Quote:
Originally Posted by tony_2018
Well you have the struts replaced, but safety wise, what about your braking. If ever in need of emergency braking how will your stock setup handle the extra weight coming from back? Also when swirving out of the way of unseen objects on the road? Things to think about and I'm not hating on this add-on. I'm actually digging it as i also drive a 99-00 civic sedan.
Lighting on the road I've done HID retrofit, suspension wise I now have koni's with stock suspension so the ride is stiffer and adjustable if need be, I'm looking to lowering the car a bit and looking at stock options of either the sporty civic type r springs or the sporty integra type r springs. For swirving out the face of danger I'm looking into upgrading my swaybar to a more stock oem integra type r and a rear civic si swaybar. I've also consider lighter rims, civic HX rims, or using the moon hub cap rims. I'm totally happy with the gas mileage I'm getting a combination of citiy and highway I get 30mpg and straigh highway I get 40mpg, if I'm in lean burn mode I get a +.
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There is a precedence for hitch cargo carriers, i.e. Thule, but also rack and bag configs for Class I. What may be questionable is the application to a compact car, having no tow rating, though newer generation Corollas and the Matrix/Vibe do have a tow rating (maybe some others AFAIK). EDIT: the extra length of my carrier (3ft vs 2ft typical) is also questionable, but it does taper and I also load it toward the front, which is self-enforcing due to the slope of the box floor, and overall I think it's a wash).
For braking, there is an increase in momentum but a corresponding increase in max braking force, assuming traction is the limitation factor (no shortage of caliper/drum force for some mechanical reason, or overheating). (Both braking force and momentum are linear with mass.) This is assuming the car has ABS. Without ABS there could be an increase in the tendancy of the front wheels to break lose in a hard brake.
For steering it is more complicated, and it might be plausible for a heavy hitch mounted weight to cause a problem. But without doing the math, I'd expect the overall change in center of mass to be fairly small.