Towing with a TDI VW Jetta

[barts]

Originally Posted by REDNAX

Then it's about time you started a thread here, on the subject. And where are the pictures of the steam launch?
.

Attached is a photo of me in the Otter, running w/o the canopy:

There are more pictures here and more (a bit out of date) info here.

The thread will have to wait until I have time for that project.

- Bart

[Aage]

Love your launch, Bart! It seems to me that I've seen a version of that with a smaller steam engine up here in one of the antique boat shows.

Infinitely more practical than an oil-powered one around the Ontario lakes in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they were popular, IIRC: lots of trees, not so many oil wells on our lakes then.

This is like the ones I have seen.

[Edit: I have taken us right off-topic. Please forgive me, and allow me to suggest that we go back to the actual topic]

[MrUKToad]

Originally Posted by Aage

I think that everyone buys the TV that they want. Lots of people want trucks, despite the ridiculous price of gas and diesel now. Many of them would drive them even if they didn't tow. Nothing wrong with that, it's their preference, and we do still live in democracies.

I personally don't like trucks as a daily driver, and we don't tow enough to make it worthwhile even considering one. My wife's daily driver (and our TV) is a 2007 Ford Freestar, and I drive a 2005 Toyota Echo.

Thinking about the tow ratings of North American vehicles, it is completely in the worst interests of the manufacturers to put higher ratings on their cars and trucks. As has been stated in this thread, they are happy to push people to heavier, more profitable vehicles for those who wish to tow.

Why would they ever want to encourage people to tow with vehicles that are smaller, and therefore by their own admission, less profitable?

For the same reasons they would never consider adding good hitch receivers and oil coolers or better geometry for towing. They don't want you to tow with your daily driver, they want you to buy a truck or heavy SUV, a much more profitable and less-regulated product.

From their point of view, it only makes sense, doesn't it?

Aage,

You have it in a nutshell, and most eloquently put if I may say so.

Now all I have to do is deal with the non-believers when I roll into a campsite towing with the Sienna. It's a conversation starter I suppose :~)