Show what you tow!

[TornadoRed]

LOL, I've tried to yank the hitch off the car for 5 years now.. Not gonna happen.. Not nearly enough traction to yank the hitch off the car..

It could happen. Say, for example, that one of the trailer wheels was in a deep pothole?

But I think most of us who have towed any heavy loads with our TDIs have probably been very cautious both starting and stopping... maybe preferring to err on the side of being overly cautious.

 

[Lightflyer1]

It can be done, just have to be very careful. It isn't for everyone.

 

[tomc585]

just requires "common sense"

 

[scubagli]

trailer/boat weigh 200lbs more then the car with me in it, towed it 200+ miles, no issues.

 

[autoelf92]

Just found this picture while I was skimming through my archives. She's a 19.5 foot Bayliner, took her down to the water quite a few times this summer.

 

[FordGuy100]

So what mileage is everyone getting hauling the various things they do?

 

[Fix_Until_Broke]

Low 20's with heavy loads, mid-upper 30's with lighter/smaller loads

 

[autoelf92]

Hauling a 1500 pound fishing boat from central Ohio down to Miami Florida and back I averaged 33mpg (the hills in the first leg of the trip killed the mileage.)

 

[S_Sanders]

My Quicksilver 6.0 camper is 1,000 pounds or less, fully loaded, without too much front area. I get 28 to 34 MPG depending on speed and terrain.

 

[Keith_J]

1000 pound MEP-002A military generator plus two storage racks on a 2000 pound rated flat bed got me 27 MPG at 70 MPH. Draggy load for certain and the maximum overdrive (2050 RPM at 70 MPH) didn't help. Yes, I downshifted to 4th on hills.

This abuse might have been the final insult to the Sachs clutch. 11 years is a long life for these. Yes, it now has a LUK and I am very happy. Well, won't be in the morning as this hurt my 40+ year old body.

 

[TornadoRed]

In the summer of 2008, financial circumstances forced me to move from San Diego to the Midwest. Diesel was $5.00/gallon so I could not afford to rent a truck from Ryder or UHaul. So I bought a 4'x8' flatbed trailer, then sold or gave away or threw away everything that would not fit. I estimate that the trailer plus the cargo weighed about 2000 pounds -- enough that the leaf springs were flattened and I had to cut away the fenders so they would not rub on the tires. Everything was tied down to the trailer, then a tarp covered it all, so it was not very aerodynamic.

Because I did such a poor job of balancing the weight, I couldn't drive more than 54-55 mph or else the trailer would begin to sway back and forth. So I drove 1900 miles, over three mountain passes, at less than 55 mph.

Filled in Gila Bend, AZ: 41.2 mpg
Filled in Albuquerque: 40.4 mpg
Filled in Crook, CO: 40.8 mpg
Filled in Grinnell, IA: 43.9 mpg

I would never travel so far at such an excruciatingly low speed again. I had to downshift to 4th on some uphill and downhill grades, but otherwise it was all 5th gear at around 1800-1900 rpm. Average 41 MPG for the entire trip.

 

[TDIJetta99]

It could happen. Say, for example, that one of the trailer wheels was in a deep pothole?
But I think most of us who have towed any heavy loads with our TDIs have probably been very cautious both starting and stopping... maybe preferring to err on the side of being overly cautious.

Nah, you'll break something else before the hitch comes off haha... The front diff will be the first thing to cry uncle..

 

[chriskorwan]

Nah, you'll break something else before the hitch comes off haha... The front diff will be the first thing to cry uncle..

very true i killed my diff after towing a 6' X12' landscape trailer with a jeep cherokee 4.0 motor

 

[tomc585]

very true i killed my diff after towing a 6' X12' landscape trailer with a jeep cherokee 4.0 motor

I dont think it was a result of towing that trailer. Jeep drive trains/suspensions (excluding the auto trans) are pretty hefty when paired with the 4.0 motors....unless it was not maintained/abused. I have two '96 ZJ's with 4.0 Automatics. Both have over 150k all original. The one has full time 4wd which I use to trailer firewood. Its an abusive amount I load it with but I just nurse it.

 

[chriskorwan]

I dont think it was a result of towing that trailer. Jeep drive trains/suspensions (excluding the auto trans) are pretty hefty when paired with the 4.0 motors....unless it was not maintained/abused. I have two '96 ZJ's with 4.0 Automatics. Both have over 150k all original. The one has full time 4wd which I use to trailer firewood. Its an abusive amount I load it with but I just nurse it.

sorry, i was towing that trailer and a 4.0 motor was on the trailer, with my golf. and the next day i had noticed my differential was coming apart.

 

[tomc585]

lol,,,Even with that combo there must have been something wrong with that differential to come apart.

 

[TDIJetta99]

I think I've only seen Chris's car ONCE without something strapped to it, or behind it hahaha... I saw him on the other side of the highway one time with a wheel barrow on top of the car LMAO!!

 

[scubagli]

Been awhile but I'm pretty sure I saw high 30s on that trip.

 

[NarfBLAST]

Towed home a large item that was on sale at Canadian Tire. The Dundas Canadian Tire store is so small that the warehouse is not attached to the store, it is actually over the creek and around a bend! Here is a Google map from the store to the warehouse with a street view of the bridge over the creek: http://g.co/maps/wrpgk Google maps still shows the "old bridge" that fell down last year completely isolating the street where the warehouse is. They had to cut an emergency road through the woods to west and out to Osler road thru the back of a condominium complex there.

Anyway, here is the picture, with trailer, at the recently declassified Top Secret Canadian Tire warehouse in the woods near Dundas, Ontario, Canada:

While waiting for them to bring out my item I walked around the front of the car and snapped a picture... my wife is texting me asking "What are you doing?"

 

[coalminer16]

Didn't bring the camera but a JD 332 L&G tractor with 300 lbs of wheel weights towed from Wisconsin to Virginia. Mounted a 500 lb JD 44 loader to the tractor, bought another 100lbs of wheel weights and a 200lbs of counter weight (that was put on the trailer) and towed it back to Wisconsin this past weekend with my father. 38 straight hours. If you weren't driving you were sleeping. 28 mpg down there, 26 the way back in an 09 sportwagon of my fathers with my single motorcycle aluma trailer doing the speed limit the whole way.

 

[SilverGhost]

My little work horse.

So I finally got off my lazy arse and uploaded a couple of crappy cell phone pictures of my new toy.
Here we are stopped at a rest stop.


And my other toy at home. I think a better picture is the faces of people at the ramp.

Funny thing is I get worse mileage towing the boat (23-28MPG) than towing the camper (28-35MPG). I guess there is a lot more to the aerodynamics involved here than just frontal area?
Jason
PS: click on the pictures for larger versions

 

[brnsgrbr]

Thanks for posting the mileage. How heavy is the camper? I can't make out who makes it on my phone.

 

[romad]

It's one of those EggCamper models: http://www.eggcamper.com/

 

[SilverGhost]

My paperwork on the camper states 1980lbs. We're still in the process of making it our own (decorating and such), but I'll have to run it over a scale when we get it done.

Jason

 

[tomc585]

eggcamper....hmmm, pricey little thing.

 

[Quanger]

Hmm. That egg is freakin cool. But I'm sure once loaded, it would weigh close to 2200lbs. Is that not too heavy for the hitch rating? Also the tongue weight is over as well. Plus I'm sure the car will be loaded as well. Is it still safe to tow?

 

[Quanger]

2500lbs gross
250lb tongue

Yikes...well above our recommended limit. I would just be a afraid of liabilities I case something happens. I know in Europe, this would work no probs.

 

[TornadoRed]

Hmm. That egg is freakin cool. But I'm sure once loaded, it would weigh close to 2200lbs. Is that not too heavy for the hitch rating? Also the tongue weight is over as well. Plus I'm sure the car will be loaded as well. Is it still safe to tow?

Safety is a relative notion: when you're towing 500-800 pounds it's easy to almost forget that there's something back there; but 2000 pounds or more and you need to have a higher level of awareness.

I can't help but remember the post by one of our club members, who towed a Mini Cooper on a dolly from Washington State to Virginia. The Mini weighs around 2600-2700 pounds and the dolly another few hundred. He crossed the Cascade Mountain range, and the Rockies, and the Appalachians. I'm sure he was aware of the weight he was pulling and drove cautiously the entire distance.

 

[SilverGhost]

Thanks Red. My father spent many years driving trucks on short haul and delivery jobs. Last 12 or so were part of a farm job so a lot of securing loads and hauling weird items. I did spend much time learning with him and his biggest point was "anything worth doing is worth doing right".

That said I build the hitch from scratch and mounted it to the same points as the euro hitch. I also dug up the tow ratings for my car with that hitch - ~3200lbs for FWD on up to 8% grade (I took a liberty on the engine since it has RC1+). I then installed the air bags inside the coil springs that can be used to level the ride. But before all of that I installed a trailer brake controller and tested - it can lock the trailer brakes on full/panic stop IF NEEDED.

And as other people pointed out - when you tow a load like this you don't forget it's there. You plan waaaay ahead and drive on the defensive. But you should be doing that anyway, right?

Jason

 

[gioTDI]

Took a trip last Monday to Hartville OH to pick up an engine for 2006 Sprinter, took out the door in order to fit it in the car