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Towing/Hauling with a Datsun?


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How bad is it? How many of you guys just throw 500lbs of crap in the bed and drive around? Reason I ask is, sometime in the near future I'm going to sell my big gay Dodge, because I hate it, and I'm tired of making the payment on it. The 620 is gonna be down until I find a Z22 crank, because I dont want to pull the engine in this bad weather just to put some new bearings in it.

 

All I need to do to my 68 GMC it get it on the road is put the new carb on, and it should be ready to rock, but I've kinda lost interest in it. I think I want to sell it too... I really find myself wanting a 520/521 (with dual headlights, of course :)).

 

My uncle has 3, and I'm thinking of talking him out of one. I think the one I want is somewhere between a 67-69, it's got a J13 in it. I could either leave the J13 in it, or swap in a good running L18 I'm picking up later this week...

 

Getting to the point, how do you think a 520/521 would do hauling around a 500lb quad, or whatever else I can load in the back of it with either a j13, or an L18?

 

I've got the fever!

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I've hauled 1200lbs of drywall with my '74, and my Mom's '73 has hauled gravel up to the bed rail. A 500lb ATV is nothing. I carried a pair of Z24s, which probably weigh close to 300lbs each, in my '76 KC from Gresham to Tacoma with no problem. I've also towed my utility trailer with my 4X4, etc. The only ones that have weight issues are my 520 and my '78 4X4 because half the leaves are out in back, but I still have carried engines around in both.

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Whats the typical power output for a j13?

 

I dont really want to put the L18 in the 620 because it'd be doubling my work, I don't want to have to do an engine swap more than once in the mud. The L18 would only be a temporary fix, I'd rather just do it once more, and (hopefully) be done with it.

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500 lbs will take some of the stifness out of the ride. I've hauled 700 lbs of wood poles before and once carried 65 boxes of lettuce for my pigs at about 20 lbs each. Squashed the tires almost onto the rims. The 521, in a word, can take it.

 

As for stopping, if the brakes are set and adjusted, you should be fine. They are 10" all round and should be more than enough. I had them and they were a PITA to keep climbing under and adjusting so I often skipped that chore. So of course the breaking was less than desirable.

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In the 1970's I was driving a 521 Datsun pickup, and towing a horse trailer, many times with two horses. These were Appaloosa show horses, 16 hands tall, not miniature horses. Each horse weighed 1,100 pounds or more. I was actively going to many shows each year, for several years with the truck. I have towed thousands of miles with a Datsun 521 truck, with a horse trailer.

I have also towed a 16 foot outboard boat with my 521, several trips to Lake Shasta, and a summer working a traveling waterski Christian camp, all the way to Bass Lake California. During that trip, the truck also made the drive from Bass Lake to visit some relatives in Carson City, Nevada, over Tioga pass, about 10,000 feet. I was not towing anything over Tioga Pass.

The horse trailer was a steel constructed, two horse trailer, but it did not have a large compartment in the front for saddles, and other storage. I do not recall what it weighs. It has electric brakes, controlled by a hydraulic electric controller.

I live just south of Portland Oregon, and it is hilly where I live, although the hills locally are short, many are fairly steep. I have towed horses as far east as Joesph Oregon, as far west as Seaside, Oregon, as far north as Vancouver, BC., and as far south as Medford, Or. The truck, with a two horse trailer, and two horses has climbed Mt. Hood, the Coast range of Oregon, the repeated six percent grades on I-5 south of Cottage Grove to Medford. I have driven it up and down the Columbia Gorge, into and with the wind.

The truck started out as a stock 521. First modification, two inch exhaust system, retaining the stock manifold. I put wider white spoked wheels on the rear axle next. The clutch needed attention, the stock one was replaced with a stock disc, and the 2000 roadster pressure plate. The trailer lights were just spliced into the stock wiring harness, under the hood, so that the trailer light load was not carried by the body wiring harness. After a few years of driving the truck, I put a five speed transmission in. The truck has a heavy duty rear bumper on it.

The problems or breakdowns I had with the truck when I was towing, in no particular order. I had a U-joint go bad, I made it home, the U-joint was making a loud clacking noise, was able to replace the U-joint, no drive shaft damage. The alternator quit working, new brushes solved that problem. I had a rear end go bad, it started making a lot of noise on deceleration, (truck pushing the engine) going downhill, closed throttle. That turned out to be a partially broken pinion gear in the rear end, but the truck still made it home. The four speed transmission got hard to shift between third, and fourth on one other time, After taking the transmission apart, I found that the synchronizer ring, pressed on to third gear in the transmission started to separate from the gear, and that used up clearances in the transmission. After taking the transmission apart, and pushing the ring back on third gear,with a hydraulic press, I had a welder where I worked put three or four small heliarc beads to hold it together.

The power band on the truck engine, and the gearing came out like this. With the four speed, and a 4.375 rear axle ratio, the truck would run 55 to 60 mph on level ground, and slight upgrades, part throttle. It did take a little while to get there, but once there it held speed fairly well, engine rpm around 3600, if I remember correctly. If the rpm dropped below 3000, I down shifted. doing "normal" driving, pulling a trailer, I tried to keep the engine between 3000, and 5000 rpm. If I was accelerating, run the engine up to 6000 rpm, use 4000 as a lower limit. After putting the five speed in, I tried running the J-1300 rear end, (4.875) but I ended up going back to the 4.375 rear end, and using the five speed as overdrive only.

I never had a cooling system failure, although I would turn the heater on, if the temperature started to climb, going up a six percent grade, in the summer, with the two horse trailer. I went down hills in the same or only one gear higher than it took to climb them. The truck spent a lot of time pulling full throttle, in third gear with the trailer. I am sure that led to the transmission third gear problem I had.

I do not really remember the gas mileage I got, but I remember I could pay the gas expenses to a horse show for me by hauling one other horse, and charging 10 cents a mile. I do remember the worst mileage I got was driving down the Columbia Gorge, into what the windsurfers would call "epic" winds, and I spent more than two hours in second gear, 5000 engine rpm, around 35 miles per hour. Under those conditions I think the truck got 11 miles per gallon. I also remember one trip I made down to Grants Pass, when they were doing gas rationing, and I took an 18 gallon gas tank out of my boat, and started out the weekend from Portland to Grants Pass, to Portland. I started out with 18 gallons in the boat tank, a full truck tank, filled the 10 gallon truck tank once, and used some or most the gas from the boat tank on the way home.

The truck was unexpectedly stable in winds, and crosswinds, with the trailer. I had to definitely learn to think ahead when driving a trailer, with the drum brakes on the truck. My recommendation is if you pull a trailer with a Datsun truck, you make sure there are trailer brakes, and they work. Traffic is a lot worse than it was in the 1970's.

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Wow, DanielC that story takes the cake. Towing horses is not my favorite sport. And I thought I abused my 620/L16. I used to load lumber, plywood and drywall until it was on the bump stops. I thought I would be tricky and get some Helwig Helper Springs. Then I could do stuff like tow a diesel compressor with hose, ninty pound jack hammers & a sand blast pot with ten 100 pound sacks or sand. Crazy overloaded but it would pull it.

 

I used to cut fire wood and tow a ten foot trailer five hours up to some property in the mountians. I was to young, inexperianced and stupid to know what could go wrong. Really sketchy stuff when the weight of the trailer would just push the truck if you tried to slow down to fast. As has been mentioned already, stopping will always be more of a concern.

 

One time I went to the garden supply place to get a yard of concrete for a little pad. They had little trailers that had a hydrolic hand pump to dump the mud out a shoot in the back. It was really heavy but I only had to go a couple of blocks. Sure enough, at like 20mph somebody cuts in front of me to get into the left hand turn lane and then decides not to make the light, stomps on the brakes. I lock all four wheels up and I'm just a passenger at like 10 mph. It kind of jacknifed and pushed me into oncoming traffic so that I missed the guy who cut me off. The was no other traffic fortunately because by the time I got stopped, I was all crossed up in the middle of the intersection in the on coming lane.

 

That weight of that little concrete buggy bent my diamond plate Barden bumper in half right in the middle and started to tear the tow ball off the bumper. The tow ball ended up a foot underneath the bed, I had a hell of a time getting the trailer off when I returned it.

 

Five hundered pounds ain't nuthin'. I carry a 525 pound Honda sport bike all the time and it makes it ride way better. Shift better too. I got rid of the helper springs and am back to stock spring with heavy duty shocks.

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When I was showing horses, I also had at my use at least one Ford F-250, a 1974 Supercab my dad owned, and a 1966 I owned. I used the Fords when I had to use the four horse trailer, or needed the camper on the Ford, or both.

I could still make two trips with the Datsun, and use less gas than one trip with the Ford, not counting the time that the extra trip took.

Quite often, a group of us would travel to a horse show, somebody would take a motor home, or the ford camper combination, I would take the Datsun, and we would stay on the fairgrounds where the horse show was, leave the motor home or Ford and camper parked, and use the Datsun for local trips.

I do not have a Datsun currently registered, or insured right now, I am working on getting one or more of mine running again. That saga is chronicled over on olddatsunpickuplovers.com. I would like to get it running again, first mainly for nostalgia, it was the first real reliable motor vehicle of my youth, second, just because of the price of gas. The third reason I want to get the Datsun running again is that my daily driver is a Ford Aerostar, and it is not made anymore. The Aerostar is a nice, comfortable vehicle that has seen lots of duty towing my current boat, a 1997 Ski Nautique, and hauling my professional sound equipment around. The Aerostar has a sealed and heated cargo area that the Datsun did not have.

The first main project I did was to get one of the Ford F-250 pickups running again. It it nice to have, so now I do not have to haul lumber in my Aerostar, although the Aerostar could haul full sheets of plywood in the back, or haul 10 foot boards by putting them between the seats in front. The Ford gets driven about once or twice a month, when I need its carrying capacity. When I get the Datsun running again, it will become my daily driver. Most of the time I do not need the Ford, or the Aerostar just to move my carcass around.

This thread started out with a question about towing and or hauling with a Datsun. I have done lots of towing with one.

When you need a big truck, you need a big truck. Absolutely no argument from me there. But there are many, many big trucks on the road that are hauling nothing, and there are probably some that do not even have the paint in the bed or the bed liner scratched.

The USA imports a lot of oil. The flow of money out of our country weakens us, and strengthens out our enemies. At the very least, the high demand for motor vehicle fuel keeps the price high. There is no government big business conspiracy. Just the basic law of supply and demand. If I drive my Datsun, instead of my Ford, I use less fuel. That costs me less, and leaves a larger supply of fuel for you.

I have done a lot of towing with both the 1970 Datsun, the 1974 and the 1966 Ford F-250, and the 1996 Ford Aerostar. The problems I had with the Datsun are above in my other post on this thread. The Ford truck has thrown a connecting rod on the way home from Billings, Montana. It has required a transmission rebuild on the way down to Grants Pass. On another trip, It required a carburetor. The Aerostar had to have the head gasket replaced on a trip down to Lake Shasta.

If somebody can tow, or haul something with their Datsun, I would encourage that. That is why responded to this thread.

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Five hundered pounds ain't nuthin'.

 

i loaded up my bone stock 510 wagon(L16-4spd) w/a complete Z22 motor/tranny in the back, 2X 200+lb adults in the front and at least 100lbs worth of tools.

i was suprised how well it it handled the 100mi trip home :D

 

i have loaded my other wagon(better suspension) on the inside and on the rack for trips through mexico, easily was >500lbs

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  • 7 years later...

L20b, single Weber 45, 5-Speed, Beebani 300zx front brake conversion. 

 

She towed the trailer pretty good, tracked well, braked well, could of used another 50 horsepower or so though. Ohh, and head winds were a bitch!

 

Datsun-Towing_zps0f7b4eed.jpg

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  • 9 months later...

So towing a Uhaul car dolly with a Datsun 240z on that is out of the questions? Empty uhaul trailer weighs: 750 lbs.

240z wheight 2,400 lbs for  total wheight of 3,150 lbs.

 

It doesnt need to sustain the wheight, I can go slow and steady given the limited power, my concern is stopping. Stock braking.

 

https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/Tow-Dolly-Rental/TD/

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L20b, single Weber 45, 5-Speed, Beebani 300zx front brake conversion. 

 

She towed the trailer pretty good, tracked well, braked well, could of used another 50 horsepower or so though. Ohh, and head winds were a bitch!

 

Datsun-Towing_zps0f7b4eed.jpg

Looks like a DPW sticker.

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Ideally the vehicle being towed should weight at least 25% less than the vehicle towing it.  I've towed a 720 with a 620 before.  Not a fun experience.  Threw 400 pounds of rocks in the back, still would rock the back end around on stopping.  White knuckler for sure.  Would never do it again.

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I've looked into the laws for towing and can't find solid answers. It's like they don't want to say and avoid it. Brakes are the limiting safety factor. Trucks have an advantage as they are designed to carry a load in addition to passengers. One night I was driving my Dart around with 6 girls and in the back and a passenger in the front and had to make a panic stop. I made it with foot to spare with both feet on the brake. That's an extra 700-800+ pounds in a car that weighed 3,000. Was NOT funny. The 620 is rated to carry half a ton. I would take that as the upper limit of the towed vehicle. Adjust the 4 drum brakes before leaving. Add to the tire air pressure if increased load on the back.

 

Double and triple your following distance.

 

Never, never, never tow in 5th gear. It just accelerated the wear on the transmission. Use 4th which isn't really a 'gear' anyway but a straight through connection between the clutch and the driveshaft.

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So towing a Uhaul car dolly with a Datsun 240z on that is out of the questions? Empty uhaul trailer weighs: 750 lbs.

240z wheight 2,400 lbs for total wheight of 3,150 lbs.

 

It doesnt need to sustain the wheight, I can go slow and steady given the limited power, my concern is stopping. Stock braking.

 

https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/Tow-Dolly-Rental/TD/

I just rented a uh tow dolly to tow a s10 blazer with a e350 1ton van, the computer system flashed a warning recommending a different vehicle as 97 is to OLD!! The dude was trying to say that I couldn't rent it cause it wasn't safe. I still did because I convinced him that I do regular maintenance, hopefully they will even let you rent it.

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