2000 Jetta TDI towing capacity

Anybody have any towing experience that they can share with me? Can my car actually tow more than what VW recommends? I'd like to know how much I could really tow without destroying my car. Thanks!

well I was towing 1800 lbs worth of hard wood flooring plus whatever my trailer weighs.

I think that he wants to know which straw will break his camel's back. I've towed my fifty-ish pound bicycle on a kit trailer for thousands of miles, occasionally at 100 mph behind the NB

Yeah, kind of looking for the straw. I have a 2000 pound tractor plus trailer that I may be too chicken#*&$ to haul, but I would like to get a U-Haul trailer behind it for about 700 miles.

In all honesty, if you have anything heavy to tow... Why not ask a friend that has a truck, or rent one?

Why put undue stress on your Jetta (or other car)?

I'm a big proponent of "the right tool for the right job". I don't ask my F350 to get 60mpg!

JP

Towing

Im pretty sure max is 2500 lbs........remember this includes trailer and what ever is on it, people in vehicle+cargo.

David_Inman said:

Anybody have any towing experience that they can share with me? Can my car actually tow more than what VW recommends? I'd like to know how much I could really tow without destroying my car. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Do a little searching on my username and you will find out just about all you need regarding towing with a NA TDI.

The A4 TDI is the right tool for the right towing job. It will tow 1500# as safely as the F350 will tow 10k# and get over twice the fuel mileage doing it.

The A4 1.9TDI 5spd is rated in Europe at 1320# unbraked and 2866# braked. The biggest issue you will have with towing at the higher end in NA is that only a class I hitch is readily available.

Over 11k miles towing this trailer behind my Golf with 1200#-3k# load.

Boat+trailer = 1200#

Towing with 02 Golf

I've towed up to roughly 2800lbs with my 2002 Golf GLS TDI, 5- speed, 137,000 miles on many trips. 5x8 enclosed trailer.

I have a Hidden Hitch bought from e-trailer.com, installed myself (very easy to do). The car has never failed me and always easily maintains highway speeds - 60 - 80mph.

Trailer tows straight - no sway - great stopping, great starting and not bottomed out the rear springs. Usually, there is atleast one other adult in the car with me. I run 480 mile one way trips monthly, sometimes bi-monthly.

I have a Draw-tite off of e-trailer (selected it because it has more mounting points then the hidden hitch (although both will work well). I have personally towed about 2400 pounds of gravel+trailer. Additionally I've hauled boxes and boxes of books for some family members on a 300 mile trip over the river and through the woods totaling about 21-2200 combined trailer/cargo weight plus another 600 in the car. I took it easy and stuck to 60mph even though the posted speed was 65car/55trucks. The lowness of the back end in the car was from the books in the car, the trailer was extremely well balanced and we simply reached our weight limit before we reached the volume capacity.


Do I fit in?

This would be a bit over the towing capacity

Well, let me think. On my 01 Jetta AUTO, with the Draw-Tite from Etrailer (modified install) I have had a 6x10 box trailer with about 1500# of junk in it, plus the weight of Uhauls heavy-arse trailers behind my car, up and down the hills of Kentucky at 80mph without any problems. I have also pulled about 2k worth of concrete tiles on an open utility trailer... And just for giggles, I pulled an 80s Chevy half-ton out of the road (full of tools in the back) and onto the grass. But that was using the loop and a chain, not the hitch, and only at 5mph in first gear.

How did I modify the Draw-Tite install? When installing into the holes I drilled, and into the frame by the tow loop, I used all grade 8 bolts, half-inch thick, and I used 3" wide by 1/8" thick fender washers, on BOTH SIDES of the trunk pan steel, and on the driver's side shoulder steel. This makes that connection a 3" wide tiedown, instead of the 3/4" wide of just the bolt head. The instructions had NOTHING about using washers, OR using rated hardware like grade 8 bolts. Grade 8 is one tough mofo, they don't stretch or shear without extreme forces, probably stronger than the FRAME of the car.

Yea, I'm an engineer, and I over-engineer stuff I build. That's why MY house was still standing with 98% of the roof shingles intact after 3 direct-hit hurricanes in the last 2 years.

Nice pics Brian--you should have tried towing the airplane!

Towing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13OqRaCaQKRK27ErcLbE0f_15B0syyZMZ/view?usp=sharing
Towing an electric golf cart
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t-IEz_MmtNgHYCZnHRlLgTJmI-NRGRX0/view?usp=sharing
Video of me pulling out a F-350

Newbies! Welcome but this is a 13/14 year old thread.