Any body tow with their GN?

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In a word, no. With our wimpy size brakes, you would really need to upsize, and if your still running a powermaster, your braking would be dependent on that also. You would also need a brake controller for the trailer brakes. Our suspension is "sport" so it was designed more for handling and going fast, not for hauling weight. The 200r4 wasn't designed for weight hauling either.

I bought my GN new in '87 and became an Rv'er in '88 as I was (and still am) a pipefitter working on the road and was tired of staying in motel rooms and having to eat out every meal. My friend that was in the same boat but with a V8 Cutlass really brainstormed this question back then (both of us being mechanics and Rv'ers) and finally came to the conclusion that with all the mods necessary to pull even a small trailer that it would "ruin" the car.

My final answer was to buy a motorhome large enough to pull the trailer with my GN on the back of it. However, gas was less then $1 a gallon then, and I had to add a fuel tank to the motorhome, because that 413 Dodge engine, that I rebuilt with a 28 year old's hot rodder mentality, had to be quick also.:D Cheers!
 
turbotroy said:
In a word, no. With our wimpy size brakes, you would really need to upsize, and if your still running a powermaster, your braking would be dependent on that also. You would also need a brake controller for the trailer brakes. Our suspension is "sport" so it was designed more for handling and going fast, not for hauling weight. The 200r4 wasn't designed for weight hauling either.

I bought my GN new in '87 and became an Rv'er in '88 as I was (and still am) a pipefitter working on the road and was tired of staying in motel rooms and having to eat out every meal. My friend that was in the same boat but with a V8 Cutlass really brainstormed this question back then (both of us being mechanics and Rv'ers) and finally came to the conclusion that with all the mods necessary to pull even a small trailer that it would "ruin" the car.

My final answer was to buy a motorhome large enough to pull the trailer with my GN on the back of it. However, gas was less then $1 a gallon then, and I had to add a fuel tank to the motorhome, because that 413 Dodge engine, that I rebuilt with a 28 year old's hot rodder mentality, had to be quick also.:D Cheers!
Click to expand...


Wow the 413 motorhome engine brings back some memories!
 
I wouldn't do it, Buy a cheap truck you can find early 2000's silverados for 4-5k and save your TR the hassle.

Be nice to it and sometimes it'll return the favor lol...
 
I moved myself from CA to MD, MD to PA, and PA back to MD pulling the largest single axle UHaul trailer behind my TR. I have a lot of books so it was loaded up absolutely full and heavy. Bone stock back in 1990 the first boost light would flicker on any slight uphill when holding 64-65 mph so I tried to keep it down to 60. I was careful about stopping distances but I still felt the brakes were marginal and the trailer would push the car more than I liked. A full height trailer like you linked to will be even worse aerodynamically, so I wouldn't recommend running over 60 mph, and your brakes won't last. No AC or it will overheat. One time when you don't have a better choice, sure, just take it very, very slow. Maybe one of those popup Coleman trailers would be ok. On a regular basis with a real trailer, no, buy a pickup, get a bed camper and put the TR on a trailer behind it.
 
I have hydroboost brakes but I think my radiator is marginal. Runs 200 degrees in hot sticky weather, 185 in cooler weather. I sure wouldn't want to drive if I couldn't run the a/c. I've looked at used pick ups but they always have over 100k miles on them. Anybody know of a reliable pick up when they hit 100k miles? Here is a silverado that sold on ebay. High miles. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-S...7eb69948a&item=171453289610&pt=US_Cars_Trucks Thanks for the replies so far. I did see some posts from a guy who pulls a boat. Maybe he will chime in. Keep them coming!
 
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My 2000 Silverado had 274k on it when I upgraded to an 09...I loved the LS 5.3L...it started to leak some oil but not as bad as the GN...
 
The original owner of my 87 T told me he towed his GN on a U Haul trailer from North Carolina to Austin Texas at 70 mph with no problem. The OE transmission lasted till 120k miles. The factory Auburn was just upgraded. I would say tow what you want.
 
I towed a utility trailer in my GN once when moving house to house across town and it was fine. Brakes are the biggest issue. Power is not an issue. My old GN had air shocks I could pump up to raise the back. I agree, get a truck.
 
The master cylinder isn't the weak link, it is mostly the front rotors and pads. I've blued and cracked mine just making hard stops at the drag strip, trying to use the early exit to the return road, so imagine how they will hold up with 50% greater stopping weight. Tekonsha makes nice adjustable inertial electronic brake controllers for under $60, so that's easy. Trailers use the hitch, ball, and trailer frame for the ground connection for everything, and when have you seen a hitch and/or ball that wasn't painted, dirty, rusty, and oily? Think that will give a good electrical connection? Inside the trunk lift up the carpet at the left rear corner right by the tail lights and you will see a cluster of ground wires bolted to the body. This is the main ground point for all the tail lights and trunk release on the Regals. Add a 12 ga or bigger wire to the trailer tongue, making sure to get a solid electrical connection. I use a big ring terminal, scrape the paint down to bare metal, attach the ring terminal with a big screw or through bolt, then paint it all. I like to put a medium size alligator clip on the other end. Run the wire into the trunk right over the hitch ball, over to the left corner, and then clip it onto the brass ground wire ring terminal, making sure to leave enough slack for turning, and you will save a bunch of headaches tracking down "bad lights" on the trailer.

Pulling a full height trailer at 50-60 mph the engine is going to warm up 15 to 25 deg above whatever your normal cruising temperature would be, so if your system is marginal now you need to fix and upgrade it. Use RMI25 (see Nick Micale at arizonagn.com), it really does work. Do not use a race chip, they are way too aggressive at putting back timing if you get any knock. If you really want to be careful have your chipmaker make you a "towing" chip with the timing restore table set back to the stock numbers. On my trips to PA and back to MD I ran Direct Scan the whole way so I could see the temp and any knock and never saw any timing retard at all, but I was in full "slow old man" mode :-). The drag goes up with the cube of the speed (speed * speed * speed), so if 55 mph is 1, 60 mph is 1.3 or 30% more, 65 mph is 1.65, 70 mph is 2.06, and 75 mph is 2.54. That's how much more power you will need to hold a steady speed, and how much more your mileage will drop, so you see why 60-65 mph is a practical limit. We can make the peak hp with our turbo, but we just don't have the cooling capacity of a big V8 for steady state loads.

Whatever you tow with, make sure you get about 10% of the trailer total weight on the hitch. You can gauge that by how far the rear of the tow vehicle drops, as long as you don't have progressive springs or hit the stops. A little heavy is ok but light is begging for trailer sway - and don't ever, ever try to stop sway by speeding up. You will just make the eventual accident worse :-). Lift off the gas some, and use the trailer brakes if you can until you get the speed down and the sway stopped, then pull over and rebalance your load.
 
I don't think you could do it safely or it would take a lot to get there. The suspension would need to be set up so it doesn't sag. Transmission probably wouldn't be happy for long, and the pulling it part is the easy part. Controlling and stopping a trailer is where things can go bad fast. That trailer is 3000 lbs empty. Add your gear, water, etc and you're probably close to 4000 lbs.
 
Wow! Thanks for the replies! I'm actually just thinking now about heading to Fla. and finding an empty house/apt. in need of a short term tenant. There are ads on Craigs List. I figure a truck/trailer will lose $2k in value per year, plus insurance and repairs. So throwing out $500/month rent for 4 months might be a better option. There are also 'roommate wanted ads" but my friends think that could be a little dicey. I could turn up the victim on Forensic Files.
 
I've done over 100,000 towing with no issues but the boat and trailer combined weigh under 700#.

I have towed a 2800# power boat for short distances when I was on race committee at regattas but I quit. I thought someone had dented my left quarter panel but when I took the trailer off the dent went away. It wrinkled just like they do when launched hard.
 
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