Show what you tow!

no picture, but i towed a 2500# two axle dump trailer in my 96 passat. with a homemade hitch no less, i guess the hitch passed the stress test.

tSoG said:

pictures.
bags eh?

~250 miles, one complete 1.6TD "engine in a bag" including manifolds, turbo, injector pump and flywheel on the passenger seat. 3x 1.6(t)d long blocks across the backseat. two short blocks in the trunk along with a spare crank, tranny, pile of alternators, and a few other tidbits. the vroombox isn't for show, it held another 020 tranny, flywheels/pp/clutch, injector lines, brackets for everything, sproggits, etc. total weight? yes. avg speed? 65mph + an hour of 5mph stop and go. mpg for trip ~40mpg

my jetta has the most displacement ever. ~12,000cc three turbos, 15 forward gears, 40 valves, and a whole lotta kickass

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How did you determine which kit to buy? The Jetta's not listed as an application for any of the Airlift 1000 variations that I could find. Still would like to get some for my JSW!

BuilderBob, p/n info here, though this is for MK4 and might not apply to your car:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=110896

Honeydew said:

BuilderBob, p/n info here, though this is for MK4 and might not apply to your car:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=110896

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Thanks for the link! At least it's a starting point.

I'm interested in towing a small pop-up camper, and adding a bike rack to hold 4 bikes, but the ONLY hitches I can find for my 2003 Golf is a CLASS I hitch. I'd love to add a stronger 2" class III hitch (more cargo boxes and bike racks are made to fit the stronger 2" hitch). A friend of mine had to replace is CLASS I hitch after only two years - it was tore up carrying bikes (and might have been helped a bit by his pop-up, and he doesn't drive slow). Will a class I hitch last very long? Growing up, our truck had a class III hitch.

Thanks! I spend hours reading all the posts on this site and I love to read the advice.

-Bruce

Hello,

You really need to read THIS TOPIC. In short, I think you're asking too much of your hitch. Adding a "stronger" hitch, even if you can find or make one, is likely to transfer the weak link to the body of your car. There's probably a good reason Yakima and Thule don't make four-bike carriers for the 1.25" receiver.

Oh, I've seen a few sedans out there with carrier platforms like mine that sag while the car is still level. I must speculate that they've either bent the hitch or bent the sheet metal in their car with excessive loads. To answer your question, "Will a Class I hitch last very long," I've had mine on the car for over 11 years of regular use. Visit my photo album for details (see sig).

Good Luck,

Scott

Kubota B7500, LA302 FEL, 60" Box scraper. Triton 12' bed aluminum trailer .w/electric brakes. To keep the tongue weight minimal, I couldn't pull the tractor any further forward, so I had to use ratchet straps on the gate to hold it up. Trailer & load right at 3500#. While I wouldn't feel comfortable going a long distance with it, going the 10 miles to my parents place was easy.

TDI Convert - with the relatively light tounge weight and the weight toward the back of the trailer - did it "wag" at all or was it well behaved during minor lane centering corrections or changing lanes, etc?

Cool setup...

I loaded the trailer by first measuring the tongue height unloaded, then loaded the trailer by driving forward until the tongue drooped 3/4"- 1" at the ball. I picked up on the tongue and it felt relatively heavy.

Absolutely no wag issues, although I didn't exceed 55 mph (in 4th). It was very well behaved. I didn't try to set any acceleration records, and it didn't seem like a lot of weight at all to pull. With the electric brakes, a few slow downs fiddling with the electric brake control got it dialed in just fine. Stopping was as if it wasn't there.

I've towed the 4-wheeler with the same trailer and ended up moving it back because what I thought was enough weight was actually too much. (droopy rear-end).

The picture is a bit decieving, the car/trailer is parked on an uphill slant.
The base tractor is 1367#, the FEL puts more weight on the front tires than it seems, it alone weighs around 600#, and the box blade I'm guessing around 300#. The trailer weighs 760#. (at least that's what Triton says) I don't know if those tractor weights are dry or wet.

In the US, it is recommended to go heavy on the tongue, usually around 20%. In Europe, they usually go for about 5% on the tongue. They just don't drive as fast when towing as we tend to. You also want to be sure the load can't shift, especially to the rear. You really don't want negative tongue weight. I have towed with every car I have owned, and have never experienced trailer sway -- knock on wood.

I've experienced trailer sway once, and it was when someone else loaded the trailer.. It was a 30' camper and they loaded the back up with all their stuff.. I had to stop and rearrange everything inside the trailer to put more weight on the truck..

Trailer sway is NOT fun...

TDIJetta99 said:

Trailer sway is NOT fun...

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Like they said in the Top Gear episode (season 8, episode... 6?) where they go on a caravan holiday.

May: '(Reading from the caravan guidebook) ...when the caravan starts to dictate direction of travel, you have a snake.'
Clarkson: 'No, you have a crash.'

NarfBLAST said:

Airlift 1000 kit: $100 on the credit card...

Getting across the border with 1000lbs of stuff in your Jetta with "jus a lil squat": priceless!

I was gonna say, that car should not be squatting at all with 50 psi in the airlift 1000 bags but then you told us what was in it. Holy crap.

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1000 pounds? I had more than that in the passenger compartment.

I've yet to weigh the complete engine I had in the passenger seat, but the three long blocks weigh ~200lbs apiece, now add manifolds, oil, turbo, injector pump, brackets, etc.

short block ~ 170lbs

I estimate with the 6 additional engines, 2 trannies, and piles of other heavy parts, I was closer to 2000 lbs, than 1000. and yes, my tires are rated for that load. car actualy rode quite well.

the nicest part: driving 400 miles on a tank, throwing 2000lbs in the car, and not wanting to fill up til I got home and unloaded(300 miles later) because the extra 120 lbs would throw off my fuel economy.




and remember kids, in the good ol' US of A the driver is responsible for his loads. telling the cop "well, my brother/sister/mother/father/boss/lover/etc tied it down/said it was ok" is most definitely not gonna get you out of any tickets, or charges filed against you if something bad should happen. towing can be done safely, but it is done so at your own risk.

There's a reason that there's an 18" extension on the tounge of the trailer pictured in post 306. The track width of the tires on the trailer is about the same as the distance between the ball and the axle. When loaded up and changing lanes or correcting while in a curve, the trailer would "wag" and would keep wagging for 5-10 cycles if you didn't do something about it (accelerate or lightly apply the brakes).

Making the ball to axle distance just 18" longer made a significant difference in reducing/eliminating the "wag" (as well as reducing the tounge weight for a given trailer weight).

Here's a shot of us pulling our "new" airstream.

The Toyota has a 1.9L TDI engine w/ the mods in my sig.

We pulled into a rest station with the trucks for the night because the headwinds were so strong.





Before that we crossed a number of mountain passes. Here we are on Siskiyou summit.

Nice Toyota truck mod, love it!

What did the Toyota and Airstream weigh together? Any idea?

First time towing something, I've left my job at the dealer after 10 years, 7 months and 2 days... so loaded up the tool box:



The back of the wagon was loaded down with more tools and such, but I made it home safely.



Backed up to my garage on there first try!

Next items up for towing, items for my home office for my new job.

Brazil leader of vw heavy trucks

Volkswagen trucks are big in Brazil. It does come with cummins diesel engine.

more 'heavy' equipment

Like TDI convert, I didn't back up the trencher all the way to the front of the trailer. This is not 3000lb, either!




But no problem. Stable load. This is probably just about the official class I capacity.

I love that Toyota 1.9L TDI conversion. That is what I really want. Well, the JSW is keeping me quite happy just the same. That's why I got the trailer too!

What did the Toyota and Airstream weigh together? Any idea?

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The truck weighs approximately 3775lbs (it may be lighter with the TDI engine instead of the V6)

The Airstream's weight is 3300lbs. The tongue weight was about 400 lbs.

I've also towed a two horse trailer (empty) - it should be able to pull it with one horse - and a 6X12 u-haul trailer with a 6' bush-hog PTO mower.

The wind really affects towing performance. Both the airstream and the horsetrailer were towed into high headwinds. Even though the Airstream was bigger, the truck seemed to have a rougher time with the horsetrailer.

On a side note, the V6 manual truck is rated at 15mpg. I'm getting 30mpg w/ the diesel!

Just towed the 4x8 Harbor Freight trailer (see pic on page 20 w/ Coke machine) full of my wife's junk from the house we are getting ready to rent. We had about twenty partially-full cans of paint (my wife can't throw away paint), some furniture, tools, boxes of misc. crap, golf clubs, gardening supplies, etc. In the car, we had the two of us, plus baby, plus a weekend worth of clothes and baby supplies, to lamps, and more. I filled up the tank just as we got on the road, and 300 miles later the display was showing 37.0 MPG. From experience, that is more like 35 MPG actual. AC blasting the whole way with 95ºF weather.

Not bad for a Toyota, eh?

Canada Day Weekend 2010

looks good paul. no trouble making it up hills?
why do people unhook their campers when parked? wouldn't you rather keep it hitched onto the car still?

Quanger said:

looks good paul. no trouble making it up hills?
why do people unhook their campers when parked? wouldn't you rather keep it hitched onto the car still?

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No trouble on the hills at all.

You need to unhook the trailer in order to drop the tongue down so that you can drop the rear legs down on then you raise the tongue up and drop the front legs then drop the tongue again so that the weight is off the suspension and off the tongue jack and instead on to the solid legs. At the same time you try to level the whole thing (each of the four corner legs is adjustable in height).

Quanger said:

looks good paul. no trouble making it up hills?
why do people unhook their campers when parked? wouldn't you rather keep it hitched onto the car still?

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How would you get to the beer store?

NB_TDi said:

How would you get to the beer store?

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What he said!

Plus you have the bed that pulls out which might not run into the car and you have the fact you can't get the hatch open with the trailer extended either. Looks good.

New Kendon Trailer

Love this trailer, when I am done it stands up out of the way.

thats a sweet trailer gunner but looking at the pics, unless I'm wrong whats holding the back end of the bikes? maybe I'm a little anal when it comes to towing stuff but I would strap the back end to to makes sure that those bikes don't become a hazard if you crash.

because I've seen a crash on the highway that a bike was strapped on like you had and the bike flipped right on the trunk of the old Lincoln, and for your beetle it would end right on top of you. not trying to get you scared but I would do everything but weld the bikes on the trailer.

Agreed: SWEET TRAILER and I think the bikes need tiedown in the rear. Even routine bumps and bounces may move those bikes more than you'd think. The back of small trailers jolts pretty violently. I'll not suggest a motorcycle would endo from a bump; but I'd hate to see the back of one shift outboard and bounce off the platform... or collide the bikes into each other. Even a single strap from each wheel to the back of the trailer should help. Better safe than sorry.

PS: There's a reason the smart car haulers criss-cross chains/straps when trailering cars. There's a lot of movement back there. If a car can bounce sideways and off the trailer, then so can a bike.