[VAC] Re: Towing Vintage Airsteams With Vintage Cars

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer]

My overhead cam Triton 4.6L V-8 (281 cubic inches, there's 61.0237 cubic
inches to the liter) creates its horsepower at higher speeds than the
old 350 GM engine. The overhead cam means the head doesn't have to pass
two push rods for the valves and the intake pipe in one cylinder space
so the intake can be larger and breath much easier. The 4.6 L Ford
engine horsepower is rated at 4600 rpm. It does not have a lot of guts
at slow engine speeds, going to the 4.10 axle (which didn't change the
gas mileage as much as random variations from one tank to the next),
gets that engine speed up and makes it a great deal more responsive to
the throttle and makes it tow decently. An automatic transmission and
torque convertor would do the same, perhaps with a lower ratio axle, but
I think would benefit from the 4.10 axle.

I had a '54 ford six with overdrive, it had a 4.11 axle. According to
the car test reports that year it would run faster in straight high than
in overdrive, and others have told me that it was beginning to loose
traction at the top speed in the low 90s. It was about to fly. It was
necessary to be in straight high, not overdrive before on could pull the
handle to lock the overdrive out. That was easily accomplished by
kicking the throttle open because there was a switch under the pedal to
do just that. My dad liked to reach under the pedal with his shoe toe
and trip the switch to let the car free wheel down hills.

The local hot rod shop that did my F-150 axle claims to do a regular
business changing gears in police crown vics. They charged me $450, took
about a day.

If not locked, drum brakes were OK, just they were easier to lock up and
loose control than disk brakes. Actually they had more braking surface
that disk brakes. There's more area in shoes than pads.

The old two speed Chevy power glide transmissions tended to die just
pulling the car, adding a trailer should wipe them rapidly.

A solid state regulator on the original generators would make them do
better than the magnetic voltage regulator. I've built a couple for my
vechicles so far. An alternator will charge the trailer battery better
and keep the car battery up because it has a better regulator, no
reverse current at slow speeds (it took up to 10 amps reverse current to
cause the cutout part of the magnetic regulator to disconnect the
generator, diodes do that FAR better), and generally has greater current
capability. The alternator is generally wound and belted to turn faster
and so charge better at slow engine speeds, though often is not great on
the slow speed engine of vintage farm tractors.



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