What are you guys towing?

[runnysucklehose]

I have seen a lot of 123 and 126 cars out there with trailer hitches on them. What exactly can you tow with one of these cars? I have a 300SD and a 300td wagon and I would like to get a hitch for one of them, any one know which would be better? What is the most any of you have towed successfully?

Joe

[vstech]

the TD has the load leveling system, so it's better suited for towing. the SD is slightly heavier, so it has a larger tow capacity, but IF towing saftey is followed, the TD can tow very heavy loads. just not fast, or down steep hills at high speeds...
John

[TheDon]

you can probably tow a trailer for like an ATV, snowmobile, bike, motorcycle, teardrop camper, drum of biodiesel or veggie... caskets

[runnysucklehose]

John,

Thanks for the info, would it be good to add a tranny cooler to the wagon before towing? Also, what kind of load weight are we talking about? I was thinking that if the load was well balanced so the tongue weight was kept low and the trailer had brakes you gould get away with pulling more weight, but just how much is safe?

[runnysucklehose]

I would like to tow a covered trailer with some musical insturaments and and a drum of WVO. I will have to start looking into what all of this will weigh.

[TheDon]

the 123 diesels already have a tranny cooler if its an automatic. If you want you can just bypass the factory one for a larger one .. if you want. The saying is If mercedes thought a bigger one was neccessary then they would have installed one. or something like that

[Hatterasguy]

My old 300SD had a trailer hitch, which I sold with the car. The PO towed jet ski's with it, and a very small utility trailer.

I was thinking about mounting it on the SDL, but I didn't want to drill holes and figured I'd never tow anything. In theory we have a a 14ft aluminum boat I could tow, but I rather not, thats what the F150 is for.

I'd like to get a little teardrop camper one of these days.

[charmalu]

when mercedes designed these cars they didn`t come with a trailer hitch.
so they most likely figured the stock trans cooler was sufficient.
add four over size adults and a trailer loaded, HMMMM bight be pushing it. so then maybe adding a larger cooler is needed,
Whats the drum of WVO for? coast to coast driving???

[R Leo]

Originally Posted by charmalu

when mercedes designed these cars they didn`t come with a trailer hitch.

They didn't come with a hitch in the US. Apparently, you've never seen a load of Germans heading out on holiday pulling an RV or seen the ads showing the UK version of the 240TD towing a boat.

Pulling a trailer can be done and I do it regularly.

[t walgamuth]

i think the owners manual on most of the 123s say 1500 wo brakes and 3000 with brakes.

if you were to tow a travel trailer weighing 3000 i would want to include an auxiliary tranny cooler. (if an automatic).

tom w

[Palangi]

Originally Posted by R Leo

Pulling a trailer can be done and I do it regularly.

Randy, How's the new tranny doing?

[Douglas.Sherida]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

i think the owners manual on most of the 123s say 1500 wo brakes and 3000 with brakes.

if you were to tow a travel trailer weighing 3000 i would want to include an auxiliary tranny cooler. (if an automatic).

tom w

3000 lbs requires brakes, in CT anyway.

[t walgamuth]

yes.

tom w

[E320wagon'94]

I saw a 300TD yesterday towing a 20ft flatbed trailer, nothing on it at the time, but I'm guessing it had to have had something on there. Was just kind of a odd sight, the trailer was longer than the car itself.
-Zach