You don't need a 3/4 ton truck to tow a trailer..

Yes they were! My mom had a 77 Gran Fury, 440 w/tow pkg. the leaf springs on that thing rivaled today's 3/4 tons!

I'de love to have a late 60's early 70's wagon and a 30 foot air stream combo!

sad thing is that wagon was more of a truck than most new trucks.

Long ago and far away, we had a 19 foot travel trailer. we towed that beast with either a Ford E150 Club Wagon (full-size van), a Dodge W200 3/4 ton pickup, or a Jeep Wagoneer. We HAD to use a WD hitch on the Wagoneer to keep the back bumper off the ground and the headlights on the road instead of in the treetops. It was not needed on the other vehicles. The old unknown brand WD hitch we had did not have sway control, and no such gadget was used or needed.
Those were good days...

I grew up with my father towing a 22' boat weighing about 6,000lbs behind a 1969 Newport. We pulled that boat about 60,000 miles altogether with that car and the only trouble we had was with the rear axle bearings. At the time it out pulled most pickups, especially on the boat ramps where an empty pickup just couldn't get any traction. Many times we watched people with pickups fail to pull a boat half the size of ours up a ramp then gather to watch a car pull a much larger boat. They sure were disappointed when the rig worked beautifully and never spun a tire. They just didn't understand that we not only had much more weight on the rear axle but the automatic transmission with a low geared rear end and positrac made a world of difference. Yes, the car was ordered with all of the trailer tow options and it was great at what it did. We did also use a load distribution hitch. Really, a new half ton is pretty much the same thing functionally, a full size 6 passenger cab with a large trunk in back (if you have a tonneau).

Lessmore wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
My old 69 Mercury Colonial Park station wagon was a beast. It had a high performance 428cu with a C6 automatic. The frame on that thing was massive. Had a long wheel base as well.

Back then my FIL had a '66 Canadian market Meteor (Canadian big Mercury) with the 345 hp/428 FE and C6 automatic. It had lot's of punch at higher speeds. Great car.

Mine did to, if you kept your foot in it the car would hold second until 95mph. It just flat out ran.

Correction mine was a 68 my Thunderbird was a 69.

colliehauler wrote:
My old 69 Mercury Colonial Park station wagon was a beast. It had a high performance 428cu with a C6 automatic. The frame on that thing was massive. Had a long wheel base as well.

Back then my FIL had a '66 Canadian market Meteor (Canadian big Mercury) with the 345 hp/428 FE and C6 automatic. It had lot's of punch at higher speeds. Great car.

I remember those days. I was a kid and my family towed trailers in the late '50's and '60's. My dad generally bought new cars every 2 years and we had 5 cars from '58 to '69' They ranged from a '58 Ford wagon (292 V8), '59 Chevy wagon (235 six), '61 Chevy Nomad wagon (283 V8), '64 Impala wagon (283), '66 Caprice 2 dr, HT (283 V8) and a '69 Impala 4 dr. HT (396 V8).

They all seemed to tow well, little sway with the Equalizer hitch, heavy suspension, etc. We drove through the Rockies with the Chevy 235 inline six, no probelms that I recall. Also no air conditioning back then, worked fine.

Notice all the towing options available in the Comercial.

Makes me want to go out to my local Plymouth dealer and buy a Suburban!
Unfortunately that is not possible today. No more Plymouth or Suburbans.

Yes, as pointed out earlier those full sized wagons were the F150 of the day!!
Yep 4'X8' plywood and sheet rock laid flat! Yes when the back seats were folded down FLAT FLOOR, and typically that load floor was hard surfaced.

In 1969, I was already running Michelin tires on my 64 Mercury Comet 289 hipo 4 speed!