First of all, many thanks to everyone here who responded to my post asking questions about trailering for the first time and offering advice, suggestions and assuring me.
I reserved a 6x12 Uhaul trailer and this morning my wife and I showed up at the local rental center to pick it up. The person assigned to help us hitch the trailer was definitely not a morning person though he was very helpful. The first thing he told me was that my hitch / ball mount was too low and I couldn't trailer with it. I asked if we could flip the ball mount 180º so that it would be 2.5" inch higher. He agreed to try it and proceeded to help remove the ball from the mount. 10 minutes into trying we realized that the ball was mounted really tight and we couldn't unscrew it.
Thankfully, at that moment, the other guy working in the UHaul center told us that the hitch was definitely high enough and we would be fine.
So, we finally got the trailer hitched, tested the lights - brakes, turn lights and all was fine. The hitch was in a really tight corner in the lot and they had to pull it out for me.
We drove 5 miles home and every creak, squeak, and rumble made us really nervous. We made it home and I had a lot of trouble backing the trailer into my driveway. I gave up and just lined it up along the curb. Later, while thinking more about it, I finally understood the mechanics of backing up the trailer.
We loaded the couches and set off for our destination - 140 miles away in the Berkshires.
We were moving a couple couches to our country cabin in the Berkshires.
It took about 30 minutes of highway driving at 55-60mph for me to get comfortable and relax. I stayed in the right lane throughout the drive just to be safe. When we got to our destination, I actually managed to figure out how to back the trailer into the driveway.
So, it turned out to be an uneventful experience. We unhitched the trailer so we could drive around without the trailer in tow. Tomorrow morning, we'll hitch it back up and head home.
We were pulling roughly 2200 lbs and the car performed very well. At highway speeds, the engine was still revving in the 2-2.5K rpm mark (closer to 2K) and barely crossed 3k rpm even on the few hills we had to climb. The mileage over the 140 miles was 19mpg - without a trailer we typically get about 25-26mpg on the same ride though at much higher speeds.
Really liking the Subie even more now
I reserved a 6x12 Uhaul trailer and this morning my wife and I showed up at the local rental center to pick it up. The person assigned to help us hitch the trailer was definitely not a morning person though he was very helpful. The first thing he told me was that my hitch / ball mount was too low and I couldn't trailer with it. I asked if we could flip the ball mount 180º so that it would be 2.5" inch higher. He agreed to try it and proceeded to help remove the ball from the mount. 10 minutes into trying we realized that the ball was mounted really tight and we couldn't unscrew it.
Thankfully, at that moment, the other guy working in the UHaul center told us that the hitch was definitely high enough and we would be fine.
So, we finally got the trailer hitched, tested the lights - brakes, turn lights and all was fine. The hitch was in a really tight corner in the lot and they had to pull it out for me.
We drove 5 miles home and every creak, squeak, and rumble made us really nervous. We made it home and I had a lot of trouble backing the trailer into my driveway. I gave up and just lined it up along the curb. Later, while thinking more about it, I finally understood the mechanics of backing up the trailer.
We loaded the couches and set off for our destination - 140 miles away in the Berkshires.
We were moving a couple couches to our country cabin in the Berkshires.
It took about 30 minutes of highway driving at 55-60mph for me to get comfortable and relax. I stayed in the right lane throughout the drive just to be safe. When we got to our destination, I actually managed to figure out how to back the trailer into the driveway.
So, it turned out to be an uneventful experience. We unhitched the trailer so we could drive around without the trailer in tow. Tomorrow morning, we'll hitch it back up and head home.
We were pulling roughly 2200 lbs and the car performed very well. At highway speeds, the engine was still revving in the 2-2.5K rpm mark (closer to 2K) and barely crossed 3k rpm even on the few hills we had to climb. The mileage over the 140 miles was 19mpg - without a trailer we typically get about 25-26mpg on the same ride though at much higher speeds.
Really liking the Subie even more now
