Towing capability

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Gimmie1965

There's a junkyard in pueblo thats about 45 min south of me that had 3 351m at one time. Was thinking about going down to see if he still had them

A 351 would definitely be an improvement over your 305, but a 401 would be better yet. There's one available near Portland, Oregon. See
https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/pts/6587789490.html The owner has lots of other '60 to '66 parts available too.

[Gimmie1965]

Bigblockv6 What truck would I be looking for that would have the 401m in it and what year range. You said as long as it had a 6 bolt flange on the crank it should drop right in. What would I be looking for. Anything external on block that would tell me that or would have to just pull the tranny and clutch to find out

[bigblockv6]

What you would be looking for is a 1966-72 7500-8500 series truck which would be in a conventional cab H or J series, Tilt Cabs L, T and W series. Non Magnum 401s from 1960-65 could be found in 6500 series Trucks such as the Conventional cabs, B series and Tilt L series, still a vast improvement over the 305 and you can always upgrade to the Magnum heads and manifolds. Looks like Ed gave you a lead on a 401, if it's within you're driving range it's worth looking into

[Gimmie1965]

Thank you. I need to head down to pueblo again and look at those. I don't remember what all he had. I know at least 1 305 and 1 351 for sure. I think he had 4 in those ranges. The one in Oregon is a little far for me right now. If it was next year definitely. The whole reason for this is we are selling everything and this will be our home. My wife is a nurse and she is going to school to get her p.a. we really thought about Washington or Oregon area. I think we are going to south Dakota for now but we will get there in the near future

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by Gimmie1965

The whole reason for this is we are selling everything and this will be our home. My wife is a nurse and she is going to school to get her p.a. we really thought about Washington or Oregon area. I think we are going to south Dakota for now but we will get there in the near future

Your story reminds me of my own. My wife and I were living in St. Louis when we got married, and both agreed we wanted to move to Washington or Oregon. The closest we could get at the time was Idaho. After 3 years there we tried again, and made it to Oregon. After travelling on vacations to 49 states, there's nowhere else I'd rather live than Oregon.

[POWERSTROKE]

After a lifetime driving trucks of ALL sizes, most terribly under-powered and some short on available speeds in the transmissions, towing a 14,000# trailer behind a 305 V-6 powered pickup in the hills and mountains out west would a very, VERY slow process. I think a medium duty truck would make more sense, bigger engine, bigger cooling system, bigger tires & BRAKES! You can't expect to increase hp in your current truck without increasing all the other systems that the truck has, like gas tank size, more HP takes more gas, I'd look for a diesel. Bigger radiator and cooling system, brakes, axles, transmissions.

If you were pulling a 14,000# trailer around off road no problem, but trying to not be an impediment to other traffic around you would be almost impossible. I've pulled trailers with around 3000-4000# with a similarly sized and powered truck, F-150 300-6 and NP-435 4-speed, and got along fine for 5-6 miles of level road. But 14,000#in hills would have best been handled with my 320 hp Cummins powered White semi-tractor. I did pull a trailer around 12,000# 200 miles on day about 12 years ago with my '96 F-250 Powerstroke on fairly flat Interstates thru northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Once I got into 5th gear I never had to downshift on a hill. My 7.3 PSD was 210 hp, 425 #/ft torque. 3.55 gears.

[Jim A]

In the almost 50 years I've had my '60 1500, I have towed some equipment rentals, as well as hay and firewood trailers.
These were short haul trips and probably all under 8000 pounds.
They pretty much felt stressed in both power and braking and required constant attention.
I just would NOT recommend towing that weight with your wonderful, old truck.
New trucks are outrageously expensive, but there are several that could do that job with ease, comfort and safety.

[TJ's GMC]

It'll tow it, won't do it fast but it will. Have towed 10k with my 64 3/4 ton and getting up to 55 was no problem. Took time but on level ground it did it. Pulling a hill downshifting to 3rd at full throttle is Not uncommon....but even on a 95 degree day the motor hardly warmed up. Stopping is the biggest concern.....even 10k coming to a stop takes effort and requires scheduling ahead of time.

Unfortunately alot of these bigger v6's are going for outrageous prices so I'd consider a gear splitter.....don't see those every day and road ranger makes one for the sm420's.

Most of the loads I hauled or more like this. She still does it with ease.

[POWERSTROKE]

After years of truck driving, and many years riding shotgun with Dad, there's NO substitute for displacement and horsepower.
Had a situation one afternoon hauling concrete, '66 White, 165 hp Cummins and Spicer 5+4 transmission, loaded with 7 cubic yards of concrete I grossed 52,000#. I followed an old lady out of town, she was driving 5 mph under the speed limit, passing her was not possible, fortunately she turned off the US route down a side road and then I had a chance to flat-foot it, but with the slight hills when I got to the big S-curves 7 miles out of town I was only going 35-40 mph, had dropped gears on uphill grades I never realized existed, normally I slowed from 55 mph to 50 for those S-curves.
That's all horsepower, or more correctly lack of hp and conservation of momentum. The newer trucks with 208 hp V-8 555 Cummins I had to slow down from about 63-64 mph to 55, even drop a gear in the Power-sapping Allison suto trans.
We had a guy on another forum that bought a million mile Volvo semi-tractor with a 450+ hp 60-series Detroit diesel, Super 10 Road-Ranger, needs a new clutch. He was determined to put a 6-71 Detroit in the truck to pull his 14,000# RV, Combined driving experience of those telling him to NOT do that was around 50-60 MILLION miles. The 6-71 was referred to as a 238, meaning 238 hp in it's most powerful tune. 305 V-6 is just over half that, with many fewer gears. Your gross weight will be just slightly less. Cruising speed much less.

Thing that impresses me the most is the fact todays's 500-600 hp trucks can run so fast and get such good mpg, 6-7 mpg is common. My old '79 White RoadBoss II with 320 hp 903 V-8 Cummins, 6-speed Spicer trans and 4.44 rear gears got about 4 to 4.25 mpg summer and 3 to 3.25 mpg winter on blended fuel. Grossed 70,000# most of the time, geared to run 67 mph at 2500 rpm, which was my usual cruising speed. I got a speeding ticket and slowed down to 62 mph and mpg really didn't improve. I forget the name of the regional carrier, but followed one of their trucks for a while on I-70 out west running 95 mph down a grade, 80 mph up the other side about 6 yrs ago. Made a quick trip to just outside Boston a week ago, most trucks running 65 mph. Funny story, took a detour from my normal route thru Chicago, jumped off onto the Skyway, My wife's first impression exactly the same as mine 35 years ago, " All that toll money to go over a Big Purple Bridge?" Ran I-94 right thru downtown, on July 4th morning, saved over an hour and almost half a tank of gas.