I towed my motorcycle on a small trailer from Tallahassee, FL to Mountain Home, ID- 2500 miles with my 2005 scion xA. On some of those mountains it really struggled! I looked at this HP/elevation calculator and then I realized why:

http://2.3liter.com/Calc2.htm#BasAltCal

At my highest elevation I was at 8600 feet. That takes the HP from 103 hp to only 74 hp! On top of that I was carrying 3800 pounds (verified by scale, half a tank of gas).

74 hp and 3800 pounds! In the mountains on every hill I had to turn off overdrive so it could get up the hill, some of the hills it shifted into second gear to get up!


BUT it made it! I owe my scion! It worked really hard!

Here is a picture:

 

Now, change your AT fluid lol. It probably baked on the way up! Seriously, I would check the color though.

 

I will check it in the next couple of days. I did install a transmission cooler right before the trip... so I changed 3 quarts of fluid. Actually I took 3 out and added about 4 due to the cooler. I am glad that I installed the cooler though... cheap insurance.


In Florida it seemed to tow much better... I could maintain speed in 4th gear better, up in the mountains It could not maintain 70mph on the highway in 4th... the speed just slowly started creeping down. If I even thought about pressing the accelerator more it would downshift!

Through the higher elevations I probably should have just turned off OD the whole time, but I wanted to get better gas mileage so I turned it off and on depending on the slope.

 

Towing with a xA = Fail
Towing in the Mountains with a xA = Major Fail
Towing in the Mountains with an Automatic xA = Epic Fail

At least you installed a TransCooler, but still not a good Idea to tow with a 1.5L 4EAT, period.

 

With holding judgement to be nice

 

You guys are haters! I agree... it would be nice if I had a lot more power, but it did the job...

 

doooood TURDBO IT!!!

 

We're not haters, we just know better.

 

Refer to first quote in sig...

then, get used to it...

 

haha. I probably won't have the car when I move again in 3-4 years so I probably won't be towing cross country with it again. I am sure for shorter distances I will keep towing though.

 

its like towing with a corolla

 

fixed