towing spec of 1983 300td with factory towbar
 

I have the factory MB towbar but can't read the weight figures stamped on the plate Can anyone tell me what the specifications are in terms of allowable towing weight?
Steve

I also have the factory tow package. Someone has answered this before, and I believe it is 1500 lbs. unbraked. My stamp is in german and says something about "max. 75 kgs"

Thanks - the 75kg is the max tounge weight i.e. veretical weight onthe hitch. It's the other figure I'm particularly interested in. Can't find anything in the archives
steve

i'd like to know the same on a 77 240d

seriously, it is unsafe to tow anything with a diesel mercedes, the earlier ones because they are dangerously underpowered and the later ones because they have heating problems when towing (air flow issues)
get a truck or rent one by th eday from Home Depot

I object to your assertion that MB 300Ds are "dangerously underpowered"
I regularly tow a 6'*4' trailer with up to 500kg load. I do not overload the towbar vertical weight, ot the towing weight.
I do not have a problem with the power of this vehicle on diesel, biodiesel or WVO.
I am able to accelerate ahead of most traffic (barring Subaru WRX & other "grunt machines") and cruise at the speed limit in West Oz (110Km/h~67mph)
My '84 does not have heating problems either.

ok, first off - 'the later ones' post '85 diesels have the heating problems

secondly - for people here 500 Kg is not even a load. We typically talk of towing 7000 + lbs using dually trucks (cummins diesels or big blocks) up and down mountains,

a load of rock or mulch can be towed safely, for real towing get a truck or a trailer with brakes

Great, but no one answered the question. Like I said, I've read somewhere (maybe it was another discussion list) that they can tow 1500 lbs. but just so you know, the guy who just rebuilt my tranny highly reccomended not towing anything with a MB. Something about paper cluthes...

According to http://www.whnet.com/4x4/towing.html, you can tow 1500 kg with any W123. Above 750 kg the trailer must have brakes.

Most US hitches for these cars are rated well below 1500 kg. I would only tow that much with the proper european towbar.

Ted

yes, that's what i read on a german enthusiast site as well:

unbraked: 750kg (1650lbs)
braked: 1500kg (3300lbs)

grimgaunt: 7000lbs, that's nothing: real men tow tanks on tank trailers that way ten times that ;)

seriously folks, europeans were towing horse trailers etc for many years when these cars first came out, and still do with the later models. nothing to be afraid of!

he said - "
seriously folks, europeans were towing horse trailers etc for many years when these cars first came out, and still do with the later models. nothing to be afraid of!"


-- and I've driven behind a lot of those on the continent as well as the UK (where thank god, people have Land Rovers and the like to tow with), a bloody annoyance and a hazard to the public.
Remind me to tell you about the time in Spain where a fu***ng mercedes wagon with a BULL trailer couldnt control it and capsized, not enough stability when the bull started moving you see, funny thing that, bulls unlike machinery and tanks and cars cant be strapped down (unless dead )


THEY MOVE and weight shifts

GET A TRUCK

:))