I am looking at buying a tent trailer, which is a pretty low profiletrailer, weight aprox 2900 lbs, equipped with electric brakes.From what I read, the towing capacity of my 89 740 (nonturbo) is 3500 lbs.Is this realistic? I would love to hear from Volvo owners who have pulled atrailer.I also have a 94 850, same towing capacity but more horsepower. Anyone outthere have experience with the 850 for towing?My concern is that I don't want to be sloggin up a grade at high rpm, doing45 mph each time I come to a hill. Can a Volvo pull the trailer andmaintain freeway speeds?I look forward to hearing some tales!Allen

You need to be concerned not only about performance, but also aboutstability. If the trailer is too heavy relative to the towcar, it cansometimes induce uncontrollable snaking motions - many of which result inaccidents.In the UK, a good rule of thumb is that the total weight of the trailershould not be more than 85% of the *unladen* weight of the towcar. Limitsimposed by car manufacturers are often higher than this, because they tendto ignore the stability considerations!In the case of your 850, I don't know the exact unladen weight - but wouldhazzard a guess that it's not much more than 2900 lbs - so that your trailerwould be approaching 100% of this rather than the recommended 85%. Havingsaid that, we don't use electric brakes in the UK - and I don't know whetherthe recommendation would be different if we did. If, for example, you couldapply the trailer brakes without applying the towcar brakes (can you?) youmay be able to recover from a snaking motion.Equally, I don't know the...

Then I'd look at a small 13-16 ft enclosed trailer. Rainproof and thesame weight as the travel trailer. A real bathroom and fridge, forinstance. Airstream makes a nice little model. Pricey, though - butused, they are a fraction of their MSRP. you go down the list, several make tiny enclosed trailers,which are superior, IMO, to a large tent trailer. but no real large bed for the adults.º16TNot my cup of tea, but º14TItty-bitty.(searches more - gheez what a lot of data -

Can I pull a trailer with my 740?

Jan 04, 2004 21 Replies

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Joseph Oberlander 22 years ago

Ah. Makes sense now. Neat how they made it capable of towing.

Makes you wonder why new vehicles aren't.(1000 lbs isn't towing, IMO)

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Joseph Oberlander 22 years ago

Then I'd look at a small 13-16 ft enclosed trailer. Rainproof and the same weight as the travel trailer. A real bathroom and fridge, for instance. Airstream makes a nice little model. Pricey, though - but used, they are a fraction of their MSRP.

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If you go down the list, several make tiny enclosed trailers, which are superior, IMO, to a large tent trailer.

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but no real large bed for the adults.

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my cup of tea, but lighter.http://www.bonair-rv.com/eng/travel_trailers/default.asp?mº14TItty-bitty.

(searches more - gheez what a lot of data -

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