1979 Malibu

[GMJohnny]

I think it’s cool that if you raced Chuppa in a handicap race, he’d leave first.

GM

[TireSmoker]

In preparation for Drag Week, I need a trailer to haul some tires, tools, and maybe some fuel.

Big progress yesterday with the install of the trailer hitch. Paul found me this super vintage setup for $50 on ebay.

Speece brought me a piece of 1/2" (?)flat stock, and a custom bolt-welded-to-a-bolt, both of which would prevent us from needing a wrench on the back side of the bumper to tighten it down. Tapping the holes in the flat stock took a little more effort than planned, but that kind of stuff is his wheelhouse.

And since I guess I didn't post pics earlier, here is the trailer I bought. And a fake-but-accurate photo from a couple weeks ago.

[markss327]

Good choice on the hitch. Less weight than a Class2. (40ish lbs)
Nice trailer too! 4x8? What's the make?

[TireSmoker]

It's a DK2 4x6. Here's the link, https://detailk2.com/mmt4x6og.html

[TireSmoker]

Do I need to make some sort of adapter bracket to lower the height of the hitch ball, to level out the trailer tongue?

[Basement Paul]

Looks good to me. Mine sits at way more angle than that when it's on my truck. Good to go!

-BP

[GMJohnny]

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Do I need to make some sort of adapter bracket to lower the height of the hitch ball, to level out the trailer tongue?

As long as you make sure the weight is on the tongue the correct way, BP is right,
you should be good to go. If you had an insert type hitch it might be good to get a
step-down hitch, but there’s not much you can do with what you have there.
Run it.

GM

[markss327]

Ideally, you want the tongue to be level. But as previously stated, you don't have much of an option. Send it!
Tongue weight is key. 10-15% of the overall trailer weight, on the tongue.

[Basement Paul]

Keep in mind your not hauling enough weight to matter. Mark's 10-15% logic is correct typically. But I pull my quad (400lbs) with a 450lb trailer, and I had 200lbs of sandbags too and I could lift the tongue easily with one hand and it pulled like it wasn't there with no swaying or bouncing. You're looking at half that weight behind you. Tongue weight in this scenario matters very little because your load is so minimal.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

I brought home the street tires for Drag Week. P235-75-R15 truck tires, mounted on 15x7 Aero Race wheels. They're slightly taller than the MT E/T Street R 275-60-15 drag radials.

Wiper arms showed up today. However, I looked up the forecast for each track's town for each day, and there is never more than a 12-15% chance of rain. If buying those keeps it from raining, money well spent!

The last real thing I need to do is wire in the trailer harness.

[wxo]

Be sure to take a lot of photos to show us all about your week from a participant's point of view.

[TireSmoker]

There hasn't been much off-season activity with Maliboost. I changed the oil and the spark plugs. However, I'm pretty sure I managed to cross-thread the #5 cylinder. The new one is in there and I fired it up for a few seconds, it sounds normal. But I bought a spark-plug thread chaser just in case. In a truly worse-case situation, I'll need to pull the head. My fingers are crossed that my threads aren't.

I pulled the transmission pan and drilled/tapped it for a temperature sending unit. Pretty easy, although my first time doing NPT tapered threads. The fluid looked good and red.

I still need to pull the rearend and have it inspected. I would also like to convert the rear axles to Chevy bolt pattern. They are currently Ford.

I remounted the tach earlier in the winter, as part of the dash cracked where it was previously mounted and it was flopping around a bit.

Scott has requested some cupholders before next Drag Week, so I ordered a couple from Amazon, we'll see how they work out.