The manual says not to but I am willing to try it anyway. I want to pull a 4X8 utility trailor with my dirt bike it the back. I plan to add a tranny cooler. Will the trans in the car handle the load? I don't want to burn it up.
The car is mechanically perfect.
I've heard of people towing many things with their Js, i'm sure a dirt bike won't do damage.
I think if youre just hauling dirt bike and trailer, You should be good, I would also make sure u do that tranny cooler, Would for sure give ya extra protection. Hauling a trailer (1200-2000 lb) would be way to much. I would say 400-500 lbs max you should be ok.
Well the bike weighs almost 300 pounds itself, its a Honda XR 650. The trailer is a pretty heavy duty homemade 4X8 trailer. I guess I will just have to try it.
You won't likely have problems - just accelerate more slowly, and make sure you anticipate stops a little sooner - our brakes aren't exactly well suited to a lot of extra weight.
I've pulled a similar sized trailer with my 2200 5-speed a number of times. Just watch your temperature gauge on the highway. If mine gets bogged down in 5th and I have to drop it to 4th at any speed over about 9km/h (55MPH, or approx. 3000RPM) the needle will steadily climb. As long as I keep the speed up enough on the hills to maintain about 2,300RPM or better, it's usually fine. Of course you can't exactly "lock" it into top gear, so you'll probably have to experiment a bit to see how it does.
At least the bike shouldn't offer much wind resistance. I have a 16 foot open aluminum boat that I tow every summer with mine, and that thing's like towing a parachute. I've found that if I'm planning on a trip soon, I'll run premium (91 or higher) octane gas for at least 1 tank prior, and during the trip. Since figuring that out, I can keep it in 5th gear on all of the hills on my route - no more dropping a gear and heating up. I have a vacuum gauge I put in, and I can tell that it keeps the timing more advanced under load with the better gas in there. I also get about 3-4MPG better when towing if I use the higher octane, which is enough to compensate for the "premium" price.
I would certainly install a tranny cooler too - as long as you have it in series with the existing one. It's far cheaper than a new transmission - and I would bet that it will certainly get warmer than usual with the extra load. Like I said - watch your engine temperature, because the transmission temperature is likely going to be pretty close.
Just today a friend of mine at work told me of his towing horror story from yesterday - pulling a mid-sized U-Haul trailer loaded with a dining room set with his 1998 Windstar. The last part of his trek home was up a fairly long hill. When he got home and shut it off, he could see a trail of tranny fluid that went as far down the street as he could see - starting at his van. It then began violently puking all kinds of fluid out of the vent. After it cooled down, it took more than 5 liters of fluid to bring the level into the cross-hatch area! Amazingly it still seems to work, but I would guess that its days are numbered... A tranny cooler might have saved him a lot of money - we'll see soon.
Basically, with a tranny cooler, you should be fine as long as you don't beat on it. If you've got any long hills to deal with, the better gas may be worth a shot too - I figured that one out about 5 years ago, and it's been working every summer since. I like the way the engine runs with the premium too - but for the amount I drive it's a bit pricey here to run all of the time. My mileage improvement using that when not towing is minimal - and currently here the 91 is about 10% more than regular. $300+ per month for gas is enough for me already..
John
most of the time they recomend not to tow with FWD 4cyl. cus of stress on drive train but i dont see it being a problem considering they use the 2.2 in S-10 pick ups. It could also be because its a traction issue also, since the weight is on the back tires of the truck and they do the pulling of the load as the FWD has less traction due to the load being so far back.
John S wrote:You won't likely have problems - just accelerate more slowly, and make sure you anticipate stops a little sooner - our brakes aren't exactly well suited to a lot of extra weight.
I've pulled a similar sized trailer with my 2200 5-speed a number of times. Just watch your temperature gauge on the highway. If mine gets bogged down in 5th and I have to drop it to 4th at any speed over about 9km/h (55MPH, or approx. 3000RPM) the needle will steadily climb. As long as I keep the speed up enough on the hills to maintain about 2,300RPM or better, it's usually fine. Of course you can't exactly "lock" it into top gear, so you'll probably have to experiment a bit to see how it does.
At least the bike shouldn't offer much wind resistance. I have a 16 foot open aluminum boat that I tow every summer with mine, and that thing's like towing a parachute. I've found that if I'm planning on a trip soon, I'll run premium (91 or higher) octane gas for at least 1 tank prior, and during the trip. Since figuring that out, I can keep it in 5th gear on all of the hills on my route - no more dropping a gear and heating up. I have a vacuum gauge I put in, and I can tell that it keeps the timing more advanced under load with the better gas in there. I also get about 3-4MPG better when towing if I use the higher octane, which is enough to compensate for the "premium" price.
I would certainly install a tranny cooler too - as long as you have it in series with the existing one. It's far cheaper than a new transmission - and I would bet that it will certainly get warmer than usual with the extra load. Like I said - watch your engine temperature, because the transmission temperature is likely going to be pretty close.
Just today a friend of mine at work told me of his towing horror story from yesterday - pulling a mid-sized U-Haul trailer loaded with a dining room set with his 1998 Windstar. The last part of his trek home was up a fairly long hill. When he got home and shut it off, he could see a trail of tranny fluid that went as far down the street as he could see - starting at his van. It then began violently puking all kinds of fluid out of the vent. After it cooled down, it took more than 5 liters of fluid to bring the level into the cross-hatch area! Amazingly it still seems to work, but I would guess that its days are numbered... A tranny cooler might have saved him a lot of money - we'll see soon.
Basically, with a tranny cooler, you should be fine as long as you don't beat on it. If you've got any long hills to deal with, the better gas may be worth a shot too - I figured that one out about 5 years ago, and it's been working every summer since. I like the way the engine runs with the premium too - but for the amount I drive it's a bit pricey here to run all of the time. My mileage improvement using that when not towing is minimal - and currently here the 91 is about 10% more than regular. $300+ per month for gas is enough for me already..
John
Thanks, I just installed a Tranny cooler last night. I bought the biggest one that Advance Auto had. I have always heard run the biggest cooler you can find so thats what I did. We shall see what happens.
