let's talk air streams

[Guest]

ok, folks...

so let's say I want to get an old air stream and pull in behind my '58 Cadillac.

Now, the '58 has all drum brakes, and a poor power brake booster which the pedal sinks, and then sticks to the floor every two years or so.

So, without doing something crazy like installing late model disc brakes, dose it make any sense to live this fantasy of tooling down the road via '1958, with an original car and trailer set up?

When I've rented u-haul trailers, the trailer it self had a trailer tong brake, which applied the brakes on the trailer when the trailer load pushed forward on the hitch.

This sounds like a good solution to keep the extra weight off of the car brakes.

Also, some of those trailer hung heavy on the hitch, so the car did not travel level. Now, we are talking air shocks.

any of you "tin can" people want to add you insight, it would be interesting to hear.

[Guest]

If your brake booster, master and wheel cylinders, lines, drums etc, are in good reliable shape you shouldn't think twice about it,if you are having problems now as you indicated replace what's questionable with rebuilt components that will be more than adequate for your purposes and yes,electric trailer brake systems go back to the '40's at least and they are installed under the dash and tapped into the brakeline with a tee fitting,they are also extremely reliable and it's something you can install yourself with a bit of mechanical aptitude.

[The Old Guy]

I pulled a 17 foot 1954 Airstream all over the country with a 57 Buick wagon, and had no problem. I would suggest a tranny cooler. The Airstreams of that era have good electric brakes,so you should have no problem. I also pulled the same trailer with a 53 Caddy , but only on short(300-400)mile trips,.