VW Golf towing delema

You mean "don't need" the truck space?

From where to where are you moving? $1300 is ridiculous. I moved from Baltimore to Austin TX with a huge-ass Ryder truck and a two-wheel trailer and it was something like a few hundred.

When renting trucks don't overlook pickup and return from other nearby towns. Sometimes it's cheaper to pick it up from another town as well as drop-off. Pickup from Baltimore used to be a lot cheaper than from, say, DC. Drop off in a main city is sometimes cheaper than in the nearest suburb. There's a balance of gouging you in certain markets while also not losing money shuffling around trucks dropped off in places that don't rent enough of them.

-Bill Kearney

Bill is giving some good advice.

I had a customer last year with a 95 Jetta 2.0 auto that moved from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA. She towed a heavy trailer with her Jetta with around 140K miles on all original engine and trans. It made it fine, but of course it scared the h#ll out of me since the rear of the Jetta was almost dragging on the ground. I told her to reposition the items in the trailer which she said she would do at her first stop. I really doubt if she did!

You also have to look at stopping with extra weight pushing you.

I have towed a 65 Beetle from Iowa to Chicago with my 67 Beetle Conv. The 65 was loaded with college books and clothes too. I have also towed a 4 wheel trailer loaded with furniture with my 67 Beetle Conv.. Almost lost my hitch since 2 of the 3 bolts were coming loose. Made it fine after the shaking stopped!! lol Those were some crazy days.

So you can do it if you use your common sense. Allow for plenty of stopping time, take it easy on the starts and try not to drive too fast.

JMHO later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris

There was something about those flat 4 motors.... they had no power but they didn't really seem affected by weight did they? Slow anyways... so whats another 3000 lbs.

My dad's told me stories of taking the companys 36hp VW Microbus commercial van from Toronto to Montreal (in the 1970's) with moulds (like for plastic parts) in the back of it, and a trailer and the thing just chugged down the transcanada like it was no-bodys business.... of course it topped out at around 90-95 kph but it didn't go much faster unloaded anyways.

I dunno about that...that's a lot of weight. For example, the Eurovan is rated at 1500lbs for an unbraked trailer so I don't think I'd pull 2000lbs with a Golf.

Then again, years ago I towed my Dad's '85 Dodge Caravan home with my '91 GTI when the Caravan broke down. Granted he steered and braked the Caravan so I didn't have to worry about braking issues, but not sure I'd do such a thing again. And I did this at like 30mph tops too.

Pulling a lot of weight is not going to be the problem. Stopping will be the main issue. Like you need almost 3 times the stopping distance if your trailer weighs more than the towing vehicle. VW engines have a lot of power for pulling.

With a sane person behind the towing vehicle, you could tow a lot of weight. That means you take into account all of the idiots that cut in front of you on the road thinking you can still stop in the same amount of distance as if you were not towing anything.

JMHO later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris

Thanks for the advice guys. I think you are right that pulling a lot of weight is not going to be an issue. My concern is the golf is such a lightweight car, that a trailer might be hard to control especially in adverse weather conditions. I plan to take it slow and careful, that is sage advice. And I've thought about the braking issue, I plan to get at least the most worn pads replaced (front or rear). Everyone who drives my car is impressed with the brake response, but that could be because it's so lightweight and not because of strong brakes.

It's a 20 hour drive for me which could be part of the reason for the $1300 uhaul cost. It's a little over $1100 for the smallest truck, and about $130 for the car dolly to tow my VW. I already ordered a hitch so I'm going to take my chances with that. I know it will come in handy for me in the future as well. I'm looking at no more than 1000 pounds total including the trailer weight. We'll see what happens... I'll report my experience with it later hopefully it won't be a disaster story.

If you dont like the towing capacity, I'm sure you could fudge the numbers a little. But IMO towing anything more than about 1000 lbs is probably not a waise thing to do. Your engine will have the lowest capacity out of all those you listed, diesels have high torque and low hp, so it should be higher towing capacity than your 1.8T.

VW's really weren't designed to pull anything other than Touareg's, Passat's, Eurovan. VW only offers a hitch for the Touareg and Eurovan so that should tell you what they feel is safe for towing. Personally I wouldn't want anything behind a Golf.

The Golf's have pretty good brakes... they are actually a heavy small car.

The old A2 style brakes were pretty abysmal tho... Solid front disks (small ones to boot) and tiny drums with no cooling fins on them.... Driving with

In this case though the OP is talking about a GTI I believe, which as far back as I can remember had vented 4 wheel discs, no drums at all.

Agreed on all counts. They were fine under normal circumstances but they could have been far better.

back as I can remember had vented 4 wheel discs, no drums at all.

I'm not doubting your info, but why would they do that? My 85 GTI which is of course an 8V, has 4 wheel discs, they actually went backwards in technology?

Follow the money...

-- Mike Smith

Na, over here in europe the A4/A5 Golfs are rated for 1000-1500kg (depending on engine) trailer weight if the trailer has brakes and something around 500kg if the trailer has no brakes. Even my 85 Jetta TD is rated at 490kg w/o brakes, and 1000kg w/ brakes, even 1200kg up to

- only inertia brakes/overrun brakes on trailers

- there is only one type hitch (ball-shaped head). Legal limit for this type hitch is 750kg w/o brakes and 3500kg w/ inertia brakes on the trailer.

Did you intend to type VWoA?

Ingo

Glad to here what's going on in Europe with this topic. And yes VWoA.

So do they specifically mention a towing capacity for the 1.8T in Europe?

I tow a kayak on a lightweight trailer with mine, total weight somewhere about 160 lb, and pretty low aero drag. No trouble with that, as you might imagine. I'd be much more concerned about towing a box trailer, not only because of the weight, but the aero. Seems like the turbo could get pretty hot, just from maintaining a decent hightway speed.

Mike

Sorry, I don't have data for the A4, as the german VW homepage of course only lists A5 data, but it should be similar for the A4. Again, there's no 1.8 turbo in the A5 yet, but the 150HP FSI should do.

### Zul. Anhängelasten / Allow. towing capacity ### gebremst / w/ trailer brakes ### bei 12%/8% / up to 8%/12% road inclination

European engines are designed to be run at full throttle for prolonged times.

Ingo