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Who's towing what?

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Old 10-11-2011, 03:05 PM
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Who's towing what?

I've been contemplating getting another larger vehicle and ditching the HHR but there is something about it that I really like. Especially being able to get nearly 500 miles on a tank of gas on long highway trips for $45 dollars compared to $100 for 350 miles in my old Navigator.

None the less, I need more room.

I have been looking at some pod trailers, luggage trailers, tear drop campers and any other small little trailers capable of being towed by the HHR.

I was curious what you guys have been towing with your HHR's and how well it handles the tow.

Any information and or pictures would be a great help!

Thanks in advance.
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Old 10-11-2011, 03:53 PM
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My opinion is the HHR is too light, and too lightly built to tow anything. I know some do tow with the HHR, but think about getting it stopped with an additional 1000 to 1500 pounds pushing it, on a 6 or 7% downgrade when something totally unexpected jumps out in front of you. Just not a risk I would take. I do pull the HHR with my motorhome, but that weighs in at just under 40,000 pounds, has full air brakes, and the HHR is set up so its own brakes are proportionally applied as the motorhome brakes are applied.
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Old 10-11-2011, 06:33 PM
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I've done it. Going down hill with my motorcycle behind me on a 8 or 9% grade. Car stopped fine. I was going up and down hill a lot. Gas mileage? I was gasing up every 250 to 300 miles because I was in the middle of nowhere and I wasn't sure if there would be an open gas station when I really needed gas. Gas mileage was better when I wasn't using the cruise control.



This all weighs around 900 lbs.
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Old 10-11-2011, 10:14 PM
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I pull my bike around with the same trailer as above but my bike is heavier ( HD Road Glide,,bagger) I have seen 25-27 mpg on the haul at highway speeds or better...I have an 08 SS..brakes were never an issue.
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Old 10-11-2011, 10:32 PM
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I'm looking for something small and just a couple hundred pounds to carry luggage, generator and some other oddities.

Not looking to pull anything with significant weight, just some extra room to get stuff out of the cabin area.
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Old 10-12-2011, 04:40 AM
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I have a small 3' x 4' Trailer that I use all the time for small ittems. It tows fine. I am looking at a little larger trailed at Lowe's (about $400). I like it because it has sides on the trailer and mine doesn't plus my trailer is about 15 years olr. I hope this helps.
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Old 10-12-2011, 08:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Laco
My opinion is the HHR is too light, and too lightly built to tow anything. I know some do tow with the HHR, but think about getting it stopped with an additional 1000 to 1500 pounds pushing it, on a 6 or 7% downgrade when something totally unexpected jumps out in front of you. Just not a risk I would take. I do pull the HHR with my motorhome, but that weighs in at just under 40,000 pounds, has full air brakes, and the HHR is set up so its own brakes are proportionally applied as the motorhome brakes are applied.
I would think that any trailer over what WolfTamer and IgottaWoody have would be heavy enough to have electric brakes or could be equipped with electric brakes to negate the "pushing effect". Depending on state laws, sometimes trailers with over a 1500 lbs capacity are required to have brakes.

I have a utility trailer (with NO electric brakes) I pull with my Jeep Grand Cherokee and at times have loaded the trailer with over 1800 pounds. Even with that load, I hardly know it's back there when I stop. I realize the HHR is lighter than my Jeep, but then again, I would hope no one would pull almost 2,000 lbs with an HHR - they just aren't built for that load. The small tear-drop trailers, I can see. But nothing bigger or heavier.
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Old 10-12-2011, 08:33 AM
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Keep in mind that pulling a trailer of any sort will greatly diminish your mileage
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Old 10-12-2011, 09:26 AM
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A friend across town pulls a 17’ self contained Prowler camper with his HHR. The Prowler does have electric brakes.

He owns some property in Colorado in the foot hills of the mountains, I don’t know the elevation off hand but he said there are some darn good hills to run up and back down with the trailer on.

He used to own a Durango that he pulled the camper with but really didn’t like the mileage he was getting with it while not pulling the camper so he bought the HHR and had the electric brake thing installed. The Chevy dealer told him that the HHR was too light a vehicle to pull that big of a camper with and as far as he was concerned any and all warrantee was null and void.

He has had several things fixed under warrantee on his HHR since he has owned it though.

He says he still gets better mileage pulling the camper with the HHR than the Durango got not pulling it.

He has driven the HHR with the camper out west for the last three years with no problems. Sometimes he takes the camper up to the Wisconsin dells for weekends and occasionally he goes down to the lake of the Ozarks where he has family to visit.

So he does get around quite a bit. As far as I know he still has the original brake pads and shoes on his buggy.

I don’t have a hitch on my HHR yet but I do on my ‘04 Neon. The trailer I have is rated at one ton I built 4’ high sides on it to help keep stuff from falling off and I have had nearly that much weight on it.

With the Neon I barely notice any difference in the mileage while pulling even the max load on the trailer.

It still gets right at or damn close to 30 mpg no matter what.

Last edited by Grizzly old man; 10-12-2011 at 09:33 AM. Reason: to add stuff about the Neon
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Old 10-12-2011, 09:45 AM
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I'd like to see a pic of that one. Bet the HHR looks pretty tiny tugging that trailer.

He'll probably be on all the forums soon *****ing about his trans that died at 20K.
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