New pilot owner and Towing question

[Anonymous]

Have an approximate 3000-3500 boat, trailer, engine that I will be towing need to add the hitch and tranny cooler. Why is the power steering pump need a cooler? Any others do towing and what experience have you had good or bad.

[eric k]

I bought an EX-L Pilot with tow package January 05. It pulls my boat that weighs 2700 lbs (checked at scale) better than my 02 Dodge Dakota with 4.7 auto 3.55 gears did. I was really surprised how well it pulls. In Florida you don’t have to have breaks on your trailer until you reach 3000lbs. So with breaks on your trailer you should be a little better on that end. I can’t imagine the Pilot not pulling your boat almost as good with that weight. I pull my boat with the auto in 3rd and think the torque around 50mph was pretty good compared to my Dakota. Dakota was rated at 295 ftlbs at 3200 rpms which is much better on paper than the Pilot, but you couldn’t tell it. When pulling boat out of water I do use the VTM-4 in 1st gear on a wet ramp staying straight. After it is out of the water on top of ramp I turn the VTM-4 off.
The only thing that I noticed NOT as good was that the boat didn’t track as good behind the Pilot. The wheel base is shorter but also the Pilot’s hitch surprisingly sits higher which could have been why it swayed a little more. There was probably less tongue weight than before on my Dakota. Well, hope all this helps you.

[hoppy2]

Thanks Eric that helps

[Anonymous]

Has anyone installed a tranmission and power steering cooler to complete the towing package? I've seen that Honda requires both coolers as part of their towing package.

How hard is it to install these options yourself? The bolt on hitch shouldn't be a problem but tapping into the transmission fluid circuit causes me a little concern.

['Curly Q Links']

Somebody please explain why a power steering cooler is needed. Often, adding the trailer puts LESS weight onto the front wheels, so isn't steering even easier than usual?

I'm ignorant.