Even in the early 60's, I was just a small kid but I remember my uncle towing his travel trailer, 19 or 20 ft if I remember with a Ford station wagon. Back then those wagons had the big 429 V-8.
I grew up in the 40s and early 50s, it was nothing for my family to hook up a 32'tt behind a 49 ford 2 dr, 3 speed, v/8 flathead. 3 kids in the back. mom and pop in front with the dog and pull from Brownsville, Tx, to Little Rock, Ar. and then to L.A., Ca. to work construction. Part of the family pulled with 6 cyc chevys.
I ended up with a 1952 35' sparten pulled with a 292v/8, 3speed, ford, swb, pick up.
One of my uncles went on to pull a 32' with a 1958 mercury turnpike cruiser, he would pull 750 miles a day. On the old 2 lanes hwys. hard work.
So here's my point: what was so special, or different, about the travel trailers and cars of yesteryear that made these combinations possible? Combinations where such a trailer today must be pulled by nothing less than a 3/4 ton in order to be considered safe. Don't tell me that the Mercs and Ford wagons built in the late '40s and '50s had suspension, transmission, etc. components equivalent to those of today's big pickups. So was it the trailer dolly? Or did people just hook up and take their chances because they were working with the best they had? I'm trying to imagine the yaw induced by a crosswind on one of those big trailers where the coupler is sitting on a dolly.
Many things have changed over the years. Unleaded gas, smaller vehicles, lower horsepower, different rear ends and such all done to help achieve the government cafe standards.
The vehicles do not have the power that those of by-gone years did. Nor do they handle the same.
In addition, those old cars were built on solid frame, with thick sheetmetal bodies, heavy springs, and low RPM torque motors. Today's cars are built uni-body, have soft compliant springs, and tiny engine with high power bands. It really is an apples to oranges comparison.
I also believe there was a lot of people who just "made do" with what they had. If you had a family, you had really no choice but to tow with a sedan, as crew-cab pickups hadn't been invented. Even at that, trucks usually had the same engines and transmission as the sedan anyway, so there wasn't much of an advantage in using a pickup to tow. Again, this is no longer the case.
I'm not so sure you can say that modern engines don't have the power the older ones had. I know through the seventies there was serious decline in power but I'm amazed at some of the power ratings small engines have today. They may not be high in torque, but I'll bet they out power engines from 40 to 50 years ago. The mass of vehicles has decreased no doubt, and I doubt any modern vehicle could put up with the demands and abuse some of these older tow rigs endured. Hans
I didn't really mean to say that newer engines were less powerfull than old ones. What I meant was that the power comes in different forms.
It used to be that the old flatheads and straight 6 or 8 cylinder engines made BIG torque, at very low RPM, with very low horsepower. This type of engine may not win drag races, but will accelerate almost the same towing #5000 as it would empty. Today's CAR engines make typically very low torque numbers, and what torque they do make comes at very high rpm. Horsepower numbers are much higher even though displacement is much smaller. Today's cars would win a drag race against their counterparts of the 40s and 50s, but if you put #5000 on the back bumper, you may not be able to pull away from a light!
My family and I watched the movie this weekend. It was great! Classic Lucy! Pull into a campground and a worker parks your trailer in the space for you. Can you imagine that? It would be nice to be able to pull the trailer with a convertable.
I recommend this movie to all RVrs.
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and two sons.
