My wife has decided that she 'needs' a jet ski. Her car is a tC (a little under 2 years left on the lease), mine is a (paid for) xA. I know that towing is not recommneded but it's only about a 15 mile one way trip to the lake. Relatively flat terrain. Can the xA (auto trans) handle it? Would the tC be a better choice (even thought I hate to buy a hitch for a car I'm only going to have another couple years)?

Has anyone done this with either vehicle? Any recommendations or thoughts?

 

A single jetski shouldn't be a problem for an xA, but I'm goin to say its a better idea to use the tC. tC has alot more torque and would be better suited. I've noticed that with 4 people in my xA the car is really sluggish and I have a 5spd. U, the wife, the jetski, afew items in the back, and the auto trans gearing..... I dunno.

 

Maybe he can just have his wife follow in the tC while he's the only one in the xA?

 

or just tell her that it is much more economical to rent a jetski if and when you go to the lake. i mean, why buy a several thousand dollar jet ski, and a trailer, plus hitch and the risks to tow it. how often do you go that buying a personal jetski is the better choice? be a man, drop the hammer and tell her how it will be.

 

Get some Yakima racks and some kayak cradles/rollers. :D If the combined weight of passengers, gear and towed weight are within the max passenger load, go for it. I was the only one I knew with a little Geo Metro towing a sailboat.

 

I would do it. Just add to your braking distance, take even twice as long to accelerate and watch out when making turns.

I have a hitch and its just fun to watch peoples reactions. I work for a commercial truck place and my little car makes up a fraction of some of the multi axle trucks that require several licenses to drive. At least I get 40mpg, they are lucky to get 4.

 

OK. So we're getting the ski. I've ordered and received the Curt hitch/receiver (haven't put it on yet) and wonder if anyone has any suggestions about wiring for the trailer. I was hoping for a T style connector, but have only seen one for the xB. Thanks in advance.

 

What kind of jet ski did you guys get? 2 person or 3 person? I am really interested in your towing adventure because I want a Sea Doo extremely bad but I just don't think my xB can do it.

 

It is a Yamaha Waverunner VX110 Deluxe. Supposedly a 3 person. I'll definitely post back here when we get everything connected up and report on how it goes.

 

The hitch couldnt of been easier to install on the xa. See the shark fin looking things up under the rear between the rear wheels? Those are called tow hooks. Just unbolt those and bolt the hitch in place. Dont forget to unlatch the bumper strips and the muffler clamp. The kit came with replacement bolts, but no hitch ball. I also ordered the wire kit. you just splice into the harness and run a wire from the battery. I have the kit, but havent hooked it up yet. Thats on my list next to doing keyless entry on my car.

 

Update:
Got the trailer hitch installed. I actually found it easier to remove the rear bumper cover than the muffler and was able to go between the bumper (the real, square tubing type bumper under the cover) and the tail pipe. It was quite easy to remove and replace the bumper cover and installing the hitch was pretty simple as well.

Used someone elses vehicle to get the ski to the lake as I don't have the trailer wiring yet, but once there I did hook up and pull it around the area at low speed with no problems and used the xA to back the ski/trailer down the ramp to launch it. Other than my lack of experience with trailer backing this all went quite well. It may be some time before I tackle the wiring as we'll probably be leaving the ski parked at my sister's lake place for the summer....but I think we're definitely good to go for towing as long as we're careful and don't have any major hills to climb.

 

^that's awesome

how steep was the ramp? did you pull the ski out with the xA as well or did you leave it in the water? and if you pulled it out...did it struggle any?

 

I also notice this with 4 people in the car and the ac running....but hey whatever

 

Ramp was not terribly steep. I did have to get the back tires down to about 1/3 in the water. I didn't pull it out of the water, but I did have to pull back up the ramp a bit to straighten (more for wife's panic level than truly needed). I did know I was pulling something at that point, but I didn't notice anything that made me concerned about the car struggling too much.

I will most likely be pulling it out by the end of the weekend. More to follow....

 

Can't wait to hear more

 

Make sure to wash down your rims if sea water touches them and be sure to service your brakes and grease your hubs wel on both your car and trailer.

 

OK. We've made it through the next test.

Took the waverunner out of the lake this afternoon. Backed the trailer down into the water until the bottom of the tailpipe tip was wet. Got the watercraft on the trailer, winched it up secure and put the xA in LOW just to be sure. Pulled it out with no problem whatsoever.

Once again, the only trouble I had was more related to my backing skills and/or whatever might make the xA (short wheel base?, front wheel drive?) a less than ideal backing vehicle.

Now if I can find a good wiring harness for the trailer. I found this one:
http://www.hidden-hitch.com/prod.asp?pc=118414

It's supposedly for the xB. Anyone know if the tail-lightconnectors are the same as on the xA??? I'm not really crazy about cutting & splicing.

 

dude go hitch that bad boy up and take a pic I wanna see this thing lol... this is the craziest thing I heard.

 

You know...I had the camera with me and it didn't occur to me to take a pic. We're going back next weekend. I'll get a pic then and post it on here (unless the itch to go play at the lake overwhelms us before then).

Here's a pic of just the waverunner:



People were looking kind of funny as I passed by them on the way to/from the ramp but none were doing this

 

hehehe that is awesome man, I can't wait to see it hooked up. They were probably talking to each other "Did you just see what I saw?" The wave runner is probably almost as long as the car lol!