Towing a Chevy Belair

So we have inherited a 1957 Chevy Belair in pretty good condition. It is about 3 1/2 hours away from our house. I went to try and rent an auto trailer from U-Haul today and they said that their system says my truck can’t haul this car.

the Belair weighs around 3500 and the trailer weighs around 2200 which puts me under 6500. I feel like I can do it. Are they not going to let me because it is almost at the limit? Anyone have experience with hauling heavy steel vintage cars?

 

Says who?

I pulled a dead BMW with a chain.
Moved plenty of times with a full Uhaul.

the Tacoma can supposedly tow up to 10k lbs. people have probably towed cars.

there are vehicles with aluminum unibody at higher tow rating compared to Tacoma with a steel frame and hitch not to mention the spec on that.

if I needed to tow a car, I would probably tow a car.
Almost did. Buddy wanted to buy some CEL and of course asked to use the truck but ended up not going through with it. Otherwise probably would’ve done it no problem.

oh my bad I see you said Uhaul. Ah yes the great Uhaul.
I remember when the worker had one tooth face down hood up pretending to be lord of the rings incomprehensible babble

or when the other guy at rental not only hooked my shit up wrong but gave me octagon flat spot old under rating tires that blew out in the middle of nowhere
Not sure how that passed inspection or even a 5 second walk around.

Listening to them got me sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere tilted scraping on the ground.
No compensation either. “Hey we fucked up and messed up your shit. oh well.”

bel air weighs 3500? I wouldn’t call that heavy vintage steel.
There are modern German cars that weigh more than that.

also I don’t know the difference but maybe another option is a partial trailer for two wheels and figure out what to do with the other two if it’s 2WD that way part of the car is on the ground. If you want to.
But if the car is in need of work maybe you don’t want to.
Like if it has bad front bearings and you leave the front down and lock steering somehow maybe that’s not the best idea to risk bearings letting go, etc.

it is probably more like 40k when it’s not for the Tacoma. Doesn’t have the engine, transmission, frame, suspension, large heavy duty parts, power, etc for that versus things more suited like 2500HD, 3500 dually, etc.

 

@TuckHolladay your 2nd gen can tow that 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier just fine (extremely light weight) wink wink nudge nudge, never disclose what car you intend to tow as they never rate anything in their system correctly nor their own equipment correctly. You know your truck limits, research the trailer you will use. Eliminate their idiocy and be safe because as said above the single tooth mouth breathers get paid minimum wage and still fail at their jobs.

 

Towed an Alero across the country, no problem. Better if it had been on a full size truck but the taco is all I had. Drive it slow. Take your time.

 

I recently tried to rent a tow dolly to get a gen 1 Tacoma I bought 15 miles to my house. U-Haul said no to my 06 4X4 V6 Tacoma.
Why not rent their rated truck and tow dolly? Wear and tear on them and not your truck might be worth it.

 

Yeah, 13 years ago they didn’t fuzz. They’ve gotten stricter. I had a buddy with a single cab early 2000s F150 that U-Haul gave a no go for towing. You might just have to try different U-Hauls and see if they rent it for you.

 

Your truck can PULL 6500 lbs, but you don't have enough payload to handle the tongue weight of a trailer much over 4500lbs. You need a truck with more payload.