Towing Capacity

[bigdaddy]

:Anyone got any experience towing with your V... gotta '02 V and up until last year the only towing I did was to trailer my 16" skiff w/ 25hp motor over to the bay a couple times a week...not much weight there... now we're thinking of buying a small travel trailer (13' Casita) weight is 1465 dry w/ a hitch weight of 190... am I pushing it too much??:

[Racoon]

The weights a little high, unless it has trailer brakes.

The 2nd Gen CR-V is rated for 1,500 lbs total trailer weight with a tongue weight of 150 lbs. You can effectively double the trailer weight if the trailer weight has brakes, but the tongue weight still should be 150 lbs.

Good luck.
:)

[acura5150]

Yeah, the trailer weight is not too bad. But you should have trailer brakes. The tongue weight is the problem. You could try new adjustable springs/shocks on the rear. If you have an auto tranny, it won't be happy. :wink: You could try a cooler for it. I imagine the driving won't be too comfortable either. For local hauling I wouldn't worry, if you want cross country, the V may not be the answer. BTW, don't forget your payload inside the V. Two people and a trailer is alot different than four people with bags and trailer, no way.

[rags]

Don't forget the added weight of the stuff you'll carry in the trailer. Lbs ad up remarkably fast! You also might want to consider the smallest Scamp (sp?). It looks similar to the Casita, but their smallest model, I'm pretty sure, is at least a couple of hundred lbs lighter. I'm not sure whether either Casita or Scamp offers trailer brakes.

There are also some small lightweight folding campers on the market, but, of course, that's a whole other thing, since they require at least minimal setting up before use, even for a few minutes in an interstate rest area.

[ArcticEd]

I've got a 2005 SE & recently towed a 5x8' U-Haul trailer from Atlanta to Jacksonville, FL. Some notes:

* U-Haul has a class 3 hitch for the 05 (not sure about earlier years) that actually bolts to the frame instead of the tire well. It's made by Curt (I think that's the name). It's got a 2" receiver & feels a great deal more sturdy than the class 1 hitches
* 2 catches when getting this hitch for the 05: a) There's so little clearance between the muffler & frame you'll have to have the muffler lowered slightly to keep it from vibrating against the hitch/frame bolts; b) U-Haul can't wire an 05 - you'll have to get a harness from the dealer
* Gross trailer weight for the 5X8' is just over 900 lbs, and I had about 300 lbs in cargo (oddly shaped). With this weight, gas mileage dropped IN HALF. At 10-15mpg, this may not be the vehicle for a cross-country tow. This may have something to do with a lead food, of course.
* No problems with acceleration or breaking - it handled the weight very well other than mpg.

[Racoon]

* U-Haul has a class 3 hitch for the 05 (not sure about earlier years) that actually bolts to the frame instead of the tire well. It's made by Curt (I think that's the name). It's got a 2" receiver & feels a great deal more sturdy than the class 1 hitches
Actually, it's a Class II (2) hitch.

* Gross trailer weight for the 5X8' is just over 900 lbs, and I had about 300 lbs in cargo (oddly shaped). With this weight, gas mileage dropped IN HALF. At 10-15mpg, this may not be the vehicle for a cross-country tow. This may have something to do with a lead food, of course.
1,200 lbs is well within the Honda recommended maximum trailer weight. I'm not surprised your mileage dropped drastically. After all, you increased the weight the engine was moving by a 1/3.

I'm glad to hear everything went well.

:)

[kedeg2002ex]

We towed a motorcycle on a 6x12 open trailer 400 miles and got a wicked 11.5-12 mpg! The bike weighed 500 lbs and the trailer about 600lbs. The meshgate on the back slowed us down tremendously. In order to do 65mph and not get run over it (auto) ran in third darn near the whole way. Not what I imagined.

[sleeksilver]

Don't forget the CRVs tow rating WITH TRAILER BRAKES is 2500-3000 pounds. The listed 1500 pounds is without.


You should have no problem. Just watch out for tounge weight :) It's not going to be the fastest vehicle on earth with the trailer but it will be functional! They tow HUGE things in europe with tiny cars with less than 100HP. They do fine.....

[cphilip]

I don't know if there is something available to do this for class one and two hitches but...

Normaly we "towers" can double our hitch rating by use of weight distribution systems. The concept is to spring tension the weight evenly onto the four wheels of the vehicle thereby distributing the load of the tounge wieght evenly on all four wheels

This is the main control of "Sway". A tounge heavy trailer tends to be suspeptable to sway. And if you can distribute the weight evenly then you can completely eliminate sway. Sway can be uber dangerous and uncontrollable. And even more so without trailer brakes to help pull the wagging beast back into line.

There are various ways to do this. Most commonly done with a set of spring bars that hook into a special tow bar (that is solid not hollow) that then allows you to create tension on these spring bars which raises the rear of the tow vehicle back up and this, in turn, puts some of it on the front wheels instead. You basicaly measure the hieght of the tow vehicles bumper, Lower the wieght of the trailer tounge onto that vehicle and measure how much it drops. then you repeat this whole thing by tightening up the chain links of the spring bars each time a notch. With the end result your wanting is that bumper to be back to the same hieght it was unloaded. Then you know that the entire weight of the trailer tounge is now spread out onto all four wheels evenly and the entire rig runs very stable. However these are normaly the systems that take a Class III to a Class IV. I do not know if anyone makes a set for dealing with Class II to Class IV. But if they do it could be the answer to the tounge weight issue.

Now... I don't know about these "trailer rating" that are being thrown around here. I know they list that but its always got some fine print. Because each vehicle has a Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating that cannot be exceeded either. And that has to be used as a base line to get your "Actual trailer towing maximum". So you need that GVWR (should be in the manual or on the door plate) and then you need to know the loaded weight of your vehicle, as towed, to calculate this REAL trailer wieght limit. So you cannot take the manufacturers dry weight of the vehicle and be realistic. You have to add Oil, Gas, Passengers and gear. Or weigh it loaded. Then subtract that from the GCWR and you end up with your MAXIMUM trailer weight. The real one. And that is Maximum you can tow. And thats based upon the brakes. Your most often going to find thats well short of 1500 pounds. 1500 pounds is a magical out of the ass number that does not take into account anything but a dry vehicle and normaly with one person of 180 pounds. Its not realistic. Its opptomistic. So keep that in mind. to do the real math your going to have to consider all weight.

Many tow overloaded and get away with it. Some don't. I always follow the rule of calculating my real trailer load capacity and then never push it past the situation that I might have to deal with if some system fails. So even though I might have trailer brakes and a brake controller... I want to be able to stop it all with the vehicles brakes alone if need be. And I don't want to overwork my vehicle either. A few nights in a hotel are cheaper than a tranny. Or some inconvienience of a smaller pop up camper is better than risking my families life.

but I tow big. Large. F350 Dually Crew Cab large. So I believe its best to have more truck than you need. But even then I am cautious. I could kill somebody if I am not. Could be you!

Bigdaddy... after all that... my advice? Thats trailers your considering is too much for a CRV. I wouldn't pull it with one.

For one that trailers not set up right if its tounge wieght is 190. I have a 7500 pound 26 footer thats tounge weight is under that. So something is wrong.

What would I look for? A dry weight of no more than about 1000 and a tounge weight of 50 at max.

[gravity_hunter]

I have heard (mostly at hondasuv.com) that the CR-V can tow up to 3,000 lbs if the trailor has breaks. I read the towing section of my manual and it only mentioned a 1,500 lb tow limit. It also recommended trailer brakes but did not say that they would yield a higher tow rating.

Sleek and Racoon both tend to be knowlegable posters so if either of you could tell me where you got the information on the increased tow rating I would really appreciate it. I have been researching this issue recently. For more information on why see this post:

http://www.hondasuv.com/stg/viewtopic.php?t=18384&highlight=

[Racoon]

Maximum towing weight with (trailer) brakes: 1,500 kg (3,300 lbs)
Maximum towing weight without (trailer) brakes: 600 kg (1,322 lbs)
Maximum trailer nose weight (aka tongue weight): 100 kg (245 lbs)

And remember that the 2nd Gen UK CR-V has a 2 litre engine with 150 PS of power (about the same as the 1st Gen CR-V), so less power than the 2nd Gen US CR-V.

Stopping is _always_ more important than being able to go fast when towing.

:)

[gravity_hunter]

Thanks for the extra information Racoon! That is very helpful. Do you know why the different ratings for the UK versus the US versions? Doesn't make much sense to me :?

[Racoon]

Do you know why the different ratings for the UK versus the US versions? Doesn't make much sense to me :?
My guess would be that we have more lawyers than they do, and therefore American Honda Corp is more careful than our friends across the sea...

:)

[mikeybc]

This page taken from the Australian brochure with even higher tounge and tow ratings, 120 and 150 kg tounge ratings for auto and manual trans. respectively. its hard to see the numbers...the image seemed to resize smaller.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/mikeybc/crvtowing.jpg

[hkwprime]

Hi...........I weighed in at 6900 today at the scale...the honda book says don't go over 5950......am I okay...the truckers at the weigh station said I should be fine as long as I don't do something crazy, speeding around curves or trying to brake too fast.....what do you think....thank you



I have heard (mostly at hondasuv.com) that the CR-V can tow up to 3,000 lbs if the trailor has breaks. I read the towing section of my manual and it only mentioned a 1,500 lb tow limit. It also recommended trailer brakes but did not say that they would yield a higher tow rating.

Sleek and Racoon both tend to be knowlegable posters so if either of you could tell me where you got the information on the increased tow rating I would really appreciate it. I have been researching this issue recently. For more information on why see this post:

http://www.hondasuv.com/stg/viewtopic.php?t=18384&highlight=