[Bill70]

I am considering the purchase of an El Camino to pull my '70 Chevelle to the track. I have been looking for a full size Chevy truck but haven't found anything I like. Does a stock 68-72 EC have strong enough brakes and suspension to pull a car and trailer and stay on the road? What were they rated for from the factory? What class of hitch would be correct? Thanks.

 

[flywheel]

Bill70, I have a 72 EC 402ss and I'd be very lery of pulling a trailer with a car on it unless the trailer had some additional braking added to it.
I would guess a class 3 hitch??
Rick

 

[Harley]

Bill a car and trailer is a little much for the El Camino. I would pull two maybe three thousand lbs. but five,without some serious modifications,no way.

------------------
Harley
69 461 El Camino Nitrous Model, 69 Chevelle coupe
70 El Camino,71 SS Camaro
79 Corvette
Kerrville,Tx.

 

[Pat Kelley]

I have a 66 EC and want to pull my 67 EC on a trailer. I have been told the 66 is just too light. I understand the trailer can start violently whipping the towing vehicle around in a mild wind (20mph or so). I guess the tow vehicle has to be somewhat heavier than the trailer/car combo. I don't think the suspension or brakes are the problem. It's the weight. Later ECs are heavier but still too light for towing that much weight.

------------------
Pat Kelley
66 El Camino, daily driver
67 El Camino, STRIP/street

 

[Alan F]

I'll add my $.02 to this discussion - again...I've done it and won't do it again. I have a very good tandem axle trailer with surge brakes. Behind a full-size truck it tows like a dream. Behind a '71 El Camino (w/402, turbo400, 12 bolt posi and disk brakes) it was scary. The best way to describe it is twitchy.

It's a glamorous idea, just not real practical.

 

[mike reeh]

I think your el camino could be modified to do it but it would mean doing some serious work..

I have a fullsize 77 chevy 4x4 shortbed.. its a halfton but has heavy duty suspension from the factory.. i towed a '91 fullsize Z71 on a car trailer to a shop once and it was a little scary.. it made it and I would do it again if I had to but dont recommend it.. on the freeway, at speeds over 45mph it was start to sway violently and it was hard to recover.. I say this because I think its a bigger scale of what you plan on doing.. the chevelle is a LOT smaller than the truck I was towing.. then again el caminos are a lot smaller than my truck...

i also have an el camino with a 12 bolt, reinforced 4 link, but no sway bar.. I can grab the tailgate or bed walls and rock the thing back and forth violently with ease. that doesnt say much for what a 4-5 thousand pound trailer will do at 50mph.

how much a sway bar would help, i dont really know but in order to do any serious towing it needs to be beefed up.. a 350 or bigger will do a fine job of towing the chevelle though.

anyways, this post is getting kind of long BUT if it was me, id have to say that I would try to do it.. just dont plan on using a stock el camino.. plus think how AWESOME it would look... el camino towing a chevelle to the race track, i cant think of anything cooler.

airbags would be a must, and I would call a place that specializes in hitches or something and tell them what you plan to do and see what they recommend for beefing up the el camino... let us know what happens



------------------


Mike Reeh
Gold #34
San Diego, CA

 

[Bill70]

Wow! An abundance of info and it's not often that everyone agrees on something. I had a feeling it wasn't a good idea as I have never seen an EC pulling a 6,000 lb trailer. Thanks for all of the great input.
Bill

 

[Chuck Nixon]

In 1972 I attempted to tow a fully loaded tandem axle trailer (it had a Model A on it plus lots of miscellaneous stuff) with my relatively new 1970 Chevelle 4 sp 350 engine 2 dr hardtop. It had the special trailer load leveling trailer hitch one uses for towing travel trailers and air shocks for leveling the car. One hundred miles from my home on a southern california freeway going down hill the trailer decided to be the tail and wag the dog (the car). To make a long story short I ended up jackknifed under a freeway underpass on the slope of the concrete apron. The trailer stayed on the hitch but twisted the tongue of the trailer and the car was damaged a bunch. Moral of the story, no chevelle, el camino or sedan is set up to tow more than 3000-4000 pounds and I was very lucky not to have been killed.
I had the car and trailer fixed and 6 weeks later made my 1500 mile trip but with the Model A only on the trailer and I jumped everytime the the trailer swayed even just a little bit from normal road uneveness. It was two and a half days of tension and stress but at that time I didn't know any better. Today I would have the car shipped rather than two one without a truck.

Sorry this was so long


------------------

 

[rainbowkid]

About 5 yrs. ago I bought a 7000 lb car hauler off a racing freind and took a 5000 (10000 w/weight distributing bars) hitch for a pickup and modified the frame mounting points to fit my 86 camino. I've been towing to and from flea mkts. and emergency tows(I have kids) since. I use air shocks, air bags,wgt.dist.bars, and trailer brakes. I believe the key to any towing (esp. with a vehicle as light as a camino) is weight distribution,adequate brakes and power.To set a hitch up you need to keep car and trailer level(by using correct ball mount height) and keep a reasonable amt. of tongue weight (using the adj. weight bars). Once it was set up properly I never had sway even at high speeds. As Mike says it is awesome and fun to tow with it, esp when I,m carrying another camino on it. Having said all that I kow it is lacking the durability of a pickup. Rear axle bearings,ring and pinion,brakes,engine,all take a beating, and I don,t think I would tow a good distance on a regular basis. Rob