anyone pull a car on a uhaul auto transport?

https://youtu.be/B1Qcovj63e8

 

That’s why you tell them you’re towing a smart car

 

I’ve got all kinds of respect for anything that can pull its own support trailer to the track and run sub 12 second passes.

opportunity missed for uhaul though. They could have modified a few trailers and branded the hell out of them. Turned it into a marketing bonanza.

 

Yup. Over thinking. I’ve towed Honda Accords no problems with uhaul trailers.

 

It was about 2 inches of droop. If I had the time and tools I could've had it better (and if the civic wasn't wrecked). You won't need a drop hitch, once you factor in droop, a straight hitch is almost perfect if a tad nose high.

 

I pulled a 91 nissan 4x4 on a Uhual trailer with my 2017 dual cad 4x4, no problem and they didn't keep me from renting it.

 

Knute is correct, I had a senior moment during my typing.

 

Which works all well and good to something happens .

No longer a issue I just bought a trailer

 

Think the biggest thing to remember here is that everyone's idea of "towed with no problem" is different. I couldn't imagine towing a car on a trailer being an enjoyable experience with a Taco.

I towed this setup about 2 hours and IMO this is about the most weight a Taco can tow comfortably. It did fine but sometimes on hills it got old listening to the engine sit at 4K+ rpm to maintain speed. And you 100% know that weight is back there. Not sure how some people claim they don't notice a significant amount of weight.

The trailer plus sled weighed about 3K pounds. Had my GF and myself in the truck (300 pounds) plus another 100 or so pounds of gear. I usually tow this same sled on an actual snowmobile trailer (about 1400 pounds total) and it is a much more enjoyable experience.

Side note the trails in New Glarus WI were great that weekend!

 

Just going to be lazy and link back to the thread I started forever ago and never updated (whoops), but cliff notes - towed a 2200lbs VW Caddy on a uhaul trailer with the bed loaded with tools/jack/and another person and our luggage from PGH, PA to OC, MD with no issues.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacoma-one-year-later.640345/

 

Just a point of info.. those u-haul trailer are used and abused. I've towed similar model trailers before where one towed like a dream and the other gave me a 3 mpg hit. If the axle shafts are bent, bearings are dry or a brake is sticking you might think the truck tows like sh*t.

 

Did a little recon with a borrowed trailer and car combination that is probably close to what I’ll have going on with the uhaul setup. Biggest differences will be that the trailer I borrowed is all steel and single axle but the weight should be about equal and should be better distributed with the all aluminum uhaul’s double axles.
In traffic, it was pretty gutless but once I was rolling it was fine. It took a while for me to remember that I had an ECT button and the behavior pulling from a complete stop improved immediately when it was engaged. I really wanted to get out to some hills to face my biggest concerns but I live in Phoenix and it’s a couple hours in any direction before the ground goes up or down and I just didn’t have the time. Based on a million other people’s opinions and experiences, I know my mileage is going to drop by half so I decided to get the truck KD Max tuned. I like the idea of better throttle response, I like the horsepower gain, I like the torque control, I like the shift point changes, it drives better now and as a bonus there’s supposed to be a 1-3 mpg gain as well. The tune happened 2 days ago. We leave in 4 days. I’ll keep you posted.

before anyone starts in, it’s not my trailer, no the tongue isn’t bent it was welded that way... something about physics, I don’t remember. I was just impressed he was kind enough to put a car on a trailer for me to go play with.

 

Don't sweat the hitch. An inch or so of drop doesn't affect much in the real world. Just check the rating.

I just did 600 miles or so from SC to the Poconos with my Tacoma. I was dreading how it would pull a loaded trailer and had planned to have most everything shipped in a pod only taking smaller breakables in the bed and other stuff in the trailer. I envisioned just enough stuff to cover the floor of the trailer. Then 'mission creep' set in and I filled the trailer with crates of very heavy Lionel trains, tools, and spare parts for cars. Basically filled a double axle Uhaul box trailer with very heavy boxes and eventually got to the point where there was no more room in the trailer, the backseat and bed of the truck were packed as well. Not what I planned.

I was very pleasantly surprised seeing as how I've always felt this truck lacked power. Keeping it in 4 with ECT and on flat ground letting it go to 5 was the trick. Mileage went to 15mpg. Kept the speed to 70 on the flats and let it drop a bit on long climbs.

I came away more impressed with my truck than before. I've had a license for 31 years now and my first towing experience was at 15 when my dad and I towed an empty car trailer from SC to WV. He didn't let me drive back with the heavy Packard on it, but I was proud to do most of the way there on a learners permit. Now I look back and all the miles we covered with a basic station wagon, steel deck car trailer, and heavy antique car. The load must have been at the absolute limit of the anemic station wagon but the lesson is that unless you want to climb mountains at 80mph you don't need a 1 ton diesel.

 

Ok. Looking for towing information specific to a uhaul auto transport? Here it is.
I just did 1500 miles AZ to WA through 4100 foot elevation peaks twice. 2600lb car on a 2200lb trailer with a truck bed full of household commodities - not heavy, but not nothing.
Truck was fine on power. I got the KD max tune before I left and it probably helped but up hill I was manually shifting the auto trans, sitting at 4000 -ish rpm at 65 mph in 3rd passing everyone with my A/C on. I see a lot of taco owners balk at showing the engine some revs, but it’s an import: revs are where the power lives!
I kept it at 75 mph everywhere else, nothing to prove, it just felt comfortable.
Brakes were fine too, just don’t ride them downhill and remember to downshift.
My concern is suspension. Stock height for my hitch is 18” and loaded it sagged 2 inches to 16”, which doesn’t look too bad but my front end felt pretty light and the bigger highway bumps bottomed out pretty hard. If this ends up being a thing I do regularly, I’ll get some air bags for the rear axle so I don’t collapse the leafs.
I had to buy a hitch for the trip and I went with a 2 inch drop even though a straight hitch would have been appropriate as the hitch height of the uhaul is 18” as well. The rule is that you want your trailer leaning forward for stability and I knew by measuring that it was, but it didn’t sag as much as I feared it would. I had done a test run earlier in the month with a similar trailer and car weight setup, but I hadn’t loaded the bed and the nature of the weight of the car was different (front engine, rear wheel drive). I was worried about our MINI Cooper being so short that it would sit ahead of the trailer axles putting all its weight on the tongue, and it mostly did. I was concerned that all of its weight would be on the tongue as a front engine, front wheel drive car, and it was. The test setup I tried resulted in a 1 inch sag but on the day the full sag was 2 inches. I bought a hitch with a 2 inch drop and a regular ball for it, as well as a ball with a 2 inch rise in case the whole thing just dropped in the middle or the trailer pitched so far forward it became unstable. I never ended up using the 2 inch rise ball because although the trailer tongue looked low, it never had clearance problems and didn’t look pitched forward. A rise ball also wouldn’t have changed anything with the rear end sag so I just left the regular ball on the 2 inch drop hitch. I chose the drop because the hitch I wanted didn’t come without one but it didn’t cause any problems. In case you’re interested I chose the convert-a-ball shock absorbing hitch and it does actually make for a smoother ride. My wife can get car sick so I wanted to dampen any more bouncing around than necessary. A truck and trailer and car on the trailer all moving separately can get a little wiggly and I didn’t want all that making it a miserable trip. It’s a bit spendy but I used a regular hitch and then the cushioned hitch back to back pulling the same trailer over the same stretch of road and there is a difference.
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch-Ball-Mount/Convert-A-Ball/AMSC2HD.html

 

I towed my friend’s Versa from Flagstaff to Dallas on a Uhaul Car Carrier. Truck handled it shockingly well, easily held 75mph up the Albuquerque mountains and no sway issues. Managed 12 mpg overall as well. I have a stick though, not sure how much that affected things.

 

Load Distributing Hitch

 

Looks like with that short wheel base that all your weight was on the tongue. A weight distributing hitch would have leveled you out. What kind of mileage did you get running at 4k rpm?

 

Uhaul says not to run a load distributing hitch ...

 

that’s something I didn’t pay any attention to because it was never an issue. Obviously we weren’t running at 4K for any significant length of time, just enough to get up over the hills. I was expecting to get worse mileage than I did. I had heard that towing with a taco my mileage would be cut in half so I had feared that the 150 (+/-) miles I had scheduled between stops would have me coasting into each fuel station on fumes but that didn’t happen. At about 150 miles or 2 hours driving, each time I stopped for fuel I was topping off just under a half of a tank. Once I took it all the way down to a quarter tank left but that was a spur-of-the-moment detour that threw off my route and timing. Anyway, I was afraid I would only be getting 150 to 200 miles to the tank, but it was much better than that. I’m sure the KDmax tune helped because it’s typically good for about 2 mpg, but it’s only 2 mpg. The trucks pretty good on its own.