Should I get an Acura MDX or a truck to tow? I have a 3,000 lb boat and a pressure washing trailer that weighs less. I know an MDX is capable of towing both, but would it be OK to use it regularly to tow or would that strain it and shorten its lifespan?
I am capable of lifting a hundred pounds, but if I do it much, I am going to hurt myself.
The MDX is basically a V6 car, capable of towing 3500#. It will not be good for it towing even 3000#, especially regularly.
If you have to tow very far, it will also be harder to tow with a smaller, fairly light weight vehicle.
Weights of boats and campers are often underestimated, likely will be more than 3000, unless you have had it weighed on something like cat scales.
Having the "capability" of towing helps them sell cars to people that may want to tow every now and then. You could tow carefully every now and then, but regularly with one would scare me. They are nice cars, it would be bad to tear it's transmission up prematurely.
If you need to tow regularly, I would suggest getting something that can tow at least 5000, and make sure what you are towing is the weight you think it is.
Thanks. Is this Scotty Kilmer's forum? Maybe I posted in the wrong place?
The MDX with AWD can tow up to 5,000 lbs. Maybe I could start with that and when my business gets busy I can get a truck to replace it.
@djremyk - This is Scotty kilmer's forum. You should take @nlord's advice to heart, the MDX is not designed for frequent towing of heavy loads. It may be able to do so occasionally but you'll beat the poor thing into the ground with regular towing. You would be much better off with a body-on-frame pickup truck.
Along the lines of what @nlord said, the maximum trailer capacity is 3500 lbs. If you put 3501 pounds on, the vehicle isn't going to break. Engineers designed a safety factor into the car. It's designed to withstand 3500 pounds max of dynamic weight, not static weight, before brakes, etc start being affected. There's more than one factor here. The trailer is basically at the max weight, so you would always be at maximum capacity. Ordinary unibodies, even body-on-frame trucks don't do well over the long-term if you constantly pull at nearly the vehicle's maximum rated load -it's not really designed for that. I'd put some breathing room between the maximum trailer capacity and the trailer weight.
no
Maybe I posted in the wrong place?
it's the right place, but even though he tries, Scotty isn't super human