Not the dealers here!

 

Kick the dealer to the curb then.

 

hmm..

I may to find out about my extended warranty and a hitch. I want to add one for a bike rack.

 

Im still curious to hear of ones experience with a bike rack and hitch installed, but for whatever reason the tranny is damaged/needs service, but has never towed anything with it. Reason indicates that if you never towed anything, but have tranny damage, the existence of a hitch is no reason to deny a warranty claim on a transmission.

 

The most common damage from towing is the transmission. Manufacturers have lightened them and narrowed the gears right to the minimum to pull the load of the vehicle. if you have an automatic there is almost no such thing as too much cooling for it.

I would never tow with a CVT, I know what happens to my quad when I pull big loads, the car version is much tougher but same principal so I'd expect weight to be the enemy of a friction based transmission.

I went around with Jeep on failed manual transmissions multiple times and they kept claiming the only way the transmission could fail was overloading. Tried to say because I have a aftermarket bumper and 2" receiver I was towing too much. I pointed to their factory one with it in the show room and they backed off. As I was taking the picture of it with my trusty iPhone. Finally figured out they were putting the wrong lube in the transmission, kept eating the synchros..

 

Exactly, never want to tow more than what the Fit is capable of. The most I've ever town is 1700 pounds gross, and that was only for a short distance from HD. It was a load of cinder blocks and stone. My average load is at most 300lbs cargo plus trailer weight. I'll have a similar sized load closer to 1800 pounds gross later this week, bought a new John Deere, but I'm moving it less than 10 miles to my house.

I have planned on doing a long road trip with the trailer, but I would not even contemplate hauling more than a few hundred pounds tops of cargo. The 6MT is actually pretty good, and 5th gear is real handy when towing despite it being close to gear 6.

 

Yep,,,I'd be careful of ever towing in the top gear, most 5 or 6 speeds its an OD gear running on a very light shaft. I know most Toyotas and my Jeep say don't pull any loads in top gear..

FWIW I've blown up about 5 transmissions all were light manual 5 speeds never had a automatic complain. One was a 5speed in a 1992 F150, towing a empty flatbed trailer that weighed about 2500 lbs.. Manual trans started smoking.. Ford checked it out and replaced some seals and reinstalled it. I traded it off shortly after that..

 

Noted, 5th gear is like a highway gear, a slight incline forces me to downshift anyway. I only hit 6th gear when going downhill.