97 Jetta TDI - How Much 2 Tow

Howdy,

I may be moving this summer and have found a Uhaul hitch for my '97 Jetta
TDI, 148k hwy miles, original clutch in good shape. The class 1 hitch says
it has a max weight of 2000 lbs and max tongue weight of 200 lbs.

Here are my 2 questions:
1. What can I get away with? Have any of you filled a 5x8' Uhaul with
furniture and dragged it ~300 miles with a TDI?

2. I have my eye on some vintage cars. Suppose I am reeealllly careful and
tow a 3000-3500 lb car on a trailer, during a cooler part of the year,
keeping my speed ~50 mph in 4th gear on straight but lightly used 4 lane
highways and avoid stop-and-go driving. Am I asking for trouble or have any
of you got away with this?

Regards

Want to tow, then buy or rent a truck! I towed a 3200lbs boat 600 miles from
down south with my 4.3l S10 Blazer and if I ever do it again then I'm
getting something with a V8. I would not tow over about 800lbs total with a
gas engine VW.



"K. E. Loyd" > wrote in message
news:yw0re.780$fV.620@okepread06...
> Howdy,
>
> I may be moving this summer and have found a Uhaul hitch for my '97 Jetta
> TDI, 148k hwy miles, original clutch in good shape. The class 1 hitch
> says it has a max weight of 2000 lbs and max tongue weight of 200 lbs.
>
> Here are my 2 questions:
> 1. What can I get away with? Have any of you filled a 5x8' Uhaul with
> furniture and dragged it ~300 miles with a TDI?
>
> 2. I have my eye on some vintage cars. Suppose I am reeealllly careful
> and tow a 3000-3500 lb car on a trailer, during a cooler part of the year,
> keeping my speed ~50 mph in 4th gear on straight but lightly used 4 lane
> highways and avoid stop-and-go driving. Am I asking for trouble or have
> any of you got away with this?
>
> Regards
>

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 16:47:18 -0400, "Woodchuck"
> wrote:

>Want to tow, then buy or rent a truck! I towed a 3200lbs boat 600 miles from
>down south with my 4.3l S10 Blazer and if I ever do it again then I'm
>getting something with a V8. I would not tow over about 800lbs total with a
>gas engine VW.

I tow 3000lbs daily with a VW Touran 2.0TDI DSG. No problems at all so
far. It's rated for 3500lbs over here, but I've towed 4400lbs a couple
of times. Still no problems of any kind.

If you're going to tow over 1500lbs, a trailer with its own braking system
is recommended... We tow around 2000lbs with our Volvo (6 cylinder, 4 speed
auto w/tranny cooler as standard equip) and going isn't the problem, it's
that the brakes start to fade earlier, and longer stopping distances in
general - tho it's been in a few panic stops and it handled it all quite
well (actually the car brakes very flat... car must bias a little more rear
brake pressure automatically).... The brakes on an A3 Jetta aren't as good
tho, they might even use solid disks at the front on some models? - I
wouldn't ever tow with our old A2 Golf... It had enough troulbe going and
stopping with 5 people (burnt out the front brake pads once), but I think my
A4 Golf TDI would tow a decent amount of weight.

I've seen an A2 Golf towing an average sized tent trailer (they are around
1500-2500lbs)... so I guess VW's can pull the weight, might not be the best
idea in the world tho.
"K. E. Loyd" > wrote in message
news:yw0re.780$fV.620@okepread06...
> Howdy,
>
> I may be moving this summer and have found a Uhaul hitch for my '97 Jetta
> TDI, 148k hwy miles, original clutch in good shape. The class 1 hitch
> says it has a max weight of 2000 lbs and max tongue weight of 200 lbs.
>
> Here are my 2 questions:
> 1. What can I get away with? Have any of you filled a 5x8' Uhaul with
> furniture and dragged it ~300 miles with a TDI?
>
> 2. I have my eye on some vintage cars. Suppose I am reeealllly careful
> and tow a 3000-3500 lb car on a trailer, during a cooler part of the year,
> keeping my speed ~50 mph in 4th gear on straight but lightly used 4 lane
> highways and avoid stop-and-go driving. Am I asking for trouble or have
> any of you got away with this?
>
> Regards
>

You cannot be safe towing anything over an arbitrary number like 800
pounds without trailer brakes. Driving slow does not equate safe. I
have had a scary incident driving 30 with a trailer that had one axle
of brakes when it should have had 2 axles of brakes. The trailer is
much nicer since I installed a new axle with brakes so now I have 4
tires with brakes. My theory is that a properly equiped trailer should
not increase the braking load of the tow vehicle.

I would buy a friend and let them drive the TDI while I drive the
vintage car. Or rent a big truck to tow. those tow dollies without
brakes are plenty scary too since they usually do not have brakes.

"K. E. Loyd" > wrote:

>Howdy,
>
>I may be moving this summer and have found a Uhaul hitch for my '97 Jetta
>TDI, 148k hwy miles, original clutch in good shape. The class 1 hitch says
>it has a max weight of 2000 lbs and max tongue weight of 200 lbs.
>
>Here are my 2 questions:
>1. What can I get away with? Have any of you filled a 5x8' Uhaul with
>furniture and dragged it ~300 miles with a TDI?
>
>2. I have my eye on some vintage cars. Suppose I am reeealllly careful and
>tow a 3000-3500 lb car on a trailer, during a cooler part of the year,
>keeping my speed ~50 mph in 4th gear on straight but lightly used 4 lane
>highways and avoid stop-and-go driving. Am I asking for trouble or have any
>of you got away with this?
>
>Regards
>


Jim B.

WOOO it has been like 2 years since I could get on this newsgroup, and I
appreciate the feedback so far, even though I have not yet managed a
Woodchuck-seal-of-approval yet.

Here's the deal - the proposed gargantuan trailer has its own "Automatic
hydraulic surge brake," so as long as I am on quiet rural roads for most of
the 300 mile trip and take my time, stopping power should adequate if not
good.

It will likely be a 5'x10' or 6'x12' Uhaul.

These have empty weights of 1250 or 1800 lbs, and I have heavy junk to fill
them up good and proper.

My concerns a
1. Will the clutch burn out just from driving down the highway at 55 mph
all day and less than 10 miles in town?

2. Can this 1.9l TDI motor maintain temperature of its fluids under this
load? I dont want to do without the a/c after loading that big arse
trailer.

regards.

"K. E. Loyd" > wrote in message
news:mZ7re.806$fV.500@okepread06...
> WOOO it has been like 2 years since I could get on this newsgroup, and I
> appreciate the feedback so far, even though I have not yet managed a
> Woodchuck-seal-of-approval yet.
>
> Here's the deal - the proposed gargantuan trailer has its own "Automatic
> hydraulic surge brake," so as long as I am on quiet rural roads for most
of
> the 300 mile trip and take my time, stopping power should adequate if not
> good.
>
> It will likely be a 5'x10' or 6'x12' Uhaul.
>
> These have empty weights of 1250 or 1800 lbs, and I have heavy junk to
fill
> them up good and proper.
>
> My concerns a
> 1. Will the clutch burn out just from driving down the highway at 55 mph
> all day and less than 10 miles in town?
>
> 2. Can this 1.9l TDI motor maintain temperature of its fluids under this
> load? I dont want to do without the a/c after loading that big arse
> trailer.
>
> regards.
>
> I am unfamiliar with variety of trailer referred to, But if you can get
you load balanced over the axles so its the trailer taking the strain and
not the car AND fit one of those after sales auxilary oil coolers there
should be no problems. I regularly two heavy loads between Athens & Dover
with my 21 year old Golf Gti without problems

Have you considered having the car transported by one of the car
transporting companies? That way it would be delivered to you safely with no
effort on your part, be insured, and the cost is quite reasonable. Check it
out.

Nothing on the face of the earth is going to change my mind about towing
with Golf & Jetta VW's especially if you only got around 100hp! But I would
like you to try and then post that experience back here.

"K. E. Loyd" > wrote in message
news:mZ7re.806$fV.500@okepread06...
> WOOO it has been like 2 years since I could get on this newsgroup, and I
> appreciate the feedback so far, even though I have not yet managed a
> Woodchuck-seal-of-approval yet.
>
> Here's the deal - the proposed gargantuan trailer has its own "Automatic
> hydraulic surge brake," so as long as I am on quiet rural roads for most
> of the 300 mile trip and take my time, stopping power should adequate if
> not good.
>
> It will likely be a 5'x10' or 6'x12' Uhaul.
>
> These have empty weights of 1250 or 1800 lbs, and I have heavy junk to
> fill them up good and proper.
>
> My concerns a
> 1. Will the clutch burn out just from driving down the highway at 55 mph
> all day and less than 10 miles in town?
>
> 2. Can this 1.9l TDI motor maintain temperature of its fluids under this
> load? I dont want to do without the a/c after loading that big arse
> trailer.
>
> regards.
>

I'm with you. Not only is it an accident waiting to happen, but it could
result in a blown engine or ruined clutch in the towing vehicle.

"Woodchuck" > wrote in message
...
> Nothing on the face of the earth is going to change my mind about towing
> with Golf & Jetta VW's especially if you only got around 100hp! But I
> would like you to try and then post that experience back here.
>
> "K. E. Loyd" > wrote in message
> news:mZ7re.806$fV.500@okepread06...
>> WOOO it has been like 2 years since I could get on this newsgroup, and I
>> appreciate the feedback so far, even though I have not yet managed a
>> Woodchuck-seal-of-approval yet.
>>
>> Here's the deal - the proposed gargantuan trailer has its own "Automatic
>> hydraulic surge brake," so as long as I am on quiet rural roads for most
>> of the 300 mile trip and take my time, stopping power should adequate if
>> not good.
>>
>> It will likely be a 5'x10' or 6'x12' Uhaul.
>>
>> These have empty weights of 1250 or 1800 lbs, and I have heavy junk to
>> fill them up good and proper.
>>
>> My concerns a
>> 1. Will the clutch burn out just from driving down the highway at 55 mph
>> all day and less than 10 miles in town?
>>
>> 2. Can this 1.9l TDI motor maintain temperature of its fluids under this
>> load? I dont want to do without the a/c after loading that big arse
>> trailer.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>
>