Buy a trailer (instead of a pickup truck)

[oil pan 4]

civics do it too.


Its a bike trailer, so it appears these guys will haul their motor cycle or dirt bike around with their civic.

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Its a bike trailer, so it appears these guys will haul their motor cycle or dirt bike around with their civic.

I have the same motorcycle wheel chock on my trailer. It works very well.

I did another rounder to Osoyoos last week, pulling the bike with the Matrix. I estimate the trailer + bike to be 800-850 lbs.

The winds were more in my favour this time, because the round trip averaged 8.6L/100 km (27 mpg). This is a 455 mile trip consisting of a lot of big mountain climbs. The SG2 is wonderful for watching coolant temperature and percent load. Percent load is important for manual shifting the auto trans to keep it from hunting.

[Xist]

I saw this by Arizona State recently. How aerodynamic is it? It doesn't have corners, but the truck sure does. The taper from front-to-back looks decent, though, just not from side-to-side.

[HHOTDI]

I am going to do a mileage test(in the next couple of days) to see exactly how much it is costing me to have it mounted up there and then to see what the difference will be with the custom rack mounting it down over the rear window just out of the airstream! I will be taking pics and showing the results. Here is another cool pic of my custom Motorcycle hitch/carrier I made to transport my Bobber! I used to have it mounted on my little trailer like the above one, then got tired of taking it off all the time to haul other stuff so i came up with this one mounted right to a receiver hitch, Pretty cool! :{)

[richierocket]

Those moto carriers are a great idea. I've seen them but never got to use one, I always just used the small trailer.

If your transmission output shaft is splashing around the oil, it should not be problem. But it may not be good if you have a dry sump oil system? Dropping the chain for transport would solve all that...and reduce drag too

[HHOTDI]

Good thought. That particular trip I actually just bought that Bobber from the original owner and I drug it 300 miles back to my place! If you look really close, you can see that I did drop the chain for that one. On local/short trips I always leave the chain on and jst put it in neutral...I make "Double" sure...and then check again, making sure it is in neutral before I pull out/take off with it. A friend had a similar carrier and for his sandrail and didn't make it 1 mile and smoked his brand new 2300cc motor! He had failed to make sure it was in neutral and it had been in 1st gear when he loaded it...Oh Man that hurt!

:{)

[euromodder]

The Skoda twin of my VW up! with too large a trailer



The trouble will be to get it approved here in Belgium - even though the hitch is EU approved for 800kg (braked) on the VW up / Skoda CitiGo / Seat Mii , none of these cars have a tow rating in Belgium ...

[mechman600]

Did anyone see Top Gear a few weeks ago where they tested crossovers that are "specifically designed for caravaners" (campers in the UK)? They ended up putting a CX-5 diesel and Tiguan diesel through a bunch of silly tests. Highly entertaining.

Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNzybMU8Mbs

Download S20E05 through Piratebay or whatever to see the whole 20+ minute piece. It's hilarious.

Anyway, what blew me away was the towing rating of these cars in Europe. These both have a 2000 KG (4400 lb) rating! It's too bad that in sue happy North America, car companies simply do not bother with giving these cars a tow rating at all to avoid class action lawsuits and whatnot. Besides, we have gas guzzling pickups to pull/haul stuff.

I remember looking at a Mazda 6 wagon a few years ago. When I looked into towing, it was "not recommended" by Mazda Canada. However, in Australia the EXACT SAME CAR was rated for 2000 lbs.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by mechman600

I remember looking at a Mazda 6 wagon a few years ago. When I looked into towing, it was "not recommended" by Mazda Canada. However, in Australia the EXACT SAME CAR was rated for 2000 lbs.

At least "not recommended" doesn't mean forbidden

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

At least "not recommended" doesn't mean forbidden

I does here. Insurance companies will laugh at you if you get into an accident, towing something that is "not recommended." Heaven forbid you hurt someone.