Anybody towing with a 4.3 S-10?

Does anyone flat tow their ECJ5 with an S-10 2 door Blazer with 4.3? Is there enough power and stability? The S-10 weighs in at about 3300 lbs so it seems like it should be ok for short hauls.

NOTE this is NOT a thread on the good and bad of flat towing...
Just looking to see if anyone has used this machine as a tow vehicle.

Tom

 

a friend of mine towed my m38a1. he has the 4.3 in a gmc 1500 with 5 speed transmission. plenty of power. thats about all i got on the subject

 

I towed my 67 cj5 from greenville sc to uhwarrie about 260 miles two years ago with a 91 s-10 pick-up, 4.3 auto with no problems.

 

Plenty of power to pull it, but it will NEVER stop it. Kinda a bummer when it passes you.

 

I flate tow with my 05' Colorado. More than enought power and brakings great too. Even tho the towing rating droped to 4000 lbs. I'm sure I could out run a S-10 while towing, Jeep only weights 3100 lbs.

At one time I towed with my old 84' S-10 (2.8ltr V-6). Needed more power still towed it.

 

I've flat towed my '70 all over the place with my '01 S-10 crew cab. 4.3/auto/4wd/3.73 gears/4 wheel disc. FWIW, I can set the cruise at about 60mph to keep the tranny from hunting gears, and feel very safe stopping from that speed. Longest haul for me flat towing one direction was 975mi. I get 14mpg average hwy when flat towing. You can see the tow bar I use in this pic:


Not too proud to admit, but one time I decided I would do a mpg road test of windshield folded down vs. windshield up while towing. My thoughts were that drag would be reduced by lowering the top and windshield and thus increase mpg. The results were, (1) there was no measureable increase in mpg, and (2) well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves of what happens when the hood strap comes undone at 60mph:

 

Not to hammer the point, but you do not have the brakes to stop a 3000 pound Jeep with an s-10 if any more then a long planned slow stop. Any more then fender bender crash and your insurance is never going to cover you because you did not have brakes on the load. Any load over 40% of the towing vehicles weight(or over 3000 lbs.) requires brakes in almost all states. Just because you can do it in a pinch, doesn't make it something you should do as a habit.

 

I did this to for about a year with 2 different trailers for work everyday.
With a S-10 4.3 manule

Most days OK but when you get into any weird situation your in trouble.
I did it for work and felt I had no choice but its a real bad idea.

With trailer brakes it works better.
But the bottom line is the S-10 just doesnt wiegh enough to keep control all the time.


I would say having some real life experience.
Dont do it...

Its not just your jeep it outher people's lifes on the road to....

 

*Shrug* I've never had a problem with the 4 wheel ABS discs. Plenty of brakes. Wouldn't do it in the wet, but I don't even like towing with a full size in the wet. Also, be careful on gravel, especially when braking around a corner. But again, that goes for any flat towing, not just S10. In the dry, anything 3500 or less (i.e. ECJ5) has worked fine.

 

I forget sometimes that there are parts of the world that are flat. Most of the braking issues with flat towing are while going down a grade. Our little hills are what they call mountains on the East coast.

 

Even with a 13,000 lb tow vehicle, I'e felt the 3B towed behind trying to push the rear end out while braking on a corner...