Can I pull a trailer with my 740?

[Allen Lillie]

I am looking at buying a tent trailer, which is a pretty low profile trailer, weight aprox 2900 lbs, equipped with electric brakes.

From what I read, the towing capacity of my 89 740 (nonturbo) is 3500 lbs. Is this realistic? I would love to hear from Volvo owners who have pulled a trailer.

I also have a 94 850, same towing capacity but more horsepower. Anyone out there have experience with the 850 for towing?

My concern is that I don't want to be sloggin up a grade at high rpm, doing 45 mph each time I come to a hill. Can a Volvo pull the trailer and maintain freeway speeds?

I look forward to hearing some tales!

Allen

 

[Bonnet Lock]

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

I am looking at buying a tent trailer, which is a pretty low profile trailer, weight aprox 2900 lbs, equipped with electric brakes.

From what I read, the towing capacity of my 89 740 (nonturbo) is 3500 lbs. Is this realistic? I would love to hear from Volvo owners who have pulled a trailer.

I also have a 94 850, same towing capacity but more horsepower. Anyone out there have experience with the 850 for towing?

My concern is that I don't want to be sloggin up a grade at high rpm, doing 45 mph each time I come to a hill. Can a Volvo pull the trailer and maintain freeway speeds?

I look forward to hearing some tales!

Allen

You need to be concerned not only about performance, but also about stability. If the trailer is too heavy relative to the towcar, it can sometimes induce uncontrollable snaking motions - many of which result in accidents.

In the UK, a good rule of thumb is that the total weight of the trailer should not be more than 85% of the *unladen* weight of the towcar. Limits imposed by car manufacturers are often higher than this, because they tend to ignore the stability considerations!

In the case of your 850, I don't know the exact unladen weight - but would hazzard a guess that it's not much more than 2900 lbs - so that your trailer would be approaching 100% of this rather than the recommended 85%. Having said that, we don't use electric brakes in the UK - and I don't know whether the recommendation would be different if we did. If, for example, you could apply the trailer brakes without applying the towcar brakes (can you?) you may be able to recover from a snaking motion.

Equally, I don't know the unladen weight of your 740 - but I assume it is higher than the 850. It would have to be over 3400 if you wanted the trailer to be within the 85% recommendation.

 

[Rob Guenther]

My dad has pulled 2000+ pounds with a 740 (85', 8 Valve engine, overdrive automatic, 114hp) a 740 16 Valve (153hp, OD auto), and a 960 (201hp, OD auto)... Obviously the 960 was the best tow car, he said the 16 Valve was too unflexible to tow properly, that the old 8V was more well suited, but it was slower due to lack of power... He said it strained the motor, but if you took your time, and didn't use the A/C, or set it lower it was okay.

His main concern was the braking... after 1500lb Volvo recommends electric assist.

 

[Hans Vlems]

I am looking at buying a tent trailer, which is a pretty low profile trailer, weight aprox 2900 lbs, equipped with electric brakes.

From what I read, the towing capacity of my 89 740 (nonturbo) is 3500 lbs. Is this realistic? I would love to hear from Volvo owners who have pulled a trailer.

I also have a 94 850, same towing capacity but more horsepower. Anyone out there have experience with the 850 for towing?

My concern is that I don't want to be sloggin up a grade at high rpm, doing 45 mph each time I come to a hill. Can a Volvo pull the trailer and maintain freeway speeds?

I look forward to hearing some tales!

Allen

A 740 may tow up to 1500 kgs (3300 lbs) in the Netherlands, provided the trailer has it own brakes. The heaviest load I ever towed with a 740 turbodiesel was a Jaguar XK140 on a large trailer. No problem. But note: the Netherlands is as flat as a tabletop.
Hans

 

[James Sweet]

pulled
A 740 may tow up to 1500 kgs (3300 lbs) in the Netherlands, provided the trailer has it own brakes. The heaviest load I ever towed with a 740 turbodiesel was a Jaguar XK140 on a large trailer. No problem. But note: the Netherlands is as flat as a tabletop.
Hans

Turbo would also help quite a lot as well I would assume, though the standard B230F does a remarkable job for what it is, the cars make good use of the power they have.

 

[Randy Hass]

Hi,

I towed a 1200 lb. trailer here in Pittsburgh with a lot of hills and it did it just fine. I did have electric brakes and with your much heavier weight, I would not consider trying it without them. This engine seems to have a lot of low end torque and did surprisingly well.

I would check out towing with the 850. If memory serves me well when I did research before, front wheel drives can't pull as much weight probably because you are taking weight off the drive wheels.

Good luck and have fun.

Cheers,
Randy

 

[Rob Guenther]

This is the reason we bought a year end clearance 93 960 instead of the 1994 850 turbo wagon. Didn't trust the front drive for towing.

 

[Tim McNamara]

A 740 may tow up to 1500 kgs (3300 lbs) in the Netherlands, provided the trailer has it own brakes. The heaviest load I ever towed with a 740 turbodiesel was a Jaguar XK140 on a large trailer. No problem. But note: the Netherlands is as flat as a tabletop.

A lovely country from the air, as I saw flying into Amsterdam for a layover to Paris. From such a flat country, how is it that you produce so many good climbers in pro bike racing? l'Alpe-d'Huez is practically orange...

 

[Andy Dingley]

I am looking at buying a tent trailer, which is a pretty low profile trailer, weight aprox 2900 lbs, equipped with electric brakes.

What the hell sort of "tent trailer" weighs 3000 lbs ?!

Sorry, but I'm not going to comment (even though I've done a fair bit of heavy towing, and I tow with my 740). You're in America, and you guys are just _crazy_. You tow insane trailer weights and you put all your faith in electric brakes. I'm having none of it.

Volvo's own recommendations are 3,300 lbs for the basic car (and speed limits probably depend more on local rules). Rather more if you limit the speed and tweak the car.

If it's an auto box, or it's hot, fit an oil cooler. I know Volvo don't require this until top loads, but it's a damn good idea anyway.

If it's a large trailer (wind-wise) or it's heavy, then fit a snake-damper. And fit one that works, because many of them don't.

Another word of advice. Be careful of self-levelling rear suspension - It can hide an unsafe nose weight. Just because the tow vehicle manages to level itself out doesn't give you an excuse to run with a badly balanced noseweight.

 

[Rob Guenther]

http://www.foldingtrailers.com/folding.asp

They basically go from 1300lb for the smallest, with no brakes to around 2800lb for the big ones, with brakes.

We have one that is 1800lb, unbraked. They have a reasonable tongue weight, as they are balanced quite well. An average guy can pick up the tongue and manuever the hitch to the ball on the towbar.

 

[El Mecky]

Dear Allen,

As a fervented camper, from the rather flat Holland, I have already quite some experience in the French Alps. Please change my KG's into LBS's for your own use.

The 740 is a greate puller. Don't expect 120 Km/hr going up a hill with 90 degree turns, but you'll be one of the eassiest ones driving up.

The volvo is very famous for it's pulling power. It's not noted driving up an highway-hill. It's the small mountain roads it takes as nearly unloaded that gave it its reputation.

I drove my 740 from 220K Km until it died on 750K+ Km. Mike F. already gave me advice in this newsgroup years ago on this car. (Nice to see you're still okay Mike! Keep up the good work).

The 740 was a better turner and puller than the V70 I'm driving now.

For loading, pay attention to the following:

Put the biggest weights on the axes. Also diffuse over car and trailer. U DEFINATELY want weight on your tongue, not on the rear. Ideal would be a weight of 75Kg's weigt on the tongue after loading the trailer. Devices against "snaking" (or as we call it: Siccoring) ussually don't work or hide wrong loading. Whatch your speed and keep your distance.

In case the engine might run hot, going up a real steep hill, for god's sake DON'T shut of the engine! Stop where you safely can, keep the engine running, open the hood, DON'T tough the reservoir cap! and turn your interior heating and fan on max. (you might want to open your windows at this point!). Also if you have an automatic use the "3" or even the "2" gear position, to prevent continiously shifting up and down.

Don't speed downhill! Always drive a hill down at the same speed you would drive it up. Don't brake continously. Use your engine brake (shift down into lower gear and let the engine help you brake. The engine wil rev up slowly. When going to fast, use your brakes a couple of seconds and repeat the slow revving up of the engine again.)

Check tire pressure. When driven heavy load or long distance, pump 'm on 2,5 instead of 2,3. Also check your trailer's tires. Are you slighly overloading? Give it's tires the correct tension or + 0,2.

Never heard of electric brakes. Do they regulate their braking power or is it just "on" or "off"?

Relax, your driving a tank. Drive it like a tank, normal speed, super power. Down as fast as up (responsible) and up as fast as down (strong car!). Or get a ferrari and drive it like a ferrari (but don't load it like a tank!)

Have a nice holliday.

Frank

 

[Rob Guenther]

They are very hard to overheat. I remember one road trip as a kid, my father pulling our tent trailer up the mountain chain in Virginia with the old 740 GLE 16-Valve. Car in drive 2, A/C still on. The thermostat started to climb to 2/3s from 1/2, and steam (or smoke....) started to come from the vents.... windows were then opened, A/C switched off, and the temps quickly dropped back down... car still pulling uphill. The A/C was switched back on, on the downslope.

Our 960 can pull our 2000lb trailer on a 30 degree C day in drive L with the A/C set to 21 celcius, on a 14 percent grade and the temperature stayed firmly planted at slightly over 1/2 (went back to 1/2 on the downslope). Speed was 45kph, max allowable was 60 up the mountain (with reductions for corners, tho here they don't go euro style with hairpins and other sharp turns).... We passed many pulled over vehicles, mainly minivans and motorhomes which were overheated, only half way up. The only other car towing a lot of weight (for its size) we could see having no real problems was an old aircooled VW van.... Of course it was doing about 20kph up the hill, we passed it before the grades got very steep (on the foothills) but we could see it wind its way up the mountain from the lookout. Most other people were stopping at the 'lookout" areas on the way up, if they were towing.

 

[Sandjicpl]

I have a 1985 760 Turbo and pull a small Coleman 8 ft. pop up that is about 1000lbs. unloaded. With gear it probably adds another 200 lbs. With my wife and I and other gear in the car is another 500lbs being conservative (we aren't that fat!, lol) for a total of 1700lbs. It does fine uphills no problem. My max weight is 3300 lbs. I wouldn't want to tow a trailer that weighs more than 1500lbs or so. Don't forget that for most tow weights you have to add the weight of anything in the car, including passengers, small kids, dogs and gear. This can quickly put you over your limit. My car sags a lot in the back and I put on air shocks and the tongue weight is only about 130 lbs. or so. If it were me, I wouldn't tow something that weighs almost 3000lbs.

 

[Joachim Østberg]

I've towed 5500 lbs with my 81 244 with a B19A engine!
This was not for a very long distance and it was a "mistake" as the gravel suddenly poured out of the dump truck into the trailer! I was amased at how good the little engine managed. It still pulled from 2.5 K i 3 gear. (that was the fastest i went...) Most volvo engines has very good low end power wich is what you need to pull heavy loads. On the other hand towing that much even with a trailer with it's own brakes is a bit scary. Braking is VERY slow.... The 91 940 (B230FB) i have now will pull 3000lbs even for long trips quite easy.

 

[electricsheep]

I have a '87 740 that I used this summer to tow a 1500 lb. tent trailer I borrowed. Not counting the bikes on the racks and the totally loaded back of the wagon. It did amazingly well not sagging even with the lowering coils I have. I don't have a brake controller to run the trailer brakes but with a little planing had no problem slowing and stopping even a few times when a unforeseen photo-op showed up. The only problem I had was climbing one pass. We had to slow way down to keep it from over heating. With the heater turned on we could pick the speed back up and not cause any problems with traffic. I have pulled some very heavy loads with my other trailers and not had a problem. The turbo sure makes a difference though. Good luck towing.
Chris

 

[Joseph Oberlander]

Yep. Has a frame, just like a 240. Now, the new stuff - all unibody junk you can't really tow with.

As for trailers - check THIS out! It was originally made for motorcycles, but the large version is - slick:

http://www.quicksilvertrailers.com/

475 lbs. Sleeps two and has a self-contained kitchen. This type of design is far superior, IMO, to a typical "tent" trailer. Lighter, weatherproof, and under 1000lbs with gear, cooler and equipment. http://www.quicksilvertrailers.com/peanut.htm - electric brakes and other options are available.

http://home.centurytel.net/edevold/index.htm - a MUCH better made trailer. This is slick - nice options. Half the weight of the tent trailer. It makes me wonder what they make the tent trailers out of. For 2800 lbs, you can get a 16 ft Airstream or simmilar fully enclosed trailer. Riverside makes a 13 ft trailer as well - 2300lbs.

http://www.gorving.ca/manufacturers/rvtypes.asp?MID=T_Trailer&tit=TT Nice list of makers. I'm not much of a fan of tent trailers.

 

[James Sweet]

Yep. Has a frame, just like a 240. Now, the new stuff - all unibody junk you can't really tow with.

240/740/940 is all unibody, from the underside they all look quite similar even aside from the slightly different suspension designs. Are the FWD cars that much different from the bottom aside from the obvious?

 

[Joseph Oberlander]

pulled a

240/740/940 is all unibody, from the underside they all look quite similar even aside from the slightly different suspension designs. Are the FWD cars that much different from the bottom aside from the obvious?

My 240 wasn't unibody. When did they change this?

 

[James Sweet]

My 240 wasn't unibody. When did they change this?

I dunno, we've got a number of 240's ranging from '79 to '86 and they're all unibody's. Frame rails are integral to the floor pan and all that is welded one piece with the rest of the body. The front fenders are the only removeable body panels aside from the doors, trunk and hood lids. I was under the impression the 140's were as well as all the rest back to at least the early 50's. Most american cars had a separate frame much later.

A non-unibody is something like an old (and possibly new) pickup truck, where the entire body can be removed from the frame and drivetrain.

 

[electricsheep]

Those are pretty trick little trailers. Since I am into streetrodding I like the teardrop style. However in the NW camping with 3-5 people they are not terribly practical. The extra room of Coleman is really nice when you have a rainy evening.

Chris V