TTAC Contributor David Holzman writes:
Sajeev, my friend Polly, an avid sheepdogger, wants to know how much weight her early to mid-80s Vanagon can pull. Specifically, she is interested in buying a 700 lb trailer, in which she would haul up to six sheep, each of which weighs 100-150 lbs. Thus, she could end up pulling as much as 1,600 lbs, and who knows, maybe more. How much can she pull without damaging her pride and joy?
The Vanagon has a ’94 engine from a Subaru Legacy–she doesn’t know which engine–but is otherwise all old Veedub. 212k miles on the car, less on the engine, but how much less is unknown. No rebuilds that she knows of. I don’t believe she’s going to be doing any major hill climbing.
Sajeev Answers:
How much “cool” can be stuffed in a Subaru-infused Vanagon? Even unloaded, that’s one sweet vintage ride. Switching to a Subie Boxer motor is certainly a step in the right direction, but towing is less about the engine and more about the transmission and brakes. Transmissions are the weak link, and brakes will either make or break the whole vehicle in an emergency situation. Even if Polly had the soul of a WRX…
According to the Internet, a 1986 VW Vanagon has a maximum (braked) trailer weight of 2,000lb or 1,320lb (unbraked). In this case, there’s no way I’d pull 1600lbs without trailer brakes and a modern electronic brake controller mounted under the dash. If she wants to pull that much weight sans braking buddies, keep it under 55mph: the Internet also says these VWs have a tough time accelerating and braking above that speed. In its current configuration, the Subie-Vanagon will easily break 65mph. Stopping is another story, so leave plenty of space between you and everyone else on the road. And have a brake job with performance friction pads done before even attempting this.
Maybe I’m a safety snob, spoiled by the mass quantities of pickup trucks available in the Lone Star State. I’d buy a real truck or SUV: Tacoma, Explorer, Blazer, F-150, Silverado, Ram or whatever. Leave the frou-frou (so to speak) German niche vehicles to those who don’t need to tow, cause this ain’t Europe. Americans drive fast, drive like idiots, and you need a better (stopping) tow vehicle to stay out of trouble.
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Thanks Sajeev for getting this up. One of the reasons Polly has this vehicle is it’s practical for her peculiar circumstances. She drives to sheepdog trials from her home in Bethesda as far as to the Dakotas with the four border collies (and often wins), and they sleep comfortably in the thing. I’ve been up and down with her in vain about what more practical vehicle she could replace it with, and still get decent gas mileage.
Thanks for sending it to me. Polly’s lucky to have a friend like you.
I had an ’89 Vanagon, from new to 1998. LOVED that machine. It hauled our family all over the West. Ski trips. Bike trips. Kayak Trips. Hockey trips. Road trips. Great car to haul kids & dogs around in. The two rear facing seats, plus table, plus queen sized bed, equals awesome road trip machine. Man do I miss that van.
Engine suffered original-coolant related failure (pin hole in the water jacket) at 99,000 miles. VW paid for the repair, as it was a common issue that was subject to a recall early on in the car’s lifetime. A Subie four would certainly be a huge improvement over the VW Wasserboxer.
I sold that Vanagon when we moved overseas, and have regretted it ever since.
I never towed anything with it however.
That said, anything with proper trailer brakes and a contentious driver will do fine. Towing specs in the USA are all way over-done, with the manufacturers bullied into insisting you must have a gigantic duelly with a 6 liter Diesel to tow anything over 700lbs. This is patently absurd and essentially a piori regulation by fear of tort lawyers. Everywhere else on the planet, and indeed here in America in our grandparents’ day, people towed giant trailers with modest machines. When I lived in the UK I towed a horse trailer, completely with horse, all over the countryside in a Volvo 440td (essentially the equivalent of a VW Jetta) just fine, using trailer brakes. The same load in the USA would require a half-ton pickup. Go figure.
Hitch up the Sheep and drive lady!
The only thing I’d caution you on is the careful placement of the tow hitch, since the Vanagon’s fluid check/fill (other than fuel) is behind the rear license plate. Make sure you can get to that easily, even with the trailer attached.
I don’t want to hi-jack the thread, but you are sooooo right about the trailer ratings these days. I have a Consumer Guide from 1980. In it, the Ford Country Squire, with all of 110hp (granted, it’s V-8 had some torque) was rated to tow 5000 pounds. My 07 Mercury Grand Marquis, with more than twice the hp, was rated to tow something like 2000 pounds. My 4cylinder Ford Escape, with a stick, easily towed a 3500 pound camper, yet it was only rated to tow something like 1500 pounds.
I figured beyond the lawyers, it was the Marketing and Accounting folks who wanted us to buy bigger, larger, more expensive. This was confirmed when I began looking at Explorers, and seeing the V-6 models with Class II hitches. Pure crap.
Back to the subject, the Subie powered Vanagon and Polly’s mission in life sounds cool as anything. And she sounds like a really fun individual. I wish her well.
Astro Vans are remarkably cheap and plentiful. A better choice, but not as cool.
Too much of a death trap, even compared to a Vanagon. Just look at the pictures of the Astro’s passenger compartment before/after the IIHS gets its hands off of it.
Better off with a 10+ year old Explorer/Blazer with a V6. $3000 well spent. Its sort of a van, except it actually tows 2000lbs with ease.
Her choice has nothing to do with cool. That sort of thing just doesn’t motivate her in the least. The problem with the astro van is she can’t stand up in it. She needs something she can live in when she’s at sheepdog trials.
I don’t know what its towing rating is, but a used Dodge Sprinter might do the trick for Polly. If that’s too big for her tastes, perhaps that new vanlet Ford is importing from Turkey (the name is escaping (no pun intended) me – Express maybe?) would work.
I think I’ve seen Polly driving around Bethesda in her VeeDub. Not a bad car, by any means. But I share Sajeev’s worries about braking while towing with it.
There’s no simple answer to the question. More questions: are these going to be long or short trips? Will the Vanagon be heavily loaded too? What kind of roads and terrain? How good a driver is she?
If she is attentive, her trips aren’t very long or frequent, keeps her speed down, and keeps plenty of distance in front of her, and the van isn’t loaded heavily, then probably she’s good to go (given that she’s within the factory limits).
What’s to break? If it’s a manual transmission (probably), it’s probably fine. The engine isn’t going to “break” from this moderate load, as long as it stays cool. As Sajeev said, braking is important, as is making sure the trailer load is balanced correctly (right amount on tongue).
@ David…. A vehicle that will haul a 1600 Lb trailer,good on gas,that you can stand up in? Good luck,finding one.
Plain and simple,that is not enough vehicle to pull that trailer. What happens in a panic stop? Or you got to do a quick lane change, cause some idiot merged on doing 25mph? Blow rear tire on that van,or the trailer, and try and hang on to it,while your in the center lane.
The vehicle is over twenty years old. The original tow specs are way past thier “best before date”
As much as I love the idea of an old VW with a Subaru engine in it (I’ve seen 1960s Type IIIs with tweaked WRX engines in them), I think it’s time to move on.
I suggest a lightly used diesel box van (step van). If she keeps the speed down mileage will be reasonable, anybody can stand up in it, a used one may have cargo shelves in it that could be re purposed, and it can certainly be fitted with a tow hitch.
I’m virtually certain the towing would be strictly short runs, on fairly flat terrain. She wouldn’t have much weight in the Vanagon when towing, either.
The Vanagon has a manual trans. As do the other two Vanagons. And the Integer.
As for alternative vehicles, we’ve talked about box vans and Dodge Sprinters and the Ford Connect and heave knows what else–there’s nothing out there that does the job for her like the Vanagon. But this question is about towing in the Vanagon, and not about what she should get in its place.
Good point. So just to reiterate, if that trailer doesn’t have brakes, she needs to be real careful towing with that van. Heck, if she gets in a wreck and the insurance company is smart…they might make her pay BIG TIME for operating a vehicle beyond its functional limits.
Not worth the risk, when you consider the blizzard of superior alternatives available for the same or less money than what she currently drives.
Thinking back, years ago I used to tow a Laser on a heavily built up trailer with my ’92 Civic CX (no ABS, tiny front discs, rear drums). The boat and trailer combo must’ve been about the same weight as the sheep and trailer, and braking was never a problem. (Let’s not talk about the tongue weight problems that my modifications to the trailer caused.). Based on that highly scientific evidence, I suspect the Vanagon will do just fine. However, Polly may want to avoid driving up to Skyline Drive or Catoctin Mt….
As long as the trailer is set up with good trailer brakes and the van is fitted with a reasonably sophisticated proportional brake controller I don’t see a problem with her plan. Ah, and a good remote transmission fluid cooler with thermostatic control.
You don’t need a monster truck for the task at hand.
Big Brake (South African) kits are available:
http://www.vanagain.com/acc_page.html
I don’t have any first-hand experience with this kit (my 89 Westfalia has standard brakes), but I’ve heard good things from other Vanagon owners. She’d need to upgrade to 15″ rims though, which isn’t a bad idea anyway.
Rear disk brake kits are also available:
http://www.smallcar.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29828
Thanks everyone for all this advice. I’m sure she’ll find it very useful.
“Towing specs in the USA are all way over-done,”
Actually just the opposite. Tow ratings more marketing driven than anything else these days. The fact that there is no industry standard for determining tow ratings means they are somewhat meaningless. Although I believe this is changing.
Where I would start is to find out what the Vanagon was rated to tow. I would also check state law to determine at what weight brakes are required. In my state it is 2500 lbs. That way she’ll know if she is at least legal which doesn’t mean she’s necessarily safe. 1600 lbs. isn’t a lot of weight for that van and I would think with the right driver it would handle it just fine. Still she needs to actually weigh it because that is the ONLY way she’ll really know how much weight she has back there. Otherwise put surge brakes on the trailer and be done with it.
From my experience doing satellite tv with fleet vehicles, I would would dig a Econoline 150. It is not very sexy, but get one with 4.6, forsake every unneeded amenity and add a tow bumper in the back and you could get close to 17-19 mpgs on the highway if you drive conservatively. I just go with the Fords because they were the only vehicles we had that lasted more than 130K the way we beat them. All the Fords in our fleet lasted past 200k before they were sold off at auction. The Chryco and GM vans died long before the 150 mark. They were all more than roomy enough in the back.
Was there a diesel option in those Ford vans?
How about a Eurovan instead? The original 5 cylinder version was rated to tow 5k lbs with trailer brakes. How it got up a hill with that I have no idea.
The whole exercise is a bit illogical. My F150, 5.4 liter Supercrew will get 20 mpg at Oregon freeway speeds and towing an enclosed 1600 lb trailer is barely noticeable,dropping mpg by about 2. On the other hand I think the Vanagon and Eurovan are both cool rigs, with the Sprinter right up there. Once upon a time I had a 300-6 powered short Econoline circa 1976. It worked great for this sort of modest duty hauling and towing. A short Sprinter is the closest thing in todays world.
May I invoke this article: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/the-great-american-anti-towing-conspiracy/
The answer I think is quite simple as stated in the original article: “According to the Internet, a 1986 VW Vanagon has a maximum (braked) trailer weight of 2,000lb or 1,320lb (unbraked).” So, for 1600 lbs. the trailer will need to have brakes.
For what it’s worth, in Germany, the 60hp (!) T3 Vanagon was rated at a towing capacity (braked) of 1300 kilogramms. That’s about 2800 lbs. if I am not mistaken.
unless you want to eat lamb chops get a used Chevrolet Silverado