Can this vehicle tow a cat?

Howdy fellow Catpeople,

I have a 73 Dodge Dart. It has a straight six engine 218 in^3, 118 [email]hp@4000[/email] RPM and 180 lb-ft of torque. The car weighs between 3K and 4K lbs. Can this tow a cat?



David Ho

TheMightyHobie18 1067

Theres more to just engine horsepower involved in towing. Thankfully, cats and their trailers aren't THAT heavy, but still, you have to make sure your brakes can handle it, also make sure your axle wont break.



The best thing to do is hookup to it, and drive it around in a parking lot at first. With 118hp and the car already being heavy, it'll prolly take a while to get up to speed.



It can probably be done, hell, I towed a 3500lbs keelboat over 800 miles to the keys with my isuzu trooper 215hp v6 (stopping just didn't happen)

Yes. I tow my Prindle 19 with my 123-hp Nissan truck, and I think Alan Thompson in CA still tows his I-20 with an early-80's Toyota Celica. Tip: Don't look seconds ahead down the road. Look MINUTES ahead (same distance you're used to.)



sail fast, drive slow



It's all good, if you get there, right?

My '81 Dodge van (bought from a gov't auction after a tough life) has the straight-six, and I'm guessing that my van weighs a bit more than your Dart, and I'm also guessing the van doesn't have much more (if any) power. While this vehicle will never set any speed records, it handles my Hobie-18 on galvanized trailer just fine, brakes are not problem in my case because it's a full truck. I did add a transmission cooler, something you might consider. DO pay attention to your brakes, but I'll guess you'll be ok if they are in good shape (hopefully they are at least disc up front) - don't cheap out on the parts there.

For the Lowball record: I towed my TheMightyHobie18/Trailex aluminum trailer with my 1964 Karmann Ghia 40 horse (VW) out to Lake Santa Fe. It got up to 53 mph on a long straight. This was when my wife wouldn't let me use the big car- her Datsun 510 sedan (1.8 L stick). We don't have too many mountains here in Florida. P.S.: I CROSSED the Interstate highway, but did not drive on it!

I towed a NACRA5©2 with my VW Rabbit full of camping gear ¥including girlfriend/crew's stuff¤ with no problems for many years©
You didn't say what kind of cat/trailer/stuff you'd be towing©
I think the advice about brakes is excellent© Also be sure the tow hitch is good - lots of older cars have what seem to be extremely sturdy bumpers, to which one is tempted to attach a clamp-style hitch© Go with a hitch that bolts to the frame, and use good safety chains©

Andrew is right....I've towed all my cats (P16/P19/I20) with a 1982 Toyota Celica (4-cylinder). It works great!



Alan Thompson

I20 - San Diego

I drove down to Cap Hatteras from Montreal a few years back with a Chevy lumina Van with the 3.1l engine. We were carrying the cat with extra stuff on the trailler and the van was packet to the roof. The van worked very well and I doubt that it packs more than 180 lb-ft of torque



Lately, I have been towing my Nacra on a steel trailler with the car packed as always with my 2000 Subaru Impreza (142hp, 149 lb-ft torque). Again it worked well but in the hills, the 5th gear was not enough and on really steep hills, even the forth gear was slowing me down



Between the two, the Lumina van was much better. It gave us a nicer ride and had a faster cruise speed. I believe that the automatic transmission is really much better for towing. Also since the Lumina Van is much taller than the Impreza, it also deflected the wind from the trailler and the extra drag was less noticable



The major problem is braking, not power. Usually, almost any car will have a safe riving speed while towing and if the car is well maintained, it should not suffer any problems. The power to weight ratio of a car towing is still much better than a RV or a truck



If you have an automatic transmission and plan to tow alot, you might look into an transmission oil cooler. Also make sure that your brakes are in good condition and always keep a good distance for braking.



Also, if you have normal steel wheels, moving to rally wheels or mags will allo for a better cooling of your brakes and will improve the safety while you tow.

There were some confident Canadians attending Hobie Midwinters East a couple of years ago. They drove down from the Frozen North in a tiny sawed-off Honda CRV towing double stacked Hobie 20s! I saw them leaving afterwards, waving happily to all after a great regatta, fueled by Moosehead. (Just joking about the beer).

A straight six has good torque. Horse power is not as important.

We have a Subaru Legacy Wagon with a 2.2 liter engine rated at 142 hp @5600 RPM and 140 ft/lbs of torque @3600 RPM. After we cram it full of vacation "stuff", we use it to tow an H16 on an aluminum trailer, that we mounted a large car-top cargo container on (with more "stuff"), from Frederick Maryland to the southernmost North Carolina beaches with no problems. This car has also towed this arrangement over the Appalachian Mountains to a lake in Western Maryland. As did many other vehicles, the Legacy did struggle to get up certain steep roads, dropping from 65 MPH+ to 45-50 MPH.