Who has used a Legacy for towing?

[Bosco]

I am curious to hear about the limitations of the towing ability of a 1st gen Legacy Touring Wagon.

I have an urge to go pick up an xt6 that would need towed across a few states. It would probably be me, a passenger, and some tools in the car.

Am I insane? should I just go buy a ford truck so I can go get all the junker subarus that I decide that I need to have?

Thanks in advance for anyone's advice, or stories of towing successes / mishaps.

[professor]

what states ?

If your drive is flat, I don't see a problem. I've towed several cars with a BMW 325i, pulling a 2-wheel trailer like the ones U-Haul has, that keep two of the towed car's wheels on the ground. Don't know how that would go over with the xt6, I've only towed 2WD cars. The 2 wheel trailer weighs much less than the flatbed style, and puts less weight on the "tongue" of the trailer. A come-along works nice to pull non-running cars up onto the trailer ramps.

I've towed cars of about the same weight as the xt6 with a car with about the same weight and power as your car. If you get the right equipment and take it easy you should be OK. I would NOT try this if there are any serious climbs.

[professor]

out of curiousity I looked on U-Haul's site and it says your tow vehicle has to have a GVW of at least 3500 lb, which yours is just short of.

maybe you could have someone go pick it up for you. you do need to heed the requirements for the hitch, it needs to be a good one.

[vrg3]

An XT6 is what, 3000 pounds? That should be okay if, like professor says, you drive carefully.

It might be good to bypass the factory boost control (use a 3/16"-to-1/4" hose barb connector to join the two hoses that normally go to the side of the boost control solenoid), to slightly lower the load on the cooling system.

I guess an ATF cooler might be a good thing to toss on too; should be easy enough to install -- just plumb it in series with the inlet to the factory ATF cooler. And ziptie it to the grille.

I've towed somewhere around 2000 to 2500 pounds with my 5-speed turbo sedan. It wasn't great for the car, but it did fine. With your automatic wagon you should be okay.

Gnuman tows cars all the time with his non-turbo 5-speed wagon and a tow dolly. He says it does fine.

Both he and I are using Draw-Tite hitches.

[206er]

If you are going to be towing with a 4eat you should definitely get a bigger external trans cooler. heat is the enemy of AT's and towing is a HUGE drag on the trans.
a tow dolly would work and be a good option if you pull the driveshaft(for awd), or do xt6's have selectable 4x4? if they do its be fine I suppose.
just take it easy and avoid the kickdown on hills by shifting the lever.

[Bosco]

bummer!
The XT6 has more than twice the mileage than was originally stated, so I won't be going to get it. It isn't worth going that far for it.

Thanks for the advice anyways, I may still use it in the future.

[Manarius]

Both he and I are using Draw-Tite hitches.

Is yours all rusty? Mine is.

I've towed 600lb of tanbark in a trailer and a sailboat on separate occasions. My car handled it like there was nothing there .

My tongue weight max is 200 lbs so I think I could probably get away with towing a car.

[vrg3]

No, it's not rusty, but it's only a couple years old.

The drawbar and hitch ball are rusty, though.

[Vandy]

I'm thinking of using my 91 sedan 2.2 n/a to launch a boat. 20ft pontoon. Only going short distance to ramp and back.

Boat is 1500lbs and trailer about 700lbs.

Problem is the steep incline on the ramp. Anyone had any problems towing that kind of weight up a steep incline?

[vrg3]

Welcome to the BBS, Paul. Please remove the image from your signature.

Are you just talking about the little ramp where you launch the boat? Like, maybe a couple dozen meters long?

You don't say whether you have an automatic or a manual. In either case, though, I think you would be okay. It would be better with an automatic because the torque converter would help.

I've pulled lots of trucks out of ditches before, and this seems like it would be a task of similar difficulty.

[Vandy]

Tks,

Yep it's auto. I'm talking about the little ramp to actually launch it but there is also a steep hill leading up to the ramp.. I guess I'll just have to try it...


No images are allowed in sigs?

[vrg3]

How long and steep is the hill, and what kind of road surface is it? Unless it's ridiculous I still think you should be okay. You'll just have to push your car pretty hard.

Yeah, no images are allowed in sigs.

[Vandy]

Tks for the info... The hill is probably about 50 meters, paved..

I'll let you guys know how it works..

Yes it'll probably be hard on the car but this will be like a once a month thing..

[vrg3]

Good luck.

[rallysam]

Wear and tear on the car is one thing. The other thing is the safety factor.

The tow vehicle has to be big enough to control the load. If your load weighs just as much as the whole tow vehicle, then that's asking for it. If you do it anyway, then at least go really slow, leave lots of space between you and the car in front, don't have any lapses of concentration, and keep one hand on the bible

[Splinter]

Id advise you to make sure that whatever you're towing has brakes.

[Manarius]

Is your car AWD for FWD? The AWD will probably help you in the dig up the hill off the loading ramp. I'd also check the tongue weight. A pontoon boat is a pretty big monster to try to wield around (picture your Legacy in front of one, the picture to me seems pretty funny). As long as your tail isn't loaded down too much, getting in and out of the water probably won't be too much of a problem if you have FWD. I've used my car to trailer around a boat, granted it's a Sunfish not a pontoon boat so it's a really different fish to fry, but the same general idea flies.

Pontoon though....you'd need some pretty deep water at the dock so that the motor doesn't hit bottom there, so don't sink your car in the process.

[Vandy]

Thanks for the tips guys..

It is AWD.

ANd yes it'll be very funny to see the small legacy towing this massive boat. I'll get a pic..

I do realize the saftey factor.. The car gross weight is over 4000lbs.. Trailer and boat ~2200lbs..

I'm only going to be towing it about 5mph for like 1/4 of a mile..

Stay tuned for either a success report or a disaster report

[greg donovan]

there is a rally guy in the north east that uses a outback to tow his impreza rally car.

[rallysam]

Haha, that's Randy Zimmer. That image is actually what I was picturing this whole time reading this thread - him using one Subaru to tow another for hundreds of miles!

[thehookeup]

i did use my N/A for towing last week..... my mom ran out of gas in her 76 ford F350 high boy.....we i went to the dump last we weighed it in at 7000 pounds.... well anyway she ran out of gas and i towed her with the subie, 7 miles . and my car didnt think twice..... great for towing great for towing

[greg donovan]

Haha, that's Randy Zimmer. That image is actually what I was picturing this whole time reading this thread - him using one Subaru to tow another for hundreds of miles!

have you taken a peek at randy's rally prep e-book?

he showed me some sample pages a while back. what i saw was prett damn good.

the best part is that he has stripped parts of his tow wagon to keep the rally car in the rally.

[rallysam]

Nah, I want to get that book, though... especially since I am toying with the idea of moving back to the GC chassis eventually.

[0perose]

where is the xt6?

if it's a couple states away from you... maybe it's right here near me!

[Project_Legacy]

ive towed a friends 1989 honda civic sedan before. weighs about 2300? 2 ppl in it probably around 2550? the very first think i had to do was go up a pretty steep hill. car did fine though.