Sweet you pulled it off! Only pain in doing very often would be taking the rear bumper on and off i guess. What kind of reaction did you get from the sidelines?

 

the last pic makes it look liek the boat is pulling the s2k in the water

 

jesus...with all the punks ripping up their clutches bearboxes drivelines and related components whilst playing " i'm don garlits".....and -get this-..they can't figure out why!!! so some old fart does an ever so reasonable approach to pull his bliss under careful monitoring...then they're ALL OVER HIS ASS !!!


go figure.....oh yea,happy sailing

 

I just skimmed the first page of the other thread. the comment about making the S2000 point up in the air was a silly one. that person obviously hasn't ever towed anything. there is very very little vertical strain on the hitch since a majority of the weight of the towed object(s) is on the wheels of the trailer.

the horizontal strain-- i.e. mass and inertia-- on the other hand, pretty big. esp. considering the tool being used: a low torque, high HP, high RPM, low weight vehicle.

can be done? sure.
would be done by me? never.

 

Oh my......ha,ha,.........I love it. I'm still laughing. Congrats. I used to pull my two snow mobiles with my Subaru outback sedan. Much less of a load than that boat. People would still look at me funny, 'cause everyone else would have some massive truck. Does that trailer have its own brakes?

 

congratulations! I knew it could do it. People are so paranoid.

Do people honestly think that doing 8,000 rpm burn outs and doing red-line in 3rd gear on the freeway is less harmful to their car than slowly pulling a boat on a trailer.

 

I'm sure it can be done, but as Blitz has mentioned, the 4.77 gears does make the job much easier than the stock 4.10's.

On an OEM geared car with Gernby's mods, I'd imagine that if the car was already warmed up/hot and sitting on an uphill slope as pictured with a load like a boat on a trailer, the car may "buck" hard due to increasing ECT's (engine coolant temps), even though IAT's may be lower due to the Hondata Insulator gasket and CAI. Rising ECT's will trigger the ECU to pull away timing without any knocking present (I've confirmed this recently) even though IAT's are cooler than normal. With a load like that, I'd think it could get uglier, but since I haven't tried anything like that, I can't be certain.

I've driven a few pre-MY04 S2000's with passengers on a similar incline at slow speeds (the weight load I believe is significantly less than the pictured boat), and each car bucked really bad unless you slipped that clutch slowly at higher rpms (not a fun experience). If there was a way for me to have a switch which allowed me to choose between 2 different ring and pinion modes like 4.10 for fuel economy and 4.77 for more added torque... I guess I can dream.

 

If i tried it

Bass to the dealer "something is wrong my car"

Dealer to Bass " sorry owner abuse as you clearly towed a boat with your car"

just one more thing the dealers can use to deny warrantee claims


J/K glad it worked for you - I wouldn't but hey i didn't pay for your car

 

send me the vid and i can post it. kwando@gmail.com

 

For those that didn't read the other thread ...

I am not interested in what the car is designed for, or whether it would void my warranty. I just want to be able to tow my boat 1 mile from storage to lake without having to swap vehicles. My S2000 is my daily driver, and I want to be able to spontaneously "hit the lake" on my way home from work.

I removed my bumper cover ONLY to monitor the hitch mounts. I painted all the junction points with paint so I could inspect them later (look for cracks). I won't be removing it each time I tow the boat.

As for the clutch, I was VERY surprised at how little I had to slip it. Once I get the video posted, you will hear it. My clutch has endured many autocrosses and track days in its 48K miles of use, so I was very pleased.

The boat doesn't have brakes, but the S2000 has no problem stopping it. The braking power of the S2000 is probably better than most "tow vehicles" I've seen (10+ year old trucks). That said, I definitely wouldn't tow the boat more that a few miles, and wouldn't get on any highways. The thought of turning at more than 10 MPH gives me chills since the boat / car weight ratio is so large. All of the turning force goes to the REAR tires of the S2000 as the boat tries to go straight.