Speeding with a trailer in tow is definitely not good. One bounce is all it takes for that trailer to start skipping.

 

The best trailer backing tip I ever got, was, to turn the bottom of the steering wheel, in the direction, you want the trailer to go.

 

Your mission success depends on the weight you tow. I've towed a lawn tractor and countless race stuff on my Tractor Supply trailer behind my Fit with little trouble but again I have my Fit equipped with air lifts to properly support the tongue weight and I didn't tow very far.. If your total weight exceeds 250 lb you need to have air lift rear shocks. There are plenty of vids and posts on this site so look them up. And the total weight should not exceed 850 lb simply because your Fit needs to be the steering device, not the trailer and contents. I suspect your intended trailedr is a fully enclosed and fairly tall rental. Make sure your hitch is goiod for thr Fit and trailer; UHaul will probably make sure of that and take the insuranbce too.
I have travelled the route you intend and you should bre OK with your Fit towing the trailer. However you must careful to not exceed 60 mph. Thats because unless you rent a trailer with self actuating brakes you need to be very careful to keep the tow properly behind you when braking in a down hill curve. BTW carry a spare set of brake pads just in case cause you are putting them to race mode, and yes, make sure the pads are good ones, like Hawk HPS. Or carefully check before leaving. And yeah, do a good tuneup a couple weeks before and depending on your odo reading perhaps a coupl coil packs. You'd think I was advising you on a trip by wagon train. But then I've made a couple of CA to east coast and back runs. And watch out for 18 wheelers passing you !
Good luck and why not ask fellow posters here to 'catch you' along the way.
cheers.
PS the airlifts are about $60 and are direct replacements, something like Monroe MA80X but look it up here.

 

If the trailer weighs 850 lb, and I suspect thats the load limt including the trailer and contents so you total weight looks like perhaps 750 lb in the trailer and 300 lb in the Fit. I cannot stress this enough:
YOU MUST INSTALL AIR LIFT SHOCKS ON THE REAR !!! Search the many posts on those who have done it. Even loaded with 400 lb in your Fit and towing a 750 lb load means your tow is 1/4th of your total and thats cutting it close. If the empty weight of the trailer is indeed 850 lb you are taking a severe chance. VERY RISKY. Fits aren't made to haul a weight of more than half the weight of the Fit at highway speeds.. You said the decision is made. Go with blessings and buy the rental insurance as much as possible.
Again, cheers.
PS tires with large footprints are worthwhile too.

 

Follow up to the cross country trip with a 5x8 UHaul Trailer

Origin: Greenville/Spartanburg, SC
Destination: San Diego, CA

Vehicle:
2011 Honda Fit Sport, AT fully loaded with rear seats down flat
Two occupants (myself and passenger)

Equipment:
Fully loaded 5x8 trailer (furniture, mattress, household items)
Curt Hitch installed by U-Haul
Transmission Cooler

We followed SilverBullet's recommendation using I10 to I15 into San Diego instead of I8. It was a really easy ride. No scary uphills or downhills were encountered, although we did encounter a few hills in California that we had to floor the throttle to move with traffic @ 60 mph. Coming out of rest stops, the Fit needed plenty of distance to get up to speed - I'd say quarter mile put us safely at cruising speed. Truckers were very courteous letting us merge in.

Driving @ 65 mph around 3-4k RPM the Fit was stable and handled without any swaying. We did not encounter any problems with overheating, traction, or the transmission. It was raining coming out of South Carolina and braking was never a problem. On the flats in Texas where the speed limit was 80 mph the Fit could easily have gone over but we did not take any chances.

The only area we were a little worried was along I10 in New Mexico. The concrete road was bumpy and we started to get a bouncy feeling in the rear suspension going 55-60mph at which point slowing down to around 45-50 stopped the bouncing until we crossed into Arizona.

Edit: A fuse blew for the trailer lights at night. We knew something was up when control panel back light went dark but everything else was otherwise functional. Turns out the control panel back light is on the same circuit as the rear/brake lights. A state trooper pulled us over and said the rear lights weren't on. It was easy enough to swap the (tiny) fuse out but had to hunt for the white plastic fuse remover under the drivers side area next to the fuse box.

Other than that it was a fun and safe trip and I am definitely happy I bought a Fit!

Thoughts:

Make sure to keep extra fuses with you.
I kept tire pressure around 32 psi hot and checked frequently. I also checked the trailer coupler & chains every time we stopped.
Plan for long braking distances. The Fit's brakes are not particularly powerful.
You will accelerate slowly while revving high. This took some getting used to and I probably angered some people in town with over cautious driving.


MPG from Upstate South Carolina through Texas: ~23 mpg
MPG from New Mexico to San Diego: ~18 mpg

Size Comparison


Lookin Good!


Window of Shame

 

Good trip report.

 

Pry, glad to know you had a good safe trip. Nice wrap-up!

 

Great Report and Pics on the FIT U-haul Move!

Enjoy San Diego, one of my favorite places to visit.

PS My Significant Other Talked me out of using the FIT in August to haul a 5 x 8 with some old storage from NYC to Los Angeles, (we would have had to drive the FIT to NYC first and then hook it for the trip back) so we flew and talked a rental car company into renting us a Grand Caravan to take the "short" one-way drive across country. Of course, it's less hauling room than the 5 x 8 even will all seats folded into the ground, so we had to ship a few boxes. Don't ask me what this all cost--I just got the CC bill--OUCH!

 

Next week, I will be using my 2008 Fit Sport to haul the same 4x8 trailer from Naples, FL to San Diego. We will be stopping in New Orleans for a day, and the Grand Canyon for a day. In the car will be me, my granddaughter, my grandson, and a cat. My granddaughter and I will take turns driving.

The car is in the garage today getting a thorough pre-trip checkup and maintenance. I used AAA.com to create a TripTik, and plan to drive about 800 miles each of 3 days. AAA tells that each of those days will be less than 12 hours, but now I realize that it will take us longer because we will not be able to drive the full speed limit.

 

you didn't say what's on the trailer so I won't presume you loaded it with a ton of stuff piled 6 feet high. If thats the case I want the rights to sell tickets to watch you go.
You have scheduled a great trip, I've done a coupkle times, once with a 2002 pulling a UHaul trailer.. Take two days atb theCanyon and tour up and down the south sides end to end. The north end has a good tourist shop with decent food and not much traffic and gorgeous view. Just don't trust that shabby fence. And do go on the overlook, well at least the grandkids. And enjoy your trip ! And do pay attention to sidewinds. You might want to consider a trip to the Great caverns at the back end of TX. El Paso is a good place to stop when you consider it takes all day to cross TX at any speed on the ground.

 

My granddaughter is moving to San Diego, but the only furniture will be a twin mattress/box spring and a hope chest. Initially, it was just going to be the two of us, but the date changed and it fell on the same week her brother has off from Middle school. The rest is mostly clothing. The car will stay with her as I am giving it to her. I will miss my purple Fit.

 

I am very familiar with all these areas you will be going and driving. I have been to the Grand Canyon a dozen times, and drove in my FIT (no trailer) from NYC to Mobile, AL to San Antonio to Los Angeles, CA. It is an interesting drive.

Just some of my 3 cents: I think if you are pulling a trailer--800 miles a day is a very aggressive plan. It's really the limit for a FIT without a trailer. Not that it can't be done--but you want to operate safely, fed, and rested. What the AAA does not know is about local road construction that is very prevalent and will slow the trip down and you are subject to lower speed limits.

I wish that I could change your plan to just drive straight to San Diego, drop the load off, drop the trailer off, and get everyone in the FIT for a car only trip to the Grand Canyon. I know this terrain well, and I just don't see taking a FIT pulling a trailer there. The grades are steep both up and down and the FIT's engine alone will be grinding to make it. More fun without the extra weight.

Another idea: Ship the clothes, ship the hope chest, mattresses are inexpensive--just get new ones in San Diego from Costco, Macy sale, or many other local stores. Wouldn't this all be less costly than renting a Trailer, Hitch?, extra fuel, slow drive. Then you can just have a great vacation along the way with the family and go anywhere.

 

I agree with that! Going from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon, you climb 6000'. Phx is around 1300', and Flagstaff is 7,000', and go from there to the Big Ditch. But just take the car only. If you guys have some extra time and $, drive to Williams (west on I-40 from Flagstaff) and take the Grand Canyon Railroad. That is a fun trip. Train stays at the GC depot for around 3 hours and you can see a lot of stuff. Go to the El Tovar Hotel for lunch, and you can see the canyon from the resturant. Coming back on the train, you get "robbed" by "gunmen" (who always get busted by the Sherriff). Done this trip several times. Williams is on the old Route 66, and has lotsa tourist shops and good places to eat. Anyhoo, God bless you and have a safe trip!!

 

Excellent report. I also just pulled a 4' x 8' UHaul trailer (fully-loaded) with my 2011 Sport 5 Speed. I had the same UHaul hitch installed. I made a trip almost perpendicular to yours.

I started in San Diego and drove it up to South Dakota (California > Nevada > Arizona > Utah > Wyoming > South Dakota) mountain grades and all, 1766 miles.

I have the factory suspension setup on the Fit and it took the weight like a like a champ. The rear-end bounced right back up to its normal stance once the trailer was detached.

The only issue was that the hitch was so low to the ground that the trailer skid occasionally scraped on drive-ways.

Glad to see someone else towing things.

 

We encounter some hills in New Mexico that required going into 4th gear, and some 6% inclines on route 40 after the Grand Canyon, but the car had no problems at all.

 

I know this is an exhausted subject by now, and I've read through this forum (nice detailes, btw) but I'm still a little hesitant about my trip. Here are the details:
I'm driving from Houston to norther Minnesota (~1500 mi)...
2012 Honda Fit Sport AT (40,000 mi...we've done a lot of road tripping)
Uhaul trailer (4x8) trailer
Mattress, box springs (if they'll fit) bed frame, dressers, clothing, bookcase, and some kitchen stuff. I think the heaviest thing will be my bed frame and mattress, which is the main reason I need a Uhaul in the first place.

The only thing I ever hauled was a jet-ski behind an accord for maybe 20 miles. So I pretty much have little experience with this stuff. Thats where I need a little help. From what I gathered on here it sounds possible as long as:
1) I keep the weight on the trailer to a minimum, and distribute it evenly.
2) Make frequent stops to check fluids and connections, let things cool, air in tires, etc.
3) Don't drive over 60 mph, target 55 and below to be safe
4) Get transmission cooler
5) Keep a good distance between cars and allow for ample stopping time at lights and stop signs...

The only thing I'm confused with is the towing capacity of the Fit. The manual states that it's not recommended to tow and doing so could void the warranty. But from what I read, the Jazz overseas does not have this caveat and you guys have towed plenty. But, the doorjam lists the max weight load of 850 lbs, and the manual lists the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of 3,512 lbs (under vehicle spec in the back of the manual). Whats the difference here? The manual also states that the total weight (cargo, tow tongue, accessories, etc) should not exceed the GVWR.

I've just read a lot of posts that say it's fine to tow, and others that say absolutely do not do it. I'm pretty convinced just reading this forum alone that I should be ok, but I would like some feedback for those that know more than I do. What will my weight limit be for packing? Any other precautions I need not listed above?

 

Don't confuse tongue weight with towing weight. For example, 10% of weight of loaded trailer is the generally accepted tongue weight you want to load for. Say the trailer weighs 1000 lb. you should load it so the downward weight at the hitch is about 100lb. If the trailer weighs 2000lb, tongue weight should be about 200lb. This is the generally accepted proportion to avoid trailer sway. Improper proportions can result in a trailer swaying wildly...I once saw one swaying a full 90degrees one way then the other as the driver tried to control it, before both trailer and towing vehicle overturned. I advise you avoid this! (In other words, do not load it evenly...bias the weight onto the front.)

 

On the weight ratings:

GVWR is the gross vehicle weight rating—that is, the weight of your car fully loaded. This would include the trailer tongue weight.

The maximum load of 850 pounds is basically the GVWR minus the car's empty weight.

The GCWR (gross combined weight rating) is the maximum weight rating of a vehicle and a trailer together. This is generally higher than the GVWR. The Fit presumably doesn't have anything specified because Honda doesn't want to recommend towing with it.

There are also weight ratings for trailer hitches (both maximum trailer weight and tongue weight)—for the Fit, these are 2000 lbs and 200 lbs respectively. These should definitely not be exceeded; breaking your trailer hitch while en route does not generally make for a very good day. Trailers also have weight ratings, and axles and tires too, but that's not quite so much of a concern for the sorts of things it makes much sense to do with a Fit. Whether the rear axle of the Fit is overloaded or not is fairly obvious from looking at how low its riding; common sense and good judgment will go far in this case. If you want to be all scientific about it, reduce the cargo capacity of the Fit by the tongue weight of the trailer (maybe multiplied by about 1.2 since the weight is applied well back of the axle).

You might actually be better off putting many of the heavier things in the trailer, rather than in the back of the car. It will keep a lot of weight off the back axle of the car, which is going to be somewhat heavily loaded regardless. Obviously, keeping the weight of the trailer reasonable should still be a goal. (Most trailers will also track a little better if they aren't completely empty, though the enclosed UHaul trailers are heavy enough empty that it shouldn't make a big difference—and I suspect they have a rather better suspension setup than some small open trailers that sometimes like to bounce all over the place when they're unloaded.)

Keeping one's speed down and allowing for extra stopping and accelerating and maneuvering room are necessary. Letting things cool down is only too much of a concern with long grades, up or down. On long downhill grades, definitely downshift to use engine braking so as to avoid overheating the brakes (and take things slowly).

Do also make sure you check the trailer tires, both for adequate tread and proper inflation.

 

All good points. I just wanted to add that most trailers including the U-haul one in the pics above have their axle slightly to the rear of the middle of the box. So, if you do load it evenly it should be pretty well balanced with good tongue weight without having to put the heaviest items at the front. I see cars and trucks around here that load the front of the trailers so heavily that it looks like the rear suspension must be sitting on the stops. That makes for a horrible ride, poor handling, and can't be good for the tow vehicle long term.

-Dustin

 

Honda Fit Sport A/T + 4x8 Trailer + 2 cubic yards pine mulch = No Problem






My little Fit handled this load no problem. I was actually much more worried about the trailer. 1 cubic yard of mulch is around 500lbs or so and the trailer is only rated to handle about 1,000lbs payload, so I think I was pushing its limit!

-Dustin