towing capacity?

Topic: towing capacity? (Read 4378 times) previous topic - next topic

towing capacity?

February 23, 2005, 10:43:35 AM

How much do all of you think my 88 T Bird V6 could tow? I asked several FoMoCo dealers to no avail. I want to tow a 1200# trailer.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #1 – February 23, 2005, 11:12:30 AM

Hehehe, tow with a v6. The only way to find out is to try. But I personaly don't think it will work well. You might be fine on flat ground, but up a hill, well that is a different story. My v6 cougar can barely tow itself up a hill

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #2 – February 23, 2005, 12:38:56 PM

According to the owner's manual, 2000 pounds is the maximum. Anything over 1000 pounds you need a tranny cooler. I towed my four-wheeler and trailer all last summer and had no problems (granted, my car is 5.0), but I do wish the thing had better brakes. I'll be doing the 11" front brake conversion for just that reason

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #3 – February 27, 2005, 12:34:18 AM

Towing in OD is not recommended.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #4 – March 24, 2005, 11:33:13 PM

The question isn't how much you can tow, it's how much you can stop. I would be concerned with the braking ability of a stock setup with a heavy load. I have seen a 87 5.0 cougar tow a good size camper before, up and down hills without much trouble. Its ass was sagging but it seemed to pull it just fine, but the 5.0 has more torque. I would say if your on flat ground most of the time go for it, but if there are many hills involved I personally wouldn't do it.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #5 – March 25, 2005, 12:22:06 PM

Can you say head gaskets!!!!!!!!! :D

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #6 – March 25, 2005, 07:20:30 PM

I would not tow a 1200 pound trailer in a Bird or Cat. Too much to consider - your brakes, tires, the engine and trans, etc.

Chris

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #7 – March 26, 2005, 03:02:37 AM

Put in a tranny cooler if you tow anything (or even if you don't tow at all). Even 2000lbs would be fine if you drive sensable. You may be under the vehicals tow limits, but over the limits for your ability. At work I often pull 10,000lbs over the limit of my F250, but logically I'm going a lot slower, and keeping much farther lead distances.

Factory tow rating are very conservative in all vehicals, unfortunalty most drivers are not. If takes longer to stop, more room to manover, less speed, and you cannot make emergeny manovers (if you wanna keep the trailer behind you :) )

If you tow a lot, especially in hills, a transmition temp gauge would be benificial too.

edit: I'm not trying to insult anybodies driving abilities here, Ive just seem a lot of serious towing accidents, especially with weekend warriors pulling boats or campers.

1200lbs will be fine behind a cougar, just take it easy.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #8 – March 26, 2005, 09:23:09 AM

Quote

1200lbs will be fine behind a cougar, just take it easy.

And don't let Lucy hide any "souvenir" boulders in the trailer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #9 – March 26, 2005, 11:41:08 AM

Whats great is the 99-04 (somewhere in there) mustang I saw with a trailer hitch a couple weeks ago. Looked so wrong :wtf:

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #10 – March 27, 2005, 12:17:30 AM

I had no problem towing a little boat with my old car...
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Re: towing capacity?

Reply #11 – March 27, 2005, 08:58:37 AM

Of course the boats engines had to be running and in about 6ft of water for the thing to move...

Years ago I towed a U-Cart trailer with a yard of concrete behind a '67 Falcon. I had a 351 from a '69 Torino in it so gettin' going wasn't a problem. But getting it stopped was a different story, since it had drum brakes all around.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #12 – April 03, 2005, 05:41:34 PM

Doesn't sound like a good idea with the V6. V8 you'll be fine. When I had my 1996 cat (4.6) I used to tow up to 1900-2100 lbs with it (2K maximum limit) with no problems. Stopped fine and never overheated. I did have however:

3.73's
aluminum driveshaft
tranny cooler
'03 cobra radiator
shift kit
chip

Needless to say, it was a very fun car to tow with :) I could uphill @ 80 mph in O/D with a load 1500lb + behind me and 2 people in the car without even unlocking the converter!

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #13 – April 04, 2005, 05:47:19 PM

reminds me of when I was little seeing this little bmw go flying past us as we got on the freeway headed up to the moutains. About 20 mins late my dad passed him , he was going around 60, with our station wagon going about 80 uphill with a trailer cartop carrier and a total of 8 passengers.

Re: towing capacity?

Reply #14 – April 05, 2005, 09:07:30 AM

i'll check the owners manul and shop manual when i get home. but i beleive the towing limit on the 6 cyl was 1200# and 1800 # V-8 but either way trans cooler trans cooler trans cooler.