I rented a 4 X 8 U Haul trailer to pull with my modded 2005 Civic VTEC auto with a few mods. The car has a D16Y8 intake manifold, throttle body and fuel rail, DC Sport 4-1 header, 2.25 inch straightpipe exhaust, a custom air intake, Mishimoto racing radiator, Hayden 679 transmission cooler, drilled and slotted rotors and Hawk HPS brake pads. Besides that, it's basically stock. It pulled the trailer 9 hours from Ohio to Tennessee, through the mountains, and It was packed with heavy stuff. The trailer and car combined weighed 5,420 LBS according to a CAT certified scale. The car handled the weight no problem too. It felt like it had plenty of power, even going up hills, it stopped well, although I had to push the brake pedal a bit harder to make it stop, and it got an average of 25 MPG on the way here. It has now been 3 weeks, and there have been no ill effects on the car from pulling this much weight either. I would not hesitate to pull this much weight again. What do you think?

 

I think you were lucky. I'm glad you found out it worked for you in this case, but I wouldn't necessarily put that as dogma.

 

Maybe I am lucky, or maybe Honda's engineering just works very well with the upgrades that I did. I'm sure glad that the 224K mile transmission didn't fail on the way there, because I would be putting my extra transmission in on the side of the road lol. I imagine a stock Civic wouldn't do quite as well under this load. I am just sharing my experience with towing with my Civic to help other people decide if they should tow with their Civic. I would say that a very safe towing capacity for my car and my setup, based on how well it did on the trip would be around 1500 Lbs, accounting for long term wear and such. The car did very well with this load though. I'm not sure if the transmission would necessarily warn me if it wasn't happy about this load before it fails, or if it would just suddenly fail. The transmission failing was my only concern.

 

I'm sorry, but almost all of your "upgrades" provided nothing towards this endeavor. That's been proven countless times on several different sites/platforms. The only saving grace in your list of modifications, is the transmission cooler, performance radiator, and Hawk brake pads. The rest didn't improve a thing, and unless you had some sort of ductwork directing air to your brake rotors, you actually decreased the car's braking performance. Early onset brake fade, potential heat fracturing, and several other issues come from drilled and/or slotted brake rotors without any form of additive airflow to help extract the heat.

All in all, you got exceptionally lucky. This is not something I would "advise" people on, as you are DEFINITELY the exception, not the rule.

 

That you already have a thread about towing with your Civic...

 

I agree. I think that with everything considered here, your wonderful initiative for the trans-cooler was your saving grace, in addition to the brake pads and (hopefully) brake fluid with your newer brakes. No one is throwing any "shade" here. You did well, and should give yourself a pat on the back for your ingenuity (but don't congratulate yourself to the point where you're going to self-fellatiate.)

Again, you're the exception and not the rule, and I hope that going through all that was worth the effort over a rental truck. However, this endeavor should not be meant as a type of teaching tool for others to attempt. You knew the risks, accepted them, and Divine intervention walked with you on your path. .

 

That escalated quickly.

Also yeah, none of those bolt ons or fuel mods make any difference at all. Trans cooler more than anything is likely what helped.

I'm sure a better synthetic (probably heavier weight) gear oil would also help. Not sure if there's many/any options available for ATF though.

Some minor planning, and careful/patient driving is what got you through this. Would this work for other people? Maybe, it would just never be something that's recommended. I commend you for taking the risk though and sharing the results, the moar you know.

 

To me, $120 for the trailer was a much better deal than $650 for a truck. The one way fee is quite expensive. The only things that I did to the car to get it ready to pull the trailer was change the oil in the engine and transmission and put more air in the back tires. All the other upgrades were done before I even planned to move. Also, I am happy with my decision to pull the trailer. I used the money that I saved to get new front struts, steel braided brake lines and lowering springs, which I wouldn't have been able to do if I rented a truck. Thanks for your reply.

 

Hey.. Look. It's not me or any of us you have to convince (or rationalize or whatever you want to label it.). We just wouldn't condone what you did as something for others to emulate, sorry.

As long as you're satisfied with it, and it worked for you, that's what matters, right? Not our opinion. It's the internet. This is the LAST place you look when it comes to validation from others.

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