Broken PS pump bracket!!!

["Jason and Maria Colavecchia" <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided>]

Speaking of towing, I just finished going up to Hall's lake in Ontario
(close to Haliburton, Minden, Etc) with my Fraternity, and I have been
towing around my old 1971 refurbished pop-up tent trailer (fibreglas
roof!!!). it weighs about 1800lbs loaded, and tows PERFECT using just a
standard bumper hitch and proper load distribution (all the heavy stuff to
the front, producing about 150 lbs. of tongue weight). My only lament is
the sad combination of 31" tires, stock 3.07 gears and the 304 needing more
revs to really get any power.  It's pretty obvious the 304 needs to spin
faster to make up for its lack of displacement compared to the 345. Under
100Kph it won't maintain speed on most grades very well, nor can you speed
up too quickly.  Under 80kph, I can downshift to 2nd (auto tranny) and it
pulls just fine.  If I get the rig over 110kph, it suddenly pulls REALLY
strongly.  When I get around to re-gearing the diffs, I'll be moving it to
4.09:1 ratio for sure, which should get that old 304 into the operating
range it can produce the most power in.

As for towing larger things, the 1200D is my choice, for every reason
Howard and everyone else has said...longer WB, heavier, bigger  brakes,
wheel and tire ratings, suspension, coolness, etc...

Hmm..one footnote...on the journey back and about 1 hour from home, I heard
a strange rattling from the front of the truck.  I immediately slowed down,
with every intention to stop to find out what it was, and it suddenly went
away!...I thought perhaps I had left a wrench under the hood, but my
suspicion went away when I realized the steering felt a little different. 
I was on the highway at the time, so I didn't notice right away the lack of
POWER STEERING....I go to our turnoff and pulled the rig over at the
nearest gas station and popped the hood....

I immediately saw the lack of the p/s belt, but something else was
wrong...I had only 2 months ago replaced all the belts, so why did the belt
break????  Looking under the truck, I realized the belt was still hanging
off of the engine pully, and was completely INTACT!!!!

I then got up and grabbed the P/S pump from the top, and it was totally
LOOOSE....the bracket that bolts the pump to the engine block had failed
about an inch from the engine, and caused close to utter chaos...luckily, I
think , the belt came off almost immediately and didn't get hooked onto
anything important...I bungee'ed the pump securely to hold it in place
until I could fix it, and hopped in and DROVE home..

My thoughts on driving a p/s equipped scout without p/s???  It handled
surprisingly well unless I had to make very sharp turns (ie. intersections,
backing trailer into tight, fenced in backyard, poodles).  I barely noticed
it on the highway.  It is not something I would recommend, but it is nice
to know it's possible to do in a pinch.

(for those of you worried I will drive it like this for a few
days/months/years, it's not going on the road again until I replace the
bracket!!!)

For those of you with manual steering,  how many revolutions does it take
to make a turn at an intersection???  
Jason and Maria Colavecchia
1979 IH Scout II,  V304, modifications ongoing
1969 IH 1210D Travelall 3/4 ton, V345,  restoring slowly