Towing with a Toyota Corolla???

[Timwp]

Mike, I've been hauling mine for 2 years with a corolla. Everything seems fine, always check breaks...but other than that concentrate on the sailing stuff...much more enjoyable. Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff.

Tim

[Steve Ullrich]

On the other end of the scale... I towed my 16/3 with a Ford Ranger all summer. Towing capacity 3500 lbs and though I was aware of the trailer when braking the Ranger handled the ramps and highway like there was hardly anything back there.  I think braking should be your main concern...  I don't know how it will go for you if you have to stop real fast.  Though the Ranger was doing a bang up job as a tow vehicle she was aging and the wife and I decided to trade her in last weekend.  Minnesota winters and towing my sailboat were in the forefront of my mind so we only looked at 4WD vehicle that could handle at least as much as the Ranger did.  We ended up buying a 2009 Nissan Xterra.  Like I said, we are on the over kill end of the scale as the Xterra can haul 5,000 lbs.  No breeze in Minneapolis this morning but the forcaste for tomorrow is for winds 10-15 so I'll be giving the new rig a maiden run in the morning.  Can't wait to see how it handles.

[Salty19]

I believe towing should be done with a vehicle that is designed to do so.   Scion XB's certainly have enough power to pull it (my wife's Scion  tC certainly does), but can it stop consistently and quickly when you need it?  As for transmissions, Toyota transmissions are very stout on every model--they rarely fail.    I wouldn't worry about the transmission or engine.  Actually the drivetrain (CV joints, axles, splines) and rear suspension will get the most abuse.

Guess what I'm saying is if you tow with an economy car, do be very careful and leave plenty of room to stop and turn!!  Keep in mind with weight on the hitch, your vehicle is no longer balanced.  The front is light and the rear is heavy.  This means your steering and front brakes (over 80% of overall stopping power) are reduced.  Throw in some rain and it can get dicey.  Also you may want to check with your insurance company about towing liability on any given car you buy. I would hate to see you be liable for an accident--that could be devasting financially.  Not to mention taking out a family on your way to the lake would be terrible.

What kickinbug said about front wheel drive is absolutely correct.   Be prepared for some tire slipping at the ramp and shorter lived components (brake pads, brake rotors, brake fluid, CV joints).  And also definitely keep up on maintenance, especially coolant and transmission fluid changes.

What about a Subaru Impreza?  I think they can tow a fiar amount and have AWD and are reliable cars. But they are not $13K either.

I tow with a 2005 Toyota 4runner sport V8 with all wheel drive.  It will haul 8300lbs but you'll never see me try that.
Yes, overkill for the CP16--a Ford ranger or S10 pickup is plenty.  But the 4runner is just right for a CP19 or CP23. And of course great for the winter (all wheel drive is da bomb), camping in the outback, and hauling stuff from Home Depot.    Day to day I drive an MR2 which has a 400lb weight limit (2 seater only).  It hauls nothing but does haul a**.

[Bob Condon]

Breaking is key...

My Toyota Sienna van dows our CP19 just fine. The only place where I had concerns was on a back
road in Maine with a 55MPH limit. Going downhill at 50 and [Ma and Pa Kettle] decide to stop at
a yard sale.. The problem is that they stopped in the street while they decided where they would
put the car. My luck star did not have a car coming in the other direction so I took the other side of the road
otherwise we would have had a mess. I was several cars of room but missed their back bumper by meer inches.

and then I changed my shorts.

The van is quite stout but that certainly made me better aware of the dangers of towing
with lighter vehicles...

The Cp19 stays in Maine now so instead of getting a 250 mile trip each way, it is now about 2 miles from a friend's
barn to the water....

priceless...

[Glenn Basore]

Mike,

Your kidding right !

I just bought a new 2009 Toyota Corolla and cant believe you would even consider towing anything with it much less launch and retrieve a boat on a ramp.

Save your self a lot of troubles, buy new or used tow vehicle that matches your towing problem.

Glenn B.

[screeminbob]

Bob Burgess (Handbook of Trailer Sailing) used a Pinto to drive around his CP 16. he was worried at first about manufacturer rating, but found out one of the compac employees drove their CP16 also with a Pinto. I yanked mine out of the mud a couple days ago with my 84 VW Vanagon, no problem.

Bob
1988 CP 16/2
Cosmos

[Bob Condon]

I drove a pinto wagon in the 70s..

You had to have a death wish to drive them. The only good thing about
the pinto is that when you got hit, the car exploded and you had an instant
crematorium... If there were pieces not burnt up, then just crushed the car around you
and called it a coffin.

Driving a (pinto) -or- (towing a cp19 or 23 ) have the same level of desperation...
I also drove several Corvairs (and towed a 14' crestliner power boat) in the 60/70s!

I would take the Corvairs any day in the snowstorms with snow tires...

[JBC]

I also had a Corvair in the 60s, with a hitch.  Worked just fine until one day in W. Texas I was launching a fishing boat and a friend who was along (and also drove a Volkswagen, with the reverse gear in a different spot) jumped in the Corvair to pull it out.  Well, we launched both, of course.

I probably would still be standing there trying to figure out what to do had it not been for a farmer who witnessed the entire fiasco and simply came over with his tractor, pulled out the car, told me to turn the key on and put it in second gear, and proceeded to drive around the car (and me) until the engine pumped out the water and started!

Great car for that, if nothing else.  But to this day, I get nervous backing sailboats down ramps!

Jett

[CaptRon28]

I'm not sure what the weights of the various boats and trailers are, but one should not really tow anything that weighs more than the truck or cars rated capability - especially for a longer trip at higher speeds. And it's a lot more than having the torque or horsepower needed to climb the next hill. The real factors include what the vehicles frame or uni-body can safely handle, the capacity of the tow vehicle brakes, the load that the axles, suspension and tires can safely carry, etc. Put too much weight behind you and watch the automatic transmissions fluid temperature go well above 220 or so - and that will shorten its life by years.

Also remember that the tongue weight on the back of the tow vehicle is acting like a see-saw. 400 pounds several feet behind the vehicles rear axle could remove 200 pound from the front (and move it to the rear). The front brakes are doing less work and steering could get light. Thats the primary reason why some front wheel drive vehicles will slip and slide on many boat ramps. Less weight over the drive wheels means less traction.

Weight distributing hitches work very well with fairly heavy trailers. I wouln't bother with a 2,000 pound trailer back there, but as it gets heavier it's beneficial to move some of that tongue weight to the vehicles front axle. Note that many of the advertised towing capacities are based on using this kind of hitch.

[Bob23]

   Back in the day, we owned a 1985 Corolla. It had trouble towing itself around let alone any kind of trailer. If you had the AC on, it seemed that a spark plug wire had become unplugged. To accelarate safely, you had to switch the AC off! Great car, though.
   Fast forward, my daugher has a 2005 'Rolla...incredibly fast, handles great and seems to withstand her inability to ignore car maintenance...at least for the present.
   For years, I towed a 5 x 10 contruction trailer with my 1987 Toyota pickup. 5 speed. Real slow but she would run forever. The old long stroke 22R engine; one of thier best. I had a few tense moments trying to brake in the rain...you really couldn't. So while the truck would pull it, it was too much to try to stop.
   Faster forwarder: I now drive a 2001 Tundra, pulls my CP23 with no problemo, and my 7 x 16 dual axle construction trailer. Both have brakes.
   Me, being a belt-and-suspender kind of guy, would rather have a bit of overkill any day. Why tow with something that just barely does the job? Sure, I had my VW's back in the day (14 of 'em) and drove them anywhere. But I'd never tow with one.
   I don't like front wheel drive cars anyway. Especially when towing. All that positive weight on the rear equals more negative weight on the front. Altahough, years ago I saw an old codger pull out a large boat (can't remember which one) from a ramp with an original style Plymouth Voyager. Seemed effortless and defied logic. No wheelspin at all. I had to pinch meself to make sure I wasn't dreaming! I wasn't.
Ok, enough about that,
Bob23 out

[nies]

Bob,the Plymouth Voyager probably had the standard 318 h.p. engine, I had several cares with that engine, one of the best ever produce......Phil

[brackish]

No Phil, that original voyager had a Chrysler built four cylinder or a Mitsubishi's built straight six IIRC.  Vehicle was front wheel drive only, with transverse mounted engine.  I had an '87 model.  Neither engine was worth a flip in my view.    Surprised it didn't pull in two trying to drag a big boat out.

The 318 was a good engine, family had a number of dodge trucks with that engine.

Frank 2

[nies]

Frank, right engine.....wrong model, thanks for correcting me.......this is one of the reasons I have no faith in "oral history".......listening to my brother-in-law recount events of the past, ........Phil

[Bob23]

Yeah, guys. I believe this particular Voyager had the four banger. I was amazed it pulled a boat out of the ramp but the world is full of wonders if we just open our eyes to see, eh?
Bob23

[Craig Weis]

There is no substitute for cubic inches, or cubic centimeters. The more air/fuel mixture crammed into the combustion chamber [usually by careful porting and a lot of valves] and the faster those burned and unburned hydrocarbon emissions are out of that chamber and the more heat generated the more hp will be produced. Look at Jeep. A 4.? something liter, naturally aspirated churn and tons of torque.

Dad's Star Boat...



...sitting on a four wheel converted truck frame with draw bar steering was pulled away with a 4 cylinder flathead Nash Metropolitan. Parting words, "Good Luck Stopping Junior."

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