My wife and I are looking for a travel trailer to tow with her 2012 MDX w/Advanced pkg. What weight range should I be looking at? I see some that are between 3,000 & 4,000 lbs and some nicer ones that are between 4,000 & 5,000 lbs. I do not want to get close to the 5,000 limit in fear of burning up a transmission or tearing up something else. There are so many weights given for travel trailers. I've been focusing on the GVWR. I believe that is estimating the trailer and the contents, is that a correct assumption?

Is there a key weight to look at in determining what we can pull? is the 5,000 lb limit considered to be a safe and easy tow?

Thanks

 

Depends on what hitch you buy and how the hitch is hooked up to the trailer.

If you use the OEM Acura Hitch, you can have 500lbs tongue weight (weight applied down on the hitch) and can tow a max of 5,000lbs with proper weight distribution, 4000lbs without the distrubtion and 400lbs for the tongue weight.

Just beware that the 500 tongue weight takes up most of the "interior" weight capacities such as other passengers and cargo.

Change the transmission fluid regularly (every other oil change with heavy towing) and be sure to keep out of overdrive gears (5th & 6th gears) when towing.

Factory Hitch kit did not need a transmission cooler since the car already has one built in.

The biggest issue with towing with the MDX is it's shorter wheelbase and the 500lb tongue limit.

Curt has an excellent guide on it here:
CURT Manufacturing - CURT Class 3 Trailer Hitch #13354

There are a few aftermarket ones that work well! Just be sure they are class 3!

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Lots of information here. I really appreciate it. We had an OEM installed, btw.

 

The 2007-2009 Acura MDX had an internal transmission cooler in the radiator and external one as well. The 2010-2012 mdx cut out the external cooler unless you had the oem tow package from the factory. So if it wasn't factory, look into adding an external cooler. Don't chance it with the semi-glass honda transmissions.

 

If you are camper shopping, I would highly recommend you get a trailer that is dry weight around 3,500 lbs. On average, you'll add another 1,000 lbs in just "stuff". That still leaves you with 500 out of the 5,000 of the rating for our vehicles.
I have not towed with the MDX, but I did with a Honda Odyssey. I made sure I changed the transmission oil every 10k miles and even though the oil didn't look that "dirty," it still gave me piece of mind that I was doing what I could to avoid a transmission issue.
The other are right in terms of the tongue weight and the fact that the wheel base isn't as other better towing vehicles. Lastly, you'll notice that acceleration is going to be very slow and I would highly recommend sticking to towing speeds for what the trailer tires are rated for.
Happy camping!

 

Any further info on that? Is there an OEM part that can be purchased and installed?