Tow Capacity =/

[Hogg]

Yo guys,

So Ive been contemplating the plan of having a baller Q45 daily driver... With a couple minor mods like the Nico ECU and Rims, Coilovers whatever. Anyway - My other idea was instead of going through all this motor swapping crap for my track car why dont I just do a 5speed conversion on a junkyard Q? Use that for my drift car? It would be unique, wicked, VIP :P, and a powerhouse, lots of room for improvement too... And I would love it.

Anyway, are there any experiences with towing with your Q? I remember my dad towed a 5th wheel with his NA Z32 to go camping lol.

Let me know whats up,Spence

[Rex]

There's no towing recommended, as there's no place to safely/securely tie in the hitch.

I'm scared to think what and how he towed a "5th wheel" trailer with a Z32

[RAP]

There's no towing recommended, as there's no place to safely/securely tie in the hitch.

I'm scared to think what and how he towed a "5th wheel" trailer with a Z32

Well, oh great poster, if no towing is allowed with the Q45 why oh why would there be a section devoted to TOWING in my 2000 owners manual ? ? ? With all the precautions and towing weight recommendations. Even has an image of a small camper type trailer.

The manual states: A genuine INFINITI trailer hitch IS AVAILABLE from your Infiniti dealer( Canada only) Now I suppose THAT information is in the Owners Manual to fill pages?

Of course towing can be done with these cars and yes a towing hitch can be attached to it. In fact this would be a good car to use for towing as it's heavy and has rear wheel drive. A transmission cooler would be an asset I would have to look at any car to determine where a hitch can be attached but it can be done.

Jack

[Rex]

Sorry, when he mentioned NICO ECU, I assumed he was talking about a G50 90-96. As the NICO ECU is currently only available for the early models. May not be compatible with a 96 ... though that's not relevant to his post or my reply .

While the 97-01 does list a 1,000 lb towing capacity, the earlier models do not.

Sorry for any confusion.

Well, oh great poster, ...

Was that necessary?!

[Haitian_King]

I'm not much for seeing a Q end up as a drifter, but to each his own.

I don't know about the 5-speed manual internals, but I do know that the Q45 4-speed AT fluid pump doesn't run unless the engine is running. Which is why if you're towing it, it needs to be flatbedded. If a flat bed is unable to be procured, an Infiniti TSB stated that the towing should be kept as short as possible. Another option to preserve the transmission is to have the front wheels on the ground and the rear wheels up on the tow truck.

But if you're swapping out the AT for the 5-speed I guess it doesn't matter.

[maxnix]

The manual states: A genuine INFINITI trailer hitch IS AVAILABLE from your Infiniti dealer( Canada only) Now I suppose THAT information is in the Owners Manual to fill pages?

Of course towing can be done with these cars and yes a towing hitch can be attached to it. In fact this would be a good car to use for towing as it's heavy and has rear wheel drive.Jack

I dare you to even find a part number for that hitch.

Secondly, towing is a great way to accelerate wear on a silcon filled bushing isolated subframe. The bushings are unavailable for the G50.

Stick around. We know when the OM and FSM lies. They are approved for publication months before the car is released. TSB correct and supplement the FSM, but the OM is left to founder.

[Haitian_King]

I'm not much for seeing a Q end up as a drifter, but to each his own.

I don't know about the 5-speed manual internals, but I do know that the Q45 4-speed AT fluid pump doesn't run unless the engine is running. Which is why if you're towing it, it needs to be flatbedded. If a flat bed is unable to be procured, an Infiniti TSB stated that the towing should be kept as short as possible. Another option to preserve the transmission is to have the front wheels on the ground and the rear wheels up on the tow truck.

But if you're swapping out the AT for the 5-speed I guess it doesn't matter.

Wow. I totally read that wrong. I thought he was talking about "towing" the Q and not using the Q to tow things. Excuse me while I try to hide my embarrassment.

[RAP]

I dare you to even find a part number for that hitch.

Secondly, towing is a great way to accelerate wear on a silcon filled bushing isolated subframe. The bushings are unavailable for the G50.

Stick around. We know when the OM and FSM lies. They are approved for publication months before the car is released. TSB correct and supplement the FSM, but the OM is left to founder.

Oh great poster # 2. The question was about the Q 45 and it's ability to TOW.Not about silly cone bushings.

It can tow a trailer, a car or anything anyone wants to tow bushings be damned. Within reason of course or, duh, for whatever reason anyone chooses as it's their car.

Europeans tow light small camping trailers readily with their small cars and surely a gas hogg 4000 lbs car can and will handle a towing load. Actually I'm thinking about installing a trailer hitch on my 2000. Not so so much to tow but 'to hang a pair of BALLZ on it.

Then, who knows, I might just hang a gooseneck on the ball.

Jack

[captainluigi]

NOW THATS FUNNY! i needed that. do it.

[RAP]

NOW THATS FUNNY! i needed that. do it.

Yeah man I saw a pair of CHROME ones the other day. Then a pair of FUZZY LOOKING ONES and now I am undecided which to go with.

Might just go over to Texass and shop around as I understand there are big ballz ovah dare. Wadda ya tink?

Take care. Get your car fixed yet?

Jack

[Hogg]

Yeah I didnt want to start any fights, just thought it would be ballin to tow a Q with a Q

[captainluigi]

richard, are you saying you would actually cross the sabine? passport in order?

is my car fixed yet??? was the cistine chapel ever completed? progress is being made.

i miss that coona** humor, mardi gras, jazz fest & those beautiful cafe aulait ladies.

''LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER '' !

[RAP]

Yeah I didnt want to start any fights, just thought it would be ballin to tow a Q with a Q

Fight are sometimes good. Clears the air and point out flaws in arguments.

Let me set the record straight. I am careful to quote easily verifiable information as opposed to shooting from the hip with nonsense. Then I have personal experiences, which are mine, and I do state so.

Remember this, anyone can say anything on this internet, but with no credentials it is meaningless really. It's up to YOU what to believe.

What I have said about towing with these cars IS IN MY OWNERS MANUAL for the 2000.

Take care. Jack

[Jesda]

Europeans tow light small camping trailers readily with their small cars

Because they're poor. A caravan club in the UK gave a Kia hatchback their top recommendation for camper tow vehicles, and while its painfully slow and underpowered, it does function. In the US, we can pick up a 90s Ranger, S10, Frontier, or Hardbody for almost nothing, and fill it up for half what Europeans pay per gallon.

FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES AND LIMITATIONS. The Q45 is a unibody car that will twist like a soft pretzel if you overload it. Its not a body on frame workhorse like, say, a Crown Victoria.

If I was towing anything, I'd get a Fleetwood, Caprice, or Roadmaster. Comfort + style (Fleetwood) + towing capacity thats exceeds my former Range Rover! Hell, a Fleetwood even seats more people than a Range Rover does.

[RAP]

Well they usually don't have far to travel for the most part. However there are some, from the northern countries, that do haul trailers down to Spain and Portugal. Also the trailers are, usually, very light and compact. Really neat actually. I see, occasionally small vehicles towing really small campers and really oversize p/u truck campers mounted on small Toyotos p/u's dwarfing the truck.

Jack

[jeramifrost]

sorry to bring back a dead topic, but this was pretty close to what i was needing answered. I am trying to find out if there is a trailer hitch available for a 2005 model. I am not looking to actually TOW anything, but a hitch would be nice to mount a bike rack so i dont have to even think about one of those cheap trunk mounted ones.

[Q45tech]

Remember that the oem transmission will fail in a few miles if towed with rear wheels on ground since the AT pump is not turning to supply lubrication unless the engine is running.

Of course many problems cam be alleviated with manuals and solid rear subframe bushings and a few hundred extra pounds of frame stiffening.

Have fun!

[craigztoyz]

Yo guys,

So Ive been contemplating the plan of having a baller Q45 daily driver... With a couple minor mods like the Nico ECU and Rims, Coilovers whatever. Anyway - My other idea was instead of going through all this motor swapping crap for my track car why dont I just do a 5speed conversion on a junkyard Q? Use that for my drift car? It would be unique, wicked, VIP :P, and a powerhouse, lots of room for improvement too... And I would love it.

Anyway, are there any experiences with towing with your Q? I remember my dad towed a 5th wheel with his NA Z32 to go camping lol.

Let me know whats up,Spence

Did your dad really hook up a 5Th wheel trailer, one that hooks up in the middle of the bed of a truck, in a Z, I want to see pics!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did one day driving in middle of Texas, see an early 50's Desoto that they mounted a hitch inbetween the rear window and the trunk lid, and was pulling a BIG trailer, at least 40Ft, full of hay, And there was not a place for another, he was driving like 60, and I nearly crapped my pants laughing. The old guy driving, must have needed a truck, and loved his car.

[bullittandy]

sorry to bring back a dead topic, but this was pretty close to what i was needing answered. I am trying to find out if there is a trailer hitch available for a 2005 model. I am not looking to actually TOW anything, but a hitch would be nice to mount a bike rack so i dont have to even think about one of those cheap trunk mounted ones.

I don't think Tech read your post.

If a big hitch place doesn't have one listed for your car then you can take it to a independent place that would be willing to rig something to work, it is entirely feasable but maybe not cheap. You'd also have to ensure that if they built one to hold a bike then nobody would ever get the idea to haul anything with it.

I would think that a small bracket bolted to the spare tire well would do the trick. But again, no trailers as even 500lbs would surely tear through the spare tire well.

Just keep calling places until you find someone willing to help-thats how I get custom stuff done-find someone that is curious and likes a challenge.

[maxnix]

Because they're poor. A caravan club in the UK gave a Kia hatchback their top recommendation for camper tow vehicles, and while its painfully slow and underpowered, it does function.

Followed a small 4 cylinder Toyota pickup with a way too large camper in a construction zone in Utah. Couldn't do over 20 mph for several miles.

If any of the 100 vehicles they delayed had an RPG, the Toyota and old man and woman would have been road kill.

[jeramifrost]

Haha, yeah i don't think he read my post either but thats ok. thanks for the ideas. Yeah i definitely only wish to put a single bicycle rack on the hitch, never actually tow anything of any kind. I just ride a lot and travel and don't care for any of those cheap trunk mounted rack options and dont want to tear up a good bumper with a bike hanging out of the trunk. especially not when they start costing as much as a good hitch mounted one.

[RAP]

Why not just ride the bicycle to where you want to go? Or, is that too simple for you to do?

I just don't get it. Driving a car to carry a bicycle to some place to ride said bicycle.

I see folks driving to a park to walk or jog. Seems to me that walking to the park would solve the problem or the need to exercise, if that is the purpose.

Well OLEO (crude oil) futures are at $ 130.20 per barrel as I write. Gasoline futures are at $3.33 per gallon. Future price plus local taxes plus other sundry cost brings the cost to whatever is posted on the gas pump near YOU. I am noting sorrowful looks in the faces of folks buying gas at present.

The need to ride actually the bicycle as an alternate means of transportation will soon become an attractive option.

Things, they are achanging.

Jack

[Q45tech]

Oh I read it, just always take opportunities to remind everyone about transmissions.

We have had a series of late model sc300 where the rear suspension and subframe get very noisey [snap, crackle, pop] from towing. Just that the forces are applied in ways that they were not designed to accept.Some Members seem hell bent to cause problems, as long as they don't complain and whine about them later who cares................more parts cars for me and others.

[bullittandy]

[QUOTE=Q45tech]Oh I read it, just always take opportunities to remind everyone about transmissions.

QUOTE]

Or....get up on a soapbox.

I really think any independent hitch shop can help you find a way to make it work.

[jeramifrost]

It is illegal to ride a bike across the bridge to the next town where i train with other people for a triathalon. Even if i did said training alone at home out in the country by my house (which is already a bad idea with no shoulders and limited viewing distances) i would still need a way to get the bike to the actual race which is 30 miles away. So its not that i am lazy, but merely its not legal to ride to where i train which is already almost 20 miles from where i live as it is. I also like to do trail riding at my parents place in north carolina which is 480 miles away, so i guess i should ride my bike there too?

[maxnix]

I really think any independent hitch shop can help you find a way to make it work.

If by "work" one means hastening the dimise of the rear subframe bushings. Hitches work best when there is a frame to which it can attach.

Unibody vehicles don't have frames so reinforced receptors are required. No Q45 have these receptors.

[bullittandy]

If by "work" one means hastening the dimise of the rear subframe bushings. Hitches work best when there is a frame to which it can attach.

Unibody vehicles don't have frames so reinforced receptors are required. No Q45 have these receptors.

Sighhhhhhhhhhh.

Reread the post-again (if you read it the first time).

A 20 lb bike hanging on a 25 lb bike mount is not going to "hasten the demise of the rear subframe bushings."

If he was suggesting pulling a 25 ft center console then my answer would be different (and yours would be the same).

If all you're going to do is attach a bike mount then find a shop (in person) and tell 'em what you need and by the 3rd shop you find a place that will help.

[maxnix]

Yeah but I bet the frame for the hitch is 50 -75 lbs. and then there is the leverage by the length of the arm.

RAP has the correct perspective in that why install 100 lbs. of steel to carry a 20 lb. bicycle to where you can ride it? Can he not carry or walk the bike across the forbidden bridge?

Most decent bikes have dismountable wheels so just do that and throw it in the trunk on a drop cloth.

[bullittandy]

Just tryin' to keep the answers on topic.

If the previous question about hitches was "What are all the ways you guys can think of for me to transport my bike from my home to elsewhere?" then your answer would have been right on the money.

However, that was not the question and we would better served by more realistic concerns than by made up hysteria about subframes being destroyed by hauling a bike on a rack. By this measure-you know what else destroys subframe bushings? Driving the car!!!

[maxnix]

Heck, just sitting there and letting ozone and heat get to them destroys them. The no bicycle bridge still gets me.