trailer hitch on a VW 2000 GTI?

I've seen it done, it's possible... Try a place that sells hitches, look one up in the phone book or something. If the aftermarket doesn't have anything you might need to take a trip to the dealer.

But consider this if you are only going to use it once for this move, you might want to rent a van, it would be cheaper.... The Golf's can only two

||Is it possible to put a trailer hitch on a 2000 VW GTI? I'm moving and could ||fit most of my life in a small 4x6 trailer, not more than 200-300 lbs of ||cargo. I could use some advice from anyone who has experience with this. If ||it's feasable, do I need to contact my VW dealer to install a hitch, or can ||anyone do this? (my VW dealer rips me off) Do I need to order a special ||hitch to have installed? Any recommended trailers? My engine is a 4 cylinder ||turbo, I'd have to look up the exact specs if that's important.

Not a problem. Your owners manual lists trailer towing capacities (if you can wade through that multi-volume monstrosity). Valley and Reese make class i hitches, and I'm sure U-Haul does too. You will need to order it ahead of time wherever you buy it. Installation is usually simple, or U-Haul can do it for you. Watch how they wire your trailer light plug in or it can cause electrical problems later on. Texas Parts Guy

You're not referring to the knob that installed a new head unit, somehow, *somehow*, got the dash dimmer switch ('89 Jetta) in line with the stereo, and then sold me the car.

Within the first week, I adjusted the dash lights and poof, several wires and a bunch of insulation went up in smoke. Moral of the story: keep a fire extinguisher nearby when working on electrical stuff.

Mine was inside the house.

100 M 9.49 sec.

The car survived the fire of '99.

Ouch....any pictures of the wire fire, Daryl?

I have a hitch on my 2000 Golf (2.0 litre, 4 door, but otherwise probably very similar)...I've had it almost as long as I've had the car. I had it installed at an aftermarket place. As I recall, the hitch was made by draw-tite (SP?)...it has a smaller sized receiver. The hitch is bolted to a point on the unibody on the driver's side, and also to the OEM tow hook on the passenger side, and they had to drill a hole inside the well for the spare tire for one of the mounting points. Though they did an OK job on the hitch itself, they botched the wiring job for the trailer, I kept blowing my fuse for my instruments (speedo, etc)...turns out they had wired one of the trailer turn signals to ground...forunately I have the wiring diagrams from the Bentley, and fixed the problem myself (they put in an opto-isolator to avoid putting too much load on the oem wiring).

I don't use it much, but I have a small (8 ft) trailer I use for towing light things from the big box hardware store (like a dishwasher, some lumber, etc)...it works fine for that. Not sure about towing rating with the Turbo, but for light loads, it seems to work fine on my 2.0 litre.

Oh you know that guy too!... he makes his rounds.

Unfotunately not. I did, however, drive around without dashlights for a year or so. Kinda...err..interesting.

I do have pictures of what those three washers on the inner CV joints (held on by six 12-point internal bolts) do to the tranny when your friend doesn't torque them properly (and I *trust* his work ;-).

Have fun starting classes next week.

Darryl.

Call up the dealer for prices and find out what the max load is. If they won't tell you, call another dealer.

I'm moving, so I have to move my car along reguardless. If I rent the cheapest uhaul with a tow dolly for my car, it will cost me $1300 one way. For that much I can get a hitch installed and buy a small used trailer which will acomplish my goal, and gas money will be cheaper as well.

I think you're right about 1000lbs towing capacity, although my manual doesn't state it for my model. Even so, with a 600lbs trailer, that leaves

400 lbs cargo weight which should be adequate for my needs. I'm weighing out my stuff to make sure I'm not too heavy. I realize this car wasn't designed to tow, but apparently other people have done it with no problems.

I wouldn't worry about going overweight if it's only this one time... Just take it really easy, and try to avoid steep hills. And don't carry any people in your car.

Thanks for posting this thread.

I just bought a home (my first) and drive a 1994 Jetta-III 2.0 automatic with 206K miles. Anyway, I'm moving and as roomy as the car is (along with "creative" packing) I can only move so much. Ideally I'd go out a buy a compact truck, which is handy for a homeowner to have, but I need the mileage from my Jetta, as I have a 84 mile round trip daily commute. Not to mention changing vehicles right now is cost prohibitive.

The solution came to me this morning and here I am reading about small trailers and hitches for V-Dubs...

My comment on the trailer is, check out

They sell road ready compact trailers that weight about 300# but can carry 800#. The cost is between $169 and $199 + freight shipping. So you figure that for a hitch, and trailer, you can make your move and have a handy way to get stuff home from the hardware store or just to move stuff that's took cumbersome to fit in the car for probably less that $300. A pretty good deal and idea I think...

I also wouldn't sweat the max spec for hauling. Figure the car was designed to carry at least 4 adults... (180# x 4 = 720#) Figure too, some luggage, so you're very safe to assume 1,000#. Just drive alone, don't overpack, and take it real easy both on gas and brakes...

Good luck with the move.

G