| travis |
I am considering purchasing a MDX. But I am concerned about its towing capacity.. I tow approximately 4,300 - 4,500 LBS.. I know it's rated at 5,000 LBS, but I'm just a little concerned about its ability.. I currently have a VW Tourag V8 and it tows up to 7,700, so it tows what I need easily.
anyone tow with theirs and how much and whats your experience been. How is the torque, brakes etc..
thanks |
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| SBrentnall |
| So far, I've towed a 2200lbs horse trailer containing one 1500lb horse. It pulled like a dream--didn't even know if was back there. I haven't tried it with 2 horses yet, ut I will soon. |
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| uopercival |
| I'd be interested to find out as well. I'd like to tow a hybrid trailer, they're usually around 3500lbs. I'm sure there's more people in these forums that have tried towing? |
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| ryno29 |
Last time I posted this I got flamed but I will do so again anyway. I own a 2005 Ranger Reata 1850 boat. Including the trailer, fiberglass boat, 40 gallons of fuel, 2 outboards motors, 3 batteries and full of gear, my rig is well over 4000 pounds. Yes. It is.
I have towed my boat with my 2007 MDX on a couple long trips including one to the North Shore of Minnesota and Lake Vermillion. The trip was about 800 miles round trip. My MDX was also completely full of luggage and camping gear. I also pull my boat back and forth to my cabin on a regular basis which is 120 miles one way.
I have no problems at all towing all of this weight. My MPG drops to 15 - 16 instead of my normal 20 - 21. |
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| m500 |
| Awesome. Good to know that MDx is also up to almost heavy towing task. I will try to put it to work once I feel comfortable with it. I'll be moving some furnitures over to Las Vegas. |
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| efenska |
I tow a 23-foot Yamaha AR230 with my MDX Sport using the OEM hitch. The boat weighs 3200 pounds and the trailer is 1100 pounds (manufacturer numbers). Add 50 gallons of gas, and I am an easy 4500 pounds. The boat makes the MDX look tiny! It's kinda hard to see out the side mirrors when towing .Mileage is about 13 mpg with the boat and 2 passengers.
It seems to be doing ok, but there are times when the MDX is struggling - like when it shifts into 2nd gear (who the heck programmed that funky shift point?), and when it makes it to 5th gear. I definitely have to keep it in D3 when the road gets a little hilly. I need to experiment with manual shifting, as I really think it would be ok in 4th gear most of the time - 3rd is too low for 65mph on the freeway (4,000 rpms!).
Also, I think the back end sags a LOT! My trailer is a tandem-axle model, so the tongue load should be around 300 pounds but it sags 2" (I measured it).
I am taking the boat and 3 passengers to Canyon Lake, TX tomorrow which is about 200 miles one-way. That will be the REAL test of the MDX's towing capacity. I hope to find an open scale along the way so I can get some real weights like the owner's manual says to. |
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| gmc74 |
quote:
Originally posted by efenska
I tow a 23-foot Yamaha AR230 with my MDX Sport using the OEM hitch. The boat weighs 3200 pounds and the trailer is 1100 pounds (manufacturer numbers). Add 50 gallons of gas, and I am an easy 4500 pounds. The boat makes the MDX look tiny! It's kinda hard to see out the side mirrors when towing .Mileage is about 13 mpg with the boat and 2 passengers.
It seems to be doing ok, but there are times when the MDX is struggling - like when it shifts into 2nd gear (who the heck programmed that funky shift point?), and when it makes it to 5th gear. I definitely have to keep it in D3 when the road gets a little hilly. I need to experiment with manual shifting, as I really think it would be ok in 4th gear most of the time - 3rd is too low for 65mph on the freeway (4,000 rpms!).
Also, I think the back end sags a LOT! My trailer is a tandem-axle model, so the tongue load should be around 300 pounds but it sags 2" (I measured it).
I am taking the boat and 3 passengers to Canyon Lake, TX tomorrow which is about 200 miles one-way. That will be the REAL test of the MDX's towing capacity. I hope to find an open scale along the way so I can get some real weights like the owner's manual says to.
Nice, thanks for the post, keep us updated on the weight |
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| efenska |
Well, I never got a chance to weigh the boat as the scales I passed were all closed. I know there's one a few miles north and I will pull in the next time I pass that way with the full rig.
Anyhow, once you get the MDX up to speed, it seems to be fine on the flats - but if it gets a little hilly, you better use D# or manual shift. I wound up doing manual shift on the trip, as 3rd gear was too low and 5th was too high for maintaining highway speeds. Mileage was 11.9 MPG with 4 people in the MDX :eek:
Keeping the MDX in 1st gear from a start was the only way to get this rig up to speed without flooring it! |
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| efenska |
| I hope the pic comes through this time! |
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| gmc74 |
| it looks like the X is a toy next to that boat! :26: |
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| uopercival |
wowee,
you sure that's an MDX and not the RDX? You could almost fit your X inside your boat! |
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| murano |
you have 2 wonderful toys in the same picture
The question
Which is your favorite?
don't need to answer! |
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| efenska |
Last weekend while towing my boat home from the lake the oil pressure light briefly came on, and the nav system told me my oil level was low and to pull over as soon as possible and add oil to prevent engine damage :eek:
I checked the oil and it was a little low... 1/2 quart maybe (thanks Acura! $120 oil change and it's not topped off?!?!), but the oil was dirty as I was about due for an oil change according to the ultra-sophisticated maintenance minder. I just changed the oil myself with Mobil-1, hopefully that warning was just a fluke. If it's not a fluke, I will have to trade my second-favorite toy in for a Tundra :1: |
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| rjhubbard53 |
quote:
Originally posted by efenska
I hope the pic comes through this time!
boy that pic scares me... i am buying that boat this weekend... scary |
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| pcrispy |
| Tonight we just picked up our new 2009 Jayco Jay Feather 254 27' camper. The weight of the camper is 4610 pounds. On the way home we did about 30 minutes of Interstate driving and 45 minutes on single lane highways. Both had quite a bit of up and down hills (Indiana, so were not talking about mountains, just decent hills here are there). We averaged 10MPG which is to be expected I suppose. I did most of the driving in manual mode so that I could get it to go into 5th a little easier. It did kick itself out of overdrive quite a bit and sometimes it even had to go down to 4th but this was obviously on the hills. On flat land it drove fine in 5th and overdrive at 55MPH. I was pretty concerned about sway and handling due to the short wheelbase. We puchased an Equal-i-zer hitch and surprisingly when goin 55 and passed by semis we felt absolutely nothing, zero sway. One time when two semis were about to pass right after each other, I even hugged the centerline to really take a blast from them and again, nothing. So, done right, sway is not and issue. Also, the back end only sagged about an inch. It's was late and raining when we got home, I will try to get pictures later. Now we are weighing everything before loading up the camper to make sure that we don't get too close to 5000#. I am using a Tekonsha P3 brake controller with the factory harness hookup. I mounted it directly above the emergency brake and it is perfectly within eye sight and within reach while still being way out of the way of knees while driving or getting in. We are happy. When we were leaving the RV dealership, a couple other units weighing roughly 500 pounds more than ours were also about to leave. Each of those campers were being pulled by GMC 2500 and even a GM 3500 pickup. They just looked at the Acura like "What?!" as we cruised out of the lot. :2: |
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| midnightMDX |
quote:
Originally posted by pcrispy
They just looked at the Acura like "What?!" as we cruised out of the lot. :2:
NICE! :p Post pics of the X towing the camper. |
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| pcrispy |
| Here's the MDX pulling our new camper. |
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| rjhubbard53 |
quote:
Originally posted by pcrispy
Here's the MDX pulling our new camper.
That's a nice lookin setup... doesn't make you think "OMG" |
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| pcrispy |
| It's got a hard slide queen bed that slides out of the back when setup. At that point it is 31'. I liked the idea of the rear slide so that we save 4' in length when towing it. It's 8' wide and I'm not sure how tall. They say that the interior headroom is 6.5 feet but I am 6'2" and it feels like I have a lot more headroom than just 4". Those specs are for a 2008 and they changed a few things for 2009 so who knows. Another plus is the low profile that also has to help quite a bit with the sway. |
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| midnightMDX |
| pcrispy - That looks great! Nice to see the X putting in some work. It definitely looks up to task. :2: |
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| islandbeef |
| Awesome pics guys! The towing capacity is quite impressive. |
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| rjhubbard53 |
quote:
Originally posted by islandbeef
Awesome pics guys! The towing capacity is quite impressive.
i towed around my 3500-4000lb boat this weekend b/c weatehr kept me from launching her... it was E-A-S-Y with the MDX. It strained a little on hills but handled like a dream |
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| JP422 |
This is a much lighter load... but I gotta say the handling while towing is awsome... I won't be wiping the cobwebs off my Yukon anytime soon. Acceleration, handling, and braking is fantastic!~
At the launch ramp, the short wheelbase also made it a breeze to manuver, and also when reversing. No sweat. |
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| JP422 |
| oh, btw, there's two! :D |
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| rjhubbard53 |
My turn!
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| midnightMDX |
| Wow, great pics guys! :eek: Go MDX! |
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| JP422 |
RJ, how does the X tow w/ that boat on there? everything A-OK? That's a sweet boat. Also, where do folks generally store trailered boats that big? I've been hoping to size up one day from our 19' cuddy...
Thanks!~ |
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| rjhubbard53 |
quote:
Originally posted by JP422
RJ, how does the X tow w/ that boat on there? everything A-OK? That's a sweet boat. Also, where do folks generally store trailered boats that big? I've been hoping to size up one day from our 19' cuddy...
Thanks!~
well i've never towed anything so i dont have a comparison. But it tows just fine. . . sluggish on hills but I catch myself doing 75-80 sometimes on the interstate :eek:
The boat looks bigger than it is... its only 23'. Its just looks huge next to the MDX :)
The SH-AWD is great when pulling that thing out of the water. I was scared at first that I was going to spin tires on the ramp |
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