> I would like to tow my boat
> snip
Our '75 Eleganza doesn't notice the 4500 lb, 15' box enclosed Wells Cargo
trailer that we use for the kid's quarter midgets. Now the Chapparal (stock
car trailer that I claim could carry a tank) with my Mazda spec RX7 race car
and spares slows it noticeably, and the big box trailer that carries four
formula cars requires full throttle much of the time.
We towed the Wells Cargo from central Texas to B.C. last summer, and found a
few big hills along the way (about 5800 miles the way we went).
The GMC has about 90,000 miles experience with this sort of thing. Out of the
last 20,000 miles, about 200 road miles has been without towing.
When we put a hard shifter in the first replacement tranny, it exploded the
torque converter in less than 30,000 miles. Didn't do that again. Looks like,
stock, we need to replace clutch packs at about 60,000 mile intervals.
We have stock chain and gears, but the 455 has a torque cam, valves cut, heads
cleaned up, and stainless headers and exhaust. We have large external oil
coolers, and have never had a heating problem.
The only surprising (to me) failures have been transmission governors. We have
had at least three fail catastrophically, but I don't see how that relates to
the heavy-duty towing. (I do now have two inline filters plus a magnetic
filter in the cooler lines.)
Walt Taylor
Austin, TX
'75 Eleganza
> snip
Our '75 Eleganza doesn't notice the 4500 lb, 15' box enclosed Wells Cargo
trailer that we use for the kid's quarter midgets. Now the Chapparal (stock
car trailer that I claim could carry a tank) with my Mazda spec RX7 race car
and spares slows it noticeably, and the big box trailer that carries four
formula cars requires full throttle much of the time.
We towed the Wells Cargo from central Texas to B.C. last summer, and found a
few big hills along the way (about 5800 miles the way we went).
The GMC has about 90,000 miles experience with this sort of thing. Out of the
last 20,000 miles, about 200 road miles has been without towing.
When we put a hard shifter in the first replacement tranny, it exploded the
torque converter in less than 30,000 miles. Didn't do that again. Looks like,
stock, we need to replace clutch packs at about 60,000 mile intervals.
We have stock chain and gears, but the 455 has a torque cam, valves cut, heads
cleaned up, and stainless headers and exhaust. We have large external oil
coolers, and have never had a heating problem.
The only surprising (to me) failures have been transmission governors. We have
had at least three fail catastrophically, but I don't see how that relates to
the heavy-duty towing. (I do now have two inline filters plus a magnetic
filter in the cooler lines.)
Walt Taylor
Austin, TX
'75 Eleganza
