By
bhp, April 30, 2015
I sold my bigger boat that I used to tow with dodge caravan. after selling both
I am thinking about getting a 200 lbs aluminum fishing boat +200 lbs trailer + 100lb motor
so aprox 500- 600 lbs of towing.
Is this easy for the corolla ??
I mean, little difference in acceleration and braking ??
Should it be easy to launch in moderate sloped marinas ??
Thanks..
Shouldn't be an issue with the Corolla. Acceleration and braking - acceleration shouldn't be affect too much, Corolla isn't a sports car - but has a decent amount of low end power. Just need to plan on leaving some extra space to slow down, but shouldn't be too bad to get used to.
As for launching from a sloped ramp, as long as your drive wheels stay out of the water, should be good to go. I actually find it way easier to launch with a FWD than RWD in that situation, as the rear tires will almost always be touching wet pavement.
fish , is it true that the rear wheel bearings being sealed , is not damaged by
water itself, but by sudden cooling if it gets immersed in water like trailer wheels ??
Sometimes - depends on the situation. In that particular case, the cool water vs hot bearing, water will cause the bearing cap to shrink allowing a small about of water to be sucked right into the assembly. On the car, those bearings - due to size, generally don't get excessively hot. But are not as tightly sealed as trailer hubs and could get water in them. Fortunately, I don't think they trap water as readily as they used to. Atleast I haven't run in any issues yet (knock on wood).
For whatever it's worth...I had a Yaris 1.5L with a tow hitch, and I used it to tow a 150-lb trailer and a 300-lb dirtbike.
The car really struggled on big hills in the hill country in central Texas. I remember struggling to stay at 50 mph, while traffic was flying by me. Trying to stop at the bottom of the hill was scary sometimes. On flat terrain, I didn't notice any difference in acceleration. But on the hills I sure did.
I was worried about the legality of it. So I ended up buying a second-hand truck. The fact is that I was towing with an aftermarket hitch and that owners manual says do not use the car to tow anything. And if I were to get into an accident, a savvy ambulance chaser (lawyer) would probably use that successfully against me. Something to think about.
^^^ That's a great point, not all cars can tow or should tow.
In this case, would be a non-issue on the Corolla, from a legal standpoint, as the is spec'd to take a Class-I trailer with a max towable limit of 1500lbs.
With his expected trailer weight that will stay inside of the car's max GVWR. Granted, this trailer rating system is pretty poorly explained, even the sale's people don't know - very consuming concept.
Example (rounded the numbers to make the math simple):
9th gen Corolla GVWR is about 4100 lbs
9th gen Corolla curb weight is about 2600 lbs
4100 lbs - 2600 lbs = 1500 lbs, which just happens to be the max "tow rating".
ACTUAL towable weight is NOT 1500 lbs
1500 lbs - [ passengers + cargo + fuel + (say 850 lbs) + trailer tongue weight (600lb trailer, 15% is 90 lbs) ] = 560 lbs, well inside the GVWR
The remaining capacity, I try and keep the trailer weight below that. That trailer can technically be higher, as you just need to account for the tongue load - but I find that if I add the weight of the trailer as well - the car's brakes and engine can keep up pretty well.
Steep hills and long grades, especially if you have the A/C running - that will take a toll on any car. Most find that their max tolerable towing speed is around 50-55MPH anyways. Depends on your route and if it is windy that day or not.
Dan_H
I no longer have my 8th gen Corolla, but I used it to pull another car on a trailer for more than 7K miles...
No problems on hills, including two round trips through Raton Pass. 
It's not what you're thinking...
99 VE towing about 800lbs, plus spare set of wheels/tires in the trunk. 
A 500lb boat should be be fine.
