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Buicks and the Great Outdoors - Camping and Trailering


MrEarl

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The video is a good visual but how many trailers are built with the axle in the center of th trailer? My brother in law had such an incident when he tried trailering his pickup home. He had the pickup in a position that it was easier to winch the pickup onto the trailer backwards. He told me he got about 1/4 of a mile before unloading the pickup and moving the trailer around so the pickup went on the trailer with the engine closer to the hitch. He knew better but thought because he only had to go about four miles that he could make it. NOT.

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That was the first video I came to that half ass represented the simple point I was trying to make which was don't try to correct axle dragging by throwing a bunch of weight on the rear of a trailer, tha's all.  I've gotten on the road with cars without engines loaded on trailer frontward and stopped and turned them around to see if there was improvement, sometimes yes sometimes no, generally depending on if it was a long body Buick or short. Loaded a 76 Estate Wagon in Mobile Alabama once and hit the interstate and the trailer was wagging like a puppies tail, exited at the next exit and pulled the car as forward as it would go, radiator over the winch and while it still swayed some when I jerked the wheel, through the grace of God I made it home. I can tell a difference in the stability of the Argosy depending on whether I have stored the spare tire in front or rear of the axles or whether the gray tank in rear is full or empty and it definitely tows better when the front water tank is full rather than empty but choose to run it only a third full when towing with the wagon. I never even considered using a weight distribution hitch while hauling the 30-40 some odd Buicks around the US over the years but now that I know what I know about them I'd consider it. When I look back at the time I hauled two 322's, two 6 bolt 3 speeds, an engine crane, a set of front 54 fenders,  a 75 lb tool box and  a spare tire in the back and me and my 14 year old son up front of the '96  Silverado 1500 and a 54 3 speed Century with spare bumpers stuffed underneath and the trunk full of spare parts on the trailer I had loaded up at Jim Shilf's  aka @palbuick up in Illinois and made it back back to Buick Gardens with the safety chains dragging,  I have to stop and thank Jesus he was looking out after this fool. I've learned a lot about everything from max axle weights, tow hitch capacities to individual tire loads and pressures to how not to hook up a trailer breakaway switch and more since outfitting the Estate Wagon to tow. The one item I am most proud of and so lucky to have found was the 10,000 LB trailer hitch and receiver I got from @JohnD1956 that he thankfully pulled from his wagon before selling, THANK YOU JD!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

It appeared to me as a 38 Buick but once again I can only ID Buicks from the 50 era even though I still got problems between the 51 & 52. Wife keeps telling me is all because of the calendar!!

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Received this from Roberta some time back and wasn't sure if it has been shown here yet or not. Even if so it's worth seeing again. And I'll let @BUICK RACER tell who the 32 and 41 belongs to. And maybe she will share a story about the 32 pulling that trailer up Pikes Peek too.

 

 

Edited by MrEarl (see edit history)
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14 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Received this from Roberta some time back and wasn't sure if it has been shown here yet or not. Even if so it's worth seeing again. And I'll let @BUICK RACER tell who the 32 and 41 belongs to. And maybe she will share a story about the 32 pulling that trailer up Pikes Peek too.

 

 

Well, the '32 was Joe "the old guy" Taubitz driving, I don't remember the trailer make, and the '41 is his brother-in-law Jerry Vavro pulling the Airstream. It appears to be a educational video for the dealers, Joe's son found this earlier this year on 8mm and had it digitized so it could be shared. The '32 is now owned by John Welby, it was at the Nationals in OKC last year. Pikes Peak story, I don't remember, I've never been, I think Joe and Bernice may have taken the '32 with the Airstream up there and maybe several other Buicks.

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37 minutes ago, BUICK RACER said:

Pikes Peak story, I don't remember, I've never been, I think Joe and Bernice may have taken the '32 with the Airstream up there and maybe several other Buicks.

 

Bruce Kile brought it up when we were discussing this video. Asked me if I ever heard the story about Joe pulling that trailer up Pikes Peak with the 32 while passing modern cars.
 

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