Kessog

It started out with a desire to transport a bicycle (or two) without having to take it apart.
I looked at the options and figured a hitch was needed no mater what so I ordered a Curt: easy 4 bolt install (with a bit of cursing about popping the rear muffler mount). Only other thing I had to do is tap the tail pipe trim back a bit to stop it from rattling against the hitch frame. Step one complete.
I looked at hitch-mount racks and baskets and wasn't really impressed with the utility aspect of them. Then the wife decided to do some massive pruning in the yard...and suddenly a trailer became an option. I found one with a 52x52" deck that needed a bit of work for a very good price and dragged it home.
I didn't want to damage the wiring on my taillight harness and no one makes a kit for an xA because everyone knows that an xA can't pull a trailer, right? The xB kit looked like it had the same tail light connectors so I got the Curt 56030 xB kit and figured I could rewire the plugs if needed.
I had to move three pins in each plug to match the xA taillight pinout but other than that it was a plug-in install. It works like a charm and can be removed in 5 minutes.
TOWING: rule #1, don't be stupid. Don't expect to drag 2000# with the car. Not enough engine or brakes to do it safely. Keep in mind that once you get it moving, you will have to stop it eventually. Sometimes quickly. It will put extra wear on the brakes and drive train.
Rule #2, tongue weight is everything. The class 1 hitch can pull 2000# with a 200# tongue weight. That is the HITCH rating...not the car. There are three reasons that we have reduced/nonexistent towing ratings in the US: lawyer, lawyers and people that don't think. I would not drive the car if it had 200# sitting aft of the rear wheels. 100# is pushing it and I load for 50-75. Likewise the trailer weight: the maximum I would attempt to pull is 1000#. Three adult passengers is around 600# so that's not unreasonable and most small trailers are rated for around 1000# anyway.
Rule #3, drive like you are on snow: brake early and go easy on turns. In the US few small trailers have brakes (unlike Europe where trailering with small cars is much more common) and the brakes on the xA, while great, are a bit on the small side. They can heat up fast and start fading.
Back slowly, with such a short wheelbase the trailer will jackknife in a second. I had an '83 Jeep CJ5 that I towed with and had the same issue.
Practice backing with it before you have to do it in front of people...
Never forget that it's behind you. It's easy to do.

With more small cars on the road and the need to haul the same loads, there will be more small trailers out there. Use common sense and you too can help break the Anti-Trailering In The US Conspiracy! Also known as the Buy A Fuel Hog Truck Conspiracy.

RedneckwithanxB

Contradicting thread is Contradicting

Why do people not read the owners manual? The manufacture clearly tells you not to tow ANYTHING with these cars.

They make pickup trucks/suvs for a reason... Just like they make a roof rack with bike attachments (some you dont even have to take the bike apart) THAT ARE SOLD AND SUPPORTED THROUGH TOYOTA

Also, to "dont tell no one" is kinda hard when you put it on the interwebs

dtpmike

Kessog, welcome to the Scion Xa tow club! I towed a 5 x 8 trailer with my 430 pound motorcycle on it with my Xa across the country.... 2,500 miles.

I suggest installing a transmission cooler. Mine was about $30-40, but it gives me peace of mind and definitely keeps things cooler.

Keep spreading the word... the Xa is great for towing!

I will say, crossing mountain ranges with a full carload towing a motorcycle with the Xa is interesting! Wish I had a little more power then...

Kessog

Thanks Mike. I was thinking of building a lightweight camper for the trailer, if I do then I will install the cooler. There's not a lot of hills around here it's not a problem atm.

Red: I have neither the desire nor the extra money to waste on another vehicle, especially one that gets poor mileage, not to mention insurance and upkeep. I got the trailer, wiring and hitch for about what one of those roof racks would have cost and with it a lot more utility. There are a LOT of pickups around here already and you should see how THEY load them...
The hitch bolts to the rear hanger mounts of the sub-frame, if it can support the car during shipment I have no problem towing less than 1000# with it. Besides, if a motorcycle can tow 500#, why can't I tow twice that?
Should everyone with a small car tow with it? No, there are too many people that don't use the brains that God gave them and we have the lawyers and idiot laws to prove it. See the comment about the local pickup drivers above.
Besides, would you rather see me on the road towing a trailer with my xA or have some idiot in an SUV coming at you while texting?

Oh, and the "don't tell no one"... that was a joke because it says not to in the manual...

eignub

i just use a universal folding bike rack that straps to the hatch. but thats taking the easy way out.

Mountain_Boy

Hello everyone. I'm new here, though I've been lurking since I bought my xA in March. About to head across the country, and I'm planning to U-Haul a few boxes of clothes and three bikes. I've reserved the smallest trailer, and U-Haul says my total cargo limit is 1150lbs. I guess that includes what's inside the car, which will be myself and another few bags of clothes. But I'm still hoping to keep the total cargo well below that - say, 500lbs total.

Are you other xA towers out there?

Thanks to Kessog's posts, I've ordered the xB plug-and-play wire kit, and have already installed the Curt hitch. Everything has been easy - although the exhaust rattles against the hitch bar on acceleration.

Any pieces of advice? I'm taking I-10. Are there any major hills between Jacksonville, FL, and Phoenix, AZ?

eignub

i can tell you that the part of i10 that runs through arizona is pretty flat. ive covered pretty much all of it from cali to nm and id say you got nothing to worry bout, at least for that part.

Kessog

Note to Mountain Boy: the wiring harness for the xB is NOT NOT NOT the same. There three wires in EACH plug that need to be moved before I would even plug it in. I don't have the pin-out for it but anyone with some electrical knowledge should be able to figure it.

Mountain_Boy

eignub: thanks for the heads-up. That's good to hear, as NM and AZ would be two places where I would be worried about the altitude. Glad to hear it's pretty flat. I know I-10 is flat from Jacksonville to Biloxi, but I have no idea what it's between Biloxi and NM. My guess is that there will be some hills around San Antonio. Hopefully not many others.

Kessog: Thanks for your response. I was, indeed, aware that you have to remove three wires in each plug for it to plug in. I remember you saying this in one of your earlier posts. Sorry to have confused everyone...There is no plug and play adapter for the xA. But the xB adapter sounds easy enough to hack a bit.

Update to all: I took my car to a local muffler shop and they banged three times on the outer cylinder of the exhaust with a rubber mallet. I thought it was welded onto the inner cylinder, but it's not. They didn't charge me, and now the outer cylinder is no longer rattling against the hitch. It sounds like I'm the only one who's had this problem, but it definitely can be fixed at home.

Kessog

No problem. I just didn't want someone to fry their wiring on my account!
It's an easy hack, just lift up the retainer on the plug and the connectors pull right out.
I tucked the box under the trim on the right side and ran the harness under the spare wheel cover over to the left. I keep it coiled up in the corner and only hang it out when I need it (so to speak...)


Here's pictures of the left and right sides. The connector is in a U pattern and ALL wires run straight through to the opposite (reverse pattern) plug. NOTE: the left and right patterns are not the same. The right side is a little hard to see but the brown wire is at the bottom of the U and the yellow is at the top of the pattern.
The green arrow points to the taillight plug, the other plug goes to the harness.
I used a meter in the trailer plug to check all the functions before I connected it to the trailer wiring.

===NOTE, Warning, ETC...this is what I did for my **2006** xA. I don't know anything about other models/years===
I took a chance that the connectors were the same and got lucky. Otherwise I would have been splicing wires anyway.
For other years you need to verify that the plug is the same and wires to tap. You can follow the wires to the respective lights to confirm which wire is which. The tail light access panels just pop out.

My exhaust rattled too. Fortunately it was just the slip-on trim piece and I just tapped it a little away from the hitch using a piece of wood and a mallet. I installed my hitch myself. The rubber muffler hanger pretty much doubled the install time but with a big screw driver and lots of WD-40...

I did the Vegas to Ohio run via I40 back in '82 on a motorcycle and Fla-Albuquerque-Fla in '86 in a CJ-5. It's mostly flat but there are some ups and downs through New Mexico, and Albuquerque is nearly a mile up. Two words: transmission cooler. Well worth the money and cheap insurance.
Take it easy and decelerate early, the brakes are TINY! And I wouldn't go over 100# on the tongue.
Have a safe trip and enjoy the scenery!

Mountain_Boy

Kessog:

Thanks so much for these pictures. My adapter arrives tomorrow, and they'll come much in handy. Mine is also a 2006. I think I remember having read that before which is why I went ahead and ordered the adapter without delay. It sounds like I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it up and running with no splicing need.

I'm also installing cruise control before this trip. I'm going to try to do it myself, but I just checked with my local dealer, and they only charge $100. That is perhaps well worth it to make sure I don't get going at 55mph in the middle of Texas and have my cruise control stick in the "on" position.

Thanks also for sharing your experience with the exhaust. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one with a problem. Only I didn't have the guts to go at it with a mallet without talking to a muffler guy. You did well, though, it sounds, pushing it out a bit. It only needs about 5mm to clear the hitch frame.

One more question, and a very important one. I lot of tow-ers have spoken on these boards of a transmission cooler. Is that something for automatics? I have a manual, and I assume that there is no cooler for a manual. Instead, I've just got to hold each gear more during acceleration, and perhaps shift down to 4th for some upward inclines. But having a manual should also help to save my brakes. I guess my fundamental question is: is it easier to tow with a manual? I hope so...

Thanks for the well-wishes. I'm looking forward to the trip, and I'm definitely not going to climb up to Albuquerque and then back down to Phoenix. That's where I-10 should come in handy, skirting the flatland border close to Juarez. I'm just hoping the hills around San Antonio aren't too steep. Not that I won't be fine...I'd just prefer not to sweat to much (and I'd like to say the same for my little 1.5cc motor.)

Kessog

The transmission cooler is for the hydraulic fluid in the automatic transmission. The torque converter has a lot more going on in it than a manual and works a lot harder under a load. The manual just has gear oil in it and doesn't really care what load it's under.
I read somewhere that someone used his xA (xB?) to pull a '59 Chevy around the block just to see if he could do it. It did...

Mountain_Boy

Thanks, Kessog, for confirming what I suspected about the manual transmission. I love your trailer, by the way. As soon as I get to my new home, I'm going to see if I can find one or put one together. For a 2000 mile trip, though, I've been told the little wheels would heat up too much for comfort. So I'm renting a 4x8 U-Haul. I might actually go with the open utility U-Haul, as it is 250 lbs lighter.

By the way, I'm having a lot of trouble getting the Curt adapter plugs out. I read up on these kinds of plugs, and I learned about the secondary lock and the primary lock. But it looks like this takes some practice. My dad almost broke one of them by pulling too hard on the secondary lock. I then told him that I'm sure it shouldn't be forced.

Mountain_Boy

Solved. Sort of. After reading online about these kind of plugs, I figured out that they are indeed quite tricky, but easy as can be once you get the hang of it. For anyone else who - like me - has no experience with these: don't force them! If they don't come out they are still locked. Each plug as a main lock, and each wire has its own lock.

I'm still a bit confused, however, since I only moved two wires on each half of each system...That's four plugs total on each side, and eight plugs in total for the adapter. As far as I could tell, the tail light wire (on the left side) and the stop light wire (on the right side) were both in the correct position. I just had to switch the left and right turn signal wires on each side with a white wire. Any thoughts? Can I expect my system to short out as soon as I plug it in and turn on the car?

Kessog

Ok, judging from the pictures it looks like only the yellow and green needed moved. For some reason it seemed like more at the time! Ah well, it was nearly a year ago and the brain cells ain't what they used to be.
As long as it looks like the pictures I posted, it should work. Just make sure that all the wires carry STRAIGHT through to the other plug.
I don't think it would short anything out if one of the color wires is in the wrong spot, maybe the brake lights would come on with the back ups.

Mountain_Boy

Thanks for drawing my attention back to your pictures. I had already forgotten about those! But it looks like our connectors look exactly the same. I'm picking up the trailer tomorrow, and should be heading West on Sat morning. Thank you to all, especially Kessog, for the tips on the trailer hitch and the wiring adapter.

Kessog

Hope things went ok for the trip Mountain Boy.

Here's a photo of my latest project. The trailer was a swap deal off craigs list and from the shackles up its all aluminum and very light.
This morning I threw some lights on it and got the frame from a gas station sign. The sides are pretty stout and I'm going to use them for the frame. I thought about leaving it intact and using it as is but it's about 7.5x5.5 and that's bigger than I want. The trailer is 4x6.5 and that's about right. It sits a little high and tilts forward even with the ball mount upside down in the hitch.
Might move the axle over the springs but not enough wheel clearance, have to lengthen the axle. We'll see.

Mountain_Boy

After six months, I finally have the time to report back on my experience trailering from coast to coast with my 2006 Scion xA. (Pictures attached.) As I have noted before, Kessog's posts were indispensable. I got the hitch in easily and adapted the xB wiring kit to fit the xA. No splicing at all.

I have a manual transmission, and some experience trailering. So I was not overly worried. At the same time, 2500 miles is a long way to go, and I did not want to get stranded. (I was more worried about the after market cruise control I self-installed. That, too, worked out very well. More on cruise in another thread.)

I picked I-10 due to its flatness, and I am very glad I did. While I had no trouble pulling up hills, I did have to travel the right lane with tractor trailers going 25-35 miles an hour on the one major incline on my trip. Less steep inclines were a breeze at 40-45mph.

Downhill was fine in low gear. I tried to use avoid using my brakes, and generally succeeded by leaving plenty of space in front of me and coasting to stops with engine braking. I was quite afraid that the tiny xA brakes would burn up if I used them too much. I had them checked when I got to Arizona, and the mechanic told me they looked like new. Then I told him about my trailer trip, and he couldn't believe it.

As I mentioned before, U-Haul quoted my max trailering cargo capacity as 1150lbs with their the smallest closed trailer ( 4x8 ). The trailer weighs 850lbs empty, so they are apparently basing that on total trailering capacity of 2000lbs with the class I Curt hitch. I did not want to have my back end swaying mercilessly in the West Texas winds, however, so I tried to keep my total tow weight down. My cargo was right at about 600lbs, giving me 1450lbs. I spaced it out evenly so as to give me 1/10 tongue weight, or 145lbs. (Tongue weight measured with bathroom scale.)

I found no instability at all for the 40 hour trip. Although I did feel uncomfortable over 58mph, so I kept it at 55-57mph.

Here's the kicker: 35mpg average across the entire trip. (My usual average at 55mph is 43mpg.)

Bottom line: be very cautious, measure all your weight, keep it slow, and keep lots of distance in front of you. Use your brakes as little as possible. And definitely be extra careful if you aren't using a manual transmission.

My Scion xA now doubles as a pick up truck. And I absolutely love it. Thanks to all of you who walked me through the prep, especially Kessog.

Kessog

Amazing! You get better mileage towing a trailer than I do with an automatic transmission...then again I don't normally go 55 mph...
Good to hear the trip went well and a great testament to a great car!
That sure is a purty red. Mine's the generic silver but even filthy you can't see the dirt.

Mountain_Boy

55mph is the key. My wife and I share the car, and we average around 30-35mpg around town, but on the highway, I can easily get over 40mpg, if I am not in a hurry. Over 60mph, the mpgs start dropping rapidly.

I had the same experience with the 998cc Toyota Aygo in Europe, which was my inspiration for buying a 1.5L xA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Aygo

At 45-50mph, I was getting like 60-70mpg. At 65mph, however, I could almost watch the gas gauge drop. We spent our whole vacation on side roads for that reason, and hardly made a dent in our transportation budget.

Anyway, yes, I had a great trailering experience, and the xA is a wonderful little machine. Exactly what I need, nothing extra.