CBR

M.M. has one, he might know.

How does it tow? I figure with front tire smoking drive, it likely does pretty well down the highway. Doubt it is much good pulling up a ramp, but that is ok as I don't do that anyway.

Juan

My 74 pulls my boat reel nise.

It squishe down in back thow

CBR

Good to know "Juan". What size/weight is the boat, double or triple axle trailor, and what is the official tow capacity of the Eldo. Air shocks in the back would solve the sag problem. Thanks!

I used to have a gorgeous 67 in firemist blue, with an air adjustable rear end and that thing used to stop traffic it was so pretty. I was interested to see that the 67 Eldo made the "ten coolest cars of all time" list last year.

Mine had the drum brakes which were really dumb on a 5,000 pound car. But, the 429/472? engine really moved it along nicely. The 500 Cu inch engine and disc brakes in the 1976 would be even better.

Chris Sunkin

This comment was in a post I made about a week ago in another thread- it was about a Boating Magazine article on tow rigs- probably in the early '80's. The guy had a late-70's (full size, 500cid) Eldo Biarritz convertible he was pulling a 28 Cigarette with. I'm sure he was grossly exceeding his towing capacity. I wouldn't think it would safely pull more than about 3,000#

CBR

Thanks, but you might be surprised...... 1960s and 1970s Caddies used to rule the freeways, legally towing huge airstream trailers of 10,000 to 13,000 pounds.

They were the preferred tow machines of the time. The airstream trailor websites seem to have what I am looking for. So far class three hitches for eldos are pretty common, but I'd prefer a class five hitch. The 500 CI motors had something like 350 pounds torque, and are still the preferred Florida airboat engines.

Jupiter Sunsation

The late Eldo's were dogs when compared to the earlier cars. The post 72's had less than 200 HP due to low compression/ smog controls. The 500 ci cars suck when compared to a 472 Caddy's.

Cig35Mistress

I think the Eldo that was pulling the 28' Cigarette belonged to Lucky Strike, here on the board. I vaugely remember seeing a post with him pulling a Cig with a Caddy and thought it was pretty cool.

CBR

Thanks Jupiter, you are right. I know a few people that can fix that HP issue. <gg> My 1967 Eldo could smoke the front tires halfway down the block. I broke three motor mounts over time on the thing, and it only had three holdling the motor for stock. Wacky huh? Thought it was a way prettier car than my 1969 GTOS, fantastic land yacht on the freeway, felt like greased lightening.

Cig35 I have since talked to someone else who used an Eldo as a tow machine, said it was great! Actually looking more appealing than driving a dually around town for just two long tows north/south each year. Have to think about reliability issues though, and finding a caddy dealer who remembers how to fix such a thing.

Chris Sunkin

When you asked "how much" I assumed you meant legally/sensibly. It might get 10K-plus moving but it certainly won't stop it well and it definitely won't handle it in an emergency avoidance situation. In addition, when you do have a mishap, your insurance company will deny your claim as you were significantly exceeding the towing capacity of the vehicle. Then you have the civil and possible criminal ramifications if someone gets hurt.

Been alot of posts lately on towing with an under-capacity vehicle and I'm astonished at how many people think it's OK.

"...legally towing huge airstream trailers of 10,000 to 13,000 pounds." It takes a dually Superduty to LEGALLY pull this much weight. The tires on the Eldo weren't rated at anything near that weight, let alone anything else bolted to them.

"They were the preferred tow machines of the time." Maybe for a scant few who were more concerned with the appearance of their towing package. I was a mechanic at the local dealership back in the mid-70's and I don't recall too many people towing with them. These were big, mushy luxo-boats made for highway cruising.

Iggy

My dad used to pull a dual axle Holiday Rambler trailer with his mid 70's Caddy. He had no trouble, but he did have a weight distribution hitch on it too.