towing our big body mustang around

[BigPinoyHunk]

alright i trailer my 73 mach 1 around alot for drag racing. i have a 16 foot trailer and of course an almost 16 foot car. my trailer has a short front a-frame, i added 150lbs upfront for a box, battery, winch, and misc tools, a 460 73 stang thats nose heavy as is. and when you strip the interior like i did, you make the front and rear weight distribution worse. a stripped 73 mach 1 with a 460 is 61 percent nose heavy.

nose you add putting a nose heavy 73 stang on a trailer and pull it all the way forward, and have a short a-frame with added weight infront already, it makes an awful alot of tongue weight.

i have a 2011 f150 that tows wonderfully but the tongue weight of the trailer is horrible. i thought i should add length to my trailer or just buy a 20 foot trailer. but instead, i added a WDH which helped some but not enough to bring truck back to stock height or even close.

today i finally installed some air bag helper springs on the truck. kind of weird how nose heavy our cars are with certain trailers that we make a 1/2 ton truck need a WDH and airbags.

i'm going to work on taking weight off of the nose anyways for drag racing. i've got a 71 bumper project to lose some weight, and possibly a fiberglass hood. take out useless stuff like the windshield wiper motor and arms.

 

[cobra3073]

Olie, you may have mentioned this before but I cannot recall whether you are running a class that restricts you to the iron heads or not.

You probably know that while those D0VE heads do make REAL power, they are approximately 50 pounds (on average) heavier than a good set of aluminum heads. So, if you are really trying to limit weight on the front end, going to aluminum heads is the way to go (if that is an option).

BT

 

[Kermit 460]

I know what you mean Ollie,When I trailered mine (460 also) 300 miles from N.H. ,I was glad I had a 07 superduty 5.4 tow pkg. in front.Had a lot of mountainous driving to go through in N.H. ,really gave that truck a workout ! I'm very closely watching these chrome bumper swap threads,would like to shead lbs. as well.

 

[VegasFastback]

This may be a dumb question but if you load the car backwards will the engine be over the trailer axles. Or could you move the axles to better balance the load?

 

[BigPinoyHunk]

Olie, you may have mentioned this before but I cannot recall whether you are running a class that restricts you to the iron heads or not.

You probably know that while those D0VE heads do make REAL power, they are approximately 50 pounds (on average) heavier than a good set of aluminum heads. So, if you are really trying to limit weight on the front end, going to aluminum heads is the way to go (if that is an option).

BT

new motor is aluminum headed with SCJ As. They are 32lbs each instead of 70lbs each. Thats already 76lbs of savings. Cant wait to see at least 100lbs off the bumper.

 

[Kermit 460]

This may be a dumb question but if you load the car backwards will the engine be over the trailer axles. Or could you move the axles to better balance the load?

I don't know about Ollie,but in my case the axles were fixed,and I don't think traction enough w/ the light hind end to get the front wheels to make the transition over the hump from the ramps with an iron headed 460 & C6 in reverse.

 

[BigPinoyHunk]

This may be a dumb question but if you load the car backwards will the engine be over the trailer axles. Or could you move the axles to better balance the load?

I don't know about Ollie,but in my case the axles were fixed,and I don't think traction enough w/ the light hind end to get the front wheels to make the transition over the hump from the ramps with an iron headed 460 & C6 in reverse.

it would be kind of hard to back up the car onto the trailer in reverse however i guess i could just winch it on. but if you were to reverse it on, the motor would be on the back axle. however you want more weight upfront than in the back because you don't want the trailer to sway the truck.

 

[droptop73]

Can the trailer axles be moved forward to balance the load better?

 

[imusa76]

when I towed my Mustang home about 10 years ago, I have a 302, but eh Uhaul trailer handed just fine and my 97' Expadition with the 4.6 v8 pulled it just fine, the back end did not sag much, and when I tow my boat (6400#) that causes the back end to sag ( i still use the truck for towing only 122K miles)

see pic below ->

 

[Kermit 460]

Yeah,

Them u-haul trailers have the axles pretty well centered compared to most car trailers & I think they have a lighter build.Probably big weight diff. from 302 to 460.I think around 200 lbs. between 351C & 460.

 

[BigPinoyHunk]

to make the axles to be centered, it'll be easier to just add length to the end which i'd like to do and just dovetail it.