I’ve posted a photo before of this Falcon wagon that lives in my neighborhood, but when I saw it with a heavy load attached, I thought it was worth digging my phone out. Then I realized that the boat trailer wasn’t really hitched up to it. Still, a second generation Falcon wagon is always worth spending a few pixels on.
Wait, this VW Type 2 doesn’t have a hitch. What’s it doing here?
Because it’s a trailer. This one is badged as a Dub Box, apparently sold as a food truck, but also offered as a camper, under the T2 Camper name. I think this one is the camper despite its badging. Pricing is in the $30-40,000 US dollar range. Note the Mitsubishi Delica hiding in the background.
Another smallish (by US standards) car towing a heavy load … again, a closer look shows that it’s not really hitched up. I wasn’t quite sure what was under the tarp, but it may have been a large lathe.
OK, this one was really connected. An unusual sight in two ways. First, the first generation Ford Courier (Mazda-built) is quite rare now, even if this is only the back half of a Courier converted to a trailer. Second, it’s not often I see a late model crossover towing anything, let alone a work trailer. For readers in countries where the tow vehicle isn’t sold, it’s an Acura MDX, briefly badged as a Honda for Australia, but almost exclusively been sold (and manufactured) in the US since its launch in 2001.
Here’s that Falcon again, back to back with another trailer, this one quite a bit more serious than the ski boat I opened with.
I’m cheating here, as this Dodge Caravan isn’t towing anything, not even pretending to tow. It is carrying a pretty heavy load however, so maybe a trailer will soon be needed. But judging by the accessories on the rear bumper, adding a hitch may be out of the question.
All of these pictures were taken in Santa Cruz, California in the past year or so, within walking distance from my house.
Here is my 1971 Pontiac T-37 pulling a fifth wheel trailer out at San Antonio Lake, Monterey County, CA.
The “Courier” truck bed trailer would look a lot better being towed behind my 2011 Ranger than that Acura. Incidentally, I happen to have a trailer like this based on another rare pickup: a late-model Nissan 720. The way I know it’s one of the later ones is that the bed has double-wall construction with no exterior rope ties and also uses non-amber-turn-signal tail lights that resemble the ones from the Chevy S-10 of the time, with the reverse lights no longer under the tailgate or mounted in the rear bumper (red marker reflectors took their place in that location).
I styled my Ranger’s bumper to match the Nissan’s and now it’s like they were meant to be together all along! The one other obvious customization after the tool box and extra lighting was the hubcaps which came from a ’95 Aerostar minivan. They just happened to be 14″ like the period-correct wheels and voila–they actually FIT!
Nice setup. I had an early 720 with the external bed lips and tie downs; very handy, and when I replaced it with a 1986 Ranger one of my first mods was adding aftermarket folding tie downs on the outside of the bed. They got a lot of use.
Funny you should mention that because just last week I saw a towing fail involving a crossover. The house in back of us was recently sold to a developer to be torn down, but before that the previous owners apparently sold the pre-fab shed in their backyard. At some point, a double-axle trailer appeared on the lot, and someone hoisted the shed onto it. And then a few days later, a guy showed up in an Audi SUV and tried to tow the trailer (w/ shed) out. He didn’t. I guess due to the trailer’s weight and the wet, soggy ground, he just kept spinning his wheels, not budging the trailer. After about 30 minutes of expletives, he managed to get the car free and drove away. (At some point the next week, the trailer & shed disappeared, so I guess he got someone else to haul it away.) Anyway, while watching that, I was thinking “we don’t often see crossovers towing anything…”
My FWD daily drive regularly pulls a 1.5 tonne caravan which is within the manufacturers GTW tow rating and doesnt bother the car at all it just chews more diesel.
Boats and tandem axle trailers are easy enough to tow at that size with a car even that old Falcon would tow those loads if needed, theres very few regulations around light trailers over here and very little enforcement of the few laws that do exist.
It took me a while to find it, but here’s a picture of my dad’s ORIGINAL 1989 Lincoln Town Car towing a 1500-lb. boat on a trailer. He acquired a near-identical one from his Aunt Barbara last year, but it doesn’t have a trailer hitch & therefore was never used to tow anything.
I read the towing section in the owner’s manual and it in fact states a maximum rating of 5000 lbs. with the correct hitch setup and of course trailer brakes. We currently don’t plan on adding a hitch to the “new” car–we already have 2 Rangers (my 2011 & my dad’s ’08) and an ’04 Expedition for towing duty–but at least on paper it would be more than up to the task of handling a sub-2000-lb. load. Nowadays you need a crossover SUV at minimum to tow anything much more substantial–in the United States anyway. Man have times changed! 🙂
Nice 1965 Shelby Mustang GT-350 wheels (or copies) on that Falcon wagon.
The Falcon’s wheels have Cragar logos. Maybe Cragar was the OEM supplier for the GT350.
Unfortunately I do not have a photo, but there is a man in my town who runs an environmentally friendly gardening and yard maintenance service. Rather than a large pickup, he uses an electric Smart with a small trailer to get to his clients.