Ok folks, who out there can tell me about towing a small travel trailer with their "9"? We are newly retired, seeking to see "Small Town America" without the overall hassels of a larger RV. We have taken two road trips in our 09 CX9 and the car was wonderful. Only complaint is the average MPG of 19.5! If know one here has direct experience with this subject, can someone suggest a website that could help us out? Thanks to all and Happy Easter!
Trailer Towing With CX 9
- Thread starter fxpthl
- Start date
Hi There,
I am not sure exactly what you mean by "travel trailer", but I tow my Camper Trailer with my CX9. The trailer weighs about 850kg fully loaded with gear, not sure what this converts to in pounds.
In Australia the CX9 is rated to tow up to 2000kg, but I believe our hitches are a bit different here.
http://www.haymanreese.com.au/consumer/catalogue/productdetails.aspx?rec=3922
I found that the CX9 towed it beautifully, hardly knew it was there. I had to go up some fairly steep hills and it went well. Used manual mode 95% of the time to avoid hunting between 5 and 6th gear as this will cause the transmission to heat up more.
I must say that the reversing camera is great when hooking up the trailer, certainly takes the guess work out of it.
Cheers
Terry
Attachments
Hitch
In answer to CHUMANJI9
I just had a Curt put on my '10, and it looks pretty good. Its a little more obvious than I would have preferred, but I was opposed to cutting the bumper to mount anything higher. The hitch is well finished, and says "crossover" to observers.
As an aside, the dealer that installed the hitch wired it also, and he told me that on this model (with a 12 volt output at the tail lamp) that it wasn't necessary to run the take off for the switch (Curt brand) up to the battery. Also, I noticed when they installed it it used crimp connectors, rather than the plug in style that I've seen on some other units that sandwich in between the connectors on the vehicle.
I'm not sure I am comfortable with that, since Curt's own web site indicates it should be wired direct. If I had it to do again, I would walk away from their wiring job, and do it myself. (In will say, however, that its working OK).
Follow-Up: If you've read the thread "Cargo Carrier" you already know I have changed the wiring to the Curt recommended procedure, and why I did so.
In answer to CHUMANJI9
I just had a Curt put on my '10, and it looks pretty good. Its a little more obvious than I would have preferred, but I was opposed to cutting the bumper to mount anything higher. The hitch is well finished, and says "crossover" to observers.
As an aside, the dealer that installed the hitch wired it also, and he told me that on this model (with a 12 volt output at the tail lamp) that it wasn't necessary to run the take off for the switch (Curt brand) up to the battery. Also, I noticed when they installed it it used crimp connectors, rather than the plug in style that I've seen on some other units that sandwich in between the connectors on the vehicle.
I'm not sure I am comfortable with that, since Curt's own web site indicates it should be wired direct. If I had it to do again, I would walk away from their wiring job, and do it myself. (In will say, however, that its working OK).
Follow-Up: If you've read the thread "Cargo Carrier" you already know I have changed the wiring to the Curt recommended procedure, and why I did so.
Last edited:
Trailer Towing Responses
So you folks really are out there reading! Thanks to all who have answered, in a way, my question regarding towing with my 09 CX9. I was thinking(dreaming) about purchasing a small, light weight travel trailer and pulling it around our beautiful country. The RV thing is just not practical, especially when it comes to fuel mileage. I realize that my mileage, such as it is, will also suffer considerably when towing up to 4000lb of trailer. I also noted that the tongue weight is limited to 400lbs. as well. Be that said, we had hoped that someone out there in "Mazdaland" had done what we have dreamed and could give us some of their experiences and/or knowledge along these lines.
Thanks to all who were nice enough to chime in!
So you folks really are out there reading! Thanks to all who have answered, in a way, my question regarding towing with my 09 CX9. I was thinking(dreaming) about purchasing a small, light weight travel trailer and pulling it around our beautiful country. The RV thing is just not practical, especially when it comes to fuel mileage. I realize that my mileage, such as it is, will also suffer considerably when towing up to 4000lb of trailer. I also noted that the tongue weight is limited to 400lbs. as well. Be that said, we had hoped that someone out there in "Mazdaland" had done what we have dreamed and could give us some of their experiences and/or knowledge along these lines.
Thanks to all who were nice enough to chime in!
Trailer Wiring
Curt makes a powered wiring kit (which the CX must have). To make matters easy, I elected to run the power wire outside the vehicle, and was able to run a light duty fish tape down through the rubber seal under the doors on the drivers side, and pull the wire through, and route it straight up to the battery. (actually, I had an old measuring tape I cut the end off, rounded the cut, and ran it through and taped the wire to it so I could pull it back through) You'll want to use tie wraps to secure the line as close to the ends of the rubber seal as possible, so you don't pull it loose during the process of getting it up through the engine bay. It worked great for me, its out of sight, out of mind, and the tunnel provided by the under-door seal gives a little extra protection.
Curt makes a powered wiring kit (which the CX must have). To make matters easy, I elected to run the power wire outside the vehicle, and was able to run a light duty fish tape down through the rubber seal under the doors on the drivers side, and pull the wire through, and route it straight up to the battery. (actually, I had an old measuring tape I cut the end off, rounded the cut, and ran it through and taped the wire to it so I could pull it back through) You'll want to use tie wraps to secure the line as close to the ends of the rubber seal as possible, so you don't pull it loose during the process of getting it up through the engine bay. It worked great for me, its out of sight, out of mind, and the tunnel provided by the under-door seal gives a little extra protection.
CX9 SportOwner
Member
If your 2010 is AWD, you already have power at the rear connector, and can buy the harness. If it's FWD, I'd recommend running the power line through the protective pan under the left side of the car, rather than through the door seals, just in case they ever needed to be replaced. When you come out of the front of the pan you end up following the firewall up right behind the battery.
Wiring kits come with a power wire with an exterior rated insulation.
Wiring kits come with a power wire with an exterior rated insulation.
Yeah, in one respect that's a good recommendation, however, I put a blade connector in my power line just aft of the door seal, so if I ever faced that possibility, it would be a snap to pull the wire and re-insert it later. As I mentioned it worked great for me, but I don't think your dealer would install it the way I did either. Mine is a Sport, so I didn't have the wiring hook up
I did mine using the mazda wire harness. You can see pictures of the install in the following thread. Its super easy. Mine is a 2010 GT FWD with towing prep. If you have a towing prep the connector should be there.
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123775101
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123775101
Thanks cx9 sportowner and chumanj9..I actually found your post with pic, etc, after my first and ordered the oem harness right away. etrailer sent me a rma for the harness I originally bought with the hitch already~no problem. very happy to go the 'easier' way since my touring is already wired. bought it from carpartsestore.com (free shipping)...hope it comes soon.
I appreciate everyones input.
I appreciate everyones input.
FX,
Hope you got the answers you're looking for. We just got back from Kentucky pulling a pop up camper. Camper weighs around 2700 lbs, so, figure around 3000 lbs with the other stuff and it did fine.
I kept it at 65 mph most of the time and in 5th gear. Seemed to pull just fine. No swaying, gas mileage was around 14 mph which I didnt think was bad.
BTW- I did add an external transmission cooler on the CX to help manage the heat better. Don't know if it helped or not, but, it was hotter than heck on the trip and the temperature of the radiator stayed consistent.
Good Luck,
SteveG
Hope you got the answers you're looking for. We just got back from Kentucky pulling a pop up camper. Camper weighs around 2700 lbs, so, figure around 3000 lbs with the other stuff and it did fine.
I kept it at 65 mph most of the time and in 5th gear. Seemed to pull just fine. No swaying, gas mileage was around 14 mph which I didnt think was bad.
BTW- I did add an external transmission cooler on the CX to help manage the heat better. Don't know if it helped or not, but, it was hotter than heck on the trip and the temperature of the radiator stayed consistent.
Good Luck,
SteveG
