Okay I know that I',m going to burn in a very hot place for doing this let alone posting it in this forum but I gotta do what I gotta do within the budget of a working stiff with a family. My SS is my daily driver and its in great shape. My wife had a Jeep Cherokee and she recently got rid of it and purchased a new VW Beetle conv. This leaves us without any vehicle to tow anything. I have a small utility trailer that is a necessity to make 8 mile trips between my house and Home Depot or the dump. Its a short distance. Unfortunately, I also have a 16' bass boat with a 25hp outboard. Total gross weight w/trailer is around 900 lbs but I believe that I can lighten up the boat by about 150lbs by stripping out the floor and some of the accssories that we don't really need. If I can't lighten it up significantly, I'll buy a smaller and lighter boat. The river is also less than ten miles away.
Anyway, I got the hitch off of the internet (frame mount). It weighs about 55lbs. I intend to set up my trailers to be limited to about 100 tongue weight. As this is my daily driver and I really like the way it drives, I want to keep the factory suspension intact. Has anyone here ever used those inflatable spring assist thingys that go internally withing a coil spring? Are there some that are better than others? I'm totally against airshocks because although they lift very well, they are lousey shocks.
Any other suggestions except those that suggest I buy a pickup truck are appreciated. Thanks...

 

Borrow a truck? I mean you could probably get away with it, but I'm sorry that kinda stuff just rubs me the wrong way. If you HAD to do it, I'd look at extending the bump stops, that way you could bolt them on to tow, keep decent/safe ride height and not have to mess with the rest of your suspension.

Inflatable spring assist thingys = airbags, and yes there are out there somewhere.

-Dustin-

 

I would recommend installing a set of weld-in subframe connectors before you tow anything.

A clutch upgrade might also be a wise move.

As an alternative, why not buy an old Jeep/Blazer/Bronco/S10/etc for cheap (sub-$1000) and use that?

 

I tow really often with my '95 Z28 M6. Its actually a pretty good tow vehicle. I've had several SUV's and a truck.




I've also towed my parents 14 ft ski boat several times. I pull my "motorcycle" trailer all over the place, and back when I had sport bikes.. it would have a sportbike, and dirtbike loaded on it at the same time. (pictured above)

I was running stock suspension up until a week ago, now I have eibach pro-kit springs, and bilstien HD shocks. I had always worried that if I put lowering springs on my car it would sit too low with tongue weight. However, the stock springs are so soft, they and up sagging to the same level as the eibach springs anyways, when there is a load on them.

I wouldn't advise more than 100lbs tongue weight though.. its a class III hitch right? Maybe if you braced the hitch. Also.. be sure your rear bump stops are in good shape.. if you are going to have that much tongue weight. Stiffer rear springs would help.. you could also get adjustable shocks.. and bump the stiffness up with you tow.

*NOTE Several boat trailers allow you to move the axle forward or backward under the trailer to change the tongue weight

 

I was under the impression that any trailer with a ball hitch should generally have a very low tongue weight (~50-100 lbs), even if it's being towed by a heavy-duty pickup.

A Camaro can handle 100 pounds of cargo in the t-top well, so it should handle that no problem.

 

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree





-Dustin-

 

http://www.suspensionconnection.com/.../CT11117M.html

 

I'm decent to my clutch. As a performance car, the factory camaro clutch is comparatively decent. My '73 clocked up about 160K miles before I needed to replace the orginal which shows that I drive with a mind toward clutch preservation. I don't enjoy replacing clutches. On the road, there isn't any more wear on the clutch at speed -- its just the initial standing start that puts more wear on the friction plate and specifically when starting out on an incline (boat ramp). When trailering, I drive sanely with a mind toward making sure that I don't kill anybody driving a Yamaha -- its a completely different mind set. If the car can blow the doors off its typical competition with its mind boggling accelleration up to and beyond 100 mph. It ought to be able to deal with short trips without over stressing the chassis pulling a trailer. I drive like an old guy in a Buick wearing a hat. Its the inflatable spring thingies that I'm concerned about. Everything that I read about them seems to be similar to the hype on a Ronco TV commercial.

 

I used my car whole summer to tow a good size ski boat.. pulling it out of the water was a little rough on the clutch..

 

I need to introduce you to my father in law.

He'll be 60 later this year, and often wears a hat while driving his Buick (which ran mid 12s before undergoing a supercharger install, which is in process right now).