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With my V10 super duty needing some love I got thinking about a cooler tow ride. I dig the Jeep Wagoneers and appears that you can get a pretty good one for around 5k. I know they get bad mileage but am much more worried about the 108' wheelbase for pulling a car trailer. Any thoughts?
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360 2v
toqueflite 727 on most of em
older ones had th400Last edited by SpiderGearsMan; September 18, 2013, 04:41 PM. -
They tow good and plow REAL good.
The suspension uses common parts.
360's are ok, they have oiling issues though.
The 80's models use Chrysler slush box tranys.
The early ones had TH400's, some had 401's
I like this one...
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Big Wagoneers would be like towing with a 4 wheel drive Suburban, I would think..Comment
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my old two door 57 suburban has a 114 (or 115?) wheelbase...later ones are closer to 130My fabulous web page
"If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurkComment
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My brother had one we pulled a 21' camper with a few times. Seemed to work rather well.Comment
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A friend's Dad had one of those in the late 80s or early 90s and he was constantly towing cars for us. I've wanted one of those things ever since.Nitrous is like that hot chick with crabs. you want to hit it, you're just afraid of the consequences
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Last edited by Nik; September 18, 2013, 06:03 PM.Nitrous is like that hot chick with crabs. you want to hit it, you're just afraid of the consequencesComment
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Dads friend had one in the early 80's brand new,what a great truck,not too big not too small tough too.Comment
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Mike had a Jeep J20 .. think it was the last year they made them 80-81 ..cleannnnComment
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Wagoneers do NOT work well with a lot of tongue weight. Keep the trailer and truck nice and level and you will be fine.It's really no different than trying to glue them back on after she has her way.Comment
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I love Wagoneers. Anything that survived the years of production they did has to be pretty cool, and they're cheap to mess around with. There's three in "the collection"...but have never driven one (!). I started building a '78, switched to a '69 so I wouldn't have to smog-check, picked up a '64 2wd/IFS for the heck of it, scrapped the '78, then decided I also wanted a first-year '63 and eventually found one...meanwhile in fixing up the '69 it snowballed to where I figured it needed a bit more frame in there than it had considering the axles etc. I was using and that stalled the whole thing. Got that all straight? None have ever passed the project stage.
That said, I'd make the following observations...
They are 'way shorter and about six inches narrower than same-year Suburbans. Four people and it's comfortably stuffed. I see the smaller size as an advantage but the frame is also a bit more than half as stout as a Suburban/Blazer. The rear overhang-to-wheelbase ratio is not the greatest for towing stability. The spare tire location, squeezed between the rr axle and the kinda-flimsy rr frame crossmember, makes fitting a strong hitch a problem. Rear ends are not exactly truck stuff.
But I'm the guy who has towed 8,000+ lbs behind an El Camino (what an idiot) so I see the above as mere challenges. A tough hitch that had it's own crossmember and picked up the frame far enough along it would be good. Most all hitches do that these days but the ball should be as close to the bumper as possible, none of this sticking-out-a-foot deal some receiver hitches total out to. If it could possibly be the type with the spring bars, then that would solve 90% of the problem...then just go easy up the long grades and don't burn the rear end out.
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Did you know Wagoneers never used F.I., when by the late-eighties nearly everything else did? I'm not sure they could have. The long, flattish gas tank running front-to-back between the driveshaft and a frame rail with the pickup in the middle would make it impossible to keep the pump intake wet under all conditions, and fuel injection doesn't like that. For mine (intending to use a throttle-body from a '90-or-so Chev) the plan was to run a mechanical pump transferring fuel as it managed to catch some to a half-gallon secondary tank in the engine compartment (an aluminum "can" with a Holley float bowl screwed to the side as an inlet would do) and have the normal electric pump buried in there where it would be happily soaked and stay cool....Comment
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1968-1971 with a 350 buick would be fantasticComment
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