Inliners International Forums General Discussion Ford Towing with a 300

Hi guys. I'm looking at the 300 in a '70 F100 as a possible towing engine. Currently, I have a 1500 lb travel trailer that my current ride can barely pull uphill. At some point I may get a little bigger trailer. Will this engine in a mostly stock form do the trick? Thanks.

Martin, The 300 is at least equal to a 292. Some say better especially the late injected ones.
The local feed store delivered hay to me 2 tons at a time until he replaced his old 292 powered truck with a newer V8. A friend loaned me a '42 Chevy dump truck with a 292 in it. Loaded to over flowing with gravel it came up our steep 2 mile road and did not need the granny gear and mostly not 1st. Another friend had a dump truck with a 292 and he hauled and pulled and equipment trailer all over this area including trips to Lake Tahoe. Other guys borrowed his truck for tough jobs. My old '40 International hauled many 3 ton hay loads up here from all over this area and a dismantled barn from over the Sierras. It had a 261 International inline and a 16' bed. In an earlier life in California it hauled a trailer, both loaded with cattle. These ate truck engines. They pull and haul.

For you gears will be the important thing to enable you to have the power and fuel consumption you will want. As far as power it won't know a 1500 LB trailer is hooked up.

300 has plenty of umph for towing 1500 pounds. That's a sunday load. Hell, my GMC's 305 V6 pulls 7000 pounds fairly easy! So I think that 300 will do just fine. Probably won't even notice it.

It all depends on the rear end gear ratio as to how it will pull. Also tire size affects final drive ratio. A 300 has a lot of torque and will do a great job if properly geared.

Could also look at using a AOD trans behind the 300.

Factory upgrade - get a mid-90's EFI 300 - they get way better mileage and driveabilty than an early carb version - the long runner intake does wonders. Free up the exhaust and hang on.

Full size trucks/vans are sources - some came with AOD's.