Pele

iTrader: (28)

What's the smallest tow vehicle anyone uses to take their track car to the track, and what type of trailer are you using?

I'd really rather not get anything bigger than my compact pickup truck (1989 Mazda B2600i 4x4)...

Bigretardhead

I use a 93' chevy G20 van. far from small.... its huge. but it was pretty cheap, and does the job pretty well. just wish I could get better gas mileage. lol.

right now renting Uhaul trailers till I find a cheap trailer with brakes. lol.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

I tow with a 99 Isuzu Amigo 3.2L V6. It's short wheelbase allows the trailer to push it around some, and allows the trailer to sway more. It is not the ideal tow rig by far but it is not dangerous either. It was the most SUV I could afford NEW. I am about 500lbs below max towing capacity.

I upgraded several things to make it a more comfortable tow. Air springs in rear susp., weight distributing hitch (highly reccomended), air filter, cat-back exhaust, R4S pads, Sensa-Trac shocks.

Az-Tex open bed trailer with duck tail. 7' long slide out ramps. 1300lbs per it's registration.

Going over the grapevine ain't easy but is totally do-able in the right 2 lanes with the semi's. I don't know if the B2600 makes enough torque but if you're staying on flat ground that'll help tons. Get a light, short trailer w/o ramps. Tilt bed. Saves more weight.

Progressive leaf springs and/or air springs and/or air shocks will really help the suspension. As does short gearing if available.

Some guys tow with REPU's but all the one's I've talked to don't have mountains in their way like I do. 10" solid disc brakes and 4000lbs behind me sounds scary. But one guy did it with REPU all the time with JcWhitney add-a-leaf + Gabriel air shocks.

speedturn

iTrader: (1)

The 2.6l sounds pretty small for towing. You will have to run it on the floor while revving the hell out of it most all the time. Is it in good solid shape? Can it handle running at high rpm all the time? Is the cooling system in good shape to handle operating at max power all the time?

Does your trailer have brakes? If you put enough miles on, one day you will have to do a panic stop and you won't be able to stop fast enough if you don't have trailer brakes.

Many years ago I did a cross USA trip pulling a little light dirt bike trailer with a REPU. It did that fine, but we had to keep it revved almost the entire 4000 mile trip. Based on that experience, I can imagine that pulling a trailer that weighs 3 times as much would be a bad experience.

Larz

I'd like to use a toyota Tacoma or something not utterly huge. I hate driving big trucks, and I don't want to spend a lot.

Gene

iTrader: (1)

An aluminum trailer will cost more but saves a lot of weight.

tims

having towed race cars for more than a decade I will tell you using a small vehicle to tow just sucks. I have used Explorers, Expeditions, Trailblazers, Ford Econoline E30, Ford F350, and Sierra 2500HD(current tow vehicle). All of the SUV's were equipt with tow packages and were new at the time. All suffered at different points on the tow. Mainly they were not heavy enough to tow comfortably. Mainly the brakes and transmissions suffered and wore out prematurely. I could not tow with the A/C on in the explorer and trailblazer in summer without fear of overheating. Expedition was about the best SUV but it wore the brakes and was a bit squirrely over bumps. when I bought my first full size truck I could not believe how easy it towed my setup and how relaxed I was after the drive. My new GMC Sierra 2500HD is the best so far. Comfortable and quiet and towes with ease. These vehicles on the used market are relatively cheap and the difference in mileage is not that high. Wearing yourself out just getting to the race and killing yourself to get home does not make for a fun weekend. All of the "small" vehicles can tow an open trailer but each one will have its limitations. A blown trans on the freeway will ruin a race season for most of us.

John Magnuson

I used to tow a 4000lb trailer with an '84 Mercury Grand Marquis Station Wagon. It did an "ok" job but a big truck was so much better.

I've had friends who have towed light race cars on aluminum trailers with their sedans... one with an older 6 Series BMW and the other with a BMW 750iL. They both towed surpisingly well (under 3000lb combined trailer and race car weight)

Pele

iTrader: (28)

The 2.6 made it from Charleston, WV to the Washington D.C. area, up and down the Appalachian mountains. I had to drive in 4th or 3rd on the 7% grades, but it took it fine. Didn't overheat at all and I SERIOUSLY need to flush the coolant.

I was towing an FB with two spare transmissions and several other boxes of parts.

I have a two wheeled tow dolly and the hitch is a bumper style hitch.

I'm not too fond of the way the tow dolly handles, as it tends to push the rear of the truck UP when I brake. This truck is equipped with a proportioning valve that senses the height of the bed in relation to the axle, the upwards motion tends to remove rear brake bias.

I was thinking of just pulling the bed off the truck and welding ramps and a flat aluminum bed to the rear frame, but it was suggested that that is a bad idea. It'd take weight off the front wheels and be hard to steer.

I don't want to buy a larger vehicle as I don't want to daily drive a 2500 series truck daily.

I might build an aluminum single axle or tandem axle flatbed trailer. I'll most likely engine swap the truck.

socalrotor

iTrader: (1)

Another thing to think about, the longer the the tow rig, the safer it will be to tow with. Wheelbase is key, the longer the better/ safer. I would find a 89-95 longbed chevy pickup truck, 2500 model if you can spare it. Parts are cheap for it and they are VERY dependable.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

Pele,

I don't like Bumper hitch's. Get a good class 3 hitch and an http://www.eaz-lift.com/ weight distributing hitch. I use 750lb spring bars per the shop I bought them from and it works great. You want to keep the spring bars parallel to the ground.

The dolly does not have brakes. Trailer brakes on a real trailer will prevent it from weight jacking the rear of the B2600. And add 1300lbs more weight to tow. If you can build one of aluminum the more the better but there are some tricks to making a trailer track and brake right. Not to mention weight distribution. I'd rather buy a used one then make one.

Every tow vehicle should have a big tranny cooler, and I really like the Perma-Cool external tranny filter and temp gauge; bought it from summitracing.com.

There was a bread delivery truck converted to tow vehicle with removable ramps. Slide up the rear door, drop ramps, and roll the racecar out the back. TOO COOL. Talked to the owner who loved it. They keep the car in there nice and secure when not racing.

Single axel trailers get squirrley, plus if it blows one tire the whole rig leans and pulls to one side.

PM me if needed. Happy towing!

dbgeek

2001 Nissan Pathfinder towing a 16' wood deck dovetail trailer with tandem axles. When towing, the engine really isn't what you want to worry about. Just like road racing, going fast is fun and all, but what really matters is when you need to STOP. Make sure the trailer has brakes, especially if you are towing with something less than a 1 ton pickup. The braking system on most cute utes isn't up to stopping 4000 extra pounds, and brake controllers are $70 for a decent inertial unit.

Travis R

You can get a used turbo diesel truck from just about any of "the big three" for a pretty good deal. And like others have said, it will make a huge difference in your towing experience.
Good luck

Lt. Dan

1989 Chevy Caprice Classic police package FTW!!!

Force13B

iTrader: (19)

I saw a mini coper S towing a catamaran sail boat the other day. I don't think the toe car get's any smaller then that.

CarmonColvin

For years I towed with a '97 GMC Yukon. I upgraded the brakes, shocks, springs, transmission cooler, etc. It had 6ply HD tires, electric brakes and a class III hitch. It sucked towing a 18' tandem dovetail loaded with a 2350lb RX-7 + full track gear (spare tires, tools, tents, etc, total weight ~4400lbs). Sometimes when driving well under posted speedlimit downhill drives were scarry. The brakes were nowhere near adequate and even failed completely at one point. The Yukon was rated to tow 5000lbs w/ 500lb tongue weight (without my upgrades).

I would not consider towing anything as heavy as a car unless I had a full size truck or larger to do it with. A smaller truck would be fine for towing jet skis or the occasional car on a dolly but IMHO would be a bit unsafe to pull a full trailer with a car on it. It may do fine 95% of the time but somewhere, sometime, someone is going to pull out in front of you. If your load weighes significantly more than the truck pulling it you will not recover from a sudden swerve or get slowing down when having to apply brakes in a panic.

The worst for me was on an interstate through a construction zone. I had plenty of space between me and the car ahead and I was going the reduced speedlimit (probably 50ish). Ahead of me somebody checked up for some reason and the line of cars in front came to a sudden stop. I stood on the brakes, the ABS and electric trailer brakes all worked as designed but I was not going to get stopped in time. A split second decision put me swerving into the construction lane sending one of those orange plastic barrels flying. The trailer swayed a bit and I came to a stop beside the car ahead of me. Had I been driving anything lighter I would of either hit the car ahead or even jacknifed and took out a few more cars.

I now own an F-250 and when I get back into racing will probably buy a 18'+ enclosed trailer.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

My towing pickup (95 F-150 4x4 w/ tow package and 5.8L) is just about what I consider adequate for towing a full sized car on a trailer. (Adequate meaning anything less is going to be dangerous in an emergency driving situation). It's huge and gets about 12mpg. It's about the farthest thing from being a suitable daily driver. My point, (finally) is that it's really hard to make a proper towing rig into a daily driver, and vice versa. At some point it becomes cheaper and a whole lot safer and more convenient to buy an old truck and use it only for towing.

Dave

tpdrx7

I have been pulling my FD on a 16' open center, steel, dovetail, tandem axle trailer with my '03 V8 4Runner, which is also my daily driver, for three years now.

Have had no problems with this setup since the trailer has brakes and the motor is rated at 320 ft lbs of torque. Easily cruise at highway speeds, everybody tracking straight and true, getting 15 mpg (20 highway when not towing BTW)

Pele

iTrader: (28)

How do I add a tranny or diff oil cooler to a manual transmission truck?

Another reason why I only want to own cars that I can drive is that anythign with tags on it has to be insured in Virginia... I don't want to pay insurance for a vehicle that will only see a few days of use a year.

How often are race events for Spec-7 held?

Travis R

You can probably get insurance for the truck tailored to the amount of driving you will do... some kind of "limited use" coverage maybe?
Good luck

wrankin

Go do a search online. Depending on the vehicle, you can often find kits already put together.

Looking at http://www.marrsrx7.com/ there were 10 MARRS events scheduled in 2005. Two of those were double events, so that translates into 8 weekends.

To add a data point to the vehicle list, I have begun towing my FC+open trailer (about 4000-4500 lbs total) with my '04 Explorer. So far so good, although I've only had to tow it for around an hour and a half max so far. I have a 2 hour pull down to Rockingham this weekend, so we'll see how it does.

The Exploder only has the V6, but also has the factory towing package (class-III hitch and tranny cooler). The V8 probably would have been a better option. Probably one off the most important pieces of gear to have is a good brake controller for the trailer. I got a Prodigy unit from Tekonsha which came highly recommended by several of the RV forums.

Good luck.

-bill

Pele

iTrader: (28)

I like the little box truck idea. It'd be like having a garage as well.

I always envisioned having a flatbed trailer with no center, so you could do under car work on it as if you had a drive on lift.

I wonder how low I can get an Isuzu NPR for.

Xenogenesis402

My dad had an old Bronco 4x4 that towed our 25' Contender boat with hardly any problem at all. We've gone through suburbans that towed comfortably but couldn't tow big trailers. We're towing a 28' enclosed trailer for my rx-7 (scca) with an F250 diesel.

The best thing to look for is a decent wheel base. If you get a truck with a short wheelbase (like our old bronco) stability becomes a problem. Obviously shorter the trailer = shorter the wheelbase of the towing vehicle allowed, but dont go too small on the truck's wheelbase because the trailer will overpower the truck and start pushing it around.

Good luck w/ ur decision!

motoman93117

i saw a vega towing a suburban, that sounded GREAT!!!!!!!!!

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

Plumb out the drain plug into an in-line or better yet spin-on remote filter. Then into a fluid pump such as Mocal. Then into the cooler and back again, prolly just into the fluid fill plug would be fine. And you also now have a filter for the trans.