Tow cars and trailers

On May 21, 9:24 am, Ray Lovinggood
wrote:
It's a Class I hitch, with the 1-1/4' bar.

Sad story here. I just had the hitch replaced. Another
'School of Hard Knocks' diploma for my wall. I need
a larger wall.

The first hitch just about tore off the bottom of my
trunk. The hitch bolted to the central rear tie down
loop and also through the 'Oh Too Thin' sheet metal
of the bottom of the trunk. I recently found the bottom
of the trunk severely cracked with the spare tire about
to fall out. I think the damage was not from towing,
but from the times I was jacking up the front of the
trailer to release it from the hitch, but the connection
not releasing. So, I was just jacking up the rear
of the car and the front of the trailer. To get it
to release, I had to step on the draw bar (glad my
shoe is small enough to fit) and put a bit of weight
on it. I've since found keeping the ball and hitch
wiped clean before connecting allows them to separate
easily. Putting oil on the ball works, too, but attracts
dirt and then leaves this big ol' greasy spot on my
shin.

The trunk got welded up and a new style hitch installed.
This new hitch attaches to the same central tow loop
but instead of going into the thin (very, very thin)
sheet metal of the bottom of the trunk, the two arms
reach more forward where they can bolt into the 'frame
rails'. Holes already exist in the frame rails, so
no drilling was required for this hitch.

A couple of months ago, I also had a transmission oil
cooler added.

Neither the hitch nor the tranny cooler are supplied
by Honda.

I just returned from a 900 mile round trip of towing
the trailer to Cordele, Georgia and back. I haven't
noted a problem with the new hitch.

The only problem I have now after a week of flying
is that I'm back into the drudgery of work :-(

Ray

At 15:36 19 May 2007, Tuno wrote:

Ray, did you have trouble getting a classs III hitch
on your Accord?
(I assume the dealer wouldn't touch this?)

Ray, I tried taking your minivan remark from the other day to heart
(note to others: this was spoken at the airfield, so don't try to find
it on RAS!)
and fixed up my wife's old Voyager. It didn't hurt to see Frank
Paynter's
setup when he was at Perry, either.

However, my efforts at being nice to its transmission have resulted in
a small river of transmission fluid flowing away from it in the
parking lot
this afternoon. I'm still sticking to the Toyota pickup for now...