@wheresRick
I agree with what you are saying. But, I feel your utility trailer behind a much newer vehicle with less then half the weight and no trip luggage and passengers is a far cry from OPs situation. You have the skill and knowledge to evaluate each situation, and as @MikeInNh made clear with his example, being fwd, .driven slowly, it can be done without much worry. But, when the total load where the very smallest tear drops can be over 800 lbs unloaded, you are easily exceeding the maximum total load, both cargo and trailor by a whole lot . And yes, driving with a weight equal to couple 225 lbs adults plus the trailor is more in line with How most people travel. I always keep in mindâŠitâs a thirteen year old Civic with thirteen year od brakes and transmission. IMHO, the motor is not the issue.
Btw, I had an older Civic and loaded it with 4 hefty adults; it easnât pretty and I wouldnât trust thse cookie cutter tires and suspensionâŠit did bottom out, frequently.
What are you guy so worried about?..
youtube.com/watch?v=ilKq7WsuzMU
Ok, so maybe your right.
I wonder how much that trailer weighed?
I love that video. I canât tell you how many times Iâve posted it here in threads like this one.
Since the OP was asking about a teardrop camper trailer, I think we all agree towing it with a Civic is a bad idea any way you slice it. The only disagreement seems to be about the motorcycle trailer. So, @Gypsyspirit, if youâre still reading, and want to take your chances with a motorcycle trailer, remember, there are mixed reviews about whether itâs a good idea, and youâll be taking your chances. Perhaps you should ask your insurance agent if he/she thinks itâs a good idea. You might consider getting an insurance policy for the trailer anyway.
Safe travels.
Since the subject of âwell, a Civic can carry 4x225# passengers, so it sould be able to tow an equivalent weight,â consider this:
Never owned a Civic, but I owned a '95 Nissan Sentra. One day, I was looking at the GVWR: I noticed that it was something like 750# or so above curb weight. Allow 85# for a full tank of gas, and thatâs 665# of legal payload!
Despite the fact that the car had five seats, it really only could carry 3 adults, and their stuff, legally. It would not surprise me at all that a heavily-optioned modern Civic was in the same boat.
Just pointing out you canât use number of seats x adult weight as an allowable weight.
Oh, and I towed a 5âx8â trailer with it from NM to PA with it. Full car, full trailer; donât know what trailer weight was, but my âlow beamsâ were my new high beams. (U-Haul was really like the Wild West back then, in the late 90s, with what theyâd sell you.)
Not recommending anyone copy my actions, though: I was young and stupidâŠbut even then I knew the brake fade was pretty unsafe!
WellâŠthanks everyone for the comments. Seems that the general consensus is not to try towing - anything - with my Honda. I do like the folks who said, âHooeyââŠsmaller cars CAN tow, they used to,âŠbut not sure I want to risk it. Iâll be traveling alone and if my car has dire problems, no one to share the âcrying timeâ with. So, thanks again.
Traveling & towing alone even a flat tire could be a major headache.
I suspect most people reminiscing about the old days have long since forgotten this tidbit from the original post-
âI will be going out west and traveling in the high mountainsâ.
Thatâs where I immediately came to my own conclusionâŠ
Yep. OP might get away with it if he were tooling around the plains, but once you put mountain roads into the mix, you need a proper tow vehicle, no exceptions.
@twinturbo @shadowfox
You make a good point. I feel some of the reluctance that a few of us have endorsing cars like Civics as adaquate towing vehicles, may be where we live. I live on the side of a mountain and donât feel safe moving anything around that doesnât have lots of weight, traction and braking compared to what is being towed. Cookie cutter tires, fwd, feather weight braking and overall light weight makes Civic towing over hills, down right limited. I had an early Civic where just throwing a 5 hp outboard in the back along with a couple of adults and it didnât have enough fwd traction to climb a measly camp road. Around the lot when moving boats safety and accurately at low speeds, off comes the 4Runner and on goes a Tractor with calcium loaded r4 tires that doubles the weight of anything it has to move.
Itâs easy to envision a Civic tooling down the highway towing a tear drop. But, to do it safely you must envision these two senereos. Starting from a dead stop going up a steep grade and safely controlling the load going down a long steep grade. The Civic fails on both accounts with any substantial weight more then a few hundred lbs. Thatâs where I and many others come from regardless of the optimistic tow weights for many carsâŠ
âItâs easy to envision a Civic tooling down the highway towing a tear drop.â
âŠnot if youâve been driving a Civic for any length of time.
"âŠnot if youâve been driving a Civic for any length of time. "
Depends on the teardrop. And the Civic. Iâve seen some plywood tear drops that deleted the flip-top kitchen entirely that couldnât have weighed even 500 pounds. A Civic in decent shape could pull that all day long if youâre down in the plains states where they think a 200 foot hill is a mountain. As soon as you hit even the gentlest mountains, however, youâd be asking for trouble.
Iâve thought about getting a light weight motorcycle trailer to pull with my CRX for car club camping trips that take place in the flatlands, but Iâd never think about taking it to even mountains as easy as the Shennandoahs.
There seems to be some confusion here, GVWR and tow capacity are not linked together other than the tongue weight goes into the GVWR and the tow capacity does not.
In the past, I once had a 90 Dodge Colt and my wife had a 93 Honda Civic. Both had about the same GVWR, but the Colt was rated to tow 1000#s with a max tongue weight of 100#s, where the Civic was rated for NO TOWING. This information came from the owners manuals for both cars.
I believe this is the lightest teardrop camper trailer on the market http://tab-rv.com/ and the lightest version if it weighs 1,490 lbs.
I just found a teardrop trailer online that has a dry weight of 700 lbs. I wouldnât tow it with a Civic, especially loaded.
Hi againâŠIâm enjoying reading your comments. What is a âmotorcycle trailerâ? Thanks.
Itâs a small trailer that some motorcycle riders use with their touring bikes to carry stuff. While it increases the storage on a motorcycle a lot, itâs not worth the trouble for a car, in my opinion.
There are also motorcycle trailers that function as small pop-up camper trailers. @WheresRick mentioned this one on page 1 of this conversation----> http://towmini.com/Products/Folding%20Campers/TowMini-6/TowMini-6-Overview.html
They can usually sleep one, maybe two skinny people, and sometimes you can strap cargo on top of them.
Here are some others----> https://www.google.com/search?q=motorcycle+pop+up+camper&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS432US432&oq=motorcycle+pop+up+camper&aqs=chrome.0.69i57j69i60j0j69i60j0l2.9355j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
âŠalthough I would want an engine the size of a Honda Goldwingâs engine (which has more displacement than a Honda Civicâs engine) if I were to tow one of these things with a motorcycle.
Man, 620 lbs. (or more) to be towed by a bike? And a bike thatâs already loaded up for touring? No way Iâd do that.
@Texases, the Honda Goldwing, a popular bike used for towing, has a six cylinder 1.832 liter engine and a 904-933 pound curb weight. For comparison purposes, the OPâs Civic has a 1.7 liter engine and a 2,319 pound curb weight.
Here is a picture of a not-so-typical motorcycle/trailer setup (the Nighthawk 750) and a typical setup you are more likely to see (the Goldwing). Some DIY motorcycle trailers are nothing more than a car rooftop carrier attached to a trailer frame.
Thanks to those whoâve âenlightened meâ about motorcycle trailers. InterestingâŠat this point, Iâm not sure exactly what Iâll do about a way to do extended travel. Guess Iâll use the coming months to research various options. The big drawback, tho, is costâŠgot a very low budget. But thanks again for all the info and advice.
Start saving for a vehicle that can handle mountain towing and just use it for that while you keep your current car.