When I towed cars with the fc. I just brought a friend and hooked up a chain or rope. The friend steered and braked the tow car, providing constant tension between us. However, there would be no problem running a hitch and either a tow bar, or a dolly. You should be able to run a 4x6 utility trailer for wheels/tires/parts too.

 

Ah, another question answered today.

I was just looking at some busted FCs that would be fun to play with, and getting them home was going to be a problem, but I might be willing to try the tow-strap trick.

I did look up the limits awhile ago for laughs, and the factory manual for my GXL says not to regularly exceed 500lbs. in the car, and even checked the REPU (rotary truck) specs, and they were able to pull 1400lbs. I've really become interested in getting a hold of one of those puppies since it would be much easier to move engines and parts around, not to mention all the future yardwork coming up next season.

TII in a REPU= hehehehehehe.

 

The big problem is...tow vehicles are made with bigger transmissions and diffs, and even coolers for those components to keep everything cool.

Towing short distances may not stress your drivetrain enough, but I bet towing with your FC up decent inclines for miles on end will do something bad.

I had an oil temp gauge on my FC towing, and it did show slightly elevated temps.



-Ted

 

IMO, most everything on these cars is made to take a beating from spirited driving and track duty, and these activities cause much the same stresses as towing. So if it's engineered for one, it will work for the other. The only vehicle I can think of that comes with a bigger oil cooler stock than the FC, is a 01+ yukon denali...rated to tow 9500lb. Manual trannies don't need trans coolers and really don't stress the fluid much at all. Even when racing Ive rarely ever seen a diff or axle tear up on an FC, and the driveshafts are relatively solid too. Unless your car is just tired, I dont think you'd ever tear anything up.

FWIW, my 99 denali is rated to tow 5500lb. IT has 255hp and the automatic trans is the same as the standard 4l60e (new variant of the old 700r4) that comes in most of the regular camaros and such that are known not to be the strongest thing in the world. In fact I tore out the auto in my old 4wd silverado by towing my FD from alabama. My truck doesnt even have an oil cooler, just circulates oil by the coolant on the side of the radiator. I did install a 13" square trans cooler with fan (biggest one on the market) and a temp gauge for towing activities. Again, you dont usually have to worry about towing with a manual trans of any sort.

 

i wasn't trying to say you are wrong, you are probably more right than i am but when giving advice i try to give the safest advice i can. i was comparing the drivetrain to something similar, i just couldn't give advice to someone that may leave them stranded out in BFE with nothing they can do.

 

Ames is 1/2 hour north of Des Moines. Marshalltown is roughly a half hour northeast of Ames. All central iowa..all the same.

 

well, I TOWED this weekend.

the intention was to use my b2200 diesel but that just didn't work out.. the damn thing is a cop magnet, so instead I used an '87 fullsize dodge ram...

it was windy, and it was a PAIN IN THE *** to hold 60-65MPH... averaged: 11MPG with the wind, 8MPG!!! into the wind.

when I was going with the wind I was towing an '89 sprint, and the way back towing an '80 rx7.


I bet an FC wouldn't do worse.

 

 

Oh yeah...not my car it is attached to...but that is my trailer I bought for 100 bucks.

 

I also towed this weekend. Towed a 4 runner about 300 miles from the far side of nashville, and a mpv van about 65 miles back from knoxville to here. I average 300 miles to a tank not towing, I got 225 towing. Oh, this was the denali, btw

 

I've been thinking about rigging up something so I could tow a small trailer with one or two motorcycles on it. What do you guys think about that?