We had a new neighbor move in a block away who is an air-cooled VW aficionado. One of his cars is this VW bus, from around 1965-1967, and here it is with their popup camping trailer. If you don’t have a popup Westfalia, I guess this is one alternative.
As to the ability of the old VW buses to pull trailers, I used to see them do that not uncommonly back in the day. One memory clearly stands out: we were on vacation in the Colorado Rockies in a cabin (on of several on the property) that we rented from friends, and one of them chugged up the very steep and rocky “driveway” (we parked down below) in his VW bus with a long trailer behind it that housed his glider airplane. He had just driven it from the Chicago area. The bus, with its reduction gearing hubs, had a very low first gear, and it clambered up to the cabin and parked. I was impressed. But then these T1 buses essentially had the same underpinnings as the VW Kübelwagen.
As long as it still runs reduction hubs it will tow that just fine, a lot of early Kombis have had Beetle transaxles fitted to improve road cruising speed rpms by removing the geared hubs and their load carrying/towing ability.
Here in the States we did just the opposite. We seeked out the early bus transaxles to swap into our Baja bugs
Seems like that kind of VW transaxle swap would be a win-win for both individuals.
If those bumpers are original, it’s a ’65. Through ’64 and part way through ’65 the bumpers were slash end. Part way through ’65 the rear bumper got the pointed end and ’66-67 both bumpers were pointed end.
Reduction hubs or not….that bus must be incredibly slow as a tow vehicle….
Pulling a trlr?? H’mm, picturing a speed of about 20 at the top of a long hill climb.
C’mon, they weren’t that bad. I had a ’62 I put a 1600 engine into, single port, little carb, no big deal, but I did tow with it. I towed another VW bus, ~500 miles, I could do 60 on the flats, but I got the tranny so hot it started leaking and the clutch started slipping. After a brief detour and clutch replacement in a rest area I continued on, a bit slower. I went up the infamous Grapevine Grade in Calif at part throttle doing 30, not wanting to tax the new clutch since I presumably still had a tranny leaking oil onto it. I probably could have done 40 if I’d pushed it.