buyingconstant7
Member
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- 2014 CX-5 GS AWD
Well I finished my roadtrip to BC. I said on my initial post that I may have to tow my uncles 1,900lb trailer because his car broke down, but was fixed quickly so we thought we would not need to use the cx-5 as a tow vehicle. However, Mitsubishi never ceases to surprise, when his 2014 Outlander broke down, yet again, and he had to have it towed to a dealer. So now, I got stuck with his "1,900lb" travel trailer, acres of luggage, and three people in total. "Well, lets see what it can do" I thought. Then I peered in at the dry weight rating of his 16" travel trailer...it's dry weight was 2,150 lbs! I thought "oh hell no, this car is gonna shred itself to pieces...". But we had no choice! I had to hook up the trailer, full of our couple hundred pounds worth of chairs, luggage, water, food, generator etc. When we took his trailer on a scale, days before, with his Outlander, his axle weight was right around 2,400lbs, and his tounge weight is around 165, and now we have an extra person on board with the Mazda!(I'll calculate precise total weight below) I even "talked" to the car saying how sorry I was, and how I had to do what I had to do.
Anyways, I had just filled up with 87 octane fuel(before knowing of the hard pull it was gonna have to overcome, otherwise I would've gone with premium), and had to drive 80 miles to where his Mitsubishi was towed to(thanks for being so unpopular Mitsu so we have to go way out of our way to find a dealer...along the way we passed 2 Mazda dealers.). I was thinking that it would use the full tank to get there. I hooked up the trailer(THANK GOD FOR A WHD AND STABILIZER BARS!), checked electrical, verified trailer brakes were functional...or rather trying to forget we had no brakes since we had no controller! And off we went.
I was amazed at how much low end torque the 2.5 made. Accelerating to highway speeds, while keeping up with traffic, it never revved over 3,500rpm. The transmission adapted to the load and held gears longer and downshifted sooner(thanks to AAS technology). It was never in the wrong gear. I reached 60mph and set cruise and the transmission held 6th gear without the engine complaining. We were able to do small hills until 5th was needed. It hit 3rd once on a long 6% grade, but the speed was held constant. I even got a little too confident and passed a loaded semi on a two lane highway, and it was quite brisk. The CX-5 did everything that I asked for. When I needed to slow, or stop, I manually shifted the transmission down so I would not cook my brakes. Thankfully I only needed to use them twice during the whole 80 miles. But we made it! We went up steep slopes, through busy cities, and on highways, but the CX-5 never lacked in power...never. Handling felt totally unchanged. In fact, it may have felt even more planted. I could not tell the trailer was there until I had to get away from a stoplight in a rush. But even then, I could easily accelerate and blow past traffic if need be.
We finished the trip and unhooked his trailer at a friends place until his car was fixed(bad water pump and ECT sensor). Now I also recorded fuel mileage. Over the 80 miles we used 4.1 gallons which equals 19.3mpg. Not bad!!! With his 3.0 V6 Outlander we maybe get 14mpg, and the CX-5 felt even more powerful, and could actually hold 5th and 6th gear on the higway thanks to low end torque. His V6 needs to be in 4th, revving at 3,200rpm just to cruise on a flat highway. Just shows how incredible our cars are. Now for weight, to add up the total amount, we know his trailer weighs roughly 2,600lbs with our stuff in it, then add the generator, lawn chairs, and other misc. equipment in the trunk of the car totalling about 150lbs, then three people where we'd weigh all around 500lbs, we were at 3,250lbs!!! When I figured that out(post-trip), I almost lost it. Since the tow, we have done about 1,000 miles of unloaded driving on the highway and city, absolutely no abnormalities, no DTC's or anything and I expect it'll stay that way. There is a margin of safety for the weight rating of these cars, but we were probably slightly over it's actual max capacity.
SO YES, you can tow WAY over it's weight limit(obviously not legally or probably for very long)! And if you had a brake controller, it might even be safe! But should you? HELL NO! I'd never tow that weight with this car again, I have no idea if the transmission can take that abuse, so to be on the safe side, I'll stay within 2k lbs. If I knew it was strong enough, this car would have the capability to tow 4,000lbs based on the chassis and power. Well, that's all, hope you enjoyed my small towing review.
And here's the hitch setup. If I do say so, this is the perfect hitch setup...
Also: In hindsight, towing this weight with no trailer brakes was very dumb, since I know some of you will bash me for that. I certainly wouldn't do it again, but I had that sheer curiosity plus the fact that we had no choice. I was willing to accept the consequences if something bad happened, but I was confident nothing would if I kept my following distance and used many defensive driving techniques.
Anyways, I had just filled up with 87 octane fuel(before knowing of the hard pull it was gonna have to overcome, otherwise I would've gone with premium), and had to drive 80 miles to where his Mitsubishi was towed to(thanks for being so unpopular Mitsu so we have to go way out of our way to find a dealer...along the way we passed 2 Mazda dealers.). I was thinking that it would use the full tank to get there. I hooked up the trailer(THANK GOD FOR A WHD AND STABILIZER BARS!), checked electrical, verified trailer brakes were functional...or rather trying to forget we had no brakes since we had no controller! And off we went.
I was amazed at how much low end torque the 2.5 made. Accelerating to highway speeds, while keeping up with traffic, it never revved over 3,500rpm. The transmission adapted to the load and held gears longer and downshifted sooner(thanks to AAS technology). It was never in the wrong gear. I reached 60mph and set cruise and the transmission held 6th gear without the engine complaining. We were able to do small hills until 5th was needed. It hit 3rd once on a long 6% grade, but the speed was held constant. I even got a little too confident and passed a loaded semi on a two lane highway, and it was quite brisk. The CX-5 did everything that I asked for. When I needed to slow, or stop, I manually shifted the transmission down so I would not cook my brakes. Thankfully I only needed to use them twice during the whole 80 miles. But we made it! We went up steep slopes, through busy cities, and on highways, but the CX-5 never lacked in power...never. Handling felt totally unchanged. In fact, it may have felt even more planted. I could not tell the trailer was there until I had to get away from a stoplight in a rush. But even then, I could easily accelerate and blow past traffic if need be.
We finished the trip and unhooked his trailer at a friends place until his car was fixed(bad water pump and ECT sensor). Now I also recorded fuel mileage. Over the 80 miles we used 4.1 gallons which equals 19.3mpg. Not bad!!! With his 3.0 V6 Outlander we maybe get 14mpg, and the CX-5 felt even more powerful, and could actually hold 5th and 6th gear on the higway thanks to low end torque. His V6 needs to be in 4th, revving at 3,200rpm just to cruise on a flat highway. Just shows how incredible our cars are. Now for weight, to add up the total amount, we know his trailer weighs roughly 2,600lbs with our stuff in it, then add the generator, lawn chairs, and other misc. equipment in the trunk of the car totalling about 150lbs, then three people where we'd weigh all around 500lbs, we were at 3,250lbs!!! When I figured that out(post-trip), I almost lost it. Since the tow, we have done about 1,000 miles of unloaded driving on the highway and city, absolutely no abnormalities, no DTC's or anything and I expect it'll stay that way. There is a margin of safety for the weight rating of these cars, but we were probably slightly over it's actual max capacity.
SO YES, you can tow WAY over it's weight limit(obviously not legally or probably for very long)! And if you had a brake controller, it might even be safe! But should you? HELL NO! I'd never tow that weight with this car again, I have no idea if the transmission can take that abuse, so to be on the safe side, I'll stay within 2k lbs. If I knew it was strong enough, this car would have the capability to tow 4,000lbs based on the chassis and power. Well, that's all, hope you enjoyed my small towing review.
And here's the hitch setup. If I do say so, this is the perfect hitch setup...
Also: In hindsight, towing this weight with no trailer brakes was very dumb, since I know some of you will bash me for that. I certainly wouldn't do it again, but I had that sheer curiosity plus the fact that we had no choice. I was willing to accept the consequences if something bad happened, but I was confident nothing would if I kept my following distance and used many defensive driving techniques.
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