We are considering buying a 13 foot poptop to tow behind our Outlander. The van has an atm of 1210kgs. The car is rated at 1600kgs for towing and has cvt. Has anyone had experience towing with this vehicle? The van comes with ride levelers which should help (shepherds crook type).
We have towed before but do not want to be a slow moving speed hump!
Not with one of them, but 16 years ago we had a holden jackaroo with a 4cyl petrol/LPG & we towed a 16 foot caravan from Perth to Bundaberg via Melbourne, All up 3 Adults, 2 kids and a dog. It was a great trip and the jackaroo never missed a beat. We cruised at 90 to 100 most of the time, it was only the big hills that slowed us down.
Hope this helps
Regards Steve
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Steve, Di & Ziggy We named our Motorhome "Roadworx" because on the road works "On The Road Again" Ford Transit with 302 Windsor V8 conversion, C4 Auto, 9 Inch Ford Diff All Lighting L.E.D., 260 Amp/h AGM, 530 Watt Solar + Kipor Backup Gen.
Towed a 1200kg + boat for years with 3 litre Pajero, (including Darwin to Ceduna in SA) and as stated above goes OK you will need to push it a bit up hills,,, ie keep the revs up a bit.
Go for it IMHO.
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Why is it so? Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a profound influence on my life, who explained science to us on TV in the 60's.
Towed vans around the 1200 kg loaded, poptops & full size vans with a 2.6L Mitsubishi Sigma & the later 2.6 Magna. Old technology engines by today standards but they were powerful enough & fairly economical towing also. That set up should be ok but stay under the towing limit of the Outlander.
The biggest question would be around the CVT, might be worth asking the question of other owners (on a Mitsubishi specific forum maybe?) and Mitsubishi themselves.
What you have to bear in mind is that whilst manufacturers rate a vehicle to perform a task (eg towing) it might not be "continuous duty" or under all conditions.
At the least it might need additional cooling fro the transmission if indeed that is possible.
Older style vehicles will have had basic manual transmissions and were often "overengineered" to do the job before computer aided design was used to build things to "just" do the job.
The question was " Towing with 2litre mitsubishi outlander"
not how good your old truck was or 3 ltr engine
In the absense of anybody else owning an outlander, then the comparisons with other smaller capacity vehicles could be helpful and as Oka374 has added "At the least it might need additional cooling for the transmission" so good information is coming forth that may be helpful. Or we could just say nothing, ignore the OP's question and leave them guessing.
Regards Steve.
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Steve, Di & Ziggy We named our Motorhome "Roadworx" because on the road works "On The Road Again" Ford Transit with 302 Windsor V8 conversion, C4 Auto, 9 Inch Ford Diff All Lighting L.E.D., 260 Amp/h AGM, 530 Watt Solar + Kipor Backup Gen.
Your Mitsi Outlander will tow it easy peasy Japanesey but the smaller engine will be most economical at no more than 90 to 95kph.
At 1210 ATM your tare is probably 950kg and at 13 feet a poptop it is just a big trailer behind the Outlander with minimal wind resistance. Off load some of the heavier irregularly used items to the boot of the car and get the van weight balanced right.
Mitsi vehicles are heavy but are built with a good solid chassis and agricultural suspension.Make sure your towbar is rated for 1200kg or more as there are a couple of factory varieties offered by the OEM when you buy your car.
Regarding the CVT, the tranny is a good unit and is made by the same company that makes for Nissan and Jeep, but just consider the way an automatic works is with hydraulic fluids so don't thrash the tranny with drag strip starts and shift the auto down (a gear ?) if your model has that feature when tackling steep hills (some had column paddles). Tranny fluid that gets too hot burns to a brown colour and seriously drops its viscosity resulting in all sorts of tranny problems.
