why do people put trailer hitch's on cars?

[glockjs]

buy a freakin truck, seriously.... i saw two of em drivin down the road today so i thought i would complain. it's the stupidest looking think ever

[yoda313]

buy a freakin truck, seriously.... i saw two of em drivin down the road today so i thought i would complain. it's the stupidest looking think ever

Hello,

Come on... They're just ACCESSORIZING

Kinda pointless though I do have to admit...

Maybe they have a v8 engine!

Kevin

[shoozleboy]

What kind of car?

Most small cars can tow things like ATV's or a wave runner - with the right set up.

I agree though, they do look wierd...

[redwudz]

One of my favorites from Stupid Videos:
http://www.StupidVideos.com/?VideoID=784

[sacajaweeda]

They only do it to bring out the whiney bitch in people.

[sacajaweeda]

Ooops...almost forgot the smiley......

[mrtristan]

Some of them might use them for a bike rack. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. I'm a truck guy, anyway.

[glockjs]

the one i saw today was on like a 95 maxima. and you could tell some side shop put the rig together break lights all messed up and all.... car frames arent made for it neither is the suspension...im just tellin all the people out there who have it BUY A TRUCK damnit

[holistic]

- why do they put leather interiors and electric seats in a truck ? It's for hauling shit damn it :P
- why do they put those idiotic spoilers 1/2 the size of the trunk lid on those front wheel drive ricers.
- why do they install turn signals on expensive imports (they are never used)
- why indeed ....

[tonyiws]

Good luck hauling anything in the back of this "truck." These people should just buy a car!

[hech54]

Almost every VW from the Golf size on up is set up for a hitch here in Germany. You see quite a few VW's with small trailers almost every day.
Of course most VW's here are TDi's (turbo-diesel/integrated) and will tear your head off in 1st and 2nd gear.
My VW Touran has a 2.0 TDi and I think it would easily handle almost any trailer with the proper rear suspension set up.
We rented a FULL SIZE VW moving/cargo van last year...one like you Americans have never seen before. After driving it around for a while and being impressed by it's power I wanted to see which 6 cylinder engine it had.....I was WRONG....it was a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder turbo diesel(not the TDi).
The TDi has an integrated turbo...built into the engine block....the older style turbo diesel has the usual "mounted to the engine" turbo.

[Doramius]

Trailer hitches just aren't meant to be on a CAR. I mean you can get away with it in the larger 80's models and older. but many of those had soid frames. I saw a Mazda Miata with a pop-up camper on the back. Damn it. Sell the Miata and buy a nice small RV for less. Why the heck are you ruining a Miata with a pop-up camper anyway? If you got the money to buy Miata, you should get a large damn RV and be towing the friggin match box car behind it.

Here's a pet peeve of mine. I see this really nice Cadillac. late 80's style. I'm not a fan of Cadillacs, but it had anice shiny paint job. Chome profiler rims. street slicks. tinted windows. and quite a loud sub woofer thumping. The guy gets out to pump gas and the upholstery is cracking with yellow foam coming out. The steering wheel is browen with part of the wool cover on it. looks like the guy is sitting uncomfortably on springs. I talked with the guy for a sec. He spent $12 on this car and he's not going to do anything about the interior because it's only for show on the outside. He said it had horrible gas mileage and the engine is about to crap out, but it's a "CADILLAC". Damn I wanted to key his car, bash in the windws with my mag light, smash his signals and lights, steal his rims & stereo, and kick the living s**t out of him for being so stupid. Dang man, get a new Chrysler and put all that crap in it. My Mercury Sable was in better condition than his car and I hate my friggin POS Sable.

[offline]

What's a Trailer Hitch? Is it like a tow bar?

[Doramius]

Similar. The hitch is the ball that hangs out the back of the car for trailers. The tow bar has a hinge and chains that bolt onto the front of another vehicle to tow it. I have seen some newer tow bars that have the cup to go on the ball hitch. I've seen them mostly when the big RV's are towing a car or Jeep behind them.

[VideoTechMan]

Maybe they put hitches on cars because...they CANT afford a truck!

Ive seen a few of vehicles like that myself....and usually it wears down the suspension alot, especialy over long distances.

VTM

[vitualis]

What's wrong with the "hitch" (we don't call them that in Oz) on a car

It seems pretty logical to me. I may want to use a trailer only once a year. In those situations, it would seem pretty handy to have a "hitch" and then just hire the trailer for the time that I need it.

Regards.

[bugster]

buy a freakin truck, seriously.... i saw two of em drivin down the road today so i thought i would complain. it's the stupidest looking think ever

My car has a 'trailer hitch' as you call it (tow bar or tow ball). And its not a truck!

I don't want to drive a friggin truck to and from work everyday, or round town to do the shopping, but my car has no problems towing a one and a half ton caravan (mobile home, trailer, whatever) a few times a year, or towing a small box trailer for shifting large items of furniture or taking rubbish to the tip. No way would I buy a friggin truck with pathetic fuel consumption, poor comfort, pathetic accelleration and top speed just to satisfy some one who can't understand my own personal needs

[hech54]

Don't hide it Bugster...tell us how you really feel...

[bugster]

Don't hide it Bugster...tell us how you really feel...

I had better not, it wouldn't look good for a mod to be issued a yellow card for abusive language

[BJ_M]

if you live down in a city like Toronto .. a truck is not all that practical for parking in many areas -- or to even own ..

but on the weekend - millions of people like to go to the lakes or camping and they pull wave runners or small campers with their car ... big deal .. there is no problem ..

or have a small utility trailer for hauling big stuff from home depot ..

anywhere you go in the world -- people pull and pack a lot of stuff in cars/crossovers and small suvs .. except i guess its not kewl in the usa or something i take it ..
like one of those stupid ugly as sin Cadillac beasts that i make my kids go and laugh at the driver every time we see one ..

[BJ_M]

buy a freakin truck, seriously.... i saw two of em drivin down the road today so i thought i would complain. it's the stupidest looking think ever

My car has a 'trailer hitch' as you call it (tow bar or tow ball). And its not a truck!

I don't want to drive a friggin truck to and from work everyday, or round town to do the shopping, but my car has no problems towing a one and a half ton caravan (mobile home, trailer, whatever) a few times a year, or towing a small box trailer for shifting large items of furniture or taking rubbish to the tip. No way would I buy a friggin truck with pathetic fuel consumption, poor comfort, pathetic acceleration and top speed just to satisfy some one who can't understand my own personal needs

yep - what he says


(though i do own a small truck also, but commute now in a car)

[Capmaster]

THe fixation on pickup trucks is nowhere more apparent than here. Walk through the parking lot at work and you see these huge Dodge Ram beasts with the V-10 or Hemi ...they weigh about 6,000 pounds and have to come equipped with 30 gallon tanks else you'll run out of gas halfway to work :P And only about one in six or seven has any scratches whatsoever in the bed

We call them "Navajo Cadillacs" here

We used to have a full sized conversion van with a ball hitch on the back. Very handy when I rented a 30 foot cherry picker to cut down a poplar tree. And when I rented the ditch witch when I put in the underground sprinkler system ....and when we moved our household into storage while we were having our new house built ...and when I needed 86 sheets of drywall and didn't want to pay the $45 delivery charge, and .....

I miss that hitch now. None of our cars have them, although they would pull a modest trailer with ease.

I don't see a damn thing wrong with trailer hitches on cars

[hech54]

What really kills me is the guy who REFUSES to give up. My friend had a small light boat he used to tow. He HAD to back the boat into it's space WITH the car....no matter how long it took or how many tries it took to do it.
Just drop the little leg with the wheel on the end and push the freaking thing into the space if you can't get the right angle. He was such a knuckle-head when it came to that aspect of his manhood.

[BJ_M]

when i had my 4runner , i had class III's on both front and back .. and I made a winch mount that fit in the receiver with enough cable to run it on the front or the rear ..

i also could do some real fast moving of peoples trailers with the front one .. or my own..

but the funniest thing is when i would park it after launching the boat and leave the trailer hooked to the front ... people would stare and slam on the brakes driving by ...

[racer-x]

When I first started Motorcycle Drag Racing, I pulled my bike on a bike trailer behind my Camaro. It worked great. Bike and trailer were under 1,000 lbs and the car had no problem pulling it. Eventually I built a much faster bike that required much more equipment to support it, so I got a Van.

I now drive a truck, but if I get back into racing again, I may get a trailer so I don't have to lug that bike up into the truck bed.

[hech54]

when i had my 4runner , i had class III's on both front and back .. and I made a winch mount that fit in the receiver with enough cable to run it on the front or the rear ..

i also could do some real fast moving of peoples trailers with the front one .. or my own..

but the funniest thing is when i would park it after launching the boat and leave the trailer hooked to the front ... people would stare and slam on the brakes driving by ...

My friend had a ball on the front of his truck as well....but he never used it...too proud I guess.

[flaninacupboard]

buy a freakin truck, seriously.... i saw two of em drivin down the road today so i thought i would complain. it's the stupidest looking think ever

Some people buy cars as a tool, rather than a fashion accesory.

Additionally, some countries in the world give a shit about levels of pollution, so cars achieve more than ten miles per gallon. my girlfriends car manages 60 to the gallon and - holy shit - can have a trailer attached when it needs it.

[tonyiws]

This is why....
http://www.snopes.com/photos/lumber.asp

[ViRaL1]

- why do they put those idiotic spoilers 1/2 the size of the trunk lid on those front wheel drive ricers.

Here, here.

I always thought the point of having a spoiler was to reduce lift on the back end of the car, but I never always thought there were some aerodynamics involved, not bolting some ugly hunk of metal to the trunk to weigh it down. 80% or more of the cars that I see with these, get no real benefit out of it because they won't ever be able to go fast enough for it to make much difference.

[BJ_M]

This is why....
http://www.snopes.com/photos/lumber.asp

i love that picture ... of course all the problem was was the 10 x 80-pound bags of concrete in the back seat not the 2200lbs of lumber on the roof ...