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1991 560SEL; can I add a trailer hitch?
OK, the house needs work so I need to find a way to haul building materials to and from the home. I have three options:
1. Buy a gently used pick-up truck. 2. Buy a gently used van. 3. Buy a trailer and tow it behind either the 1991 560SEL or the 1984 300DT. Any of the three will have to sit out on the driveway which presents a possible risk of theft. With the trailer I could remove the wheels and tires while not in use which would make it harder to steal. Question, would either of thes mercedes work well at towing a trailer? Or. would I be better off looking for a gently used pick-up truck or van?? Your thoughts are appreciated!!! |
Why gently used? Get a beater truck or van.
Sixto 98 E320s sedan and wagon 02 C320 wagon |
87-96 F150. 4.9 I6/M5OD manual.
Easy to put an interrupt switch on the starter circuit. |
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^^^ This ^^^ Nothing like an ol' beater truck or van! Dale |
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Why not? Not sure of the tow limit, but the 560 should be capable of 1900-2100kg braked should be listed in the owners manual. If i recall Orvis made the mb tow hitches, you might be able to source those in Europe. In the US you could use a good quality bumper mount hitch with the requisite reinforcements added. It's been done just not as common.
Or you could just buy a MB wagon and have a really nice hauler....I mean if you gotta pay registration and tags for another vehicle....just sayin |
It’s not so much what it can pull. Many cars have the torque to get that boat and trailer moving. How many can come to a stop in a reasonable distance? How many get get to speed without the trailer wagging.
Sixto 98 E320s sedan and wagon 02 C320 wagon |
I went the trainer route
Harbor Freight heavy duty, good for 1700 lbs, about the same as a 3/4 ton pickup, except the side come off, will set a 4X8' piece of plywood flat, and is a tilt bed. It come apart easily and I store it on end in my garage. Right now I pull it with a C280, before that a 190E 2.6 5 speed.
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I’m used to pulling with my class 3 5000 lb / 500 lbs tongue weight frame-mounted 2” received hitch on my Honda Ridgeline. I installed one on my wife’s Honda Pilot too. I think trucks with real metal bumpers often have a class 2, 2” ball mount hole which can do about 3500 lbs. The thread holes are smaller (3/4” I think) for these 2” balls, to assure people don’t put 2 5/16” balls with 1” shanks on them. My friend recently bought a 1984 300sd with a receiver on it, but it’s not a 2” receiver. So you can’t get any mounts that will allow a ball any bigger than a 2” ball. With a Dolly (2”), single axle utility trailer (2”), a dual axle scrapping trailer (2 5/16”) a car dual axle car hauler (2 5/16”) and a dual axle travel trailer (2 5/16”), there’s plenty of reason to assure we’ve got a class 3 hitch. People put 2 5/16” ball trailers on 2” balls, but it’s not really safe. Bad idea (even though I’ve done it at slow speeds or short distances). I doubt that there are class 3 setups available for sale for a w126... if you’ve find anything at all. I’ve heard of weak setups that have you drill into the sheet metal, but that’s got to be lightweight stuff, like class 1 or something. Personally, I think that anything mounted on a w126 bumper is going to be just as weak if not weaker. By the time you buy what you need to really pull a trailer, you may find a beater with a hitch would have been better. I do a lot of hose work and have been glad to ALWAYS had a pickup “truck”. I don’t think I will ever again live without one. But if you don’t mind going to get the trailer before you ever want to carry something, it will save on insurance costs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
without doubt, pickups are handy and handier with a proper hitch. One thing to keep in mind, in Europe towing with cars was the norm, pickups, SUVs and the like are a relatively modern concept within the past 25-30 years, prior to that people towed campers and trailers with their cars. Mercedes had two hitch manufacturers one in Germany (Oris I believe) and cannot recall the name of the US mfg one, but they were indeed factory/dealer installed options.
MB rated their tow limits based on the smallest engine in the range for all engine option in the range. The tow limit for a M103 260SE/300SE is 750 kg unbraked and 1900 kg braked. The W126 hitch like that of the w124 hitch for the wagon was bumper mounted with two long trailing support bars that would engage further forward on what could be called the "formed frame rails" of the unibody structure, so we're not taking about a purely bumper mounted aka "u-haul" hitch. The difficulty would be in finding the correct hitch, so getting a beater truck may be the realistic option. The spec card from another post is shown below: https://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y1...e/e3bb9806.jpg |
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