same 500lb tool box at the front of your truck box - as maybe 2/3 of the weight will be transferred to the back but that's why I like to "play" a bit at the weigh station.

I've followed many camping trailers weaving/bucking down the road that have 1000lb tongue weight but the bozo has added 2 quads on a deck hanging over his tailgate so his true tongue weight is likely 3 times his maximum allowed.

A properly set up trailer is significantly easier and safer to tow. It's shocking the difference moving a couple hundred pounds around makes.

I beg to differ with you. Any weight added to the bed of the truck or trunk of the car is a consideration for the towing capacity and suspension of the vehicle but is not tongue weight. Tongue weight is the amount of weight transferred to the tow vehicle by the tongue of the trailer. The general rule is tongue weight could be >10% of gross weight of the loaded trailer. The suspension and towing capacity of the tow vehicle need to be considered. Adding the ATVs or ice chests or ? on a platform on the back of the trailer is a MAJOR consideration.

Weighing each axle of the tow vehicle and trailer when fully loaded and then after attaching the trailer is a GREAT idea. It allows an understanding of the approximate tongue weight. Actually using a scale at or near the tongue is even better. The trailer does not need to be hooked to the tow vehicle to make that measurement. However just determining the tongue weight does not determine the gross trailer weight to allow understanding the percentage of tongue weight.

Not only do you need to have directional stability for the rig but you also must be able to stop!

XLVIIDriver asked the question that I was waiting to see. Thanks!!

HOW to measure your tongue weight is a simple question, AND has a simple solution.

Here are three possible ways to find your tongue weight:
1. You can go to a truck weighing scale and try to figure it out. Not as easy as you might think. You really need to go twice, once with your tow vehicle not hooked to the trailer.

2. Use the bathroom scale and a 2x4. Tried this and it is okay for small trailers, but you might not want to trust your "offset" calculations on your "cheap" bathroom scale.

3. Buy a scale that is designed for checking your tongue weight. Problem solved and it only takes about 2 minutes.


I wholeheartedly recommend number three.
I bought my Sherline scale about 10 or 12 years ago. Just ran across it on the internet by accident. It was the best hundred dollars that I ever spent. I use it often - especially when I load a different car, and I frequently have loaned it to other people to use. Sometimes I end up weighing people's trailers at our Area Meets since the discussion almost ALWAYS comes up and it only takes a couple of minutes.


If I remember correctly they had three different models calibrated for three different weight ranges. I choose the 2,000 lb model since it nearly always lets me read my weights near the middle of the dial.






There are two places where you can measure the tongue weight, but for MOST PEOPLE, just placing the scale under the tongue JACK will be accurate enough. Either hook the trailer to the tow vehicle momentarily so that you can get the scale under the jack, or just put some wooden blocks under the tongue and raise the jack to let the scale slip under it.



This is my trailer that I posted the towing weights for, in an earlier post. For the Tahoe Meet I towed a different car than I usually do. (Corvette). After loading it, I put the scale under the jack and found that I was about 200 lbs short of my "preferred" tongue weight. So I rolled the car forward about 14" in the trailer, and then the scale was dead-on the money.

It's a great piece of mind taking the guess work out of the job.

1,000 lb model is on AMAZON for $134. Click HERE
And the 2,000 lb one is the same price. Click Here

Both have Free Shipping.

GOOD LUCK. Hope to see you all ON THE ROAD, and NOT on the SIDE of the road!!!


Bill Barker

BB,

I'm now convinced that the Serline type device is worthwhile. I intend on getting one. I wonder if Harbor Frieght or Northern Tool carries them.

Just how does it work? I supposed it fits into the tongue ball reciver and bears down whilst the device is sitting on a concrete block or something. None of the picutres showed the device in action.

Thanks for the pictures and the excellent information.

Charlie