2006 Odyssey Towing experience

[Househunterlives]

I used to have a Trailmanor and now we are looking to buy another one. Used an old Chevy Suburban to tow it. Since then the Suburban is gone. So haven to find another tow vehicle. Thought might try a 2006 honda odyssey van. Cheap and good on gas. Wanted to know peoples experience of using an Odyssey towing. I just didn't want to by a big old truck that got bad gas milage. Trucks cost too much also.

[Kidkraz]

What size of TM are you thinking of getting? That would help give a better answer for you.

[Househunterlives]

We are looking at getting a 3023.

[Bill]

That's a pretty light tow vehicle. Honda says that its tow rating is 3500 pounds, and the inevitable asterisk goes on to say that to reach that rating, the vehicle must be equipped with the optional factory-installed "surge-type or electric trailer brakes, load-distribution hitch and transmission- and power steering-fluid coolers." That tow rating also assumes that the vehicle itself contains only the driver and no cargo. If you add passengers or cargo, you must subtract their weight from the tow rating. And of course you must add a Class 3 (2-inch) hitch receiver, electric brake controller, a 7-pin electrical socket at the rear bumper, and wiring.

The 3023 was one of the heavier TrailManors. I believe the spec for "dry weight" was just above 3000 pounds, dry weight being the weight before any factory installed options (air conditioner, awning, etc) are added, and without any of the stuff you will want to put in the trailer - food, clothes, dishes, tools, maybe water and propane, and so forth. It is common for the weight of a loaded-and-ready-to-camp TM to run close to 4000 pounds.

Having said all that, we have a number of Forum members who have used an Odyssey as a tow vehicle. If you search the Towing and Hitching forum (where you are reading this) for the term "Odyssey" in the title, you will find a number of posts.

Good luck.

Bill

[Househunterlives]

Thanks Bill for the info. I knew the Odyssey would be pushing it. But have seen people do it. Was just wondering about their experiences. With passengers, food, dogs etc. We are more in tune to reach the 5000lbs mark. Tow vehicle needs to have a rating about 20% more than what your weight is. So guess I'll be looking for that big clunky Truck or the big SUV.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Househunterlives

I used to have a Trailmanor and now we are looking to buy another one. Used an old Chevy Suburban to tow it. Since then the Suburban is gone. So haven to find another tow vehicle. Thought might try a 2006 honda odyssey van. Cheap and good on gas. Wanted to know peoples experience of using an Odyssey towing. I just didn't want to by a big old truck that got bad gas milage. Trucks cost too much also.

Tow ratings are a bit of marketing strategy.

The tow ratings in 2006 were based on what a vehicle was able to tow with a driver and 10G of gas. Any passenger, cargo and fuel weight added to the vehicle must be subtracted from the tow rating.

Just about any vehicle (including an old VW bug) can PULL a TM. The key question is, "Can the tow vehicle in question stop a TM in a safe distance at highway speeds?".

Along with the ability to stop, terrain and weather conditions must be considered.

Early this year, I returned to TM and I purchased a Honda Ridgeline which had a 5,000# tow rating. I considered that plenty to haul our 3600# TM with my wife and myself and about 300-500# of cargo (we usually carry a lot of firewood). I found, on our first trip out, that the Ridgeline was having a hard time hard stopping in the mountains. The Ridgeline had all new brakes. I decided that the issue may be that it needed a weight distribution hitch (WDH) to return lost weight back to the front wheels. A few trips later, I had to make an emergency stop on a downhill grade and nearly had a collision.

The next week, I sold the Ridgeline and bought a Chevy Silverado 1500. I lost about $3,000 on the Ridgeline because of all the $ that I put into it to be sure that it was up to the task.

Lesson learned........... good gas mileage doesn't necessarily equate to saved $.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Househunterlives

Thanks Bill for the info. I knew the Odyssey would be pushing it. But have seen people do it. Was just wondering about their experiences. With passengers, food, dogs etc. We are more in tune to reach the 5000lbs mark. Tow vehicle needs to have a rating about 20% more than what your weight is. So guess I'll be looking for that big clunky Truck or the big SUV.

The danger of asking for other's experience with a certain vehicle is that what the person is really doing is trying to "rationalize" something that they (pretty well) know is dodgy (at best).

I can assure you that there are a lot of people that tow trailers of all sizes with the Honda Odyssey and plenty of other under rated vehicles. I doubt that one will give you a negative report. You may be able to tow for years with that vehicle and never have an issue. Then again........... it only takes one time that you can't stop that rig in time.

[Shane826]

Wavery is absolutely 100% spot on. It’s like saying “I have two friends who blew a red light and neither of them got into an accident so why do I need to stop for red lights?”… It’s never a problem until it’s a problem.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by houseehunterlives

Tow vehicle needs to have a rating about 20% more than what your weight is. So guess I'll be looking for that big clunky Truck or the big SUV.

Just one more thought. In the good old days, truck manufacturers could use pretty much any number they wanted for a tow rating, and there were some pretty wild specs. In 2008, the Society of Automotive Engineers wrote a specification for how to specify a tow rating, and how to prove it with real world testing. The spec was called J2807. It was updated in 2010, and became mandatory in the US in 2015. I won't try to summarize it, but it is very comprehensive, not just a horsepower spec. You can read all about it in
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/15...-the-standard/

My point? With any vehicle before 2015, a manufacturer's specified tow rating was not particularly trustworthy, especially if you were trying compare one manufacturer's truck to another. Starting with 2015 models, the ratings became much more valuable. If your budget will stretch to something post-2015, you may be happier.

Bill

[Househunterlives]

Originally Posted by Wavery

Tow ratings are a bit of marketing strategy.

The tow ratings in 2006 were based on what a vehicle was able to tow with a driver and 10G of gas. Any passenger, cargo and fuel weight added to the vehicle must be subtracted from the tow rating.

Just about any vehicle (including an old VW bug) can PULL a TM. The key question is, "Can the tow vehicle in question stop a TM in a safe distance at highway speeds?".

Along with the ability to stop, terrain and weather conditions must be considered.

Early this year, I returned to TM and I purchased a Honda Ridgeline which had a 5,000# tow rating. I considered that plenty to haul our 3600# TM with my wife and myself and about 300-500# of cargo (we usually carry a lot of firewood). I found, on our first trip out, that the Ridgeline was having a hard time hard stopping in the mountains. The Ridgeline had all new brakes. I decided that the issue may be that it needed a weight distribution hitch (WDH) to return lost weight back to the front wheels. A few trips later, I had to make an emergency stop on a downhill grade and nearly had a collision.

The next week, I sold the Ridgeline and bought a Chevy Silverado 1500. I lost about $3,000 on the Ridgeline because of all the $ that I put into it to be sure that it was up to the task.

Lesson learned........... good gas mileage doesn't necessarily equate to saved $.

That was going to be my next purchase instead of the Odyssey to get a Ridgeline. Did some research on them and seem to be a good fit. Also the gas mileage seem to do better. Until I saw a youtube video of a guy trying to tow a 5000# boat. Cheaper mileage doesn't equate to being safe. Going for the Avalanche next. Our previous TV was a Suburban. Did good towing, but it would not stop at all.