I am getting ready to drive my 2013 Kia Soul from Northern California to Jacksonville FL. I am figuring about 3000-3100 miles with rest stops/gas/hotels. My question is with this car, a 4X8 u-haul trailer with clothes linens and NO furniture or heavy items—- what, realistically can I expect my gas mileage to be for the entire trip. I’m on a strict budget and want to make sure to have the funds to make it all the way. I am allowing 6-7 days for the drive (hoping I don’t get caught up in any tropical storms or hurricanes lol)… Any help with this would be great! I’m leaving on Friday September 7,2018.
Thanx
about half of what you get now.
Does your car already have a “U-Haul” approved hitch and wiring?
I’d be surprised if U-Haul will even let you pull a 4x8 trailer with your car.
Yeah, agreed. Pulling a trailer in general with this car, let alone cross country is not a good idea.
If you’re worried about cost/sticking to a budget…not to mention safety… methinks you need to be worried more about doing long term damage to your car that fuel economy.
Sorry to be a negative Nancy… but I’d say you’d be far better off pulling the car behind a Uhaul than pulling a Haul trailer with the car. Just my two cents. Good luck.
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Look into shipping your linens by some other method. Look in your owners manual about towing with your Kia,
and IF it has towing listed it may have frontal area restrictions. It MIGHT handle a trailer but I would not risk it.
Gas mileage is the least of your concerns, BTW you would probably need to drive with your overdrive OFF.
What towing capacity is listed in your owner’s manual? I’m concerned that you’ll be over that limit, which is unsafe, especially in the mountains.
I was suprised yesterday when I saw a U-Haul branded trailer with “Tow with any vehicle” or similar wording. U-Haul sells a trailer hitch for a Soul. Capacity can’t be more than 1500 lbs. U-Haul trailers are usually very heavy for thier size, Maybe lighter ones are now avaiable.
I’d worry about how long the transmission will last instead of my gas mileage.
Seriously, I would not recommend doing this.
You can have the rest of your belongings shipped at reasonable cost by shipper who specialize in partial loads.
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The OP really needs to have their stuff shipped as they are concerned about fuel mileage and I suspect they are not used to pulling a trailer . Also 6 or 7 nights at a motel is that many times for someone to steal the trailer or at least break into the trailer.
NO…The U-Haul trailer dry (nothing in it) will exceed the Soul’s towing capacity.
Either ship your goods, or rent a truck and tow the Soul behind the truck.
All good points. A Kia Soul kind of resembles a small SUV but is really more of a compact station wagon. Kia does not recommend towing anything with the Soul. I interpret that as warranty void. That could be why I have never seen any model Kia towing anything.
Cost for towing: Trailer hitch: purchase plus installation and trailer rental. Fuel: significant consumption increase. Lodging: 1 or 2 extra nights at a motel. These 3 known expenses could pay for shipping costs. Vehicle wear and tear: unknown but highly likely for a vehicle not designed for towing. Safety: I was a commercial driver for 10 years and would never consider attempting this. I have never experienced a trailer attempting to pass me on a 6 percent downgrade and certainly no desire to risk it at my current age. Please have an enjoyable safe trip.
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Rent a U-haul truck and a car dolly, and tow the Soul behind it.
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Unfortunately towing a car dolly tends to require more skill and experience than a regular trailer. She will be paying rent for the truck plus dolly using much more fuel than the Soul towing nothing and having to pay 1 or 2 extra nights for a motel. I’m going to stick with Ship Your Pants!
If you can handle a box truck, you can handle towing something behind it because the box truck won’t even notice it’s there. 
A lot of people are strongly opposed to the idea of shipping their stuff. They want their stuff with them while they move. That’s why they come up with crazy plans like towing a giant trailer with a sub-compact.
Assuming OP wants to keep her stuff with her, the rental truck/trailer is the best choice.
BTW, you can also get a flatbed trailer from them for, I think, $10 more per day. But in my experience the flatbed is harder because you have to get the car on it without falling off the ramps, and then you have to properly chain it down.
Either of our solutions, though, is much better than “tow a big trailer with a tiny car.”
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I can’t believe anyone needs to move more clothes and linens than they can get in a Kia Soul!
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My Ex would have needed 2 Kia Souls just for her shoes! Her female friends and coworkers called her “Emelda”. lol
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If you aren’t impatient with it a moving company can move those boxes pretty reasonably. You should call one or two and ask. The faster you want them moved the more it will cost.
I’d guess you’d get about a 30% reduction in mpgs towing a very small, lightly loaded trailer at 50 mph. A bigger % reduction at higher speeds; maybe 50% at 65 mph.
As posted by the majority above, this isn’t something I’d do myself, for fear of damaging the car’s transmission. If I had the same car equipped w/a manual transmission, perhaps I’d consider it, but I’d still be worried about damage to the cv joints and differential portion of the transmission, so I’d drive the car very gently.
Main reasons for trailer accidents, overloaded, improperly loaded, load moving/falling in trailer, speeding, quick lane changes/evasive maneuvers, following to close.
Slow down and leave plenty of room in front of you, your car will take twice the distance to stop.
Downshift and go slow on the downhills, you don’t want to burn up your brakes and lose them.
Maximum speed while towing U-Haul trailers is 55 MPH for a reason.
I’m sorry but I didn’t see that this involved a Scion. With that vehicle there will be no towing at all, so this is an academic question. You can’t tow with that vehicle unless it is pulling a sail boat around the block once. So the options as stated above. Pack the thing full and ship the rest or maybe get a top carrier to help, but that’s it, but tight budgeting for gas and lodging is the least of the issues. I did move in a VW bug. It was tight but can be done. Or sell now and buy again when you get there.