HandyDan Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 Found this on another site. Thought it is cool as all get out. Link to comment
Stick486 Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 5 hours ago, HandyDan said: Thought it is cool as all get out. YUP... Link to comment
Gene Howe Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 Pretty darned slick. Link to comment
Smallpatch Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 We had a 63 VW and there is no way it would have pulled something like that down even a flat highway and most of our camping trips was into hills or mountains. I believe that was wishful thinking on someones minds. In a strong headwind I could never get up to 55 mph and all I was pulling was wind... Link to comment
Smallpatch Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 that could be a 70 year model which had 55 hp. My 63 had 40 hp. When we were fixin to leave Germany in 1960 they were advertising a new VW beetle shipped to NY and would be waiting for the buyer to get there within one week of our arrival and the price would be 1250.00 total.. Their thought was one could drive it for 3 years and sell it for a little more than the 1250 we gave for it. Provided it was still in good shape.. That was the going prices at that time. I never heard anyone take them up on that deal but I also didn't keep up with but 5 guys I was with in Germany. At least they did take care of the trailer hitch thingy for a VW was not built to pull a trailer from the back bumper. Sure some guys did put a trailer hitch on theirs but like mine after I did I turned the bumper inside out just pulling a one rear wheel swivel type tire set up with a whopping 4"x 4" foot very light plywood bed with 6" high sides. I drove that VW ever other day from Lubbock to Midland or Odessa for 4 years. It never failed to start and it ran good but slow. Some days tumble weeks would actually pass me going towards Lubbock. And I might add, no air conditioner..... Link to comment
HandyDan Posted June 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 It is just a heck of an Idea. My two door Jeep is about the right length and probably could hook the ball to the roll bar. I wonder if making a turn going down hill the trailer might push the vehicle over. Link to comment
Gene Howe Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 We had a friend down in Casa Grande that built Baja racers on VW chassis. When he got done with one, it was barely recognizable as a bug. But one of his would definitely pull that little trailer. He put highly modified Porsche engines in them. Link to comment
schnewj Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 1 hour ago, Smallpatch said: We had a 63 VW and there is no way it would have pulled something like that down even a flat highway and most of our camping trips was into hills or mountains. I believe that was wishful thinking on someones minds. In a strong headwind I could never get up to 55 mph and all I was pulling was wind... Unfortunately, you had a 1200 cc in the '63. Since this was '74 Super Beetle it would have had an AE series 1600 dual port engine. Juuust a tad more HP then that 1200! Link to comment
schnewj Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 6 minutes ago, Gene Howe said: We had a friend down in Casa Grande that built Baja racers on VW chassis. When he got done with one, it was barely recognizable as a bug. But one of his would definitely pull that little trailer. He put highly modified Porsche engines in them. I used to stick with the warmed over dual ports. I never liked to get much above the 1800 territory. Anything bigger and they had a tendency to be a little unreliable. Besides the Porsche engines were a little hard to come by in my area. However, I did mount a couple of warmed over Pinto 2000 cc engines. The '73 three valve was the best choice, with a Holley 5200 two bbl. it was a screamer (somewhere in the neighborhood of 180 hp) with a few modifications here and there. The real plus on the Pinto was, if you got ambitious, you could jury rig a hot water heat system. I never perfected it but it sure would have beat those heater boxes off of the exhausts. I ran a 1640 in my '67 Baja bug...my 4WD buddies sometimes had a tough time keeping up off-road. I could go places and do things that those Fords and Chevy's could only dream of...even running H-15 size Desert Dog tread tires on the back that bug would manage about 75 on the highway. Would that 1640 have pulled that trailer. Probably, but depending on the GVW of the trailer it may not have been fast. Would I like to have a trailer like that? I would have killed to get my hands on one! Link to comment
Gene Howe Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 I think my friend was partial to the old flat 4 1600 engines. He usually had a few around in various stages of builds. He ran some wild esoteric fuel. His cars could definitely out perform almost any 4WD vehicle in the rough going. His suspensions were awesome. He took me for a ride over a freshly plowed cotton field at around 45 mph. Hardly felt a bump. But, they were a bit squirrly on a hard surface. Certainly not a highway cruiser. Link to comment
Smallpatch Posted June 24, 2018 Report Share Posted June 24, 2018 Yep the 1600 had only 58 HP compared to my 40 but everything else it took to pull a big wind drag like a travel trailer just was not there in a VW. Link to comment
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