Pulling a Toad

[Telestar]

If Any, How many pull a toad with the large overhang on a full size skoolie? Would the toad not get whipped arround to the point where it might even leave the ground?

[Les Lampman]

Hi Telestar and welcome .

If you look to the left you'll see my bus with a boat in tow. So the quick answer is no. There are lots of buses pulling trailers, Jeeps, race cars, boats and all manner of things. Having pulled all kinds of things behind all sorts of vehicles for over 30 years now the thing I really like about towing with the school bus is that there is no inside tracking of the towed vehicle. When I'm towing our boat on a twisty road I can cut the corners as closely as I want to; the boat always stays behind the bus and never tracks to the inside meaning I never have to 'swing wide' to accommodate the trailer (even when cornering in town).

Hope this helps.

[Steve]

As for tracking pulling a trailor with a bus is almost perfect. The trailor will follow the bus's path a lot better than a truck. Now finding a place to park that thing, manuver in traffic, and having enough power to pull it is something else.

Here's what my hitch looks like

[Telestar]

Hello People, and thank you for both the welcome and the quick responses.
I recently bought a GMC 5307N with the intentions of turning this thing into a motor home. This turned out to be a mistake! First of all It is too slow and too low. To keep a long story short that project is now history.

I did a 1966 ford 48 passenger wayne body back a decade ago and had a lot of fun with it. Now, I am thinking of purchasing a 70 passenger ford (199 with the Brazillian diesel.

I have been sandbaging on this and other forums for quite some time, gathering small pieces of peoples brain here and there. I must say that some of the buses on this forum really tickle my fancy. I have visited all of the buses and sites through this forum and am truly impressed.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the owner of this site for his/her time and effort in bringing forth a great source of wealth and information to the school bus converter and the like. Congratulations on a job well done. I am looking forward to being a small part of this group.

[Les Lampman]

Originally Posted by Telestar

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the owner of this site for his/her time and effort in bringing forth a great source of wealth and information to the school bus converter and the like. Congratulations on a job well done. I am looking forward to being a small part of this group.

Err...that would be the guy that answered second to your post...Steve be the man!

We're not too bad around here once you get your waders on ; thanks for joining in and I look forward to seeing your posts.

[Eric von Kleist]

Somewhere I saw that someone was using an offset tow hitch on his bus. I can't remember what site I saw it on, though. The hitch was offset about a foot left of center so that it would be easier to A) keep an eye on the toad from the driver's side view mirror; and, B) make right turns without dragging the toad over the curb. Seemed like a pretty good arrangement to me, unless you were towing an 8' wide trailer.

[lapeer20m]

i pulled a toad on a monthlong 7,000 mile road trip with my 1991 Ford with the brazialian motor. (6.6 litre) The toad was a vw fox. The good news is that from a power standpoint, the bus didn't know the car was back there. the bus is pretty wimpy, but the car is so light it just didn't make a difference.

There was no fear of hitting curbs while turning, since the car tracks 100% inside the track of the bus. It's not like pulling a trailer with a pickup.

I had some negative expierences pulling my toad. I"m not saying i will never pull another toad with my bus, but I think I would much prefer to leave the car behind next time. Perhaps build a back porch for a motorcycle instead.

A rearview camera would make pulling a car much less stressful.

Backing works just fine most of the time, however i had a couple times where the car backed up more like a haywagon than a trailer. ON these rare occasions, the wheels on the car turned the opposite direction than the car was suppposed to be going. Once this caused a tire to blow out, and also caused a lot of damage to the steering components. Rather than fixing the car, i just bought a new (used) car after i got home.

With a bus that's 37 feet long, plus the toad, there will be times that you just have to back up.....

All of that being said, there are thousands of people that drive motorhomes and pull their toads across the country apparently without any major difficulties.

[Rick78EFI460]

I pull a full sized Ford Bronco on a flat deck trailer behind my bus, no troubles with it at all. With the long overhang it is very easy to back up, small movements of the wheel make the rear bumper move enough to steer the trailer well when backing. I travelled through the Black Hills in South Dakota towing my trailer , theres a lot of small streets in those very old towns, and I had no troubles whatsoever. The rear overhang swings the trailer out fairly wide on corners so the trailer tires arc in about a foot inside the rear tire arc of the bus on a very tight right turn. Basically if ya can drive the bus around the corner, the trailer will make it too. The extra weight of the Bronco and trailer actually smooths out the ride too as a side benefit. Towing my Bronco with my 7.3L Navistar I averaged a bit over 10 mpg (US) , very likely a bit better than I would have got just driving the Bronco (460). I have a trailer hitch and plug on the Bronco so that I could tow the trailer with the Bronco too, it the bus failed a long ways from home I could throw all my "good stuff " from the bus on the trailer and abandon it , and convert my other bus here at home .

[Les Lampman]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for adding your information. I've not yet had the chance to pull a longer trailer with the bus (the boat in the photo is a 16-footer; trailer overall is about 20') and I'm happy to hear your tandem car hauler doesn't track very far in either. Eventually we plan to pull an enclosed car/cargo trailer with a 16-foot body (20' overall). Our Jeep TJ Wrangler is 13' long so it'll fit nicely; when it's out of the trailer I'll have a nice workshop.