Rich Burdick wrote:

>
>
>       Can anyone give me some idea how much I can tow behind a
>      Vanagon without burning out the transmission?  Could I haul,
>      say, a Beetle behind it all day on the freeway?  The owner's
>      manual simply says that towing "beyond the normal useage of
>      the vehicle".  I know lots of people tow stuff.  Thanks.Dave
>      way up in Maine
>
> Dave, If you do good care things like: Don't let the thing get
> drasticly overheated going up long hills at too high (5,000 +) RPM
> with no breaks,Change the oil & filter every 3,000 miles or so,Make
> sure it's got good oil & coolant, Then you should be able to tow just
> about anything you can hook up to and move with: I have loaded ~2,000
> lbs of stuff inside my westy Syncro, and towed a Suzuki Sidekick from
> east Tennessee to western Colorado - crossing mountains up to 12,000
> ft plus - crossing Kansas bucking 25 mph+ headwinds - several
> times. No ill effects except that gas mileage isn't too great, and it
> does take a bit longer to get where I'm going! Now I do take it easy,
> watch my temperature and try to make it as easy on the vehicles as
> possible. I'm a little over 220,000 miles on the vehicle so far.
>

Rich,
What speed to you keep in your towing?
I pretty much run my Westy at 65 MPH on trips, usually heavily loaded
w/family/gear. I was thinking that I could tow a light trailer w/camp
gear and Motorcycle (below) at 65 as well. If I remember 65 is around
3900 RPM and she likes that real fine. 70MPH is okay, I've got 144K on
orig everything and just don't want to push too hard.
Opinion(s) appreciated.

--
><>     ><>     ><>     ><>     ><>     ><>     ><>     ><>     ><>
Shalom                                                    87 GL
Mark Magee                                            91 Westy
Kemah TX USA                                      96 Suzuki 4WD Sport
John 14:6

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