Sometimes a picture posted with a comment deserves a wider audience. Robert Schoenlein posted this picture of his grandfather’s diesel VW pickup (54 hp) towing a trailer loaded with a vintage Allis Chalmers tractor. The tractor probably weighs about 4200 pounds or so, and with the trailer maybe about 5,000 lbs total. The VW pickup was listed as weighing 2174 lbs. That’s an impressive ratio. Is that combine staying close behind in case it needs to help push the load?
Update: I didn’t read Robert’s comment right the first time. He actually says the diesel VW pickup is pulling the trailer AND the combine!!! Is that a chain visible? Or is Robert pulling our chains? Here’s his words:
My Paternal Grandfather is a combination of a diesel and Volkswagen nut, he’s owned countless 80’s Rabbit diesel cars and pickups. The Rabbit pickups have been worked to death hauling firewood and farm equipment, somewhere I have a picture of him towing a trailer with an older farm tractor on it, while pulling an old Gleaner Combine all with a VW Rabbit Diesel Pickup, it’s pretty impressive.
This reminds of a few years back and witnessing an S-10 pulling a 25 foot SportCraft hardtop boat. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
I don’t understand how a load this heavy doesn’t have the rear bumper of the Rabbit scraping the pavement.
The skeptic in me says this picture was “staged”. Yet, copying the image and then enlarging shows this to be legit.
Assuming that it’s an Allis Chalmers WC, the operating weight would be 3792#. It doesn’t look like it has any ballast.
Still, though, that’s impressive.
Simple: it’s all in the balance of the trailer. If you put exactly 50% of the weight in front and in back of the axle, there will be no weight on the tow hitch. But that’s dangerous, as the trailer will fishtail, but only above a certain speed. One wants just the right amount on the hitch, depending on the load and the hitch rating, like 300 lbs maybe in this case. The simple way to do it is to just drive the tractor forward until the back of the tow rig lowers to what looks like an appropriate amount. For serious heavy duty high-speed towing, a special scale is a good idea. The right amount on the hitch van be critical.
This one looks to be loaded just right: the rear end is down a bit, but not too much. Imagine how much weight it would take to lower it that amount, standing on the bumper. 300 lbs? Probably so, or maybe a bit more.
Unless it has a load leveling hitch. Supposedly with these you can remove the rear wheels of the tow vehicle and the rear brake drums/rotors will not touch the ground.
Knowing how to load a trailer makes all the difference.
Definitely. I’ve had a trailer fishtail once- not good!
At this speed, though, I doubt he’d fishtail. The fact that the truck can pull that much weight is impressive by itself.
Is that combine staying close behind in case it needs to help push the load?
I guess old Gleaners (this one is ’60s/early ’70s vintage) are good for something other than leaving grain behind. They didn’t call them “Silver Seeders” or “Silver Sided Pheasant Feeders” for nothing!
That’s no Case! It’s an Allis-Chalmers!
I’d rather tow the whole lot with the Gleaner than do it with the Rabbit. Towing heavy stuff with a light vehicle never works out well!
The closer-view of that machine:
It looks like a WC to me.
“Unstyled.” I have the fenders and one steel wheel from an unstyled WC – found ’em in one of the outbuildings when we bought our farm in ’01.
Matador, I completely agree; NEVER works out!
Doh! It’s scary; I know these tractors well, having driven one exactly like it. I “knew” exactly what it was, but wrote Case. Maybe I have Allisheimer’s? 🙂
HA! Good one, Paul.
Towing heavy stuff with lighter tow vehicles is done everyday by semi tractors but even in this case towing all that isnt an issue it all comes unravelled trying to stop it suddenly or do tight turns.
Great picture — I figured the Combine was getting ready to pass!
LOL
Note the update; I didn’t read his comment properly, he claims the VW is also pulling the combine!!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Terrific scenery !
This really brings back memories. A Volkswagen T3 single cab pickup with the same naturally aspirated diesel engine as in this CC. Three guys in the cab. On the cargo bed a load of steel poultry equipment. Towing a tandem axle trailer, also fully loaded with steel parts.
Years later. A 1994 Ford Escort van with a 60 hp 1.8 liter diesel towing a tandem axle trailer loaded with sand.
You’d be amazed what this kind of commercial vehicles with small diesel engines and the right gearing can pull off. Without breaking down in the long run and with minimal maintenance.
Oh yes, back in the old days….when the beer crates were made of wood and you had to booze just to keep the fire burning.
… and in the 40s and 50s, they went from Europe to Middle East carrying 40T with 140-180 hp in trucks.
Must have some really stiff overloads on this baby. How can the clutch stand up to this abuse? One time my 70 C10 with a 29 ft. 5th wheel trailer blew out it’s clutch, and my then girlfriend’s Suzuki Samurai was able to tow my rig, but it was on a level dirt road and was in 4WD low range, I told her to not slip the clutch, and the wheels spun a little in the dirt and then did hook up and pulled me a few hundred feet off the dirt road onto the pavement. You could smell the clutch a little, but the Samurai was fine after that tow. Wish I snapped a picture. From there I replaced my trucks clutch on the street with my 4th free life time clutch parts warranty. Maybe the combine was used to get the truck rolling so he wouldn’t fry the clutch from a dead stop.
That was precisely my first thought. Oh, that poor clutch!
The fact that the antique Gleaner is following closely behind should tell you something about the speed with which the Allis is being towed. Old farm equipment never goes faster than about 22 mph.
EDIT: Unless this photo was taken at a stop, in which case, disregard my observation.
And just as I was typing this, I saw a faded-yellow mid-’70s 2-door land yacht go by on the highway. Couldn’t tell what it was; looked kind of like a T-Bird or Mark IV.
…And now I see a late-model Mazda5. That’ll be a CC someday.
Too much weight for the 3500# trailer axle.
Been there, done that. I once flat towed (using a tow bar) a heavy 1974 Matador sedan with my little Pinto wagon with the 2.3 Lima. I will never forget how, when making a right turn at a corner, the Matador pushed the rear of the Pinto quite wide. Ah….the college years!
I once towed a 40,000 lb industrial high pressure boiler with a 3/4 ton pickup…not very far and not more than 40MPH and not while there were any other cars around. But I towed it.
wow…um…I’m guessing the top speed is 16 MPH with that particular load.
I can imagine the VW diesel engine is capable of towing just about anything. But I cannot imagine the VW car or even truck this small and light weight being capable of towing anything this heavy, unless it’s reinforced with something to make it stronger.
I can see the chain connecting the combine to the trailer. This is wrong on so many levels:
The Allis is overloading the trailer, the combine is attached to a frame that’s not meant for it, the bumper hitch on the VW is likely not rated for this, nor is the hitch or ball, and it’s definitely way over the tow rating.
Sounds like something I would have done before I knew better! 😉
I used my New Beetle to tow numerous pieces of farm implementery, including a loaded hay rack out of the field (~4 tons, but no weight on the hitch, of course). Funniest comments and looks I ever got were after buying a manure spreader at an auction and hitching it up to the car. “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” indeed!
In the example above, I’d be more worried about having to stop suddenly.
Awesome hayrack! Is that thing three-point or ball hitch?
At first I thought this was a picture of Paul Niedermeyer in the blue Expedition, getting “passed on the right”…
lol
interesting pic, but not that notable. remember not too long ago when Toyota did a PR stunt with a Tundra “towing” the Space Shuttle? A Prius could have done the same job.
even a wimpy car can pull a tremendous amount of weight if you’re not intending to go very fast.
Unfortunately I will have to admit I had one; but I used my Suzuki Samurai to pull my Dad’s 35’ Airstream to the tire shop; in 2wd High, the granny first slowly took a hill just fine. No clutch odors. 1300 cc’s carburated- there are motorcycles with more displacement. She squatted like a dog, though- the rear axel just sat on the bottom out cushions.
I agree its all about gearing.
“I agree its all about gearing.”
not so fast
you also need traction
and axles that can take the torque without twisting in two
Good point, I’ve watched ultra low geared rock crawlers pop drive train components like they were made of toothpicks. Must be an expensive hobby!
My folks had a diesel Rabbit about that vintage. It wouldn’t pull the hat off your head when loaded with a couple of adults, let alone pull a full-size tractor on a trailer AND a combine.
Maybe, If it had an automatic, you could get it all moving, but you couldn’t get an automatic with a diesel in those days.
Gotta throw the BS flag on this one.
I would think that someone would have to steer the combine, which then raises the question of why tow it unless it’s broken. I know of a combine sitting in the middle of a hayfield where it broke (I have to go around it every year cutting the hay).
I so agree. Unless something is wrong with the combine and it needs to be towed. Even then, I would think it’d take more than just a little 1.5-2.0 litre diesel engine to be able to get the thing moving, particularly in the middle of the field.
Even that doesn’t seem as bad as THIS:
This couple is just plain weird. The boyfriend / husband went out for a jog ( that’s him near the back of the car )
While his girlfriend / wife is zonked out in the passenger seat. Note the sacks of concrete stacked up in the back seat behind her:
I agree. A car that small was not built for that kind of hauling. It needs a proper bed to carry that thing, one it can actually fit in, whose suspension is strong enough to withstand such a load without scraping its ass.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. This all comes down to the driver’s having a lack of capacity upstairs.
LOL! You’re welcome. I agree. Even if the engine itself has enough power and torque to carry that much load without straining, it doesn’t do any good if the car isn’t up to the task.
After looking at this, can you imagine how his building project would have turned out?
Between the guy jogging up and down on the highway in front of the lot, and the woman passed out in the passenger seat, one has to wonder if drugs, alcohol, or both were involved.
I don’t think there’s any wondering.
I don’t care if they signed all the waivers in the world, if it were my store, I would not permit a load like that on a car like that. Home Depot rents trucks for those purposes. Regardless if the waiver would hold up if there were an accident (my guess is no) it’s bad PR. That manager should have gotten a VERY stern talking to, if not a demotion.
The people in the car? Well, some folks are just dumb.
Now the rabbit pickup? That, on the other hand, is impressive. Yeah, probably a little dangerous. But impressive just the same!
I wonder if he buys VW clutches and transmissions by the palletful?
I do see a guy in the combine. But I don’t see a chain pulling it. What looks like it might be one is actually the cut line on the grass verge, it continues behind (left of) the combine as well.
I think the only chain present is the one that is ours being yanked…. 🙂
The picture is too fuzzy to make any details out. Even if the combine is being towed, I think someone has to be in it to steer and stop it or there is likely to be damage.
That would make sense. Even if you could get the combine moving, someone has to be behind the wheel to make sure it goes in the same direction as the vehicle that’s towing it, and to stop it when the car in front stops.
One time years ago I did tow my dad’s 67 Monterey 4 door 390 up to a repair shop with my stock 40 hp 63 Beetle. We used a rope wrapped around a rear axle tube, and it was a pretty steep hill for about 3 blocks up to the main street which was flat. I timed it so I didn’t have to stop for the sign and kept moving without using the clutch as I turned left. I was going about 15 mph in first up the hill and about 25 mph in second on the flat main street. The Mercury and VW combined must have been about 6000 lb and everything was fine. It was quite a sight. When I was working for VW in the 80’s a customer had VW Diesel PU that was towed in with a seized engine. It had about 7 or 8000 miles on it, and a fifth wheel hitch. He told me he had a fifth wheel trailer around 20 ft long so I figure the trailer loaded up must have weighed 5 or 6000 lbs. It had seized while towing the trailer up the grapevine, and this was not the first time he had gone up the long climb towing the trailer. He was mad because the service writer saw the hitch and would not honor the warranty. He said almost all the miles on it were with the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiGChssAue0 I dont know the provenance of this vid, hard to explain the laugh track, but still alarming to watch.
I guess the brakes on the combine work to slow the whole arrangement down, otherwise “there’s no stopping it” !
I am the person that took the picture. He bought the tractor and the combine at an auction. And yes that is a chain pulling the combine.
I used a VW diesel pickup for work in the 80s, and would tow small cars with it regularly. It’s amazing how rugged it was. Slow yes, but it was a decent work truck.
This is my VW Rabbit Pickup with 18 bundles of asphalt shingles on board.