Hitch for my GT

88Stang331 said:

There is alot more to being able to tow than how much power your vehicle has. Like if your transmission will be able to take the added weight/stress of a trailer. There is a reason most people tow stuff with trucks and not cars. Cars are flat out not built for it.

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that's probably why my truck, with the towing package, as a tranny cooler

I agree, it's not like this is a little trip...it's cross f'n country.

IBWeSeeAPostAskingWhyMyTrannyBlewInTheNearFuture

I would just rent a friggin' truck. But I don't think you'd have a problem pulling a trailer honestly.

if he rents a truck it would take 2 un needed trips.. a small trailer pull 500lbs isnt goin to hurt anything.. and if something were (not that it will at all) goes wrong hes putting a new trans in....

no these cars arnt made to pull anything, but its not going to kill it to do it once...
once he gets going on the freeway hes gonna forget its even there..

You'd have to read on his tranny specs but John Garner does alot of long trip events. Although, with close to a 1000 horsepower his car is putting out, he could haul a bulldozer. ( www.superstang.com)

90mustang_GT5.0 said:

once he gets going on the freeway hes gonna forget its even there..

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Until he gets the 'Death Wobble' and rips out the torque boxes.

**knocks on wood**

I love all the guys knocking hitches. My friend had one on his low 12 second GT40 motored fox, and would tow a boat with it. Full Length subframes, and enough power and he had no issues. He didnt launch or yank the boat out of the water for obvious reasons... but there are plenty of Mustangs with hitches that dont have issues or arent dangerous.

I dont think a body kit belongs on a Mustang yet a LOT of guys run them!

<-- one of many mustang hitchers~!

90mustang_GT5.0 said:

<-- one of many mustang hitchers~!

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You are a repetative bastard..

Amen!

If I had a jetski, small boat, or quad/dirt bike trailer, I would definately have a hitch on my 5.0! I wouldnt try and tow 3000 lbs with it, but a fox with better brakes, subframes, and air bags out back cranked up should be perfectly safe and fine towing a small trailer!

Seems pretty simple to me. We're talking about essentially the same rear end, same motor, and same tranny used in cars like Panthers (Crown Vics, Grand Monkeys, Town Cars) that tow stuff all day long, all over the country, day in and day out, and nobody so much as blinks at that ... and those cars have the Lo-Po 5.0 and about 1,000 extra pounds of body weight to haul around. As long as you don't go trying to cruise in OD on the highway, or try to race someone while you've got a trailer behind you, you will NOT fry your tranny. Ditto for someone running a T-5 - just keep it in 4th, if you're that worried about it, and you'll be fine.

Sure, your gas mileage will suck, and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to change out your fluids when you arrive at your desination, but light to mild towing with a 5.0 Fox is NOT a death sentence for the car's drivetrain. That's just plain silly. Just because it looks weird and out of place doesn't necessarily mean the car isn't capable of doing it.

If you need Ford's official say-so on the matter, consult your owner's manual ... if anyone out there still has one from their car, that is. There's usually a maximum tow capacity listed in there. Jeez, even a Geo Metro has a listed tow capacity.

Myself, I'm considering the option of buying one of those little cheap-o trailers from Harbor Freight sometime later this year if/when I get a chance to move back to the Midwest, mounting a U-Haul or Reese trailer hitch on the 'Stang, and hauling my excess oversized goodies on that almost 1,500 miles. Of course, it's not like I'll be hauling appliances or anything over 100 lbs. - mostly just my car-related crap like my X-pipe and tools - so I'm thinking it'd be 1,000 lbs. at most, total ... which, again, is nothing more than a Panther has to haul around every day on its own WITHOUT a trailer attached.

FWIW, as soon as I arrive at my destination, though, I fully intend to ditch the hitch and sell that and the trailer to recoup some of my moving expenses.

Exactly. On the AOD, 4th gear (OD) is just a highway cruising gear Ford added to help with gas mileage; the AOD is basically a modified version of the good ol' 3-speed C4 transmission, the AODE is the same with electronic shift control, and the 4R70W is an AODE with slightly suped-up internals. With any of them, 3rd gear (OD lockout) is the highest gear you wanna use, as it's basically at a 1:1 ratio with the motor and 4th is too steep a gear for pulling without putting serious strain on the tranny and/or motor. Put it in 4th while you're towing and, yeah, THEN you'll wind up burning up your tranny in a hurry.

no problem towing a small trailer. If concerned, put a tranny cooler on the car, should have one anyway. If I'm not mistaken, fox body cars were rated to 2000 pounds. If you get in a hilly area and it starts downshifting alot, put it in a lower gear. This will keep tranny temps down. Just think four 200 pound guys in your car adds 800 pounds. You really would'nt think twice about that, so your 500 pound trailer is NO WORRY! By the way the guy talking about towing a boat might be refering to me. Way back in my much younger (read dumber) days, I towed a boat that easily pushed the 3000 pound mark with trailer, several times to the local lake for a summer till I got a truck to tow it with. Yea, it looked stupid, yea it had a hard time pulling it out of the water (no traction, not a power problem) and yes I'm sure it really shortened my clutch life, but it pulled it with ease. I had an 88' coupe with 5-speed. That was a really fun summer, good thing nobody pulled in front of me, would of died! This would of been almost 13 years ago. Live and learn. Later.