Type44Q
New Member
- Joined
- June 23, 2010
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Eastern Oklahoma
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '90 Aerostar
Morning! 
Any of you have any experience four-wheel towing an Aerostar? We have a real basic '90 extended 2WD 3.0 and we'd like to be able to pull her behind our '83 ~30' ClassA motorhome (CHevy chassis w/454). An added factor here is that we're on an extremely tight budget but not willing (some of you will be relieved to hear) to sacrifice safety.
I'm no expert on towing whatsoever but I think I've narrowed down the variables involved in four-wheel towing her to the following:
Braking (since she exceeds the '3000lb max towable weight w/o brakes' trailer laws of the states we expect to be visiting). I guess I need to install (or have installed) something called a 'Brake Buddy?'
Tow bar + base plate - the tow bar I can findfor about sixty bucks plus tax, which is within our budget but $300+ for a base plate is out of the question (I only consider the van to be worth about $500!). Fortunately, I have a friend who can probably fabricate/install a custom plate of some sort for a fraction of that, I just don't know what his schedule is right now and time is somewhat of the essence. FYI, my friend is a professionally welder and machinist with decades of experience and I trust his skills so whatever he's able to devise would be sturdier than a brick $hithouse. Also, the appearance of the Aerostar (when he's done) won't be an issue for us; I don't think it'd be possible to make it any uglier than it is, regardless of what's attached to the front (oh, I don't know, I could start flattened squirrels or other roadkill to to the front bumper, I suppose that might do it... but i digress).
Lastly, drivetrain issues; would I need to disconnect the driveshaft or could I just stick her in neutral? (This isn't my area of expertise; I've mainly owned older German cars with standard transmissions). Would disconnecting the driveshaft be enough?
Any thoughts??
Any of you have any experience four-wheel towing an Aerostar? We have a real basic '90 extended 2WD 3.0 and we'd like to be able to pull her behind our '83 ~30' ClassA motorhome (CHevy chassis w/454). An added factor here is that we're on an extremely tight budget but not willing (some of you will be relieved to hear) to sacrifice safety. I'm no expert on towing whatsoever but I think I've narrowed down the variables involved in four-wheel towing her to the following:
Braking (since she exceeds the '3000lb max towable weight w/o brakes' trailer laws of the states we expect to be visiting). I guess I need to install (or have installed) something called a 'Brake Buddy?'
Tow bar + base plate - the tow bar I can findfor about sixty bucks plus tax, which is within our budget but $300+ for a base plate is out of the question (I only consider the van to be worth about $500!). Fortunately, I have a friend who can probably fabricate/install a custom plate of some sort for a fraction of that, I just don't know what his schedule is right now and time is somewhat of the essence. FYI, my friend is a professionally welder and machinist with decades of experience and I trust his skills so whatever he's able to devise would be sturdier than a brick $hithouse. Also, the appearance of the Aerostar (when he's done) won't be an issue for us; I don't think it'd be possible to make it any uglier than it is, regardless of what's attached to the front (oh, I don't know, I could start flattened squirrels or other roadkill to to the front bumper, I suppose that might do it... but i digress).
Lastly, drivetrain issues; would I need to disconnect the driveshaft or could I just stick her in neutral? (This isn't my area of expertise; I've mainly owned older German cars with standard transmissions). Would disconnecting the driveshaft be enough?
Any thoughts??
