1963mercury Welcome to and th4e Slick60s Forum.

Why don't you talk him into delivering it? That is one hellava trip for an old dog.



John

 

If you asked a Ford salesman back in 1964, he would go to a data book and find this.

 

It's gotta earn it's keep

Also, it's going to be an adventure on the way back w/ the airstream operationally & we'll take our time seeing some new vistas.

I'm going to look into some performance parts for the mileage maker. Also, contemplating bolting an overdrive system to the 3 speed.

 

Appreciate the picture. Just saw it after replying.

I guess it's too much trailer for the truck as I figure it weighs over 2,000lbs.

Rats...

 

Moving it a few miles would probably be ok. Texas too Alberta! Wow. I towed a Dodge D150 behind mine on a car trailer for about 10 miles on back roads. That with the weight of the trailer was probably about 6000lbs. I have the 292 and a four speed with 3.89 gears. Pulling it up to speed was no issue at all. Stopping was a real PIA. Long planed braking and down shifting. Trailer brakes would have helped.

After about 10 years of pounding around with various F150s with 300/4.9 sixes I finaly realized that I need more truck. Coming in to the scales at 15k with a half ton pickup made people raise their eyebrows. The found it amazing that I used a six cyl engine to pull with too. I got tired of fighting sway and headwinds at 45 mph and winding out in third going up hills at 35 mph. I broke down and bought a massive gas pig F350 V10. Now I don't even have to worry about hills and wind and sway.............Just rather or not I will make it to the next gas station.

I do miss my old straight six four speed trucks. If I could find a nice 75-96 F250 or F350 set up like that I would get rid of this gas pig in a heartbeat. Problom is that all those types of trucks were sold to commercial and government users and ran in to the ground.

If you had a F350 I would say go for it. The big brakes and deep gears would probably work fine with a bit of effort up and down hills. But based on the bit of towing I have used my 64 for I would limit it to about 3500lbs or so and even at that number trailer brakes would be great. Your truck will move that camper. Just not stop it worth a shart and going up hills will take a long time in second gear.

 

Boss, We all have a right to be stoopid if we choose to be, you are talking about using a 50+ year old truck with the smallest engine available make a 2000 +/- trip one way through the hill country side of this continent, grab a travel trailer and drag it back home.

Why don't you rent a truck or van to make that long trip with? Once you have it home then take it out on a 50 mile camping trip until you get a better feel for what your truck is capable of doing.


John