'01 Civic EX hauling 4'x8' Uhaul trailer 1300 miles...good or bad idea?

[roguerower]

Moving at the end of the month. Uhaul wants $1900 to rent a truck and tow my car vs. $500 of buying a hitch and towing the smallest uhaul trailer.

Will installing a hitch and towing the trailer kill the civic, assuming that the trailer is loaded correctly so the majority of the weight sits over the wheels and doesn't sit on the tongue?

 

[3chordcharlie]

You'll really need to watch the tongue weight, and total weight of the trailer. Probably 150lbs/800lbs would be alright, much more might put quite a load on your tranny, which is a major part of why your civic is rate to tow nothing at all.

Honestly, if you're moving with more than two people, or planning to really pack out the car as well as the trailer, you're going to be badly overloaded for a trip that length.

 

[CraigRT]

Probably fine for most cars, but a 2k1 civic if automatic tranny, is fairly risky. That trans is glass to begin with.

 

[obamanation]

There is pretty much no way you can do this and NOT overload your vehicle. Not to mention the fact that the civic is a unibody and has no real secure place to put the hitch onto. Those hitches will tear into the unibody structure and could fall off. Face the music and just rent the truck. Where exactly are you going anyhow? Why would it cost $1500 to do this? How much stuff are you moving? Why not rent an SUV and get a trailer to haul your stuff? It's not like there is anything preventing you from leaving your car where it is and then just pick it up later or something.

For $1500, you're paying for convenience and time which may or may not be worth it depending on how far away the destination is. Less than 200 miles, I'd say make two trips.. Hell even for 500 miles I'd make two trips if it means I'll save $1000 in moving costs!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Have you already checked Budget, Penske and, Ryder? You can always use a company like auto drive away to get your car there.

 

[Miramonti]

No way. I just towed roughly 800-1000 pounds with a 2k accord v6 1300 miles and it did pretty well but I wish I didn't have to. Towing a car will be way too much weight for your car imo. That said, a transmission cooler was a requirement for me and the key to making it work. I think you'd be crazy to risk your transmission like that, where you'd then need a new tranny and have to pay the cost of a truck as well.

 

[JulesMaximus]

No way. I just towed roughly 800-1000 pounds with a 2k accord v6 1300 miles and it did pretty well but I wish I didn't have to. Towing a car will be way too much weight for your car imo. That said, a transmission cooler was a requirement for me and the key to making it work. I think you'd be crazy to risk your transmission like that, where you'd then need a new tranny and have to pay the cost of a truck as well.

He's not towing a car with his car. He would be towing his car behind a truck he rents or using his car to tow a trailer he rents.

I think the Civic is rated for maybe 1000lbs towing capacity? Considering a 4'x8' U-Haul trailer weighs 850lbs empty that leaves you 150lbs of stuff you can put in it...which is basically nothing. There is no way you can do this safely and without severely overloading your car.

 

[jlee]

He's not towing a car with his car. He would be towing his car behind a truck he rents or using his car to tow a trailer he rents.

I think the Civic is rated for maybe 1000lbs towing capacity? Considering a 4'x8' U-Haul trailer weighs 850lbs empty that leaves you 150lbs of stuff you can put in it...which is basically nothing. There is no way you can do this safely and without severely overloading your car.

Also, I imagine he'd have to have a pretty empty car to avoid exceeding the Civic's GVWR.

 

[StageLeft]

Other than this thread just whatever you do be careful if you end up renting an actual uhaul vehicle. They are almost all close to falling apart. I would take one on a journey that length but only if getting there in a timely manner was not super important and not in the summer (AC may not work). Also, bring an Mp3 player with earphones (radio may not work). Uhaul I think gets their vehciles from RUSSIAN junk yards.

 

[dud]

Danger Will Robinson ... danger ...

If your transmission doesn't fail along the way you may very well be made a human pancake by the big rigs on the interstate. That car was barely able to haul 4 or 5 people let alone a 4x8 trailer.

Your life is precious ... don't risk it to save a few bucks.

 

[Vette73]

How did it come to $1900 for the truck?


I did a one way with budget and that was less than $500 for the largest one they had.

 

[roguerower]

Don't know how you got $500 from Budget. I just pulled the trigger and it was $1437 for a 6 day rental.

$985.50 for 16' truck and unlimited miles
$176 for car dolly
$108 young driver fee (i'm 22)
$150 deposit

From 24060 (Blacksburg, VA) to 78209 (Alamo Heights, San Antonio).

Edit: That's budget, not uhaul.

 

[StageLeft]

How did it come to $1900 for the truck?


I did a one way with budget and that was less than $500 for the largest one they had.

Surely that didn't include high miles.

 

[Savij]

Other than this thread just whatever you do be careful if you end up renting an actual uhaul vehicle. They are almost all close to falling apart. I would take one on a journey that length but only if getting there in a timely manner was not super important and not in the summer (AC may not work). Also, bring an Mp3 player with earphones (radio may not work). Uhaul I think gets their vehciles from RUSSIAN junk yards.

This can't be said enough.

 

[Miramonti]

He's not towing a car with his car. He would be towing his car behind a truck he rents or using his car to tow a trailer he rents.

I think the Civic is rated for maybe 1000lbs towing capacity? Considering a 4'x8' U-Haul trailer weighs 850lbs empty that leaves you 150lbs of stuff you can put in it...which is basically nothing. There is no way you can do this safely and without severely overloading your car.

ADD strikes again, wicked how that works.

Here is my 2k v6, with a 4x7 from uhaul that they say weighs 630lbs, so I probably towed close to 1k lbs.

I fit quite a bit of stuff, with a bed strapped across the top under the tarp. But its far from an apartments equivalent's worth. There is one recliner in the back, an elderly scooter, the rest is mostly boxes.

I towed the empty trailer 1300 miles to pickup, then brought it back full. That way I could get better mileage and rent the trailer for "local" use at $14/day. Using my car, we were also able to sleep in it for short durations along the way (can't tilt a uhaul truck seat back.)

 

[Zenmervolt]

Don't know how you got $500 from Budget. I just pulled the trigger and it was $1437 for a 6 day rental.

$985.50 for 16' truck and unlimited miles
$176 for car dolly
$108 young driver fee (i'm 22)
$150 deposit

From 24060 (Blacksburg, VA) to 78209 (Alamo Heights, San Antonio).

Edit: That's budget, not uhaul.

Budget is definitely better than U-Haul, though I'd have recommended Penske if it had been an option. I've rented from Penske several times and they've always had newer trucks that were in excellent shape. I hope that Budget is the same way; I don't have enough experience with them to know much more than that they're better than U-Haul.

Also, for that price, you could even consider buying a $1,000 junker van/SUV/pickup with a big V8 and a tow hitch. Load the sucker up, put the car on the dolly behind it, and then sell the junker when you get to your destination. If you're good enough with cars to be able to pick out the "looks bad, runs good" examples and have the patience to sell it when you're done with it then that's one of the cheapest ways to move long distances.

ZV

 

[NutBucket]

Brave soul there....stressing the far more notorious "glass" tranny of that V6 I know, you added the trans cooler, but even so

 

[JulesMaximus]

To jjsole: Man, I apologize...I totally misinterpreted your post (and completely forgot what I posted earlier today in the process).

 

[Miramonti]

/edit: deleted for [your] posterity.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Doh...self ownage. Nothing to see here...move along.

 

[vshah]

vegans are very applicable to this thread. both vegans and towing trailers with little hondas are insane.

this reminds me of the guy that used his s2k to tow his boat

 

[JulesMaximus]

i think the add was referring to him thinking OP was towing a car with a car.

vegans are very applicable to this thread. both vegans and towing trailers with little hondas are insane.

this reminds me of the guy that used his s2k to tow his boat

Jeez, don't I feel like the fucking idiot...

 

[Miramonti]

Brave soul there....stressing the far more notorious "glass" tranny of that V6 I know, you added the trans cooler, but even so

It definitely wasn't an easy decision. If you note when I started my other towing thread and when I actually decided to finally go, it took a while to be comfortable. I've taken this trip before empty, as well as another 4500 mile trip, so if the tranny was as weak as many others' of this make/year, I probably would have known it already.

 

[Miramonti]

i think the add was referring to him thinking OP was towing a car with a car.

vegans are very applicable to this thread. both vegans and towing trailers with little hondas are insane.

this reminds me of the guy that used his s2k to tow his boat

Thanks for clearing it up, lol. Nothing like when someone jumps on the bandwagon of one's own self-depricating humor. :biggrin:

The only towing I plan to do now is using an even lighter trailer to pick up only cheap craigslist stuff. This trip was an excuse to get a hitch for that purpose.

 

[JulesMaximus]

/edit: deleted for [your] posterity.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. :thumbsup: