Anyone tow with a mini cooper?

[bc555af]

Just finished building our first teardrop. It is a 4x7 built on top of a HF frame. It has no galley and weights in at 500-600 lbs with our small amount of gear. I can lift the hitch with one hand and walk it around the driveway with ease. I have a 2013 (non S) mini cooper hatchback with an automatic trans. I have the hitch and tail light kit ready to be installed. I know people here who tow with a mini cooper, but I am having a hard time finding people who have posted their first hand experiences on towing with one and any problems they have faced. This weekend I have time to install the hitch and after that I plan to use it for quick weekend getaways to the Texas hill country or to the coast. Any information would help!

[Java Jack]

I don't but my trailer is too big for that. However, I know someone that does.

http://www.campinnforum.com/ubbthreads/ ... 797&page=1

He took his CampInn 550 all around the country for several months and documented his adventures.

[Midget]

I just put a trailer hitch on our 2012 Clubman S with automatic. This weekend I'm doing the wiring. Sorry I can't give any driving advice yet. I'm building a Generic Benroy to pull behind it. I'm hoping for a total loaded weight of 1000# and a tongue weight of 100-150#.

Bob

[Java Jack]

By the way, his first day on the road with the Mini Cooper starts on page 4 of that thread about 2/3 of the way down.

[bc555af]

Thanks for the link! Looks like he had little effort with what looks to be a Clubman. Tomorrow morning I will start the installation of the hitch and wiring. The wiring is done exclusively in the tail light access doors in the boot. To get power, you have to tap into the 12V outlet also located in the boot which is great because I was scared to run wiring all the way to the battery. We shall see! I will post pictures of the installation.

[Dale M.]

I had a experience of being behind a Mini with small utility trailer and a rack on top full of what looked like sleeping bags.... Not sure if it was the car or the driver but he was having a really hard time getting up any speed going up hill, (he was down to something like 20 MPH).... Dont think he understood, downshift and keep RPMs up..... Really sad part is he would not use turn outs and by the time he topped the clime there was like 20 cars behind him...

Dale

[Java Jack]

Thanks for the link! Looks like he had little effort with what looks to be a Clubman. Tomorrow morning I will start the installation of the hitch and wiring. The wiring is done exclusively in the tail light access doors in the boot. To get power, you have to tap into the 12V outlet also located in the boot which is great because I was scared to run wiring all the way to the battery. We shall see! I will post pictures of the installation.

Saw this post in that same thread...not sure if you saw it or not.

Hi S&S

I touched on this in an earlier post however did not mention the stiff suspension, the TD drops the back end only slightly. The Mini towed "Dewey" through the Smokeys with little effort, revs were never above 4000 in 3rd on fairly steep 2 lane blacktop, so far so good. We did not anticipate mid 80 degree temps in Florida, we had 2/50 air on (open 2 windows and drive 50 mph) to keep aluminum block cool.

His first few nights were in the great smokey mountains and it sounded like his Mini did great pulling the trailer.

[Midget]

We purchased a wiring kit for our Mini and it comes in two packages. One is the pig tail the has the 4 pin plug for the trailer and a relay box which is fired off the taillight wires. The other is a fused wire that runs up to the battery and supplies power to the modules to run the trailer lights. The Mini computer is very sensitive to the voltage draw from the lights. The power line from the battery is to bypass this. I'm not sure if the auxiliary power source in the back will provide enough power to run the trailer. It would be better to run up to the battery. There are You Tube videos on this installation. Zip ties hold the wire to the fuel lines under the car.

I will be installing the wiring this weekend too!

Bob

[Midget]

This morning I installed the wiring kit. I watched the U-Tube videos and was worried about removing the interior panels. Once I got back there I found I could do most of the work by removing the taillights and only had to pull the driver side panel back to hide the converter. There is a difference between the hardtop and the Clubman. Running the 12 volt supply to the battery was simple once I got the car up a bit. Everything checked out fine. We're ready to tow!

BC555AF - How did your install go?

Bob

[bdosborn]

Here's another mini on the list (not mine):

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=7967

Bruce

[working on it]

There's a member of the S.Central crowd with a MINI. According to his profile, he should have some expertise on MINIs, Saw him, his mini, and dog at Beavers Bend. Nice guy. Send him a PM ???

bdd mini.GIF (21.87 KiB) Viewed 6503 times

[canned o minimum]

Mine's not a Mini Cooper and my trailer weighs in at 820lbs with 3 days of provisions...

My tow vehicle is a 1965 VW Beetle and my best guestimate is... I've logged over50,000 miles towing anywhere from SoCal to Seattle...Arizona,Nevada... and jus about everwhere inbetween. I regularly go into the local mountains to camp with the teardrop...

[mikerueve]

Yep. 2010 Clubman S Auto. My trailer weighs about 1250 pounds loaded. I have no problem going up hills. It's 5 foot wide and I can see out of both mirrors without
mirror extensions.

[wincrasher]

I've towed my T@G with a Miata - both when it was normally aspirated and after I put a blower in it.

The problem with towing with these small cars is not the engine power - they have plenty for this size trailer. It's the stopping/braking. If you don't have high performance brakes on you car (believe they are upgraded for the S model) then you'll need to install a brake controller and use trailer brakes.

[webbaldo]

I towed ours about 1200 miles with a fiat 500, trailer was about 320kg with 30kg nose weight, unbraked. (fiat500 unbraked limit is 400kg)

Only a 1.2 litre but was fine, just no silly moves.


Loads of us in Europe build our caravans light

Long sold on now, just sell the plans now