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K10 LWB Towing Questions.

handloader90

handloader90

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Planning on making a 1200ish mile trip (TN to Colorado).

The plan is to tow a 2009 4 Door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (weighs between 4,100 - 4'450 lbs.) behind a 1982 long box K10.

K10 has a good running carbureted 350 SBC, TH350 and fixed yoke 205. TH350 is cooled via lines running into the radiator.

Dana 44 front, 12 Bolt rear. 3.42 gears in the rear axle, not sure of what gear ratio in the front axle (not planning on using 4wd during the trip).

No lift.

31x10.50x15 A/T's with good tread.

Can the K10 pull the Jeep on a U-Haul car hauler fine? Would a dolly w/ the Jeeps driveshafts removed be a better option?

*Edit: The tow hitch is of the HD bumper kind, the ball is mounted on the lip below the license plate. There is extra bracketry that secures this portion of the bumper to the frame rails.
 
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I personally wouldn't tow that much with a bumper mounted ball even if it was braced well.
IMHO you need at least a class 3 reciever with a 7000lb+ rating.
I think the truck should pull it ok. I'd put in a auxiliary trans cooler and gauge, and keep it slow on any major grades (up or down)
 
The 3.42:1 gears are going to make going up hill slow. Probably 2nd gear. Don't be in a hurry.

Post up a picture of the bumper and said braces. My dad towed for years with one of those. The bumper brackets ended up braking. 30' trailer with 2 corvair powered dune buggies, 5 motorcycles and 100 gallons of gas. 500 miles round trip once a month for 7 months of each year. At least 10 years. Then I bought the truck and towed my boat with it.
 
The big issue that most have with those POS uhaul trailers is they're so small that once you get a car on the trailer you can't move it forward or back so the weight is properly balanced over the trailer axles.
 
ChrisPerry said:
I personally wouldn't tow that much with a bumper mounted ball even if it was braced well.
IMHO you need at least a class 3 reciever with a 7000lb+ rating.
I think the truck should pull it ok. I'd put in a auxiliary trans cooler and gauge, and keep it slow on any major grades (up or down)
Click to expand...

If I can find a reciever for cheap I'll get one but other than that I'm stuck with what I've got.

I was planning on on of those fan cooled Derale units until I saw the lines hooked into the radiator. Do you think how it is hooked up now would get me there without overheating the trans?
 
ktmoutfront said:
The 3.42:1 gears are going to make going up hill slow. Probably 2nd gear. Don't be in a hurry.

Post up a picture of the bumper and said braces. My dad towed for years with one of those. The bumper brackets ended up braking. 30' trailer with 2 corvair powered dune buggies, 5 motorcycles and 100 gallons of gas. 500 miles round trip once a month for 7 months of each year. At least 10 years. Then I bought the truck and towed my boat with it.
Click to expand...

I would be pulling between 6,000 lbs max (I'm sure that is like 1/3 or less of what you Dad must have been hauling), that is if I went with the car hauler, should lose about 1,000 lbs. I'm guessing if I use the dolly. I was planning on replacing ALL bumper and bracketrt bolts with new grade 8 hardware before any towing happened.
 
Yea, I saw that one.

The only thing I have against it is I would probably have to drill holes in the frame rails to get it mounted properly.

I've had receivers like that before on my old SWB K10 and two or three of the K5's I've owned ans it seems like they never seem to want to sit perfectly flush on that bottom flange of the frame rails.
 
Dolly's have brakes...which is the whole point of using one. Of course finding anything rented by U-haul that has functional brakes is another thing entirely! I don't think I've ever got a trailer where the brakes worked from U-haul.
 
why not just flat tow it? jeeps flat tow great, get a brake kit for the jeep and your set. there are tons of used tow bars on craigslist, probably cheaper than the trailer.
class 3 hitch is always better than a bumper but just check every stop and make sure the thing isn't coming apart and your good
 
H20 Toie said:
why not just flat tow it? jeeps flat tow great, get a brake kit for the jeep and your set. there are tons of used tow bars on craigslist, probably cheaper than the trailer.
class 3 hitch is always better than a bumper but just check every stop and make sure the thing isn't coming apart and your good
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea, didn't even think of that!

If I can find one of them it would probably save me a lot of headache.
 
My main concern was if the LWB 1/2 ton is ok to tow possible 6,000 lbs. with.

I've researched the tow capacity but I can't find solid info on it. Some say it can tow so much, then another source says that it will tow a different amount.

I know having the TH350 without overdrive is gonna suck a bit and kill some gas but it is what it is.
 
And you are stopping at the base of the Rockies. Other than raising elevation by 6000 feet, it is a long uphill climb. And altitude will kill the HP when you hit 5000 feet.
 
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