Can anyone tell me the maximum weight that my 1989 Bronco II can tow? In the event I need to tow a trailer that exceeds the maximum allowed weight, are there modifications I can make to the vehicle to permit this? My vehicle has a new 2.9L engine, a Class III hitch, and four wheel drive. Is the weakest link in the towing scheme typically lack of a transmission cooler?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Don't even think about towing ANYTHING heavier than the weight of four adults without a tranny cooler. The bigger, the better. But my experience, with a rebuilt auto has been good. I have the smallest one available and have had no problems pulling a 14ft fiberglass travel trailer with gear. I have found that, typically the auto will shift down to late so do alot of manual selection of gears. If it gets really slow, I have even gone into low range with the transfer case (not necessarily with hubs locked) to avoid "lugging".

If I had installed the cooler myself, I also would have put in an oil temp gage. Or at least put the cooler in series with the rad cooling. It would give a more accurate indication of what is actually going on.

As far as capacity goes. When I looked into it for my '87, one of the manuals said 5000#! (must have been downhill,on the prairies at night!) My local shop recommended keeping the towed vehicle weight to 2500#.

Check the rest of the message board. There are some other discussions on the same topic. Hope this helps.

 

If your engine is strong the only other thing I could think of is having an extra leaf added to your rear springs.

 

Well my 2.8 carberated
stander 85 bronco 2 will drag 2.6 metric tons of concrete in block format from a stand still and it is all stock had to move a big old retainging wall block out of the driveway