Just received my hitch today from www.hitch-web.com and the quality is very nice and had some real nice powder coating on it. I will bolt it on tonight and see how it fits.
I am also going to pick up my new trailer Saturday for my ski then paint the trailer to match the TCM box.

Will post pic's when its all done. :wink:
Mark44

how heavy is your ski ? :shock:

The ski weight is right at 230 LBS and the trailer is 200.

Install went well, took about 20 minutes by myself. Had to jack up the pack of the car and drop muffler down to get the hitch over it but only had to remove one rubber mount from muffler.

Mark44

Pic PLEASE.. I've been wanting one myself, and I'm curious as to how it looks installed.

Did you go with the Curt or Dalan hitch? Your link showed (2) different ones.

I used the curt hitch, The only part of the hitch you can see is the receiver section everything else is behind the body panel. the receiver is about a 1/2" below the panel, just the 1 1/4" square receiver is all you see and it is flush with the body panel.

Mark44

Did you say you are instaling a hitch to your Box?

Good luck with that. I heard of this dude in Washington, did that. Went down the road, and bye bye rear end. The Box is not meant to tow anything. Thus, no hitch.

Plus the power of a Box is not nearly enough to haul a trailer and what you are putting on a trailer.

Anyway, good luck. Hope it works out for you. Let us know what happend.

does everyone realize that the xb is a 5 passanger vehical. if it is capable of five passangers then it is plenty enough powerful and capable of towing a light load. this is not rocket science.

does everyone realize that the xb is a 5 passanger vehical. if it is capable of five passangers then it is plenty enough powerful and capable of towing a light load. this is not rocket science.

i agree..

5 passengers at 150 (at least) each..

5x 150 750lbs

The ski weight is right at 230 LBS and the trailer is 200.

230+ 200= 430lbs

yep it should be fine.

hey my fist math problem since H.S.

does everyone realize that the xb is a 5 passanger vehical. if it is capable of five passangers then it is plenty enough powerful and capable of towing a light load. this is not rocket science.

Five passengers ride over the axles and frame. Towing puts stress on one area. Not the same calculations. That is, weight bearing capacity not equal to towing capacity.

does everyone realize that the xb is a 5 passanger vehical. if it is capable of five passangers then it is plenty enough powerful and capable of towing a light load. this is not rocket science.Yes it is rocket science, but of another nature...Automotive science, to be precise. In simplest of terms, It's not just the go power, but the stop power.

IF the TOYOTA engineers thought it could/would tow, they would have said so. However, in their esteemed opinion, they though best to warn off the consumers in the manual that comes with the Box.

They might know a thing or two more then the average person when it comes to this car.

Like I said before, good luck.

since my math problems looks cool..ill just add this note..

after reading the last 2 posts i change my train of thought..

If you read the manual that comes with the xb, the maintenance schedule includes services that are required if you tow anything. I know they recommend that you don't tow but they also know that people will so they included the service instructions.

i give up just tow the damn jetski. it is no diferent then all the cars i see with ski behind them. but whatever they say. i pulled a ski with a 240sx for over 2 years and not one problem. but i guess it was designed for towing huh.

i give up just tow the damn jetski. it is no diferent then all the cars i see with ski behind them. but whatever they say. i pulled a ski with a 240sx for over 2 years and not one problem. but i guess it was designed for towing huh.

Yep (I guess) :lol:

dude(s) we need to update the forum rules to include "do not query about towing with the xB". Every thread turns into hate. HATE.

BoxCar, unless you know the guy who broke his box, I wouldn't believe what you heard. ;-) Once there was jism in egg drop soup.

The folks at Toyota who decided that the Xb could not tow anything were not engineers.
That call was made by attorneys more concerned about product liability than the actual
physics involved in towing.

The folks at Toyota who decided that the Xb could not tow anything were not engineers.
That call was made by attorneys more concerned about product liability than the actual
physics involved in towing.

This is my theory as well. Over in Europe and Japan I belive people to light towing with their Echo/Ist/bB but they are smart enough to know the limitations of the vehicle and will accept fault if they beak the car.

Here in America we are sue happy. "Blame the other guy" or "It's not my fault" should be the slogan on our money, not "e plurabus unum."

If the xB was given a towing capacity of say 1000 lbs many people would do light towing with the vehicle. However, there would be people out there trying to tow 2, 3, or 4,000 lbs with the car because they were told the xB can tow stuff.

They would then bring their broken down xB to the dealer and say "I was towing and it broke." The dealer would ask them what they were towing and how much it weighed and they would lie out their teeth about it. Then when their waranty claim was denied they would start pointing fingers and try suing the dealer or Toyota of America.

Unfortunately it is the few who want to line their pockets for being idiots that ruin it for the rest of us.

"In generous jury's we trust"

dude(s) we need to update the forum rules to include "do not query about towing with the xB". Every thread turns into hate. HATE.

BoxCar, unless you know the guy who broke his box, I wouldn't believe what you heard. ;-) Once there was jism in egg drop soup.His name is Danny, and he lives in Seattle. I met him here, at a car show. He is a student at UM. Anyway, he showed me his pics of his Box before and after he towed a trailer. The back end (the rear bumper and all that plastic around the rear) was ripped off when he tried to take of. And his hitch was installed by a pro.

So, what you could have here, is a bad install job. Or you could have that the Box is not designed to have a hitch at all.

I mean, I don't see many ECHOS towing stuff, and it's the same car under it all, right?

Hey, but it's a free country. Let this person do what wants. I agree with the person who thinks that (Partially) that the reason there is no tow hitch is because that TOYOTA does not want to be sued when something goes wrong.

I also think, that the Box just does not have a lot of horsepower, by itself, and towing requires that, usually.

Not hatin' here, just statin' .

The folks at Toyota who decided that the Xb could not tow anything were not engineers.
That call was made by attorneys more concerned about product liability than the actual
physics involved in towing.

This is my theory as well. Over in Europe and Japan I belive people to light towing with their Echo/Ist/bB but they are smart enough to know the limitations of the vehicle and will accept fault if they beak the car.

Here in America we are sue happy. "Blame the other guy" or "It's not my fault" should be the slogan on our money, not "e plurabus unum."

If the xB was given a towing capacity of say 1000 lbs many people would do light towing with the vehicle. However, there would be people out there trying to tow 2, 3, or 4,000 lbs with the car because they were told the xB can tow stuff.

They would then bring their broken down xB to the dealer and say "I was towing and it broke." The dealer would ask them what they were towing and how much it weighed and they would lie out their teeth about it. Then when their waranty claim was denied they would start pointing fingers and try suing the dealer or Toyota of America.

Unfortunately it is the few who want to line their pockets for being idiots that ruin it for the rest of us.

I used to do some light towning (under 1000lbs) with my Suzuki Samurai... which had less power than the xB. It did a fine job. But I knew that the drivetrain was built tough enough to handle it. My concern with towing with the xB is that for the sake of minimizing costs, the xB may have a light-duty drivetrain and wouldn't be able to handle it.

If a trusted mechanic inspected the transmission and engine and gave me a thumbs up for light-duty towing, THEN I'd feel comfortable with it.

just my $0.02.

<Pardon me for not finding this thread for some reason. >
Here is my theroy on it. Name me a vehicle that is front wheel drive with a factory installed tow hitch. Complete with harnes. (I can't think of one off the top of my head)

The thought had never occurd to me but now that I start to think about it it would seem very logical to keep anyone with a front wheel drive car from towing. Mainly due to snow and ice.
What I'd be looking at towing would sit on a trailer this trailer would have less than a 75 lb toungue weight.
FlorenceScion has a point but I can counter point with weight.
Quad (Ski, what ever small toy your looking at hauling) Weighs about 350 lbs
Trailer weighs about 150 lbs
Total weight of trailer and quad = 500 lbs
Sprung weight on trailer 425lbs or 212.5lbs per wheel
Tongue weight of trailer and toy = 75 lbs
Added weight to vehicle 75 lbs at the most extreme back
Accual sprung weight felt by vehicle is about the equiv. of 150 lbs on the rear springs
Weight removed from the front springs is aprox 100 lbs
Pounds per square inch removed from front tires (traction equiv.) would be about 3.125 lbs per square inch of contact patch of tire.
I do not think it would be so much the weight of the trailer as all the Box is really feeling is about 150 lbs I would believe it to be more the amount of drift the front end would experiance due to the weight of the vehicle.
Figuring the xB weighs about 2400lbs and the current PSI on the contact patch of 4 inches by 4 inches on the front tires is about 37.5lbs per sq inch of tire contact on the front tires.
It is very possible the engineers looked at numbers similar to these and said no. I am not accounting for driver or passenger weight in this as they would add back about 5lbs per sq inch to the front contact patch. With the added weight off the back a noticeable amount of wheel slip could occur and even be very dangerous on dusty, snowy, rainy or sandy roads.
It's only after the fact that I post a poll on it does it all really start to sink in.
I've had a very bad day and it refelected in my sudden post. Sad to say I won't be getting a Box to replace my s-dime (or s-nickle as only half of it works)
Thanks all for your time sorry to have wasted yours.
Erik

i just membered something.. i got stuck in the snow ..and we tied a rope on the frame under the rear drivers side.. when i got home the rear door was kinda open...maybe that did it..but yeah..dont tow.

Pulled trailer and ski last night and I couldn't even tell it was back there. All went well that is for all you rocket scientists.

Mark44

good to hear....the box that really moves stuff

Pulled trailer and ski last night and I couldn't even tell it was back there. All went well that is for all you rocket scientists.

Mark44 :blah: :eyebrow:

Hope it always stays that way for ya.

wow

geez guys , withing reason and hearing both sides of the argument the xb should be fine for small loads with a small tongue weight

:doh:

EExA, bro... MY head hurts...

Well I want to put a trailer on my box but I want the reciver upunder, and the hitch that drops down, but i'm only going to haul a 8ft long beach cruiser, aka Big Sexy

Belly

I had a '91 metro convertable.

Used it to tow a jetski all day long. Did it for a couple of years over long (4+ hour ) trips.

Never had a problem.

The xB is built much better, shouldn't be an issue.