No Trailers

I was doing some research on my lovely wife's little car, a 2015 Nissan Versa Note. With the van on its last legs, I was wondering if maybe I could put a trailer hitch on the car. Of course, it was too small to tow a boat, but the thinking was that maybe it could pull my small utility trailer. In short, nope.

The car is so light that even a few hundred pounds of trailer would seriously affect its handling. Not only that, a trailer hitch would adversely affect its ability to withstand a rear end collision. When driving such a small car, you want all the crash protection you can get. Sometimes it's not worth taking chances.

You have to pay attention to those safety ratings. My cousin once borrowed an enclosed utility trailer to move stuff from Virginia to New Hampshire. The guy was using a small Jeep. He loaded up the trailer and headed out. At the first stop sign he blew right through it as the brakes weren't nearly strong enough. He successfully completely the trip, but it was a slow and dangerous journey. Only later did he figure out that the trailer exceeded the Jeep's towing capacity -while empty.

One of the people who we camped next to had a nice little pull behind camper. It was one of those ultra light designs that could be pulled by smaller vehicles. The owner wasn't very happy with it. His car pulled it just fine, but he didn't dare go over fifty miles per hour. The camper trailer was so light that at higher speeds it would get blown all over the road.

Pay attention to the tow ratings and leave yourself some slack. One guy told me his boat and trailer could be pulled by his vehicle, but only if the boat was absolutely empty. Forget about filling the water tank, gas tanks, and loading it with fishing gear. Not only that, there's a difference on the type of towing being done. Are you making short trips on level ground at low speeds? Maybe you plan on climbing mountains all day at highway speeds.

In our travels we see a lot of bad mismatches between tow vehicle and trailer. There's a lot of disasters waiting to happen going down the highway. Sometimes they even have the right vehicle for the job, but the wrong hitch. Those things matter. The roads are scary enough out there without taking unnecessary chances.

-Sixbears