Light weight car

[neisman]

I have a Winnebago 21B which is a 21' motor home built using a 2002 Eurovan cab, engine and transmission. I need a toad (Tow behind car).
However the transmission is very sensitive to weight and the engine does not have an excess of power. Sooooo, I am asking if anybody has any suggestions that might help me find/make/customize a light weight toad. We have towed an old Festiva and ended up with transmission repairs.
The toad will need to be enclosed, have heat, AC, and doors (All of which I can add) because my wife cannot climb in and out of the average dune buggy. A convertible or Carson top with side curtains is fine and I can do much customizing.
I am leaning toward a dune buggy type with flat sides that can be made into doors. It would be a great help if anybody has converted the other dune buggy bodies to doors and could advise me.

[didget69]

[neisman]

[neisman]

[Dale M.]

Dale
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“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[neisman]

[Wolfgangdieter]

1953 VW (or pinto 4 cyl) based MGTD kit car. Side curtains, top and vintage AC are indeed options. Weight is about 1600#. Has suicide doors that are easy to get into. A replica 1957 Speedster is closer to 1800# but had much better resale value down the road. A Miata fits bill but again is near 2k #. I guess you could also find a Bradley GT - I bet they weigh about 1600#.

Have you thought of adding a transmission cooler to the Winnie?
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CMC '57 Porsche Speedster Replica and Dolphin boat tailed full pan VW MOD-T Street Buggy

[woodoctr]

Yeah, when I built my Bradley Gt brand new back in 1972 I weighed it at the local feed mill and it was at 1459. The only thing I didn't have was AC at the time. How light was it.....girlfriend and I slowly going over a small spillway/dam with about 1 inch of water slowly running over it. Rear end broke traction and we are headed toward the edge. Punched it....sent up 20 foot of water columns straight up from the back till I hit concrete and got it on across.... Light weight things.... whole different world of safety and handling..... I am not sure I'd feel real safe with anything less that 2000 lbs. now.....

[andygere]

For light weight with the opportunity for weather protection and easy entry, try to find a Manx Resorter or one of the copies. If you look closely at this photo, you can see a soft door set that would fully enclose it and provide decent weather protection.

Heat and A/C are going to be a tall order in a lightweight buggy-style car, do you really need it?

[didget69]

[oprn]

The little pickup might do it. You will be pretty much limited to back trails and city roads as they don't have the power to maintain highway speeds.

our Manx copy weighs in at 1432lbs without roof and doors so you will be hard pressed to do up a Buggy light enough. Ours is pretty basic, no roll bar or cage, fiberglass seats, not sure if it could be made much lighter.

[Q-Dog]

The problem is those Winnebago/VW transmissions don't hold up even when they aren't towing anything. Used to see them for sale all the time, and almost all of them had "new transmission" listed in the sale description.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[rodjr]

How about a veep or scamp?
I bet with a soft top and some attention to detail and planning you could build one pretty darn lightweight.

[didget69]

Still doesn't include heat or A/C..

bnc
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I never found the need to impress people with any mechanic certifications, trophies or track wins... unless it was for Mom to post on the refrigerator door.

[rodjr]

Both are totally do-able in a veep. The op indicated he was willing to do some customizing to add such items.
Seems a great choice, if it is still too difficult to get in and out of, it could be lowered as well.

[Tom_Kathleen]

If you put a Subaru engine in a buggy type vehicle, you could have heat & a/c no problem, just a lot of fabrication. Tom
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Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA

[woodoctr]

It's beginning to sound like the thing to replace here is the Winnebago. In my furniture restoration business we have used trucks as well as towing trailers. Towing requires more than minimal transmissions.

[BL3Manx]

There's one of these on ebay now. Basically all you were looking for

[AMAC1680]

Ok let’s see we have soo far suggested.

A Resorter
a Veep
a sr2

At least they are easy to find rides......😉

AMAC
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www.SEGS4VETS.org

[EVfun]

With the features you need only a couple ideas come to mind.

1. Find a nice early Chevy Sprint. This is the predecessor to the Geo Metro and the older ones only weight about 1500 lb.

2. In the same vein, an old Datsun 1200 sedan that was restored is similar in size and power and only about 100 lb. heavier.

3. Look into an imported Japanese micro car. There are places that sell them, they have to me more than 25 years old. Here is an example, if you scroll through you will see some of the tiny Japanese domestic cars. I don't know how light they are and I don't know if any can be flat towed (most are auto trans.)
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