anybody put a hitch and pull a jet ski?

 

Been coverd several times before. The manual says no towing and I don't know if our unibody (non traditional frame) construction can take the tow force exerted on the parts connected to the tow device. I'm sure someone will quote the carrying capacity of the Xb (which is designed for distribution between the axles, not at one point in the rear of the vehicle) and disagree with me. Its your call. It would be interesting to know if someone has done this for a summer.

 

You could, but you wouldn't want to.

 

I would think that any damage caused by towing will not be covered under warranty, since it says not to tow in the manual. You're playing with fire...

 

You are correct, so disconnect any tow hitch before going in for warranty work.

 

i hate this topic. anyone with common since knows we are not going to tow a 30ft trailer, but something small like a jetski which you can pickup and easily pull around by hand can definitly be towed by a scion. i done this same thing with a 240sx for 2 years pulling a jetski with zero damage or problems.

 

I'm sure an experienced tech can determine the cause of a problem caused by this sort of misuse. Not to mention, would you really want to risk burning up your tranny or bending your chassis?
A 240 has double the torque of our cars and it is a rear wheel drive car. Also, you don't know for sure if towing with your Nissan didn't cause any damage, unless you took apart and examined the drive train. I owned a Ford Ranger, which the previous owner towed a couple of jet skis. I had to rebuild my tranny twice in a period of a few years and the transmission people said that it was most probably caused by that guy exceeding the tow limit, which for our xBs is 0 lbs (according to the manual).

 

manual say no. warranty be damned if you do

 

If i had a jet ski, i'd tow it with the box :)

 

OK, how about a Datsun 510? Mine had less power than a xB and still towed a dirt bike and trailer for years without a problem.

The xB's transmission doesn't know whether the 300 pounds is on a trailer or sitting in the seats. The xB's rear suspension is less stressed with 100 pounds on the tongue than it would be with two adults in the back seat. The rear subframe is stressed to handle the transport tie-down brackets that are capable of taking the entire weight of the car. A light trailer wouldn't even faze it.

Where you _will_ run into problems is if you load up the car _and_ tow the trailer. You will also have problems if you drive the car with the trailer the same way you would without.

I'd rather have an xB that has been driven carefully with a trailer than one that has been abused without any load.

 

You had to have your tranny rebuilt twice because its a FORD and your tranny guy's did a crap rebuild the first time.

 

i dont know about all that technical stuff...but i had thre fairly large people in my car----uhm---i dont know how to guess how much people wiegh--but fairly large but my car clicked really loudly before take off---if it can't handle three fairly large people...i dont know about all this towing....

 

I'm sorry but there's plenty of other Unibody vehicles that tow... If a 240 can pull the jet ski in question, I'm sure the scion can, with no problem.

 

I laugh when I read these threads.

It reminds me of the people who smoke. It says right on the package, that smoking can kill you, but does that stop people from doing it? No, it does not.

And the xB manual says 'no' to towing, yet, does that stop people from trying it? It seems the answer is also no, it does not.

I keep coming back to the simple thought, that if the wise folks who built the xB had made it so it could tow, even a small load, they would have said to do so. Heck, that would have been a selling point for some.

Why would they want to discourage a potential selling point, if they had one to offer? It just does not make sense, to me, to do that.

Go ahead and tow. Just don't gripe to the rest of the world when your Box gets torn in half, or whatever happens when you tow with this.

 

What you don't realize is that the prohibition on towing didn't come from the "wiose folks" engineers, it came from the lawyers. They know that some idiot will load up the car and try to pull a 5000 pound trailer and then sue Scion for the damage caused by their own stupidity.

In the old days, the manuals often had a statement like "towing is permitted provided that the combined internal and towed load does not exceed XXXX pounds".

Unfortunately, in our sue-happy society, potential litigants aren't held responsible for the ability to add, so a blanket prohibition is a lot easier to write.

 

I've been towing my MX bike and gear on a trailer for a year now. (about 12,000 of towing) I've had nothing but good times. The people who are too scared to pull a jet ski with their xB are probably also too scared to ride the jet ski in the first place. Use some common sense and have fun!

 

I tow my boat with my xA all the time.

 

As a dealership we have installed tow hitches upon special request. I had a 87 ford escort and used to pull my waverunner and had no problem...if that thing did it so can the box

 

I agree with that first statement, but I have to defend the guys that do my transmission work. I have dealt with them since I've been driving cars and everyone I talk to has nothing but good things to say. They are more expensive than most and they have the longest warranty on their work. Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that a vehicle that you would think is perfect for towing was damaged because the towing limit was exceeded.

As for our country being lawsuit happy (which I agree with), check what owners/dealers of bBs in Japan are saying about towing.

Here's something to think about: rather than risk messing up your xB, why don't you buy a cheap midsize truck for a few grand. If you can afford a Jet Ski, I'm sure you can fork up a little extra for something capable of towing it.