Re: towing with a volkswagen bus?
Years ago I owned a 1970 VW bus, I regularly towed a snow mobile trailer, a pop up camper, and several bass boats with it.
I did however have a custom built step bumper, aftermarket clutch, and various engine upgrades done to that bus.
It never gave me a minutes concern towing. I even towed a car trailer a few times with a 63 Chevy Impala convertible on it.
The best improvement I made was the last motor I had built for it, at nearly 2.4L with dual Weber carbs and a custom cam, aftermarket cylinder heads and a balance job, it ran like it had a V8 in it.
The longest drive towing the camper, which weighed in somewhere around 1,800 lbs, was from NJ to TX by way of a trip out to Table Rock lake for some fishing, then back to NJ by way of FL, all with a 14' boat tied to the roof, four people, and a van full of supplies for the trip.
We carried along both a trolling motor and a gas motor for the boat, two big propane bottles for cooking and heat, and a enough tools to rebuild the thing if needed. It did fine, never missed a beat. That was back 1985. Later on, I bought a larger camper, which made a few trips with the VW but by that time the VW was pretty well used up and I moved onto a Dodge van with a camper conversion. I sure do miss the trips with the VW, mainly when I think about how cheap that thing ran. Although, with today's heat wave, I wouldn't miss its lack of air conditioning, or its all but total lack of heat in the winter on the road. (The reason why I added a propane powered heater).
