Here’s an odd couple, courtesy of Cohort contributor GGH06. See, you don’t need a 6000-lb. truck with 18″ wheels and tires to pull a car on a trailer, you just think you do–thanks to the Great American Anti-Towing Conspiracy.
Heck, my Dad used to pull our center-console ’74 Aquasport with his Volvo V70. I have always had a thing for the 1989-93 Sedan de Villes, as when I was 10 or so, the neighbors two doors down had a ’91 in Academy Gray with light gray leather–just like the one pictured above, in fact. Our featured Caddy looks to be a 1991-92 as it has the post-’90 larger grille but the grille inserts are chrome, not black as they were on the ’93.
The ’78 Malibu looks good too. It seems like all of the two-door 1978-81 Malibu coupes have been turned into street/strip machines, as they are relatively lightweight and easily accept a wide variety of big-block engines. Nice catch G.G.!
Is it actually hitched to the Caddy? The wooden cribbing under the trailer jack makes me wonder…
That can’t be hooked up. I bet the Caddy is rated at 2000lbs max to tow. Although it would be cool if it was towing the Chevy…I just wouldn’t want to be driving in front of it!
This reminds me of a guy at the VTCI international a couple of years ago. He towed his ’57 Thunderbird to the show on a trailer….behind his 68 Thunderbird coupe :). I’ll have to see if I can find the picture. I have it buried somewhere.
I have a 94 Sedan DeVille, still looks fresh off the showroom. I wash it every so often and wax it a few times a year; that’s it. I just assume that most cars built from 1990 on can last a really, really, long time, if treated with some care.
There’s no way it’s hooked up. If it was, the Caddy’s bumber would practically be touching the ground.
Not if its loaded properly.
Loaded properly, the tongue weight would still be in the 450-550 lb range, more than enough to cause the bumper to kiss pavement on this Cadillac.
On another note has anyone who’s lived in salt country noticed how rust resistant the 1989-93 Sedan De Villes are? I’ve never seen a rusty one around Chicago and the newest ones are 20 years old. It’s not like the owners who have them now take really good care of them either.
My 93 had the plastic molding from the molding strip down. That would account for the no rust. However, the paint had a tendency to peel. The rockers looked like duct tape falling off. Cotillion white blends nice, and I just touched it up when necessary. When I traded it, the tail fins were beginning to peel.
It was still beautiful when I traded it.
I imagine that weight on the hitch would lower the rear a little bit wouldnt it? It seems to be way too leveled to have that weight on the rear.
maybe he has one of the last Deville’s on earth that still has an operational load leveling shock system? Although I bet the weight of that Malibu would overheat the compressor and or blow the lines off of that puppy if it was hooked up and she’d be a ass-dragger
LOL I remember my ’86 Pontiac 6000-STE had that system. I replaced the dead air shocks with new ones, and got the system working again, mostly.
It would pump up just fine, just had a difficult time releasing the air till I replaced the release solenoid. My friends finding that little tidbit out, would go outside, and sit on the trunk, till it levelled itself out then jump off. Naturally it would top out the rear axle after having 400 pounds on the very back.
I blew more fuses with that thing moving in and out of my college dorm, I’d load the car up, and it do its trick, then when I started the car, it would then pop the fuse trying to start against a fairly high pressure already.
It’s a neat setup, I’m thinking about adding it to my ’77 Chevelle just for giggles.
I had a 99 Eldorado (boy I miss that car…some guys sell a motorcycle to get married…I sold a Cadillac) that had the level sensor go on the load leveling shocks. I happened on a long drive up the coast of Maine. When I got to my destination it looked like a 70 Nova jacked up by its 16 year old owner using longer leaf spring shackles….I’m not even sure there was any more rebound suspsension travel…Very funny at the time…
I’m waiting for the sensor to go on my Bonneville to give it that 70’s rake, then I’ll uncork the exhaust for the full cry of an angry Northstar to piss off the local Police.
Every FWD GM car I have owned had air-level shocks on them. Not a problem with any of them. I took great pride in keeping those systems in working order. Which means I never had to do anything with them other than replace a shock because they were worn out or leaking oil. If the system is leak proof than there was no need for the compressor to be running all of the time.
As a matter of fact when I towed with my Roadmaster wagon,equipped with factory G67 air leveling rear suspension once they were pumped up you never heard the compressor kick on after the trailer was hooked up.
This is a pet peeve of mine. People will complain about how crappy a certain part is on a car but yet they don’t have a clue on how to fix it properly or how to source the parts cheaply. People, if you are going to drive a car with a few years on it than you got to have the abilty and resources to keep it running. If you cant than maybe you should stick to something with a warranty on it. In other words Phil, you can pick up the level sensors, for a couple of bills at your local self service yard. Same with the compressors. If your lucky you might even find same fairly new shocks with good bags on them. Speaking of bags I aint hearing any negative comments from the Lincoln-Mercury camp. The nice thing about this C-Body car is that the air compressor is under the hood. On my 90 Riviera its mounted to the rear axle. Still a pretty good spot though. It still looks brand new. So much for the bad reputation you’re trying to hang on the system. If it was me I’d be bitching about the cost of parts on the later generation of DeVilles and Sevilles, Escalades too, with the electronic suspensions.
I don’t doubt that the DeVille could handle this particular trailer. If I had to guess I’d say the Malibu and trailer have a gross weight of around 5,500 pounds. My trailer with a G-Body on it was around 6,000 and I towed them very short distances with a 84 turbo’d Riviera with a class3 platform hitch. I tried to shoot for a 250-300# tongue weight by way of a load leveler hitch. But as others have mentioned it all depends on the capabilty of the powertrain. Cast cranks,head gaskets and transaxles be damned!
Lt. Burno
I actually did buy a new sensor for it and never had another problem. I’ve had a half dozen GM cars with the rear level shocks and never had a problem other than one level sensor and one solenoid on a 6000 STE. My opinion is that they are more or less bullet proof.
That 84 Riviera was a sweet sweet car with the turbo 3.8. That’s a ride I’d like to add to the collection someday.
Comments from the Lincoln-Mercury camp? Here’s one–I owned a ’96 Mark VIII for a couple of years, which had air suspension at all 4 corners and a really nifty feature where the car would lower itself about 2 inches when you exceeded 55 MPH, to improve aerodynamics and to improve handling at speed. It was pretty transparent going down, but always interesting when you’d take an off ramp from the highway, pull up to the stop sign/light at the end of the ramp, and notice the car was rising compared to the surroundings…
Coil spring conversions are somewhat popular on the Mark VIII (and predecessor VII which used basically the same system without the auto-lower feature) as the air shocks are expensive to replace when they fail, to say nothing of the compressor and dryer. However, the ride quality was really fantastic while preserving decent handling–the system worked for its intended purpose, and the system isn’t unreliable as long as it’s maintained properly. Just like you’ve noted, proper maintenance is the key to keeping these working happily.
As to that Malibu–how heavy is that trailer likely to be? Even if it’s had a big block swapped in, that Malibu is about 3500 lbs tops, less if it’s an actual bracket racer with minimal interior or if it’s running a small block. They weren’t heavy cars at all.
If he’s actually hooked up, he could be using an equalizing hitch. These were common in the ’60s and early ’70s among the travel-trailer folks before pickups got respectable. 🙂 There are a couple of links tied to a messy ball/link section in the hitch receiver, and the links are connected to the trailer triangle. You can shift a fair amount of the load onto the front axle.
I remember seeing this type of rig a lot in the trailer/camping club my folks belonged to. Never saw it for tent trailers, but the travel trailers owners used them a lot.
http://equalizerhitch.com/ points to one vendor. Me, since I already have the pickup, I’ll stick to it.
Had a 95 Cad Seville, with air suspension. If the bags are tight and the lines and compressor in good shape it could level off with the trailer hitched. The engine/trans for any distance is another story…
Well, I knew if this ended up on CC it would cause some controversy, so I’m rather embarrassed to say that I can’t confirm definitively whether the trailer is hooked up or not. It was pretty cold that day and I only got out of my car long enough to get the shot.
Malibu + trailer looks maybe 5-6000 pounds, so indeed seems a bit much for that Caddy to be hauling around. OTOH: a) if connected the trailer and car are leveled by that hefty piece of wood visible in the pic; b) the Caddy is parked mighty close to the trailer tongue not to be hooked up. Oh, well.
I can’t picture the owner of a Cadillac in that shape owning a 1/4 mile Malibu.
Optical illusion. The Cad is probably being used to block the hitch on the trailer in what looks to be a “challenging neighborhood”?
I love this-gen Malibu coupes. I hate that so many of them have been turned into racers — not that I’m against racers, mind you, but that I like cars to be kept original and the Mailibu coupe was just a clean, attractive design.
I had a 93 Deville Spring Edition. White with the blue carriage roof, with the gold package to boot. It was a sweet car, far superior to the 85-88’s. It only had 70K when I impulsively traded it for a 2002 Deville. I thought the 2000’s generation, although a bit smaller, had a more substantial presense than the 89-93’s. The 2002 is a much better car, also, in my humble opinion. Although it’s over 10 years old, I have no desire for a new one. But I’ve made it a point to stay away from Cadillac dealers.
Anyhow, the red feature car must be from Pensylvania or spent time there. That front plate is the PA seal. I’ve had it on on my Cadillacs since 1986. I’ve had many people ask me about it. i bought mine at AAA.