Yaris Towing 1000 lbs?

[yaris814]

Originally Posted by racerb

I have a 5'x8' trailer already and I've towed it with the Yaris, no trouble at all! Is your car straight drive or automatic? If automatic, you might want to keep a closer eye on the trans fluid, if it ever starts to turn brown then you might be overloading. My old Rav4 had nearly the same tow rating as the Yaris and I never had any issues at all.

racerb

Thanks for the advise. I think I'm going to get a Harbor Freight foldable 4'x8' trailer instead, since the kart will fit (width wise). And it'll take up whole lot less space when folded and it's lighter. My Yaris is an automatic. I do occasional HPDE with it when my other car is out of commission, so I do drive it hard. So I'll eventually change the AT fluid after a few tow and check on the condition of the fluid.

[padre1964]

Just a word of advise on the HF folding trailers. They are extremely heavy to try and stand up on your own. I ended up installing an electric hoist near the ceiling to lift mine.

[racerb]

Just finished assembling my HF 40"x49" Auto-X tire trailer, got a few final tweeks to make but it turned out pretty nice. I'll post pictures of it with the Yaris in a few days.

racerb

[screenprintr]

Can't wait to see the Pictures RacerB. Harbor Freight is awesome. Bought a bunch of stuff from them.

So they don't carry the trailers at your local Harbor Freight? Guess they don't have enough room. I'm surprised Harbor Freight doesn't carry Trailer Hitches too.

I want to get a trailer and hitch to carry a 3 wheel bicycle for advertising on the beach/shore. Problem is, I have no wear to store it.

Guess I could get a trailer hitch and rent the trailer when I need it.

[racerb]

Originally Posted by screenprintr

Can't wait to see the Pictures RacerB. Harbor Freight is awesome. Bought a bunch of stuff from them.

So they don't carry the trailers at your local Harbor Freight? Guess they don't have enough room. I'm surprised Harbor Freight doesn't carry Trailer Hitches too.

I want to get a trailer and hitch to carry a 3 wheel bicycle for advertising on the beach/shore. Problem is, I have no wear to store it.

Guess I could get a trailer hitch and rent the trailer when I need it.

Sorry for the delay, here it is before I totally finished it, but it's all ready to go now.....

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/race...4e0f9.jpg.html

racerb

[screenprintr]

One question. When you buy the Trailer 40" x 49" from Harbor Freight, do you have to register it and get a license plate, etc. ? How does that work?

[padre1964]

Yes you do. HF will give you all the necessary paperwork when you purchase it. My 4'x8' cost me $10 a year for a plate

[screenprintr]

Thanks RacerB. That came out real nice.

[swidd]

I used a U-haul rental trailer yesterday. Empty weight 630 lbs, and I think I put about 300 lbs of wet garbage into it. It handled it very well. No highways, just two trips to the landfill.

It didn't accelerate too bad, actually quite normal when it was empty. The trailer was not in control of the car, and stopping distance wasn't very adversely affected. I'd say it handled just like when I load 7-800 lbs of stuff in the trunk.

[yaris814]

Installing the HF 4x8 folding trailer was pretty straightforward. Took me about 4hrs to assemble, not including a second trip to the store for missing parts and quick dinner. Apparently someone raided the box and took some key parts from it. So I did the same thing to another box.



Folding it by myself was simple. The trailer then got alot heavier with the plywood. So folding it by myself is still do-able but definitely requires more strength.


I'm going to repack the wheel bearings and add the tie down and wire up the trailer to the car. I'm gonna add the vertical stakes and fencing some other time, along with some nonslippery coating for the plywood. Right now, I'm just trying to get it functional so I can go pick up my go kart next week.

[D&D]

Originally Posted by yaris814

Installing the HF 4x8 folding trailer was pretty straightforward. Took me about 4hrs to assemble, not including a second trip to the store for missing parts and quick dinner. Apparently someone raided the box and took some key parts from it. So I did the same thing to another box.



Folding it by myself was simple. The trailer then got alot heavier with the plywood. So folding it by myself is still do-able but definitely requires more strength.


I'm going to repack the wheel bearings and add the tie down and wire up the trailer to the car. I'm gonna add the vertical stakes and fencing some other time, along with some nonslippery coating for the plywood. Right now, I'm just trying to get it functional so I can go pick up my go kart next week.

NIIIIIIIIICE looking trailer! I've got the exact same one but it's a lot older and isn't setup to fold any longer. :/ Your pics make me want to go out and buy a new one! haha

[yaris814]

towed my kart back yesterday. Plan to add rails this weekend. Need to get higher riser ball mount too.

[gboezio]

I'm Canadian and I bought my 2008 sedan Yaris new at the dealership, at the time the hitchs available were far from satisfying, one would bolt trough sheetmetal and extend to the tow hooks, while crawling under the car I saw the 3 M10 inserts on each side, I have mocked up cardboard templates and cut then in 1/4 inch steel plate. Then I cut my BMW hitch and welded it to death to the two plates, It bolted right up with 6 x M10 dipped in red loctite.

My 10 years old homebuilt 4,5 x 9 x 4 high trailer weight is about 400 lbs, it's balanced to zero so to add tongue weight I must move the load forward until I get about 50 lbs on the tongue or less if there is a lot of weight on the trunk.
I have done it all from light weight to overweight, I have abused the drivetrain, hitch, body and trailer but I have never abused the brakes so I don't know if they would overheat, I prefer to let this to others since I feel that I have made enough research.

My regular towing is trailer + quad, about 800 lbs, sportbike to the track 900 lbs, quad + camping gear 1100 lbs over about 5000 km on about 105 000 km total, I'm still waiting on something to break, no slack or bearing noise in the tranny, I have changed twice the oil with synthetic and filtered it, nothing. That said I'm convinced that if it was an automatic it would have overheated and broke down for the same driving, if the automatic clutches start to slip on a sustained pull, the trans go down quickly.

Here's my rules :
Plan ahead, as little clutch as needed, I coast to traffic lights and engage the clutch rolling.
Use the brakes to slow down not to avoid kids and other cars.
For common sense sake when you know that your braking is impaired and risk is present: slow down, this way you will stop even faster than a car alone going at the permitted speed.
When going downhill, blip the throttle and downshift in a lower gear, I'm barely braking and I keep my brakes cold all the time in case of an emergency.
Never forget that the trailer is driven by the rear wheels of the car, the more weight on them the more stable the trailer will be, same goes for the tongue length, the longer, the more control you have on the trailer, attach the load so it wont shift to the rear of the trailer and suddenly unload the rear wheels, add the panic braking from having the trailer swerving and you are looking for a disaster. If the trailer feels unstable, slowly stop, move some load in the trunk or weight forward on the trailer, you will feel a world of difference.
Try to center the weight in the middle of the trailer not to the far ends, this add to the stability because even if the trailer is properly balanced, it have more rotation inertia.
Dont't loose traction, never WOT the first gear, the traction loss sends very bad shocks on the front end and will destroy almost everything.

I had 2 BRP Spiders that were going to 70-80 on single lane and about 100 on double for an hour at Baie St-Paul I decided to pass them uphill, I have held the engine in second gear WOT at 6000RPM for about 10 minutes and there is no way to break this thing or overheat it.

On a logging road I have pulled over 2000 lbs of wood, at 70 km/h the trailer would become unstable, by moving 3 big logs in the trunk the unstable speed became 90 km/h
Do half this and you will never have a problem.
Trailer center axle to center ball 105", track 2" wider than my car, CoG 1" before axle center, if someone need to build a stable trailer.
Yes I drove semi trucks for over 1,5 million kms without the slightest incident.
Yes, my next car will be heavier, but now the Yaris is simply the best all around car ever, 6l/100km 95% of time, 8 to 10 l/100km when I need it.
If you don't feel safe towing, don't tow

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by gboezio

My regular towing is trailer + quad, about 800 lbs, sportbike to the track 900 lbs, quad + camping gear 1100 lbs over about 5000 km on about 105 000 km total, I'm still waiting on something to break, no slack or bearing noise in the tranny, I have changed twice the oil with synthetic and filtered it, nothing. That said I'm convinced that if it was an automatic it would have overheated and broke down for the same driving, if the automatic clutches start to slip on a sustained pull, the trans go down quickly.

I know, different things work for different people in different situations, but .

[CB Spoolmak]

This is my favourite thread on this forum by far! Here are my ?s:

gboezio: The templates are mirror image for right/left side or different because of the exhaust? 1 1/4" hitch or 2"?

Anyone here used the T-One plug&play trailer wiring harness available from etrailerdotcom? It says it fits the sedan only? I am thinking the sedan tail lights are different from the hatch,hence different connectors?

[yaris814]

Originally Posted by CB Spoolmak

Anyone here used the T-One plug&play trailer wiring harness available from etrailerdotcom? It says it fits the sedan only? I am thinking the sedan tail lights are different from the hatch,hence different connectors?

According to the Q&A section of that page, it says that the wiring connectors for hatchback and sedan are indeed different.

[D&D]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Great post! Thanks for chiming in with your experiences!
Got any pics of those loads?

I pulled my trailer again this past weekend. We had 4 adults and 3 small dogs in the car, and a whole living room full of furniture in my 4x8 trailer (a 500-600 lb payload). My sister was one of the passengers and was all "are you sure your car can handle this?". She had no idea what our little Yari could do!

[gboezio]

Originally Posted by D&D

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Great post! Thanks for chiming in with your experiences!
Got any pics of those loads?

I pulled my trailer again this past weekend. We had 4 adults and 3 small dogs in the car, and a whole living room full of furniture in my 4x8 trailer (a 500-600 lb payload). My sister was one of the passengers and was all "are you sure your car can handle this?". She had no idea what our little Yari could do!

Nice, My trailer is quite big and people keep asking me for help when moving and I'm always there for help, two row of furnitures mattress in the middle, I ask friends to put clothes in garbage bags and I stuff it between the furnitures so they won't scratch each other. I moved at least 5 times with this trailer and I moved about 20 friends the last 10 years. As you said this is no biggie for the Yaris.

On a side note if I was building cars, I would rate the car way less than it can handle to avoid lawsuits, at some point one will manage to launch one downhill, of course loaded by an idiot and driven by an idiot, then they will all turn to the builder and ask why can't we recover from a 360° with a trailer or why the brakes can't bring a 1200 lbs trailer from 140 km/h to 0 downhill without setting brakes on fire ??
That little video with the camper is right on, hey can't climb a hill, let's get a good swing !!




The hitch pictures are 2008 car and trailer are now