Greetings all,</P>


A few years ago, Ihad a 740 into which I had transplanted a Ford 5.0. With a class II trailer hitch(2500 lb capacity) I could readily tow that much (and more although don't tell anyone!) with the car feeling reasonably stable and safe.</P>


I am now planning to purchase a normally aspirated 240 and will install a trailer hitch on it soon thereafter. Although I may eventuallyconvert it to V8 power, for the present I plan to drive it as-is and occasionally use it for towing a utility trailer as needed. </P>


My question is:</P>


Has anyone towed with a 4 cylinder 240 and if so, what sort of weight were you able to successfully drag around?At highway speed? In the hills? How badly did the car bog down? I am thinking that the car's chassis should be as stable as the 740's, but what about the power of the car?</P>


Thanks in advance,</P>


Tony Fontaine</P>

 

I think most models are rated for 3300lb with trailer brakes. At 110hp, that seem optimistic.

I have towed an ultralight on 25ft trailer (750 lb total) across the country, a small power boat, and a flat towed 65 Nova. The Nova was a little wierd, probably better to use a trailer or dolly in that case.

The ultralight you didn't notice it was there, except the 75 mph top speed. The boat (with 2 200lb guys in the car + me) worked fine, but a little slow at 6k ft.

 

I wouldn't tow more than the manual says to or the hitch is rated for. On a side note if you are towing a heavier load, you should set the hitch up with a weight distributing system and it will improve the handling of the trailer alot. any reputable trailer or hitch shop will know what a weight distributing system is. I'd even use it with your 5.0, as it is more for the weight and suspension than power.

 

The 240 wagon is an incredibly rugged hauler. When I lived east of Albuquerque at 6700 ft, my 1987 240 DL routinely pulled an old steel 2-horse trailer stuffed with >80-lb hay bales, with additional bales stuffed into the car and onto Yakima roof racks. I usually carried 68 bales. I carried these loads about 50 miles from Belen, heading north on I-5, then east on I-40 up Tijeras Canyon, which rises from 5600 ft at the bottom to 7000 ft. Not once did I have a problem.

On our property, we maintained horses and goats - so hauling manure was also required. Several times I loaded the horse trailer with so much weight the tires were bulging. The Volvo pulled this load (well over 12,000 lbs) short distances around our property without protest. I also foolishly used it to yank large boulders out of the ground, not realizing this would destroy most transmissions. We lived on an unpaved mud road which in the winter after 9 AM became a soupy morass so bad that I couldn't get my volunteer fire department's 6-wheel-drive tanker down the road. That's when I learned that my wagon's balance let me 'swim' it through mud up to the door sills (although I needed to partially deflate the rear snow/mud tires to do so).

My final run with heavy hauling was a cross-country run at 9800 lbs (Indianapolis to Baltimore) with a U-Haul trailer behind a manual-transmission 1982 240 wagon. It ran like a top up every tough grade on the Pennsy Turnpike and subsequently.

 

the OEM spec is 3500 lbs with 150 lbs on the tongue, I believe. absolutely don't use overdrive if you're towing 1000 lbs or more, and use it very sparingly under that. de-rate the car's own GVWR by however much trailer weight is sitting on the tongue. rear overload springs, such as are sold by IPD USA and FCP Euro, will add a couple 100 lbs to the safe load on the rear, IF your tires and brakes are up to the task.

if you have an automatic, and it doesn't have a transmission cooler (I know my 740 turbo has one, I dunno if our 240 does), install one. the AW70/AW71 automatic transmissions are generally really robust, and if you periodically flush the ATF and fill them with fresh, will last a long time even under the most strenuous conditions. the ZF autos used on some earlierr 240s/740s are less robust.