2 Wheel car dolly

[85_Ranger4x4]

Now that is an interesting thought. I’d think the rear axle should be good for more than 2k lbs, probably more like 3k, which is the limit for a “light” trailer around here. My one buddy has a Grand Caravan so maybe I’ll see if the door sticker gives a weight rating…

They can be pretty impressive really...

IMO just buy a dolly and sell it when you get to where you are going.

By the time you buy a van axle, cut and make it into a trailer you are going to have a lot of time into it. And then hopefully it doesn't break and turn your '40 loose on the interstate at 70mph...

 

[Shran]

I know where you can get a free one. It's roughly at 44.236402, -103.390928. It's been there for about a week, I saw some guy with a Chevy pickup towing a Chevy pickup (both looked horrible) trying to fix it when he blew a tire last weekend and I guess he gave up and left it there. So a short drive for you & a tire and you should be good to go, was still there yesterday afternoon

These things seem to be about $1000 +/- all the time. I've seen a few really cheap ones but they sell fast. I need to get one but I'm not sure where to store it at, I don't have room at my place and it'll get stolen from our other property.

 

[Brain75]

Now that is an interesting thought. I’d think the rear axle should be good for more than 2k lbs, probably more like 3k, which is the limit for a “light” trailer around here. My one buddy has a Grand Caravan so maybe I’ll see if the door sticker gives a weight rating…

The GRAND caravan versus caravan is like explorer versus expedition if I remember right, completely different animals... the Caravan is small-ish (no such thing as a small SUV in my books) like the explorer, and the grand caravan is big, don't know if it is rear wheel drive, but I bet it is.
At 3 in the morning unable to sleep I putzed on my phone and found that the GVWR and cargo capacity and and.. I think the axle is rated for 2k easy.. like ford there were 52 options and configurations so it was a spread but the axle rating was similar to the 2750 that the ford 7.5" in most of the caravans with some economy editions as light as 2k.

I also noted that the caravan had bolt patterns either 4 bolt metric or 5 bolt metric and the caravan ?LE/SE? had 5 on 4.5"... so to be able to carry one spare for both the truck and the trailer I would look for something that interchanges, tires are expensive.

Edit: I said LE earlier and SE here, I can't remember what I read at 3am... sorry..

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The GRAND caravan versus caravan is like explorer versus expedition if I remember right, completely different animals... the Caravan is small-ish (no such thing as a small SUV in my books) like the explorer, and the grand caravan is big, don't know if it is rear wheel drive, but I bet it is.
At 3 in the morning unable to sleep I putzed on my phone and found that the GVWR and cargo capacity and and.. I think the axle is rated for 2k easy.. like ford there were 52 options and configurations so it was a spread but the axle rating was similar to the 2750 that the ford 7.5" in most of the caravans with some economy editions as light as 2k.

I also noted that the caravan had bolt patterns either 4 bolt metric or 5 bolt metric and the caravan SE had 5 on 4.5"... so to be able to carry one spare for both the truck and the trailer I would look for something that interchanges, tires are expensive.

I thought the Grand Caravan was just the upscale Caravan, but maybe I’m wrong.

I do know that I swapped the hubs on the axle on the little trailer I built with some assistance from dad to 5x4.5 years ago and set the fenders so I could run Ranger wheels, just for simplicity sake. Doesn’t keep me from needing a spare if I’m pulling it with anything but an RBV, but for awhile I was trying to bring a little standardization to my fleet

 

[Brain75]

It was gonna bug me about the caravan vs grand caravan so I did a quick google.. I was partially right (size difference - 11" to both the wheelbase and total length), and partially wrong (both FWD)...
according to cargurus website only the caravan was rated to tow, and the grand caravan had a much bigger engine but was 750# heavier 2.4 vs 3.6.
Go fig, and it could just be the first 2 websites I hit didn't bother to research very deep, but both being similar in cargo capacity (1600 / 1500#).. the grand caravan is also 10 inches wider than the caravan so that might show up in the axle width (78 v 88).

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Grand is more HD, usually has heavier brakes. Driveline and cooling are also different. I am not even sure there is much of a length difference if at all.

Pretty sure AWD was optional in both but was not common in my area.

3.6 was in both, there is not 10" of difference in the width. One might be counting mirrors and one is counting body or something like that. I doubt there is much difference in width at all, they basically have the same carcass.

 

[Brain75]

and I generally thought cargurus was pretty accurate.... wow.

 

[Brain75]

ahhh I see what I did that caused it to be wrong. I just googled caravan vs grand caravan and cargurus 1st hit was 10 years difference (so apples to oranges, not apples to apples), if you compare a 1997 vs a 1997 they are super close, but later they both got bigger... just like everything else under CAFE rules they made em bigger so they didn't have to make em fuel efficient.

 

[don4331]

Using data from U-haul: 2 wheel dolly weighs 750lbs.; tongue weight is ~100lb (nicely over the 10% recommended for trailer), The distance from axle centerline to hitch ball is 8', the axle centerline for the towed vehicle is 1' ahead of the axle centerline. (Quick math says dolly will put 12.5% of weight of front axle on the hitch ball). Lastly, U-haul requires the towed weight (combination of dolly and towed vehicle) to be <80% of the towing vehicle.

From Ford, the standard Class III hitch supports 400lbs. load/4k lbs. towing weight carrying or 600lbs load/6k lbs towing weight distributed. Ford list the minimum weight of a '90 Ranger 4x2 SuperCab as 2,842 lbs.

U-Haul math: 2,842 * .8 = 2,273lbs, max towed weight <- this is the one people have issue with.

Using the '48 Ford F-1, weight is 3.150lbs from Ford's brochue, and it is split 1,805lbs front/1,345 rear.

Now the math:
Tongue weight = 1,805 * .8 = 226 + 100 = 326lb, under the 400lbs allowed for the hitch.
Towed weight

3964+750 = 3,900lbs, just the 4k allowed for the hitch; but way over U-haul's allowance.​

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The U-haul cost of $288 one way from Denver to Austin, 5 days allowed isn't unreasonable (IMHO).

I haven't had any issue towing 1k's of km with U-haul tow dollies behind my F-150. Appearantly, I stopped smoother, because the surge brakes work exactly as theory says they should.

If you're building you're own, you want the tongue strong enough for weight distribution bar(s).

Small aside: P series tires are only rated for 80% of the sidewall rating when used as trailer tire (has to do with the reduces suspension more directly transfering load to the tire).

 

[Brain75]

Thanks for doing all the math for me.... I had figured before I spent any money on anything I would look up uhaul's dimensional stuff online and go to the home depot an hour away from me and take pictures/measurements of one of the rentals in the parking lot. That definitely (if I can actually get it for that price, and my car weight is in their acceptable) will work for getting my car down to Austin. It's a smaller fullsize, but 2 door convertible, so the convertible frame is a lot heavier in order to get a "passable" crash rating (lack of B pillars and such make it flex too much so they make thicker doors, thicker A piller, everything on modern convertible is beefed up and heavier).

The biggest thing your math showed that I didn't know is how far to put the towed vehicle wheel/axle centerline in front of the dolly spindle/axle centerline in order to make the tongue heavy enough but not too heavy.

 

[Brain75]

FWIW, that is the way I got my '48 down to Austin in the first place (the new to me ranger and my daily convertible are with me in CO, the 48 is in TX). Towed on a uhaul dolly with a uhaul truck - they forced me into their 2nd biggest size vehicle (which was more than I needed for gear or towing), and then the day of they switched it to the biggest - on the far side of town clear across denver (east aurora to west arvada) I kinda vowed to never use Uhaul again after that.

 

[don4331]

For U-haul, the 12" more less is fixed by the "ramp stop/tire strap". Smaller/larger tires makes very little difference as the distance from centerline to stop changes at about the same rate...