Towing with my 86.... hints, tips, essentials?

[Bextreme04]

Oh, and it has 4.10 gears and 35x12.5" E-rated tires

 

[bucket]

To each their own I suppose. Like you, I’ve towed a lot of different trailers, from AZ to AK and WA to WI and I’d take an equal weight flatbed with a short (height) load over most any travel trailer or even enclosed cargo trailer (albeit better than a TT usually) about 11 times out of 10.
Wind resistance of a flat nose high profile trailer is much worse than a trailer with no nose.
Tail wagging the dog is more perceptible in most cases.
Cross winds. Yup flatbed ftw here.
Vertical center of gravity. Another + for the flatbed.
That’s like saying a 4000lb truck camper hauls the same as a 4000lb pallet of bricks in the back of a pickup truck. They’re completely different.
It was super obvious to me once we got a truck camper about 10 years ago.
Towing the boat, prior to the TC, got x.x mpg.
Hauling just the TC, got about the same mileage. Doubling up the Tc and boat behind, mileage didn’t go down appreciably. And the boat anchor on the hitch actually decreased body roll a little bit with the camper. In essence, the wind resistance of the TC and higher CoG of the load from the camper basically erased the boat from the equation as to how hard the truck was working.
Alas I’m getting off topic.
Yes a big block C20 in good running order will tow that camper alright.
Although the lack of tongue weight (I understand why, most euro tow rigs are German or British suvs which are far better suited to hauling kids, groceries and ass than they are hauling a camper like that that “should” have 600-800lbs tongue weight to help with stability.

Don't get me wrong, I was shocked that it tows as well as it does. I was expecting it to be far more of a wind drag, much like one of the enclosed trailers we used to have at work. I don't remember what it weighed or exactly what size it was. But it was roughly 18 ft long, at least 7ft tall inside, fairly wide and had a V-nose. I don't care what kind of pickup you pulled it with, your foot was to the floor on the interstate with any kind of headwind. It was a miserable trailer to pull at highway speeds.