Why Cant i tow with a mirage

[91cavgt]

Attachment 4149

Just picked up this Carry-on 4x6T trailer from a local tractor supply Co yesterday.

I owned that same trailer for years. It was very convenient and easy to repack the bearings. I did have to redo the wiring though as it was hanging under the trailer and snagged on road debris.

[f0k4l]

Yeah I'm gonna have to find a solution to keep the wire from getting slack and hanging. It's underneath ran through the tongue. I'm gonna get some plywood and motorcycle wheel chocks so I can avoid having the Army move our bikes in december.

[Eggman]

Littlestan, where are you?? I hope all is well and have been wondering if you continued pursuing towing, and how that turned out.

[inuvik]

http://mirageforum.com/forum/member.php/1316-Littlestan Considering the amount of time and energy you spent attempting to lay out an rational argument why you should be able to tow a small covered utility trailer what was the result of your investigation?

[travels]

The rear shocks are pretty soft.
I won't put any trailer on it.

[tlstreak]

Yeah I'm gonna have to find a solution to keep the wire from getting slack and hanging. It's underneath ran through the tongue. I'm gonna get some plywood and motorcycle wheel chocks so I can avoid having the Army move our bikes in december.

they make a bedliner insert for small trailer. i would just add a thick piece of plywood. when it wears out cut it up and buy a new one.

[Kineo]

I have towed many a trailer with small cars, mainly in Greece. I had a Skoda Target 105 with a 3rd gen 1.3 L Golf engine. I used that to tow a trailer with scrap metal. The most I towed was about 1500 kg of scrap metal for a combined trailer/payload of just under 2000 kg. Was it the smartest thing to do? No, it wasn't. Did the car handle it? Yes it did, with careful driving. That's my 2 cents on that.

As for lightweight trailers, I've had a class 1 hitch installed on my '14 Mirage and intend on buying a Lees-ure Lite camping trailer. The trailer has a dry weight of 265 lbs and gross weight rated at 600 lbs with a tongue weight of 17 lbs. This trailer was purpose designed and built to be towed by motorcycles. If a motorcycle can handle 300ish lbs, I don't see why or how our Mirages can't. It has a cargo rack on top of it and 30 cubic feet of internal storage so I also plan on using it for the odd time I'll need to haul something too unwieldy for the inside of the Scootabout. Here's a link to the Lees-ure Lite site for anyone interested:

http://www.leesurelite.com/default.asp

Regards,
Peter

[alex16]

My mirage does better towing a trailer with 600lbs cargo vs a full load of people.

[inuvik]

I have towed many a trailer with small cars, mainly in Greece. I had a Skoda Target 105 with a 3rd gen 1.3 L Golf engine. I used that to tow a trailer with scrap metal. The most I towed was about 1500 kg of scrap metal for a combined trailer/payload of just under 2000 kg. Was it the smartest thing to do? No, it wasn't. Did the car handle it? Yes it did, with careful driving. That's my 2 cents on that.

As for lightweight trailers, I've had a class 1 hitch installed on my '14 Mirage and intend on buying a Lees-ure Lite camping trailer. The trailer has a dry weight of 265 lbs and gross weight rated at 600 lbs with a tongue weight of 17 lbs. This trailer was purpose designed and built to be towed by motorcycles. If a motorcycle can handle 300ish lbs, I don't see why or how our Mirages can't. It has a cargo rack on top of it and 30 cubic feet of internal storage so I also plan on using it for the odd time I'll need to haul something too unwieldy for the inside of the Scootabout. Here's a link to the Lees-ure Lite site for anyone interested:

http://www.leesurelite.com/default.asp

Regards,
Peter

I think that a trailer with about 600lbs gvw would be ok for the Mirage to tow. The reason that this topic blew up for weeks was that a member was trying to convince everyone that a enclosed trailer that weighed 1000 lbs with a gvw of 2000 lbs would be ok to tow. Now we have never heard if he ever went through with it or not. I direct messaged him and sent him a email to get a update and no response. I'm thinking either one of two things happened. Either someone somehow convinced him that towing that heavy of a trailer was certifiably insane or he actually did it and found out through experience why this was a really bad decision.

[Kineo]

I read through the whole thread (OMFGS was that a long read!). While I believe it is within the realm of possibility to safely tow a 2000 lb (loaded) braked trailer, I would not suggest it to anyone unless they have a helluva lot of experience with towing AND understand what variables could and will affect the handling and how to safely manage/mitigate them.

Again, I'm not saying I would do it with the Mirage because there's just so much that can go wrong but I will give the opinion that it can be done under the right circumstances and know-how. That Skoda I used with the VW golf engine had about 95 hp and weighed about 2,500 lbs. Would I recommend it? No.