What Have You Towed With Your Stagea Lately?

[Duncan]

Well on the back of "What have you done to your Stagea lately" and "What have you put in the back of your Stagea lately", here is the Stagea towing thread....

We used the ours to tow the race car to Targa High Country at Mt Buller and back on the weekend, did a great job and didn't miss a beat on the way.

It sits a little nose up; we could go harder springs in the rear but it gets used without the trailer regularly so I am happy with the current compromise.

The tow bar is 2t and came from Towbars of Woden in the ACT; I spoke to them the other day and unfortunately they don't make them any more but I have seen a few threads from other shops in this section

[KiwiRS4T]

Slightly off topic but what are the specs of the Skyline?

[MBS206]

And how many fuel ups did she need?

[Duncan]

Hey Bob, I've actually been meaning to start a thread on it so I'll put the details there. Its a production race car (CAMS 3E) so the only changes are shocks/springs, adjustable bushes, radiator and oil cooler, nitto oil pump, sump extension, power FC, undercar surge tank, front calipers and safety gear inside (cage, seats, harness, kill switch etc). Standard (n1) brake disc size front and rear, standard calipers on the rear. Standard cams, capacity, turbs, gearbox, diff ratios from GTS4 but otherwise standard too.

And Matt...we agreed it was even worse than Neil's patrol on fuel, we were getting about 300 to a tank. On the bright side that was a lot of stop/revive/survie, or in Neil's case stop/pee/smoke

[-oliveR]

Ive been towing my car with the Stagea for about 2 years now, have done about 10,000kms and it's still going sweet. When I was in Sydney, it went to Wakefield a handful of times, down to Winton and back 4 times, then up to QLD and towed all the way down to melbourne because I moved house.

Usually get ~600kms per tank towing on the highway, which is pretty good considering it's carrying 1800kg. I've got a PWR trans cooler and 33 GTR Brembo's to help it stop a little better. Planning on getting some airbags so I can raise the rear a bit when it's towing. The tow bar was made by Locsed products in melbourne and it works great!

Also Duncan, not sure if you remember, we met at a servo about 18 months ago when I was on my way to wakefield.

Pic is from last month, going to QLD for matsuri.

[Duncan]

again damn I prefer your fuel economy.

when you say fit air bags to the back, does the m35 have separate coils to springs (ie not coilover)? Not really an option for C34 unfortunately

[-oliveR]

Yeh spring and shock are seperate. I've heard/read they have the same setup as a V35 skyline or the Infiniti G35 and because they are popular in the U.S there are plenty of airbag kits available. I just need to confirm it before I jump in and spend $2k+ on a set

[Atik]

First time towing a few months ago and it was a bit of big one! Helped my brother move which involved a round trip of nearly 900 miles, six fuel stops and the best part of two days of driving!

Loaded up the trailer, inside of the car AND the inside of my brothers estate car with almost no room to spare. Dont have pics of it loaded as it was wet and cold while we loaded and drove down.

A little nerve wracking as the trailer was very old (loaned from a friend) and very rickety. I ended up losing the bolt on the rear left corner 15 miles into the trip and had to pull up on the side of the motorway to put a ratchet strap on to hold it square!

Other than that, the car performed faultlessly the whole way! I even have my own trailer now so no more rickety loans!

[Dan_J]

duncan,
your trailer combo looks sleek yet doesn't seem like a light weight, still tows fine at speed with no sway ?

Yeh spring and shock are seperate. I've heard/read they have the same setup as a V35 skyline or the Infiniti G35 and because they are popular in the U.S there are plenty of airbag kits available. I just need to confirm it before I jump in and spend $2k+ on a set

most dont tow cars with the m35 as they say the chassis is weak so top effort at keeping at it

2K for an air bag set up?

just buy in aus its a pretty universal thing

pair of bags are bout 300 or less

alloy air tank 120-200

lines and fittings 100?

air compressor 50-150

[WAGON_BOY]

I've always been told you can't tow anything heavy with the M35 as its Alloy and has no chassis rail in the back very interested to see how the tow bar is fitted etc

Have you got any photo's WE4PON ???

I would like to tow my RX7 with the Stagea if it's possible which by your account is!!!

[-oliveR]

most dont tow cars with the m35 as they say the chassis is weak so top effort at keeping at it

2K for an air bag set up?

just buy in aus its a pretty universal thing

pair of bags are bout 300 or less

alloy air tank 120-200

lines and fittings 100?

air compressor 50-150

Thanks!

Which bags in Aus are you talking about? I've only seen ones at pedders and a couple other places but they need to pumped up manually each time you want to use them. I'd rather them controlled by switches, mainly because it's faster and easier + would be nice to do a neat setup beside my steering wheel.

Keen for more info on this

I've always been told you can't tow anything heavy with the M35 as its Alloy and has no chassis rail in the back very interested to see how the tow bar is fitted etc

Have you got any photo's WE4PON ???

I would like to tow my RX7 with the Stagea if it's possible which by your account is!!!

I check my subframe quite often to make sure everything is still ok. Haven't found any damage/cracks yet so it's still good to go

I'll have to get some photo's next time I'm under the car, the tow bar goes around the tank and is bolted left side above exhaust and right side in the same area. Also has cylinders through the chassis where the tow bar is bolted up to stop it flexing/causing more stress.

[Dobo]

My Stags become quite a tow broad minded person recently. Winton once, Calder 3 times and couple of shuffling cars around. Got electronic brakes now which makes a huge difference. Best thing ever for towing. Still pretty average economy though, ~17l/100kms. hoping to get a tune soon see i can make it a little better.

[Duncan]

haha good to see this thread kicking off

duncan,

your trailer combo looks sleek yet doesn't seem like a light weight, still tows fine at speed with no sway ?

yeah it is 700kg trailer +1500kg car so pretty heavy. But sway comes from crooked trailer wheel alignment or poor (rearward) weight distribution on the trailer. This one is rock solid at every speed I've run it at, behind both the stag and my ute. It also has 4wheel electric brakes, they are awesome, for example they did all the braking on the way down Mt Buller with the race car on the back without issue. The other great thing about electric brakes is you can manually operate them if it did sway which will stop it straight away....I know of 2 cars that have gone around due to a swaying trailer (one went over too if I remember correctly)

I've always been told you can't tow anything heavy with the M35 as its Alloy and has no chassis rail in the back very interested to see how the tow bar is fitted etc

Yeah I've seen multiple cracked M35 subframes, but there is no guarantee that was due to high loads like trailers....good to see this one is going well

[-oliveR]

Thought I might throw up some more pics.

Towed the drift cars around a few times over the past couple months. 180x to a friends fab shop to get a new exhaust in october and S13 to same place so we can start on tube frame!

I've also been looking through air bag setups and there is a company in the u.s (air force susp) that makes a set for m35 so might be a possibility for people wanting them. I'll be saving $$ to try and get a set later this year.

Who else on here tows with an autech m35? Curious to hear about other peoples experiences

Edited January 11, 2015 by -oliveR

[Hertz Donut]

You sure the bags aren't for an Infiniti M35? That's the equivalent of a Nissan Fuga, same FM platform as the Stagea but unless they're for an AWD model I wouldn't expect them to fit without modifying. Maybe a G35X setup would be closer.

I must say though, seeing what you tow makes me feel better about pulling my little old (heavily overloaded 1830x1350) single-axle trailer around after reading stories of ripped subframes etc. I know it's all in the mounting but I don't tow over a ton with it so my mind is at ease. In fact, I'm loading both the car and trailer up for a 300km trip tomorrow, the boot's so full I'm close to tucking tyre.

[-oliveR]

You sure the bags aren't for an Infiniti M35? That's the equivalent of a Nissan Fuga, same FM platform as the Stagea but unless they're for an AWD model I wouldn't expect them to fit without modifying. Maybe a G35X setup would be closer.

I must say though, seeing what you tow makes me feel better about pulling my little old (heavily overloaded 1830x1350) single-axle trailer around after reading stories of ripped subframes etc. I know it's all in the mounting but I don't tow over a ton with it so my mind is at ease. In fact, I'm loading both the car and trailer up for a 300km trip tomorrow, the boot's so full I'm close to tucking tyre.

Ive already asked if they do an AWD version to suit my car and they have confirmed it. Ive emailed loads of pictures and setup info to them and they have said they have bags to suit. Guess ill find out when I get them.

I never tow anything over ~2tonne so I dont overload the car. Yes i am worried about subframe problems but so far ive had a very good run with it

[Daleo]

Ive already asked if they do an AWD version to suit my car and they have confirmed it. Ive emailed loads of pictures and setup info to them and they have said they have bags to suit. Guess ill find out when I get them.

I never tow anything over ~2tonne so I dont overload the car. Yes i am worried about subframe problems but so far ive had a very good run with it

Errr, considering the car only weighs 1800kgs MAX; you are actually comprehensively overloading the car. You cannot legally tow a trailer whose load exceeds the weight of the vehicle towing it. The maximum towing weight is set by the towbar manufacturer; in the absence of a recommendation from the vehicle manufacturer.

None of the towbars that I've seen run a reaction arm under the boot floor, so any load is basically concentrated solely on the rear bumper mounts, and the front of rear of the wheelwell floor. This is why they won't rate towbars over 1400kg, as there simply isn't enough structure to take the loads exerted by a heavy trailer.

I know you can rig any trailer which is balanced correctly, to only have a 100kg ball load; but all of this goes out the window once you start looking at what happens DYNAMICALLY, especially in an emergency braking situation, or a swerve.

There is NO WAY the standard brakes are in any way capable of stopping the car properly with a 500-750kg car trailer with a 1200-1500kg car strapped to it.

There's a million different answers to my argument, I realise; but just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do it.

There are so many safe ways to tow race cars; this ISN'T one of them.

[Duncan]

Towed the leaf (1800kg) to the Nulon nationals motorkhana yesterday....

[Duncan]

BTW Dale in NSW it is the manufacturer's recommended weight, or 1.5 times the weight of the tow car if there is no manufacturer weight (which I guess is the case with most imports, since the RAWS is considered the manufacturer).

[PN-Mad]

Towed the leaf (1800kg) to the Nulon nationals motorkhana yesterday....mms_20150118_154530.jpg

Hahahahahah, did you almost make it home? Or was this on the way?