You May Kill Me But..

yeah u read right.

i want to apply a hitch for towing a horse trailer. anyone ever tryed out?

AND YEAH it will be removable in seconds and ill glass the rear bumper that u cant tell if disassembled. i dont like the look of a hitch on the ho too.

now kill me

[Molson]

Towing a horse trailer with your alero? With a horse in it? You will be WAY overweight, plus I'm not even sure you can get a class 3 for the alero.

what is overweight for the alero, and what is class 3?

[Molson]

If you don't know, DON'T tow a horse trailer. There are different classes of hitches, to deal with different weight limits. You CAN but a hitch on an Alero, a class 1 or 2, the most I would pull with it is a seadoo or 2, a small aluminum boat and maybe a tent trailer, nothing heavier.

Edit: Towing capacity for Alero: 1000 pounds.

If you don't know, DON'T tow a horse trailer.

seems we have a smartass here. boy, i'm former military truck driver, and i got licenses for EVERYTHING that has wheels or chains and needs one. so dont try to lecture me like this.

having this settled, the hitch that is offered for the alero here in germany can tow up to 1750kg. horse trailers here are bout 600kg (+horses weight). they are equipped with an own braking system.

so my question again.. anyone tried out mounting a hitch on the ho?

edit: a friend of mine pulls one with a crappy vw passat, its a way lighter and undermotorized car, but it worx even with 2 horses, and he has a legal paper for it.

read the edit.. 1000 pounds is ~450kg. thats a quite common limit here for unbraked trailers. the limit for self braking trailers usually is the car's empty weight. which is ~1450 kg for the ho or so

edit: are the trailers in the us usually w/o braking system, so that there is no difference in the towing limits?

[3.4 Euro Alero]

I spoke to a few different hitch installation dealers here in town, and all basically said that even though the max towing capacity is 1000lbs, you could get away with 1500.......but none recommended any more. They all also said that if any hills are involved, a tranny cooler would be necessary! I really personally would not be towing what you have planned unless the car is now disposable to you.

its a very good tip to install a tranny cooler. i will do that before i install a hitch. would have forgotten bout it.

the thing i dun understand.. with small german cars, even if theyre equipped with automatic trans., ure allowed to tow at least ~1100kg ... the alero is a way bigger, heavyer and stronger car.. so y?...

[3.4 Euro Alero]

There are many factors, I think one of the most important is the actual stregnth of the car or "frame". If you check it out, some of the GM minivans with our 3.4 can tow twice as much or more than us, so the engine is not the main issue here.

[Molson]

Sorry, didn't mean to come off as a smart ass. I would have thought that if you have towed/driven everying you'd know what class 3 is, but I forgot about you being from Germany, my apologies.

I would still not recommend towing a horse trailer with an alero, but its your car. Here, in Ontario, it would be illegal. I'm just telling you what I know.

[pawzbear]

doesnt the typical horse, all by itself, without the trailer, weigh around 1000lbs avg? usually more??
I have owned and been around horses for YEARS. Dont tow a horse trailer with an alero..

I have a hitch on my Alero. I've towed up to about 1,200lbs with it. That was a boat, and it wasn't very fun. I mean, go ahead and do what you want, but do it in D3, slow the hell down and be careful.

Have you pulled horses before? Those beasts are heavy. They also like to play with you, rocking around back there. A small car like an Alero is no match for two horses if they get it in their heads to get you off the road. Horse trailers are usually pretty stout, too. The ones I've seen are built to carry two huge animals' weight.

Just consider your total load when you figure it, horses and all. Don't forget tongue weight either.

now that u all are not recommending it, im seriously doubtful bout installing one. seems like i should go to a legal technichian and let him make an expertise bout that. it will cost sum bux, but im not game for buyin a second car fo that.

and yea a horse's weight is around that weight u mentioned

a friend of mine pulls legally one with a vw passat, actually i towed one once with a mercedes C 180. and.. THIS is a small car.

in europe, an alero is one of the biggest common cars around. thats why im so curious bout that.

edit: uh, lindsey, would you mind showing a pic of your rear bumper that i can see how to solve the cutout for it?

Maybe you should get an opinion from someone there. We may have no idea what kind of hitch, trailer, and horse you're planning on towing/towing with. Like you said, it's a totally different automotive culture.

My mom's best friend has horses, and I know if I hooked up to her trailer and horses with my car, I'd leave my bumper there before I pulled it up the hill from the barn. Her old truck even has a hard time with them if they get in a mood and start rocking the thing going up a hill.

But if you have a hitch designed to do it, a lighter trailer, and one horse, you might be fine. I want to see a picture if you do though.

Edit: This thread has some pics of my hitch: http://invision.aleromod.com/index.p...opic=13466&hl=

There's no cutout.

sum good things i learned yet from this topic:

- it appears american trailers have no own braking system @_@ *confused*

- installing a tranny cooler is fundamental, the more i think bout it.

- ill have a frame expertise from an official technichian to see if the alero is worse then german or even japanese ones.. cuz they are allowed.

and at last but not least:

would you mind showing a pic of your rear bumper that i can see how to solve the cutout for it? - ah u edited sum. thank you!!!

edit: spelloz, best i can XD sorry

Some trailers here have brakes, but it's not required that they all do. The laws are complicated as to which ones require them and which ones don't. The ones you'll see in those pictures don't have brakes. Overdrive75's boat trailer has brakes, but his snowmobile trailer doesn't. Once you get into bigger ones they all do, some are surge, some are electric, some are electric over hydraulic. It's so stupid that there isn't a standard.

yeah its not good that there isnt a standard.

like i said, in common, nearlly every trailer for cars has brakes, its mechanic solved. in the towing bar of the trailer is a cylinder installed, that recognizes when the trailer begins to push the car, it activates the brakes of the trailer. for example when u brake your car, the trailer is supposed to pull the car for +20% more brake power that would be needed. its checked all 2 years by the officials on trailers. (like every car has to be checked all 2yrs here)

every town has one 'technical supervision office' with various tests they have to do. this guys are the ones where i will have an oppinion bout it.

lindsey, ur hitch is well applied, i hope i find one, too where i wont have to cut.

btw:
here is an advert of a dealer. even here u can see its connected to a small old E-class benz if u look properly.

http://images.google.de/images?q=tbn:rgRck...et/DSCF1962.jpg
EVEN bmw 3-series!

here full screen for mercedes e-class.

[the.saint]

the maxweightlimit I am legally allowed to tow behind my 3.4 in the Netherlands is: 454 KG / 1001,7 Pounds.
This is indicated on my papers and I would guess ithere's a rerason for it and I also always thought, that the EU rules for imports were uniform thruout the EC