Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

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Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

September 15, 2022, 06:45:16 pm

Is it possible, or safe, to tow a car with a 22 foot LD with a Chevy 350 engine? Thank you!

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #1 – September 15, 2022, 07:12:31 pm

I owned a 1983 LD, with the 350 V8 for eight years. The 350 barely has enough power to pull itself and the cooling system is prone to overheating on hot days and while climbing. Carburated versions have even more problems.
I tried towing a couple of light trailers and it felt like it was overburdened.
IMO, I suggest updating to a 2004 or newer model if you wish to tow and not have issues.
We bought a 2003 E450 23.5' FL the first week they were available for order.

Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #2 – September 15, 2022, 10:18:21 pm

I owned a 22' 1985 Lazy Daze with Chevy 350 V8 for six years, and I can confirm what Larry said: unfortunately, that setup has no power to spare.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #3 – September 16, 2022, 11:27:23 am

Ditto. I owned an '85 TK and they are pretty gutless, power-wise. Larry's suggestion to get a newer model is spot on if you want to tow.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #4 – September 16, 2022, 02:14:50 pm

Having said what you can't do with a 22' LD that has a Chevy V8, let's talk about what you can do. Here's how I dealt with not having a towed car.

Before setting out on a camping trip, I'd stock up on food, water, and propane. I'd dump my holding tanks. I'd camp for a week or two. (I like to get to know an area.) Then I'd head for my next campground... but along the way, I'd stop in a town where I could get food, water, and propane. I'd find a place to dump my tanks and unload my trash. If necessary, I'd do a couple loads of laundry. I might pick up some General Delivery mail that I'd had forwarded to me at the post office there. I'd spend half a day or so doing all my errands; then head onward to my destination.

In other words, moving day was always errand day. It took some planning ahead, and of course it worked best when the drive between campgrounds was only a few hours, leaving time for errands... but it worked.

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new here, Cindy, but I wanted to make the point that many Lazy Daze owners do travel without a towed car. I did it for eight years, including four years as a full-timer, and I enjoyed every trip.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #5 – September 16, 2022, 02:25:58 pm

Quote from: Andy Baird - September 16, 2022, 02:14:50 pm

Having said what you can't do with a 22' LD that has a Chevy V8, let's talk about what you can do. Here's how I dealt with not having a towed car.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new here, Cindy, but I want to make the point that many Lazy Daze owners do travel without a towed car. I did it for eight years, including four years as a full-timer, and I enjoyed every trip.

We too enjoyed eight years with our 1983 22' FL but were frustrated in its inability to travel down dirt roads comfortably or not at all. Walking only gets you so far.
Buying the V10-powered 2003 LD was a game changer, now we could tow a small Jeep, allowing us to more deeply explore the areas we were visiting. We love the backcountry.
Many are happy not to deal with the hassle of towing and do just fine, we, on the other hand, feel the toad has vastly increased our enjoyment of traveling. YMMV

Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #6 – September 16, 2022, 02:38:18 pm

While we're on the subject of the Chevy V8, here are a few things to watch out for with that engine.

1. Belt problems. The way that engine is designed, the four belts don't get much traction, so if they loosen, they can start to slip. (You may or may not hear them squealing.) This is especially true of the belt that drives the hydro boost pump, which supplies your power steering and power brakes. When that belt fails, your steering becomes very stiff and your brakes require a lot more foot pressure--not fun, I can tell you from experience. Worse, the broken belt can get tangled with other moving parts and damage things like the engine's water pump--that also happened to me, and it was expensive to fix the damage. I had three breakdowns with my '85 Twin/King, and all three were caused by broken belts.

Carrying a spare for the hydro boost pump belt is a good idea. And if the belts start to squeal because they're loosening up, don't make the mistake I did and try to fix the problem with spray-on belt dressing. It'll stop the squealing temporarily, but it will actually let the belt stretch even more, so the problem will come back worse than ever. By the time I realized what was going on, I was having to stop every twenty minutes or so to spray on more belt dressing. (Those who were at the Golden Caravan get-together may remember Gertie squealing as I pulled in.) Have a mechanic tighten those belts to spec, and retighten at the slightest hint of looseness.

2. Cracked exhaust manifolds. There's a lot of heat in a very tight space under the hood, and it's hard on parts. Be prepared to replace one or both manifolds if they start to leak. (A mechanic can check.)

3. "Cooked" starter motor. If you've been driving for a while, and after stopping for gas you can't get the engine to turn over, the starter may have overheated. Wait half an hour for things to cool down and try again. If that doesn't help, or if the problem recurs, you may end up having to replace the starter. There are insulation kits for these old starters that can help protect them from the excessive heat in the engine compartment.

All engines have their weak points. Even the generally very reliable Ford V10 in its early years (pre-2004) was prone to blowing spark plugs out of the block due to shallow threads. But if you're aware of what to expect, you can be prepared to deal with problems if and when they arise.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #7 – September 16, 2022, 02:43:07 pm

Andy said it well, it takes a little planning, we put on 100K miles with many trips across country without ever trailering. Yes, we rented a car a few times to tour the area, and Enterprize was amazing on picking us up at various campsites, but overall, with the savings of gas and frustration, when traveling long distances, not having a toad was just fine for us. On the other hand, now that our trips are short and stays are longer having a way to get away from the campsite is welcome. Notice, maybe that is one of the reasons we went from our 2000 MB to

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #8 – September 17, 2022, 07:02:28 pm

Thank you all for your replies! They were thorough and contain a LOT of information, which may very well come in handy in the future. We are going to look at a Lazy Daze for sale several states away and were wondering about towing our car back with it. That looks like not a good idea now. Thank you all again!

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #9 – September 17, 2022, 09:14:30 pm

Towing requires a towbar, base plate, towing brake, and towing lights, a three to four thousand dollar investment, and isn't something that can be done overnight. Base plates are vehicle specific and not transferable, pick a car that still has a lot of good miles left in it. It's an expensive investment.
Most cars are not flat towable, some good information below on what is towable.
Towing Guides towing four wheels down

I strongly suggest saving and buying a later model LD (ideally a 2004 or newer), the Chevy chassis LDs are underpowered and are not as robust as the E450 chassis, a great platform in comparison to the Chevy. The last Chevy-based LDs were sold 24 years ago.

If you insist on a Chevy-based LD, do not buy anything older than 1991, a year with big improvements- fuel injection, 4-speed overdrive, and the one-piece front cap. Older models have the leak-prone multipiece front cap and an ancient device called a carburetor, something 95% of auto mechanics have zero experience with.
And the biggest suggestion is to have it inspected by a qualified tech, geriatric RVs can hold all sorts of hidden damage, not noticeable by un-experienced eyes.
Any LD built on a Chevy chassis is going to be very old and falls into what I call the 'hobby' class of RVs, a continuous project for a handy person with time, tools, and money and a place to keep it. Money-pit RVs are the norm for older LDs, and any other old RV.
90% of the old rigs I look at have rot damage, almost always from unmaintained seals.

RVing is not a cheap lifestyle.
Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #10 – September 17, 2022, 09:31:52 pm

Quote from: Andy Baird - September 16, 2022, 02:38:18 pm

While we're on the subject of the Chevy V8, here are a few things to watch out for with that engine.
1. Belt problems. The way that the engine is designed, the four belts don't get much traction, so if they loosen, they can start to slip. (You may or may not hear them squealing.)

The few of us left here that owned Chevy, G-30 LDs know about the belt problem that wasn't cured until the late 80's when they switched to a serpentine belt, eliminating the four-belt arrangement.
If any one of the four belts broke, they all broke and would get tangled into an impossible mess that had to be cut apart, piece by piece. Sometimes additional damage was done to the pulleys, as Andy experienced.
We always carried a full set of four belts, a spare fan clutch, and a sharp utility knife.

A few other common 350 problems were leaking carburetors, sinking carburetor floats, failed clutch fans, and seized distributor advance mechanisms.

Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #11 – September 17, 2022, 10:06:39 pm

Our experience is different than others. But we have an 89 g30 22’ tk and most of the other replies were about earlier versions.

Ours is set up for towing with a 3000lb hitch.
We have towed a loaded trailer twice, highest about 2000 lb weight total (trailer and contents).

I was amazed how well the LD did including up (and down) some 6% grades.
It almost seemed the LD engine ran smother and quieter going uphill with the extra load (similar to putting a strong load on our generator when exercising it).

We felt felt no struggling at that load, in fact we didn’t even feel like we were towing - except for down a 6% grade when we picked up speed a little faster than normal (3% grade down made no difference).

The speed up a 6% grade that was real long slowed down 5 mph more than without towing, but short stretches uphill at a 6% grade towing was the same speed as not towing (45 mph - that speed feels good for both us drivers, we drive a little more conservative than others).

FYI our hitch has the rating listed on a label at the side of the hitch. We have not set up our car for towing (and might not before we get a larger rv), but our car would be within that 3000 lb limit our hitch has. We would plan to take the car off to drive it up steep grades just to be safe.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #12 – September 17, 2022, 10:24:00 pm

The '82 Fleetwood Jamboree I bought new was on the Chevy chassis with the 350 engine. The only problem I ever had with that chassis was in 1990 on a long trip a plastic (nylon) gear in the side housing of the transmission stripped while in Newfoundland. Its purpose was to determine when the trans needed to upshift. When it went out it would not shift from first gear but reverse did work. A Chevy dealer happened to have a spare gear and got us on our way later. Thats not the end of the story. We left Newfoundland and crossed our country mostly on US 50 all the way to Utah. Returning to Florida the new gear stripped east of El Paso, TX. We were towed 120 miles back to El Paso to the Chevy dealer there. They found that the metal housing containing the plastic part had a bent gear shaft causing the problem which was then replaced. No further problems. We traded the Jamboree with 85,000 miles for the Barth in 1992. We had nine good years in the Jamboree which included 5 trips to Newfoundland by then. Currently I have traveled back to the "Rock" 23 times and hope to return in the future.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #13 – September 18, 2022, 04:07:19 pm

"A few other common 350 problems were leaking carburetors, sinking carburetor floats, failed clutch fans..."

Oh, yes--I experienced a failed fan clutch in Gertie. It made the engine so continuously noisy that I thought my transmission was stuck in first gear!

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #14 – September 19, 2022, 11:38:11 am

Quote from: Mike Coachman - September 17, 2022, 10:24:00 pm

The '82 Fleetwood Jamboree I bought new was on the Chevy chassis with the 350 engine. The only problem I ever had with that chassis was in 1990 on a long trip a plastic (nylon) gear in the side housing of the transmission stripped while in Newfoundland. Its purpose was to determine when the trans needed to upshift. When it went out it would not shift from first gear but reverse did work.

Forgot about that problem. Our transmission's governor broke on the shore of Lake Mead, at the west end of the Grand Canyon.
It was a 79-mile drive, all in first gear on the road's shoulder, from Temple Bar Marina to Kingman, Arizona.
We were extremely lucky to find a transmissions shop open on a Sunday. The mechanic drove it around the block them told us he knew what the issue was, a broken governor.
We walked to lunch and when we got back, it was fixed and cost only $60. We were very pleased after having visions of missing days of work and the expense of a new transmission.

Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #15 – September 20, 2022, 07:39:17 pm

Thank you all again. There is SO much information here from all of you. Sadly, we did not purchase the Lazy Daze that we went to look at. So we did not need to tow (or wonder if we could tow!) our car home behind it. Now we know lots more information for in the future. IF we are ever able to find a Lazy Daze that is the right fit for us. Thank you all again.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #16 – September 20, 2022, 08:02:08 pm

Quote from: Cindy - September 20, 2022, 07:39:17 pm

Thank you all again. There is SO much information here from all of you. Sadly, we did not purchase the Lazy Daze that we went to look at. So we did not need to tow (or wonder if we could tow!) our car home behind it. Now we know lots more information for in the future. IF we are ever able to find a Lazy Daze that is the right fit for us. Thank you all again.

When we bought our first LD, in 1995, we looked at many used LDs over a six-month period before finding a suitable one.
The search can be long. Don't get desperate and buy a lemon.

Larry

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #17 – September 20, 2022, 08:52:09 pm

Quote from: Cindy - September 20, 2022, 07:39:17 pm

Thank you all again. There is SO much information here from all of you. Sadly, we did not purchase the Lazy Daze that we went to look at. So we did not need to tow (or wonder if we could tow!) our car home behind it. Now we know lots more information for in the future. IF we are ever able to find a Lazy Daze that is the right fit for us. Thank you all again.

Don’t give up hope.

I had two failed attempts purchasing a used Lazy Daze before I found the one I bought in March, both experiences gave me knowledge of how to evaluate a used rig, finding folks to do inspections and confidence to quickly pull the trigger on the actual purchase.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #18 – September 22, 2022, 09:22:57 am

Quote from: Jane and Scott - September 17, 2022, 10:06:39 pm

Our experience is different than others. But we have an 89 g30 22’ tk and most of the other replies were about earlier versions.

Ours is set up for towing with a 3000lb hitch.
We have towed a loaded trailer twice, highest about 2000 lb weight total (trailer and contents).

I was amazed how well the LD did including up (and down) some 6% grades.
It almost seemed the LD engine ran smother and quieter going uphill with the extra load (similar to putting a strong load on our generator when exercising it).

We felt felt no struggling at that load, in fact we didn’t even feel like we were towing - except for down a 6% grade when we picked up speed a little faster than normal (3% grade down made no difference).

The speed up a 6% grade that was real long slowed down 5 mph more than without towing, but short stretches uphill at a 6% grade towing was the same speed as not towing (45 mph - that speed feels good for both us drivers, we drive a little more conservative than others).

FYI our hitch has the rating listed on a label at the side of the hitch. We have not set up our car for towing (and might not before we get a larger rv), but our car would be within that 3000 lb limit our hitch has. We would plan to take the car off to drive it up steep grades just to be safe.

Thanks for sharing this! Harvey is an 89 and has the same changes: serpentine belt (I carry a spare), EFI (no carb), and a 3000 lb hitch. I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience towing because I've wanted to try towing a light trailer (less than 2000 lbs total), but have been worried based on the other stories of 350's problems.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #19 – February 11, 2024, 02:08:22 am

It’s me again. I just found this thread that I started over a year ago and thought an update was in order. We DID finally find a Lazy Daze! We drove to look at one in Texas, and then one in Alabama, before finally ending our search—in our own state! 😳 It was pretty much a miracle. Now we are learning so much here! Thank you all for sharing your hard-earned wisdom!

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #20 – February 11, 2024, 03:41:20 am

Congratulations, Cindy! I hope your rig brings you much enjoyment. What did you end up with?

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #21 – February 11, 2024, 04:56:32 am

Thanks, Andy! We got a 24-foot 2000 twin king. And it’s even in my husband’s favorite color, light blue. It checked off all of our boxes, and had a few extras. We’ve also found a few extra repairs, though I suspect that comes with most older rigs.

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #22 – February 12, 2024, 03:18:27 am

Hi Cindy; Congratulations on your new to you Lazy Daze rig. When I ordered my blue 'TK from Ed Newton in August of 1999 I chose the Ford E-350 chassis. At the time Ed had two Chevy chassis left that he was trying to sell. With 'at cost' pricing about $4k discount.
I got the V-10. It was delivered on Valentines Day 2000. Sounds like your rig was one of the last Chevy chassis. Unfortunately my rig came with the standard 1999 configuration. I did get a $2k discount. A few things changed with the 2000. With a vintage rig also I'm always interested on any difficulties you had with yours. It helps me anticipate future problems. May I ask how many miles you have on yours? And options the previous owner(s) may have added? RonB

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #23 – February 13, 2024, 09:24:03 am

Hi fellow Laze Daze folks.
It has been awhile.
On towing a "toad," we started about two years ago pulling a 1995 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4 with our 1997 Mid-bath. There is a lot to learn about what works and what doesn't even dragging a vehicle behind you.
We chose this toad because of it's light weight (2,100#) and trail-head abilities along with the ability to go down a freeway at 65 for exploring. Plus it was able to be flat towed if equipped correctly.
Because we live in Northern California, any RV trip is going to go over mountains. You feel the toad back there then. Otherwise, because of it's "lightweight, it actually doesn't even lower my MPG.
I use a Scan gauge to monitor transmission temperature, engine temperature, incoming air temperature, and MPG. The transmission temperature is the critical temperature when towing because of the load. With the 1997, I only have three gears plus overdrive.
My hobby now, after retirement, is building these little toads for motor home folks. My 15-year-old granddaughter and I build four a year. We started 15 months ago. They are all two-door 4x4 Suzuki Sidekicks or Geo Trackers, 1991 to 1998. We recondition them. Our schedule is full until the end of this year. We have built four and have three in the works.
As a hobby, I am in no rush. I like building them for folks and try to build them to the standards of how Lazy Daze build our motorhomes. Fun times in the garage.
Happy trails,
Rod

Re: Towing with a 22’ 350 Chevy LD?

Reply #24 – February 13, 2024, 11:03:02 am

Hi Rod; Good to see you back here. My Tracker hasn't been used much lately. It is a '92 with the lower horsepower two valves per cylinder. The automatic transmission keeps the RPM very high at 70 mph, so I just drive it 65 or under mostly. Petroworks in Fallbrook gets my vote. Sounds like you have a good 'hobby'. RonB

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