Car hauling on a budget

[73Charger400]

Not mopar at all and definitely not a joke, just something to hopefully feed your imagination and get a couple laughs. So my dad and I have gotten pretty good at towing cars without an actual car hauling trailer, and sometimes even without a trailer at all! My dad and I love these old first generation Honda Civic 5-speed hatchbacks. This one you see here is the first one we ever owned out of five, just bought it back from the insurance company last weekend. It's also the third '79 Civic that's been on the bed of the truck.

So quick rundown as to why there are 5 old Civics on my property. The first one you see here was bought by my dad before I was born for $250 while he was going to ITT Tech. Over the summer it got into a wreck by a lady who ran a stop sign in her GMC Yukon. After a bit of arguing with the lady's insurance company, they paid out $8K for it because it's a first generation which makes it a "collector's car". We ended up buying three parts cars and a complete car for a total of $2,800, and bought our original car back from the insurance company for $500. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.



So the way we get these little toy cars on the bed of the truck is pretty simple. My uncle gave us a 2,000lb winch from harbor freight, which we put on a homemade mount made of two angle iron pieces welded together and setup to drop straight into the top of the truck bed, then we just pull the car up with the winch and wooden ramps.

Harbor freight winch: free
Angle iron: also free
Wooden ramps: very free
Watching people's faces driving down the road: Priceless :laughing6:

I gotta see if I can find pictures of the other cars on the truck to put up here. For the three parts cars we picked them up all at once and had one in the truck bed and two on an equipment trailer, very interesting ride home :toothy10:

 

[sleepar]

Verry cool.... I don't know if I'd have the confidence you have in the tail gate cables.... I've seen them break with a lot less than that on them....

 

[Cornpatch MO]

If you didn't have a crew cab, you could get another 1/2 honda on there!...............MO

 

[73Charger400]

Verry cool.... I don't know if I'd have the confidence you have in the tail gate cables.... I've seen them break with a lot less than that on them....

That tailgate right there has had 2,000lb pallets of construction supplies and equipment loaded up onto it more times than you can count on your fingers and toes. Plus the car's dry weight is about 1,500lbs with all the weight up front, you can literally pick up the back end by hand and drag it around. So no worries there with these cars. I guess Ford wasn't kidding when they talk up the durability of their trucks because this one's got 430K miles on it and it's still kicking strong. And trust me, this truck ain't ever been babied even once

 

[old_skool]

The sad thing about those cars, are their awesome gas mileage, let me explain to those unfamiliar with said cars, one of my first cars was a 77 Honda Accord, 2 door hatch 5 speed, and get this...carbureted, got 32 city and 41+ highway mpg, no matter how hard I beat on it, and today's cars fuel mileage with FI and all the computer monitoring systems...is crap on a stick, big oil companies can su.. my ...., I may be a Mopar guy and purchase American cars, but I give the old Honda's credit where due.
And as far as the tailgate support, the back of the Honda's can be lifted off the ground with one person, very light in the back.

 

[D575]

Is that the one with the shifter coming out of the dashboard ?

 

[73Charger400]

You're spot on, Old Skool. I'm putting together one as a commuter and that's basically how i'm gonna save up gas money to drive the Charger around on weekends lol

D575, I had no idea something like that ever existed. But no, it's a floor shift

 

[Dako]

Is that the one with the shifter coming out of the dashboard ?

I think you're thinking pre-`73...the Honda Micro cars.

 

[67 Power Wagon]

How in the hell did you load it onto the bed of that truck. in the first place? AND how the hell you plan to unload it....surely not just "push" it off the truck, I hope?

 

[73Charger400]

How in the hell did you load it onto the bed of that truck. in the first place? AND how the hell you plan to unload it....surely not just "push" it off the truck, I hope?

Read the first post and under the pictures you'll see I said exactly how we got it on the truck. To get it off is the reverse process, hook it up to the winch and put the winch in reverse to slowly back the car off the bed and down the ramps.

 

[67 Power Wagon]

Thanks for that I simply didn't read all the posting. and with the winch, I take it for those cars it works well. does it ever grunt tho depending the type car its hauling up a set of ramps? I'm thinking of buying one from Harbor Freight myself.....

 

[Runner 68]

That's hillarious. I'll bet the ride home was fun.

As for the tailgate cables, they hold a hell of alot more than you think they would. I once hauled 63 sheets of 1/2" 12' long sheets of drywall in a Ram 2500 with a 6' bed. Three 2x8x12 planks supporting the load out the back. The reason we didn't throw the 64th sheet on is that we were afraid it would be impossible to steer it on the way home. Tailgate cables? No problem.

A big F350? I wouldn't give hauling that tin can Honda in the back a second thought. As demonstrated, no problem.

 

[Dako]

Thanks for that I simply didn't read all the posting. and with the winch, I take it for those cars it works well. does it ever grunt tho depending the type car its hauling up a set of ramps? I'm thinking of buying one from Harbor Freight myself.....

I use a 2,000lb hooked to a marine battery on my car trailer. Using a doubler (single pulley block) I have pulled the wife's 4Runner up on and let if off with no real problem. Yes, it did slow the speed a bit when it got to bringing the rear wheels up the ramps, but didn't bother anything. If I did it over I may have bought a 3,500lb winch, but I am not going out to replace what I have, as it is still working.

 

[73Charger400]

Thanks for that I simply didn't read all the posting. and with the winch, I take it for those cars it works well. does it ever grunt tho depending the type car its hauling up a set of ramps? I'm thinking of buying one from Harbor Freight myself.....

I wouldn't go with a HF winch again, and for hauling cars up these ramps a 2,000lb winch will do the job, but only barely in some cases. I would definitely go with Dako and get something rated at 3,500lbs or more once this HF winch breaks.