Can I tow?

[92_rugby_subie]

Vehicle is a 1984 Subaru DL Sedan.

Manual - 5 speed transmission.

EA-81 engine w/ 154k miles.

 

Can I tow? and how much?

 

Girlfriend wants a tent trailer, but apparently the 2006 Pontiac Vibe wont tow one... so now she moves efforts to my car..

[Mr. Brat]

I have towed my 21 foot wakeboard boat and a 16 foot enclosed trailer around my yard with my brat. I have towed about 700lbs with mine. How much does the trailer weight?

[92_rugby_subie]

We havent found "the one" yet, just looking at them and so were hoping to see what I CAN tow before we buy a trailer and then go "oh crap, too heavy"

[GeneralDisorder]

Depends on the size...... and quite frankly do you *want* to tow a trailer that big with a car that has 74 HP and can barely get out of it's own way with a running start?

 

Can you say "death trap"?

 

Seriously - don't consider towing anything larger than a dinghy on rollerskates or a motorcyle/jetski trailer (single, not a double ).

 

You take your life into your hands with that kind of HP and any kind of weight. Mountain passes become 25 MPH affairs with stuff like that and people are rude and make rash descisions when stuck behind you - THEY might kill someone even if you don't manage to off yourself in the process of getting to a campsite.

 

Play it safe and buy a tent - one that you can carry on your back.

 

..... I never understood the Pontiac Vibe - why would you pay several thousand $$ more for the Pontiac logo slapped on a Toyota Matrix? This was a female purchase wasn't it? :-\

 

GD

Edited September 28, 2010 by GeneralDisorder

[vagen]

I towed with a 1971 Datsun 1600 pickup my 510 race car on a trailer. the trick is never use brakes to slow down, they wont last. Stick with larger vehicles for towing.

 

 

I am with GD on this one there is not enough power or brakes on an ea81 to tow much of anything

[idosubaru]

that you're looking for frequent towing suggests to me to err on the side of caution and go as light as possible. there's room for more leniency for one time towing.

 

towing never comes down to black and white. you *can* tow just about anything you want. you *can* smoke your whole life and be fine, you *can* eat 200 grams of fat every day and live. you could tow a full size truck, it would "work". there's no magical number where it all becomes impossible. at 500 it works and at 501 it doesn't. think "curve" mathematically speaking. like every 100 pounds adds risk and decreases stopping distance, handling, etc. it's probably a steep curve on older light weight subaru's.

 

like mentioned, towing can be really dangerous and should never be taken lightly when you're maxing out the capacities of any vehicle.

 

if you're towing once, it's not a huge deal. be very careful and drive cautiously, choose your routes, times, etc smart.

 

if you're going to be towing a lot, then you should get conservative really fast. it only takes one time for a person, deer, weather, or any number or things you can't plan for to cause you to loose control. if you've ever had to swerve, you'll have to when towing too, just a matter of when, not if. keep it small, keep the load light, get brakes on the trailer, etc. i've had enough close calls in my full size truck that the next trailer is getting brakes.

 

ride in a vehicle with an out of control load once and that'll change some things it's scary as **&!@@

Edited September 28, 2010 by grossgary

[vagen]

Oh yah Sylvan hill in Portland with 2400# pushing a 2100# truck down the hill is a once in a lifetime experience (I'll never do anything so stupid again)

[Mr. Brat]

Everyones driving capabilities are differant, and there towing capabilites can be way WAY differant. I personal (just an opinion) wouldn't tow more than 500lbs with a STOCK ea81. Now when you upgrade brakes, motor, trailer brake etc. that poundage COULD go up, but still it comes to the fact of what YOU are capable of towing/handling.

 

Happy hauling!

[GeneralDisorder]

Generally it's a bad idea to tow anything heavier than the tow vehicle and quite frankly it's safest to stay below 2/3 of the weight of the tow vehicle. My truck weighs about 6500 lbs. I try to stay around 5000 lbs or less for towing (total trailer+load weight). Other than that it's about braking performance (might need trailer brakes), and how much power you have to spare after the vehicle itself takes what it needs to get up to speed.

 

Therin lies the rub - EA81's don't have any spare power .

 

GD

[Mr. Brat]

you could tow a full size truck, it would "work". there's no magical number where it all becomes impossible.

 

Like Gary said... You can tow anything, at a point it just becomes impractical and absoluty dangerous.

 

 

This is a really old picture, just saying it can be done. Just not recommended!

[BEECHBM69]

If you're hell bent on doing it, you can go with something like this:

 

TENT TRAILER

 

You can probably build something on one of those cheapy small trailer frames at Harbor Freight as well.

 

We've had heated discussions about overloaded towing on a truck forum I frequent, and the consensus is: If you want to tow more than your rig can handle, buy a bigger rig. The chances of something happening increase exponentially, and your insurance may not pay if it's proven you were negligent with your load. Not worth rolling that dice.

 

Dan

[987687]

I have an 89GL (ea81 engine) that I tow somewhat often with. I've towed really big stupid things, but I keep it slow and take routes at times where I don't meet traffic. But for big things I generally take my dad's truck. It's designed to tow big things...

 

But I do tow a lot of reasonably sized things. And as long as I keep what I'm towing under, say 700 or so lbs it's fine. I can keep up speed on most hills, alright acceleration, hill stops with lo range, and most importantly it STOPS decently.

But my stopping decently has a lot to do with a rear disc brake swap and that I tuned up the brake system. New fluid, bled well, etc.

If you're going to tow anything with any vehicle you want to make sure your brakes are in tip top shape.

 

So for me, the combination of lo range, disc brakes, and the rugged bumper/hitch I welded up make towing smaller things safe and easy.

 

Basically don't do anything really stupid, people doing stupid things is the reason stupid laws are made that hinder people who do things the right way.

Edited September 28, 2010 by 987687

[Flowmastered87GL]

I agree that I would not go over 500 pounds on an EA series vehicle. If you asked Subaru they would probably say they are not even designed to tow period. On like an early AWD legacy 5 speed I would maybe brave 1000 pounds, I think my baja is rated over 2000, but I would be scared getting up that high. It was slow enough just loaded with stuff ON BOARD to WCSS :-\

 

And driving a commercial truck.... I can say just because you can get it moving doesn't mean you can tow it. You have to be able to stop it and control it too. (I once drove to seattle with axle weights of 8700,15000,14000,13000,20000) front to rear, The back of the rear trailer was squirrelly as hell. Won't do that again with that much weight back there.

 

And on the note of an RV, generally unless you use them ALOT they don't pay off. You have to buy them, register them insure them, maintain them, store them.

 

Or just use a tent that fits in your closet

[987687]

I'm quite partial to my tent. It fits nicely in the back seat foot well, weighs about 5 pounds, and doesn't take up very much space. Along with that my sleeping bag, cooler, and box for firewood fit nicely in my canoe which goes very well on my roof. With that setup I can go camping anywhere on land or on water. I don't need no stinkin' tow-along for camping!

 

But if you are going to get a tow-along, I'd suggest one that weighs less than 500lbs (and yes, all your crap in there is included in the 500 or less number).

If you're towing much more than that for long distances your engine, transmission, axles, wheel bearings, etc probably won't like you much.

[swampbrat]

Do some searches on teardrops. You can build your own for well under $1000 and some of them are light enough to tow behind motorcycles and Samurais! We built our own and had a great time doing it. The whole family pitched in. Do a search on tiny tears , benroys, anything antique . Stuff that could be pulled with old underpowered cars with drum brakes!

[WoodsWagon]

If you're going to tow much weight at all, which is in comparison to the towing vehicle, get electric trailer brakes with a good controller. Not only will the whole package stop better, but you can apply the trailer brakes manually with a lever on the controller to put drag on only the trailer. This is really handy in tail-wagging-the-dog situations where an instability in the trailer can start pushing the car around.

 

I've had a fullsized diesel pickup sideways on a 3 lane highway with 10k lbs worth of trailer and 56 GMC pickup pushing the truck wherever it wanted. Due to sub-optimal weight distribution of the truck on the trailer, mis-matched trailer tires, and a POS trailer with non-working brakes, it would start to sway at 45mph. I crested a hill at 55mph because I hadn't been paying close enough attention and had just been holding it floored up the hills. The trailer started swaying, I knew I couldn't hit the brakes because it would instanly jacknife. Ended up using all 3 lanes countersteering to keep the front wheels of the truck in the middle lane as the trailer switched from left lane to right lane to left again. Pouring rain, borrowed truck, borrowed trailer, and freshly purchased truck on the trailer.

 

I played the full-lock countersteer game until the road went uphill again, then everything straightened out as the trailer came back under tow. If I had working trailer brakes, I could have applied them and had everything straighten out instanly. Instead I got to practice my "look where you want to go and steer for it, not the concrete barriers on each side that your going to plow into at 55mph 2 states away in borrowed equipment."

 

Never again.

 

On a better note, the cummins used less diesel on the way back at 35mph loaded than it did on the way down at 70mph empty.

[92_rugby_subie]

Think I'll stick a tent... Safety is big in my book and I don't wanna get dragged around by a trailer, lose power and go downhill, etc. I have driven my 1.8L ea82 loyale and it didn't feel like much "towing" power.

[Numbchux]

I would say, as a rule of thumb. other than maybe moving things around the yard (low range 4WD) that Pontiac vibe is going to be a much safer bet for towing.