Apr 9, 2013, 7:34 pm · #1
I'm trying to find a tow hitch for my SE but all I can find is one for a coupe(with a ca20e!). And besides anyone ever tow with them?
Anyone ever tow with a s12?
Apr 9, 2013, 8:15 pm · #2
Towing with a small car is dumb for a number of reasons, including short wheelbase, poor drivetrain setup, and puny brakes.
If you don't have a vehicle suited for towing things, find a buddy and buy him some beer.
Apr 9, 2013, 8:19 pm · #3
What are you planning on towing??
Apr 9, 2013, 8:33 pm · #4
My 87 MR2 has a hitch.
Apr 9, 2013, 9:15 pm · #5
SchizophrenicMC on 08:15:11 PM / 09-Apr-13Towing with a small car is dumb for a number of reasons, including short wheelbase, poor drivetrain setup, and puny brakes.I'm not talking about towing a car, I am towing a small single axle trailer 4x8. I want to load that up with my rims,tires and tools . Its a pain loading my car with the cage and everything, plus unloading in a rush sucks during a track day.
If you don't have a vehicle suited for towing things, find a buddy and buy him some beer.
Does anyone know if they still make a kit for the hatchback model
Apr 9, 2013, 10:54 pm · #6
Probably will have to go to U-Haul and have them custom fit one.
Apr 9, 2013, 11:04 pm · #7
SchizophrenicMC on 08:15:11 PM / 09-Apr-13Towing with a small car is dumb for a number of reasons, including short wheelbase, poor drivetrain setup, and puny brakes.Shut up.
If you don't have a vehicle suited for towing things, find a buddy and buy him some beer.
We towed a 300lbs trailer, loaded up to like 700lbs total with my dads 1990 Toyota Tercel from LA here and back twice and that thing was worse than my SE was in every aspect (shorter wheelbase, almost half the power, FWD, much smaller brakes).
U-haul has one listed, but it doesn't say coupe or hatch so I think it would be safe to assume they're the same or you could call them. That's actually where we got the one for the Tercel.
Apr 9, 2013, 11:11 pm · #8
Ju_S12_Turbo on 09:15:50 PM / 09-Apr-13I'm not talking about towing a car, I am towing a small single axle trailer 4x8. I want to load that up with my rims,tires and tools .Shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't try to drift with the trailer attached. Should be easy to have one made.
Apr 9, 2013, 11:21 pm · #9
rednucleus on 11:11:09 PM / 09-Apr-13Shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't try to drift with the trailer attached. Should be easy to have one made.One of the guys that turns up to our drift events has a lowboy trailer behind his sc300 with tires/jacks etc. Sometimes he even has his honda scooter on it.
I say go to u haul and dont take no for an answer.
Hahah, here he is at a show.
Apr 9, 2013, 11:57 pm · #10
SchizophrenicMC on 08:15:11 PM / 09-Apr-13Towing with a small car is dumb for a number of reasons, including short wheelbase, poor drivetrain setup, and puny brakes.youve obviously never seen anything European.
If you don't have a vehicle suited for towing things, find a buddy and buy him some beer.
Apr 10, 2013, 12:22 am · #11
StephenG on 11:21:20 PM / 09-Apr-13One of the guys that turns up to our drift events has a lowboy trailer behind his sc300 with tires/jacks etc. Sometimes he even has his honda scooter on it.
I say go to u haul and dont take no for an answer.
Hahah, here he is at a show.
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5233/img3926w.jpg
That car is rad!
Apr 10, 2013, 12:55 am · #12
EternalSwap on 11:57:55 PM / 09-Apr-13youve obviously never seen anything European.Europeans with their tow speeds under 45 on single carriageways versus Americans who like to do everything at at least 70 on freeways are completely separate ballgames.
Suffice it to say I see a lot of unsafe towing, and I don't advocate it under any circumstances. Use something suited to pulling stuff, save the wear and tear on your car, add a level of safety. VVL's comment is exactly my point about unsafe towing. And the scary part is, most vehicles' towing capacities are rated higher than they should be, because better regulation of what constitutes safe towing capacity didn't go into effect until the end of last year.
Just because you got there safely does not mean you were acting safely, nor does it mean you couldn't just as well have had a catastrophic failure. Safety > all, in my opinion, so I say don't tow via coupe. If you're really looking for utility at low cost, get into a quarter ton pickup, slap a hitch on it, find a used tow dolly, and put your tires and tools in the bed and tail-drag the 12.
In any case, I'm under the impression that the hatch and coupe S12s have identical undercarriages, so it shouldn't matter which one the hitch is for, if you're dead-set on towing with a sports car.
Apr 10, 2013, 1:22 am · #13
SchizophrenicMC on 12:55:28 AM / 10-Apr-13
StephenG on 11:21:20 PM / 09-Apr-13I say go to u haul and dont take no for an answer.
Apr 10, 2013, 1:32 am · #14
I_heart_VVL on 01:22:29 AM / 10-Apr-13Nigga, you just mad because you perpetuate every stereotype.
Apr 10, 2013, 1:37 am · #15
he is just talking about pulling a small trailer with like at max 4 wheels and some tools. I see some people pulling this kind of setup with miatas all the time. its not like he is pulling a station wagon behind his s12 with the wagon packed full of parts and stuff.
Apr 10, 2013, 1:40 am · #16
Well my car basically HAS a tow package lol. Its got the VG (Same as the truck), its got overloads in the rear(750pound springs and van shocks lol), Has bigger brakes all around, I put a 4.11 diff in for more tq ,sweet oil cooler and over sized cooling fan.
I am not trying to tow unsafely, I normally tow my car to event that are farther then a Hour away, but that is not always the case and my car get way better mpg then either of the trucks I can use lol.
Apr 10, 2013, 4:51 am · #17
I don't think there will be a problem. You used to carry this stuff inside your car anyway you say? Then do it.
One thing about towing stuff safely is about driving safely with a trailer. Give yourself a bigger safety margin between you and the vehicles you follow. Also if there is a lot of hill around your area, a trailer with a brake system isn't a bad idea, make sure the weight is properly balanced on the trailer and it'll be safe.
Apr 11, 2013, 9:54 am · #18
When I bought my S13, it had a detachable hitch,
No wonder it was the first thing to go away when the car was SR20'ed
It was custom made by a german company, I still have all the parts (hitch, structure, 7-pin plug and mounting plates) dunno if you can fit it on a S12, but if you're interested let me know and I can measure it for you.
I'd say give me some spares for my S12 and it's yours, but the structure that goes behind the bumper is made of 60x60x8mm thick badass steel square tube, so the shipping cost on its own may not be worth it ... :glaresad:
Apr 11, 2013, 3:23 pm · #19
DjayS12 on 04:51:18 AM / 10-Apr-13I don't think there will be a problem. You used to carry this stuff inside your car anyway you say? Then do it.
One thing about towing stuff safely is about driving safely with a trailer. Give yourself a bigger safety margin between you and the vehicles you follow. Also if there is a lot of hill around your area, a trailer with a brake system isn't a bad idea, make sure the weight is properly balanced on the trailer and it'll be safe.
Balancing your load is a huge point. When you have the trailer fully loaded, there shouldnt be more than a couple hundred lbs pushing down on our hitch, this is called tongue weight. Just keep the heaviest objects over the axle or evenly spaced in front and behind it, and you should be fine. So, stack your spares behind the axle, keep your tools over it and the cooler and chairs should go in the front :P
That will keep your squat to a minimum, and keep the trailer from bouncing the car too much over bumps. Just give yourself a bit more room, turn a bit wider and try not to forget about it when you are backing up anywhere :)
Apr 11, 2013, 4:49 pm · #20
That said, if you have too much weight over the trailer axle or behind it, it'll cause sway, even with a short trailer. Towing is a balancing act.
Apr 11, 2013, 6:50 pm · #21
I'll just add my opinion on weight balancing. usually on a car that isn't meant to tow heavy load, I'll try to balance a trailer so there is about 20-50 lbs on the tongue (that's for a load up to around 500 lbs). It's easy to guess, you should be able to lift the tongue without a problem. And keep the gravity center low.
Apr 12, 2013, 2:09 am · #22
If I can tow with my 2.3L ranger an se should have no problem lol
Apr 12, 2013, 12:10 pm · #23
The 2.3 ranger can tow because wheelbase, frame, gearing, and designed for such capability.
Apr 13, 2013, 7:22 am · #24
I was actually thinking the same.. Is the se capable of towing another car? 
I spotted this se with a towhook a long time ago and wondered that when i saw the towhook.
Apr 13, 2013, 10:02 am · #25
Hell no. The SE doesn't have the weight, wheelbase, brakes, or suspension for towing another car. Or clutch, if it's a manual car.
Apr 23, 2013, 5:18 pm · #26
Ok I laughed not once but three times very out-loud at i_heart_VVL's um... quote of sorts :P You are my hero of the day lol
You can tow a SMALL trailer, yes. It will affect your braking effectiveness nonetheless, yes. There are small tow hitches that have been adapted to cars before. I had an S12 notchback that had one. They generally have the smaller sized receivers. Unibody can't handle a lot of towing tho without risking tweaking the unibody itself. So if you're keeping the small trailer light, go for it. If not... get a pickup.
But yeah, for some spare tires and such, it'll work fine. Just don't jackrabbit start or you'll tweak the unibody out of shape.
Apr 26, 2013, 4:30 am · #27
I would tow up to 1000 pounds with my S12 without even thinking about it. 1/3 of it's curb weight? No worries at all. 500 pounds you might barely feel. I may very well build a mini receiver hitch into my car's cage so I can haul tires and tools to distant events I want to drive the car to. If I do this I'll build a low-slung independently suspended trailer with wheels and tires to match the car so I don't have to slow down much in the twisties. :) It's amazing how well the right trailer can tow at speed. I pulled my single place snowmobile trailer with my Datsun 1200 a lot and the trailer had zero effect on the car's cornering ability or general handling other than increased braking distance, especially on snow.
All of that said...
A friend of a friend has an SE with a hitch. The bumper is bent down about two inches and it looks like there's a buckle in one quarter panel because the shell has been tweaked. The car has no crash damage and appears to be all original. My guess is someone hooked a trailer to it with either WAY too much tongue weight or too much total weight (inertia is a bitch) and bent the car. Or maybe the trailer was rear-ended or backed into something really hard? 
Apr 27, 2013, 2:52 am · #28
Hi,
I have an old 4'x4' covered Sears trailer that I tow behind our Subaru legacy. A few weeks ago I hauled 1/2 a ton worth of rubble to the dump without a problem. We had it packed to the gills when we moved here from MN. But usually we just use it to haul our camping gear and fire wood.
I think a small trailer like that would be perfect for an SE. Even when loaded up, I can barely, barely feel anything back there. And think about it, if your car is packed full of gear, doesn't that mess with your center of gravity? Can't you feel it swaying around while you drive? I think hauling your stuff in a trailer might be safer. It may add some weight to the equation, but a balanced, low trailer will probably feel and drive a lot better. I can zip around windy turns with my trailer just fine.
And compared to the rear drum brakes that my Jeep Cherokee had, I think my SE would handle braking a lot better. I know our Subaru's 4 wheel discs do a nice job.
In fact, I've been thinking of putting a hitch on mine as well!