12-06-2007, 04:04 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Queensland
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Towing trailers....?
Has anybody done it?
I'm thinking about going for a long drive and towing one of those small 3x3ish camper trailers.
Would it do it?
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12-06-2007, 09:59 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Boxborough, Mass, USA
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by lenus
Has anybody done it?
I'm thinking about going for a long drive and towing one of those small 3x3ish camper trailers.
Would it do it?
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I've towed with a Milano (75) a few times, for something light weight like a small camper it should be no problem.
bs
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12-06-2007, 04:25 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
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There was a dealer option tow bar for the Sud, we had one on one of our series 3 suds. Not sure the design was that great as it mounted to the panel behind the rear bumper with 4 bolts and large washers and then had a strap that bolted to the underside of the spare wheel well. So long as its a small trailer and not too weighty it should be ok.
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- '77 Sud Ti - Project car - C pillar "Ti" stickers needed!!
- '88 series II 33 1.7 Weber'd - More mint than yours! 
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12-06-2007, 10:18 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Kaiapoi, New Zealand
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33 towing
I've towed a Nissan Terrano 4x4 on a car transporter ( 1.7 tonnes + 500kg for trailer) into town (22km) when the transmission went with my 33 but I wouldn't do it again. To much weight on the back suspension and very little brakes or acceleration.
But I tow a normal small trailer all the time with anything up to a tonne without to many problems. All the heavy towing is normally done with the Nissan - Caravan, car transporter etc.
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1987 1.7 QV. Everyday driver
1986 1.5 Sprint QV under resto
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12-07-2007, 12:39 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Queensland
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Thinking about towing with a sprint...
I'm soon to be acquiring a fairly original sprint, and also a 1.7ie engine.
I'm going to carb the 1.7 and fix up the sprint... And see where I end up.  |
12-07-2007, 03:56 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dexter, Michigan USA
Posts: 2,366
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Towing Trailers.....?
Quote:
Originally Posted by lenus
Thinking about towing with a sprint...
I'm soon to be acquiring a fairly original sprint, and also a 1.7ie engine.
I'm going to carb the 1.7 and fix up the sprint... And see where I end up. |
One of the expenses of a car hobby is having a tow vehicle and trailer or paying to have your "toys" transported. We never towed with another Alfa, we used a Chevy Blazer or 3/4 ton, 4-wheel drive Suburban with a trailer. We did one short haul tow, city-to-local-city, with a Chevrolet Caprice with a Giulietta spider and a "rented" U-Haul tow bar. Once was enough from the LA, Studio City area to Orange County to never do it again in LA traffic.
Safety should be your primary concern -- more than getting it done with what cars you have available. I would suggest renting a truck if you don't want to pay transport fees and are not set up to tow correctly and within legal limits or standards. Where I live those are easy tickets to pick up without trying too hard and depending on if the officer's quota has been met for the day.
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Cheryl
(Not an authority nor SME
on anything, just PATSYF)
Last edited by Pat Braden; 12-07-2007 at 08:45 AM.
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12-07-2007, 04:36 AM
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Location: Aarhus, Denmark
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You just need to look at my profile picture
As far as I could see, the mounting is quite sturdy, wouldn't be concerned about towing anything...
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12-07-2007, 04:50 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dexter, Michigan USA
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Towing Trailers.....?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oelholm
You just need to look at my profile picture
As far as I could see, the mounting is quite sturdy, wouldn't be concerned about towing anything...
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__________________
Cheryl
(Not an authority nor SME
on anything, just PATSYF)
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12-07-2007, 07:49 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Boxborough, Mass, USA
Posts: 708
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Braden
One of the expenses of a car hobby is having a tow vehicle and trailer or paying to have your "toys" transported. We never towed with another Alfa, we used a Chevy Blazer or 3/4 ton, 4-wheel drive Suburban with a trailer. We did one short haul tow, city-to-local-city, with a Chevrolet Caprice with a Giulietta spider and a "rented" U-Haul tow bar. Once was enough from the LA, Studio City area to Orange County to never do it again in LA traffic.
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Cheryl, he was talking about towing a camper, not another car.
If the tow vehicle is a FWD Sprint, I'd keep the towing to a minimum. FWD is not ideal or well suited for towing, imo.
bs
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12-07-2007, 08:37 AM
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Location: Dexter, Michigan USA
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Towing Trailers.....?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bshorey
<snip>
Cheryl, he was talking about towing a camper, not another car.
If the tow vehicle is a FWD Sprint, I'd keep the towing to a minimum. FWD is not ideal or well suited for towing, imo.
bs
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Thanks for the clarification...
Sorry....I clearly misunderstood, I responded to a later post in the thread, by the starter of the thread and also coupled my response with "spottie's," who talked about towing another car and that he would not do it again. See bolded items and how I read the question, also based on the double spacing to separate that there were two "Sprints" and not one, which would have been single spaced and in a continuing paragraph as opposed to a new topic or new paragraph.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lenus
Thinking about towing with a sprint... ("Existing" Sprint)
I'm soon to be acquiring a fairly original sprint, and also a 1.7ie engine. ("New" Sprint)
I'm going to carb the 1.7 and fix up the sprint... And see where I end up.
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The post that I responded to above indicated to me that he was acquiring a "new" Sprint and intended to tow with an "existing" Sprint, which is not an unusual scenario for many Alfa owners, to have duplicates of the same car; having said that, the weights of the Sprints would be about equal, which is never a good towing situation; with the exception of the towed car possibly being minus engine and transmission to lighten it; but still not ideal or necessarily safe.
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Cheryl
(Not an authority nor SME
on anything, just PATSYF)
Last edited by Pat Braden; 12-07-2007 at 08:41 AM.
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12-07-2007, 03:24 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Queensland
Posts: 401
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Braden
The post that I responded to above indicated to me that he was acquiring a "new" Sprint and intended to tow with an "existing" Sprint, which is not an unusual scenario for many Alfa owners, to have duplicates of the same car; having said that, the weights of the Sprints would be about equal, which is never a good towing situation; with the exception of the towed car possibly being minus engine and transmission to lighten it; but still not ideal or necessarily safe.
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Sorry about the confusion, what I meant is I'm acquiring a sprint and I want to use it to tow a small camper trailer around Australia, not using a sprint to tow another sprint on a car trailer.
I think towing an empty car trailer would be bad enough as it is, the sheer size of a car trailer compared to a sprint is just enormous. We have a tow car for towing the car trailers, our vehicle of choice is an old valiant!
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12-07-2007, 11:58 PM
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Well , we had one of the first series SUD the one with the 1.2l engine We had it towing a small trailer with a boat , 5 people and stuffed bag in the trunk with no proble. This was the case for over 15 years ad the car was perfect no problem at all at all road conditions een is high hills.
One small remark , be sure that do not overdue to the max vertical weight on the mounting poing otherwise you will notice cracks on the trunk (mounting points).
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12-10-2007, 01:56 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Denmark
Posts: 359
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In Denmark every thing is regulated incl. tow bars and weights of trailers.
All we have to do is fitting a tow bar approved for make and model of car (fittings points info from car manufactore), have the fitting tested and approved (if car is not almost new) by the test authority, and the allowed trailer weights we be written on your new car registration paper.
The allowed weight info is/was given by car manufacture or general agent, usually 400-500 kg. without trailer brakes and towing cars empty weight + 10% with trailer brakes.
At the test towing car is checked for structural strength, brakes, springs etc.
In most cases the max weight of car and trailer can be found on the product plate in the engine compartment.
Erik
Last edited by Erik; 12-10-2007 at 01:58 AM.
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12-20-2007, 04:26 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: NSW, Australia
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generally the rule is you don't tow more that the tow vehicles weight unless the trailer is electronically braked. Also i would find that towing heavy things like another car would be difficult with a sud/33/sprint as they produce all there power/torque up high you would be revving the guts out of it to go anywhere... light things would be fine i guess, ie. a small camper trailer <400kg.
My 33 hand book actually has a technical diagram on how to build your own towbar/ball set up.
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