How much do you think a 72 coronet with a 318 could tow?

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Schneiderman

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Curious. I probably won't end up doing anything like this with my coronet, but I will probably be towing some things at work (hopefully with trucks provided by the company) and it got me thinking about whether it would be possible with my coronet, if I rigged up a hitch on it (which I am pretty sure I have seen done, on a coronet station wagon at least).
 
A 318 in good shape will tow anything the car is safe towing, it's just that you might "spend a little time" getting up to speed.

Years ago, when I was broke, to get the car "going" I bought a "fifty dollar 318" and put it into my '70 B body. Turned out to be a 273!!!! I towed a few things with that, including a junker Poncho full size wagon that was part of a "deal." (You can have THIS but you have to take THAT)
 
318 should pull 18ft trailer and car fine. Like stated before it will lack on the stop and go but once up to speed it will pull fine.

How much it will tow isn't the issue here. The suspension is! You will need to upgrade the springs or add airbags and air them up before you tow. You could also put weight distribution bars on it and you will be fine.

You will need to add a trans cooler also. This is a must.

I would go with the airbags and weight disrtibution bars plus a good cooler. That would look awesome pulling a dragcar to the track with.

The reason I say the airbags. My friend had a set on a S10. He went to Lowes and loaded up with a ton of retaining wall blocks. The rear only sank and inch or two. I wouldn't have believed it until he showed me. We counted the blocks and added the weight, just over a ton. I am not sure what system he had. I would think a set of dragbags would work the same.
 
I've towed my teardrop (right around 1,000lbs)with my 67 Dart, 273 2 barrel. Never had any problems, although the rear springs are showing some sag. Any recomendations on new springs?
 
it isn't how much you can tow,

IT IS HOW MUCH YOU CAN STOP!

Use to tow a 19' deck boat with merc I&O with my 70 Duster slant 6 with 3 on floor ...... It pulled it fine ...... WAS I EVER STUPID

9" drum brakes all the way a round and only a class 1 hitch

A lawn mower with 7hp engine can pull a lot. When I bought the 81 Imperial body we put it on a 20' trailer. The guy had a 2 post lift in his building we could not get the crew cab dually in to hook up. This guy hooked on with his lawntractor and started pulling it out, well he flipped the mower over 1st, but the second attemp we were successful in moving it.

Check the tow rating for the car, then remember how old it is.

I would tow an open trailer with a car on it if the car was solid and had the hitch that was rated for the weight being towed
 
All depends on the gearing. If you had 4.88:1 you could probably tow anything but mpgs & top end would suck. The opposite for higher (numerically lower) gears.
 
http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/DealershipDataBook/1972/72_Coronet0016.jpg

Wanna hear something funny.

My Dakota R/T has a factory tow rating of 200#s tongue weight and 2000# trailer weight.
Any other Dak could tow up to 6800#s.

Did I listen ??
My boss's wifes car.

MsVicki.jpg
 
A 318 might be able to pull a given weight. But for how long? That small iron gets hot. There's a good reason big blocks were used for towing.
 
Just rember when towing to include the weight of the trailer.
If your hitch is rated for #3500, and the trailer weighs #1000 then you can only add a #2500 on the trailer.
 
Crazy Dave has it right. There are two factors that need to be taken into account, tongue weight and total loaded trailer weight. Max. tongue weight is going to be limited by the hitch. Short answer is 4000 lbs max tow load. If the load has a tongue weight over 200 lbs, a load equalizing hitch is required.

The photo below is Dave's link. If you're going to be towing often or heavy, strongly suggest a good tranny cooler.
 

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I used to pull a b body and car hauler with a dodge ram with the 3.9 liter. Going isn't the issue, it's stopping safely. I don't think I would pull anything bigger than an aluminum boat with a unibody car.
 
We used to pull our 17' boat and all the camping gear to the lake back in the day with a Coronet 440 4dr with 318. It did pretty well for the most part but did overheat one trip. I had to use the heater to gain heat rejection capability and it was a CA summer day. Radiator needed cleaning.
 
If you look in the owners manual it will have the lay out/plans for the trailer hitch-size/length/thickness of the steel and were to mount it.
 
When my older brother sold my dad's 68 Coronet 440 cop car, he sold it to a friend that had a 70 GTX drag car. Used it to tow the GTX to various drag strips in the mid-west.
Never a problem. Of course, a 440 with engine oil, tranny and power steering coolers took a lot of worry out of it.

68CoronetNew-1.jpg
 
^^^^^^^^ Thats a cool sleeper you had there. Must have surprised alot of people back in the day:iconbigg: Got anymore pictures?
 
I agree with the others, going is the easy part, stopping sometimes is an issue, used to tow a 73 chevelle on a old homebuilt trailer (no trailer brakes), with a 98 Dodge Dakota, 3.9 two wheel drive, the trailer pushed me through a red light( couldn't have been doing over 25mph, as I just turned about a block back), luckily it was 2:30am so there was no traffic.
 
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