I figure the towing knowledge in this forum would be sufficient to answer this question.

Situation: 1995 2.2L Honda Odyssey (rated at 1600 lbs) CAN, proven, tow a 4000 lb load up a boat ramp and 1 mile to my co-worker's house.

Question: Can an Accord (which the Odyssey is based upon) perform the same task?

Obivously, it cannot do so for any appreciable distance but all my co-worker needs to do is pull from the boat ramp to his house.

My contention is that you will pull the hitch out of the subframe... and the car will have a major reconstruction ahead of it... Anybody have any experiences with similar stuff?

Are the welded frame rails present on the Odyssey sufficient to allow such capacity?

 

well let me put it this way.

In South Africa I can tow 8000lbs with my BMW M coupe! NO bullshit.. just brakes is all you need.

With a 2l 16v Toyota you can tow 5000lbs..
So I say yes 1000% that you can. Given brakes are adequate

 

not sure that it helps any, but I have gotten my old '75 Mercury cougar (easily 4500lbs) towed about 15 miles by a '80s TransAm 5-speed. Not sure if the ol' TAs were body on frame or unibody at that point. We only broke the tow strap 3 times (not bad in Dallas 5:00pm rush hour - sure beat pushing the POS in July's 100deg heat)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Want2race &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">In South Africa I can tow 8000lbs with my BMW M coupe! </TD></TR></TABLE>

With a Class 1 hitch??? Wow.

Why bother rating hitches if they can handle 3.2x their rated load?

 

Why bother? Well in the US its because of legal reasons.. Since nobody gets anywhere by sueing there.. Its common.. Then agani so is taxis with vicegrips instead of steering wheels.. and no I am not kidding.. i was scared SHITLESS

 

as long as the hitch is properly mounted then i would tow!!! in fact when i need to tow my civic i will be putting a hitch on my integra to tow the civic!!!!

and i know the integra is rated way below an accord for towing!

 

Is the Odyssey really based on the Accord?

I thought that it was its own platform, and also used by the Acura MDX and Honda Pilot

 

It all depends on what your definition of 'will it tow' is. The hitch and frame aren't going to brake from the load, assuming you're driving slowly. The force exerted on a trailer hitch is greatest dring things like sharp impacts like freeway expansion joints. These impacts put FAR more force into the frame than simply pulling a heavy load smoothly from a stop. I'm completely confident that you could chain the hitch to a pole, gently take up the slack, then smoothly apply power until the front wheels were spinning with all their might, and there would be absolutely no frame damge. In other words, an Accord is not going to generate enough traction/torque to pull the hitch out of the frame or anything like that.

Reliability is another story. Pulling boats out of the water puts a lot of strain on the torque converter. Heavy tongue weight can cause springs to sag. Obviously, the brakes and suspension are not really up to the task, so speeds would need to be kept down to reasonable levels.

When I was in school, I used to pull a 20ft open trailer with two of Auburn's Mini-Baja cars on it with a Sentra. The trailer and cars was probably 2500lbs. It took a long time to change directions, but it was ok.

Just use some common sense.

-Chris

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">as long as the hitch is properly mounted then i would tow!!! in fact when i need to tow my civic i will be putting a hitch on my integra to tow the civic!!!!

and i know the integra is rated way below an accord for towing!</TD></TR></TABLE>

are u gonna hit vtec in your integra while towing your civic? maybe trying to move from a dead stop? burning up the tires?

maybe you should swap a b20 bottom end for some towing torque

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by elgorey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is the Odyssey really based on the Accord?

I thought that it was its own platform, and also used by the Acura MDX and Honda Pilot </TD></TR></TABLE>

Old Ody was a 4-door oddball, indeed based on the Accord.

New Ody is what you said. Only been around for a few model years.