Towing

[mmmmoto11]

Has anyone put a trailer hitch and towed with a Genesis sedan? I want to purchase a 4.6 sedan and tow a small motorcycle trailer. I see that Curt Manufacturing and Drawtite make and sell a 3500 lb capacity hitch for the sedan, but I would like to hear from others before I actually purchase my 4.6.

Thank you very much for your comments and feedback.

Mike

 

[Mark_888]

The Genesis 4.6 V8 is generally considered to be a bit of overkill in terms of power and torque, so the 4.6 would have no problems in pulling a trailer such as the one you are thinking about.

 

[ctrcbob]

I remember seeing in the owners manual that Hyundai does not recommend towing with the Genesis, HOWEVER, the car has plenty of power for towing, and seeing as Drawtite make a hitch for it, they must have found strong places to attach the hitch. In your case, a Motorcycle Trailer would be no problem. I used to tow an enclosed single bike trailer with many of my cars, including my Continental (Ford says no more than 1000 lbs,) and my set up (Enclosed Chariot model 10-6) with the bike inside, weighed about 2000 lbs.

It could be that Hyundai wants to protect the Transmission. The V8 (ZF) Transmission can probably take the extra load better than the V6 (Aisin) Transmission, but don't know for sure.

I don't know if the Genesis, either transmission, has a transmission cooler or not. (Not the type in the radiator, but the type that sits near the front of the radiator, in the air flow). If you are going to tow any distance, in very hot temperatures, I would add an additional Transmission Cooler, in front of the A/C Condenser. My Continental has an external transmission cooler, so I never added an additional cooler. In previous cars, I always added the aftermarket cooler, connected so that the fluid went to the additional cooler AFTER it left the stock cooler. My automatic cars were always connected this way, be it a 4cylinder Toyota, an 8cylinder Buick or a 6cylinder Chrysler. Never had transmission problems with any of them.

 

[Nabber]

POWER is the very last consideration when addressing towing capability. There are several more important things to consider like:

1. brakes
2. transmission
3. frame rigidity
4. gearing
5. wheelbase
6. cooling

The Genesis certainly has good attributes in many of those categories, except for maybe gearing and wheelbase. I certainly wouldn't use it often to tow.

I traded in a 6.0L Powerstroke Diesel Excursion for the Genesis and it towed well.

 

[Mark_888]

The Genesis certainly has good attributes in many of those categories, except for maybe gearing and wheelbase. I certainly wouldn't use it often to tow.

OTOH, the OP says he wants to tow a small motorcycle trailer. I don't think there would a problem with that for the 4.6 V8 unless he has 4 offensive lineman as passengers at the same time.

 

[Calvin]

I searched and reviewed different options before I purchased my 4.6 since I wanted to make sure that I could put a hitch on her. I have always used DrawTite in the past but I did not want to drill into the chassis. I opted on a Hidden Hitch model that I think is no longer available since they have changed the design. What I liked about it was that it used a "U" clamp on the rear muffler bracket instead of drilling. It was rated for 3500 lbs but since I will only be towing around 1200 lbs (wave runner and single trailer) I decided to make some additional modifications. The original hitch mounted fairly easily but it looked awful hanging out below the car. Unfortunately there is no way of hiding it since the spare tire pan runs right to the rear bumper. I opted to cut the unit off flush with the spare tire pan and use some high tensile strength bolts to reattach the hitch as needed. For me it is the best of both worlds! I have towing capacity of around 1500 lbs (per my crude calculations) and when not in use there is no visible sign of a hitch! It does add a little extra time to mount the hitch, about 10 min. but for me it is well worth it. I will have to take some pictures so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about!

 

[Raoul]

OTOH, the OP says he wants to tow a small motorcycle trailer. I don't think there would a problem with that for the 4.6 V8 unless he has 4 offensive lineman as passengers at the same time.

My brother was an offensive lineman for the U of Washington Huskies. They went to Disneyland as part of their Rose Bowl trip one year.

Suffice it to say, the braking system on the Matterhorn proved inadequate for four lineman.

 

[Gunkk]

An impressive feat of threat necropsy -- a fine way to introduce yourself to the forum!

J/K and welcome.

 

[Rich20017]

Thoughts, 2017 3.3 g90 towing single 6x12 inclosed trailer?

 

[Rich20017]

Seems too heavy, looking at same but 4x8?

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[Ninja400]

6x12 enclosed would be pushing the limits of what you want to do with a sedan, I think. But the G90 is a massive heavy sedan so probably one of the best sedans to try towing a big trailer with. One issue is that you'll need a higher tongue weight; the suspension on this car may be able to handle it but you'll have to try it and see. More importantly, enclosed trailers create a lot of drag so you'll probably want to investigate additional transmission cooling for the auto transmission. I wonder if an OBD scanner will let you see the transmission fluid temperature. I have seen a ~20-30 year old Camry towing a big enclosed trailer so it's probably doable.

4x8 utility trailer is definitely doable. I currently tow a 4x8 with my 1.5t stick shift Honda Civic, loaded weight 700 lb. I'll be putting a hitch on my G90 when it's delivered since I will need to tow the trailer with it. Ground clearance on the rear may be a slight issue since there's a long rear overhang. Being careful and going over steep dips/hills diagonally should probably be enough to work around that. The transmission is designed to handle 420hp from the V8, so I don't think the bit of extra load a utility trailer adds will stress the transmission much. I might still get a OBD scanner and try to see the transmission oil temp just out of curiosity.

For a 4x8 enclosed you'll want to make sure that the transmission is adequately cooled.

Anyway, this is the 2009-2014 Genesis (G80) forum, it would be better form to make a thread about this on the G90 forum instead of reviving this 12 year old thread.