Has anyone tried to tow a 4-5,000lb. trailer with their 99+ Lightning yet? I was curious how the engine and trans responded that that type of demand.

Mike

 

ksmike

I pulled my 20' Stratos bass boat 250 miles a couple of weeks ago and had no problem at all, Will pull all day at 80mph. The millage hurts some but still gets 11 mph. Better than my powerstroke. Nothing better than a hotrod baot puller.

 

I pulled my 26' Velocity Race Boat over 300 miles this last week and it towed great. The engine and trans had absolutely no problems. In fact I had to be light on the throttle to keep the rear wheels from spinning coming off lights. It's a real shocker for my 40+' rig to pull away from a light as fast as all the cars

The short wheel base did play some tricks in the construction zones and bridges but that's to be expected on a short wheel base truck pulling a rig that's over 30' long and weighs 6000 lbs. After I lightened the tongue weight to ~350 lbs it towed even better. Most of the bounce I had was gone since I wasn't overloading the springs on the truck any more. On boat trailers we use a 5% rule rather than the traditional 10% rule to calculate tongue weight. As long as we keep at least 300 lb. on the tongue we never have a problem.

BTW, I called SVT to ask about the "real" tow rating and they said to follow what's in the owners guide. Well the owners guide says 8000 lb. The 500/5000 numbers quoted is a function of the tongue weight and the 10% rule. As I see it, as long as I don't overload the suspension I can go as high a 8000 lb before I start to exceed the GVW of the vehicle. As for warranty, if I follow the owners guide they have to honor the warranty. The promotional literature has no credibility, it's the owners guide thats law.

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Mark Whatman
mwhatman@worldnet.att.net

• 99.5 White Lightning (stock)
• 99 Buell S3 Thunderbolt (not stock!)
• 98 F-150 Lariat (Flowmaster)
• 96 26' Velocity Offshore Race Boat (far from stock!!!)

[This message has been edited by Mark W (edited 11-24-1999).]

 

KsMike,

Interesting that you should ask that question at this time. I just got back from 900 miles (total) of pulling a 1500 lb. trailer with 3800 lbs. of Dodge Challenger on it. I have witnesses, both A-Lightning and Asdeman met me in Norman, Ok. this morning and saw the rig hooked up.

I did a rough calculation and came up w/a total rig wieght of approx. 9800 lbs., including me (350 lbs.), the boy (205 lbs.), the dog (2 lbs.), and all of our stuff.

The trip went great. I was able to run in all but the worst grades in OD and only had to switch out of it about 5 times. The load was very well behaved (except as mentioned above in the construction zones from hell), and I actually outran a couple of other trucks who weren't pulling at all (short runs, of course).

I haven't had time to run the mileage figures but can say that I ran the majority of run between 75 and 80 mph. The Black Beast was certainly ready to lay down her yoke after it was done, but she is absolutly none the worse for having done the job.



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Chuck 'Wyldman' Shelton
wyldman@houston.rr.com
Black 99.5 Lightning Build # 1273, DOB 5-14-99, NLOC #315
CD Changer; Tow Pkg.; Lojack; Sal's custom nitrous chip; G-Tech/Pro; SnugLid; BedRug; Invinca-Shield, full kit; NOS KIT 80 hp shot (currently); Clear and smoke Lexan fog light covers; 3M Ti Window Tint; Bel radar detector (shouldn't be an accessory); PowerStack cone filter (a.k.a. supercharger waker upper); American Auto Designs ram air hood; Cal-Tracs traction bars