Towing with Honda Oddy

Would anyone who has (or is currently) personally towed with a Honda Oddy care to share their personal experience?

Background: I have been using an 05 Oddy/w coolers for about 6 months to tow a 17 ft bowrider. There are some great aspects to it (seating and cargo volume, it's paid for), and some terrible aspects. It will take a couple thousand to bring this setup up to acceptable standards (trailer brakes, some unrelated maintenance issues, etc). So the choices are to spend 2 or 3K and keep the Oddy, or just buy something else. (Tundra or Taco at this point, and I'm guessing trailer brakes would be a waste of money if the towing with a Tundra.)

I have already read numerous threads on towing, and really, I respect everyone else's more experienced opinion: however, I am soliciting advice from folks who have actually used a similar van/boat combo - not just heard from a friend or seen at the dock.

Thanks!

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Not the best idea. I was a Honda Technician from 2001 til 2009 when I opened my own shop.
I love the Odyssey but heat kills the transmissions. Towing creates heat. Not saying it cant be done , but I would definatly install the biggest trans cooler you can find and change fluid EVERY 30k miles. If not plan on an early rebuild as they have problems without towing. When the body style was changed in 2005 trans was improved but still not heavy duty. 99 to 03 you will need a trans early due to towing.............
sorry to spread the bad news

As far as another tow vehicle goes. I have towed with a nissan hardbody and 2 full size gmc 1500 trucks. I like long wheel base for towing and enough power to pull my load ok. Any truck small or large will be better equiped then the Odyssey for towing in regards to the trans and suspension. If you are set on a van then try to find a van on truck chassis like the gmc safari / chevy astro. It is same trans/engine in s10 and blazer but way more interior space.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Sounds like wcsellers is well qualified to speak to the Ody's capabilities. I towed my 18 ft bowrider with a Kia Sedona minivan over 400 miles each way multiple times during the summer months. I was within my tow limits fully loaded family, gear, etc.

My van did have a factory tranny cooler and I did change the tranny fluid yearly b/c of the added towing duty. Its also extremely flat here, so no extreme grades to worry about.

Hopefully wcsellers can speak to the Ody's brakes, as that was really the only issue I had was rotors warping...but that was a known flaw with the Kia van.

You certainly do not need a diesel crew cab pickup to tow a 17ft bowrider...a 17ft bowrider...let's keep in mind what he's towing.

So..while not your exact setup, I know what towing with a minivan is like, done it for years. That said, I did recently make the switch to a well cared for 2002 Chevy Avalanche. All the room for the family, and better suited for towing my 2 boats. (But...I live up North and wanted something that would also perform better in the winter.)

I guess its ultimately up to you...if I was towing the boat a lot...I'd probably suggest changing vehicles, if its a couple times a month, and its easy on the van, then I'd add the tranny cooler as suggested and keep what you have.

(Hopefully that helps, I know you wanted Ody specific feedback...)

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

as far as brakes are concerned, the Odyssey has great brakes. I have had a problem with warped rotors towing on any vehicle if you heat them up alot. Odyssey may have more problems then a full sized truck but it will get the job done. Depending upon the weight on the 17 ft'er it may not need trailer brakes but they would help. If you keep warping rotors try some slotted and driled ones as they disipate heat better

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

FlyGuy65 said:

Would anyone who has (or is currently) personally towed with a Honda Oddy care to share their personal experience?

Background: I have been using an 05 Oddy/w coolers for about 6 months to tow a 17 ft bowrider. There are some great aspects to it (seating and cargo volume, it's paid for), and some terrible aspects. It will take a couple thousand to bring this setup up to acceptable standards (trailer brakes, some unrelated maintenance issues, etc). So the choices are to spend 2 or 3K and keep the Oddy, or just buy something else. (Tundra or Taco at this point, and I'm guessing trailer brakes would be a waste of money if the towing with a Tundra.)

I have already read numerous threads on towing, and really, I respect everyone else's more experienced opinion: however, I am soliciting advice from folks who have actually used a similar van/boat combo - not just heard from a friend or seen at the dock.

Thanks!

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You could spend 3K on it, but your still going to have a 6 year old vehicle that could break at anytime. If I was you, I would consider spending that 3K on a down payment on the Tundra.

Now, I don't own a Honda van, but I have a good friend who does. He doesn't pull anything with his and the tranny went out real close to the 100K mark. He told me its a common issue with those vans (I have no idea if that's true or not). Maybe it is true since there is a dedicated website for it: http://www.odysseytransmission.com/

Now, as a Tundra owner... I can tell you that you won't even know your pulling a 17 foot bowrider. My boat is real close to 5000 lbs and I can't really tell its behind the truck (its funny how the gas gauge knows) but the truck actually rides better down the highway with the boat in tow.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

I have '06 Ody, with factory coolers, and I have towed my 3500lb 18footer (2600 + 740 + change). I don't like to.

Two or three 70 mile tows (to get it to the lake and back etc) but now the boat stays there year round. I used to tow it 8 miles to and from the ramp (now is dry docked).

I took out the extra seats - 150 pounds. And to drive solo sans family. And tried to plan a half-to 1/4-full tank in both vehicles.

I'm glad I won't have to tow much anymore with it; it pulled up the ramp very well. It would lose speed up gentle rollers. Stopping was slow.

As in the other "can i tow with this threads", yes I can and did, but I don't like to. Will I tow with it in the future - yes for the 8 miles to the marina if need.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

The Odyssey starts with a towing capacity of 3500 lb and you need to subtract the weight of the passengers and cargo from that so your towing capacity drops rapidly. Whether or not you need trailer brakes depends on the weight of the boat and trailer and what your state law says. A mid sized pickup or SUV should tow that boat easily.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

My wife drives our 06 Odyssey and when I drive it I think it's great for moving kids. Moving boats, I wouldn't feel so good.

wcsellers said:

I love the Odyssey but heat kills the transmissions.

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My Odyssey hasen't hauled a thing, nothing. Barely 100,000 miles on it and just coughed up $3,400 for a new transmission.

Man did that hurt. For that reason alone I wouldn't haul your boat with that Odyssey.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Regarding trailer brakes -- it doesn't matter what you tow with. If the trailer brake laws in your state exceed their limit you need brakes. Doesn't matter if you are towing with a Peterbuilt. In most states that limit is 3000 - 3500 pounds and there is a listing by state in the stickies at the top fo this forum..

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Do some searching on the internet about "Odyssey transmission" and you will probably not tow with your Oddy anymore. I tow my little jon boat (700# total) with our 01 Accord, but it's not any more than if I had the car loaded up with people. (Oddy/Accord transmission are the same, similar, close enough to have the same problems)

jasoutside said:

My Odyssey hasen't hauled a thing, nothing. Barely 100,000 miles on it and just coughed up $3,400 for a new transmission.

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Our 01 Accord's (similar to an Oddy) transmission is beginning to act up, missed shift and the check engine light came on. Oh boy,,, here we go! These transmissions (Oddy/accord) are pretty weak and have a bad rep.

Here's something weird, when I took this car in for it's second oil change (I did the dealer thing while under warranty) they said I needed to change the tranny fluid,, AT 10K MILES I told the service manager that 10K ridiculous (owners manual said 30K), but they changed the ATF any way,,, for free. Free? hmm something has to be going on here??? The tranny always had quirky shifting, hesitates, and they blamed it on the tranny/ECM's "Grade Logic". Whatever, I just hated the way the tranny shifted.

Since the service manager alluded to some sort of problem (at 10K) I have been changing the tranny fluid every 2 oil changes, 10K miles. Changing the tranny fluid on these is easy since there is NO FILTER! WT* were they thinking, no filter? Well there is a filter (more of a strainer I guess) but it's internal the the tranny and you have to disassemble the tranny to replace it, nice design feature

After the tranny mis-shifted and the CEL came on, I went and flushed (for lack of a better term) the crap out of the tranny. It's about the only thing you can do to these from what I've read. I bought a case of Dextron and a case of Honda Z1, then started changing the oil and driving 20 miles until I went through all of the fluid. By the time I had gone through all of the Dextron the fluid was draining clear and there was no metal residue on the plug. Then I had to do the same thing with the Honda Z-1; drain, re-fill and drive until I had gone through the case of Z-1.

Since the mis-shift and CEL light I stopped towing with the Accord, no use pushing it... I drive this car for work and it's like driving a ticking time bomb, it's going to puke, but when...

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

I have no direct experience with the Honda but from a resale standpoint I think many people will shy away from buying your van if it shows any signs of towing anything regularly.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

We tow our 2004 20' Stingray with my wife's 2003 Odyssey. Yeah, the one with the notoriously weak transmissions. Thankfully the boat ramp is only 4 1/2 miles from our house.

I think that this van is terrible for towing. Sure, it'll do it and it actually pulls and stops the boat well. Stingrays are lightweight boats and the tandem axle trailer does have brakes so the van does a nice job for our 9 mile roundtrips. You must use Drive 3 (3rd gear) for towing. When the speed limit is only 35 mph, its fine and the engine isn't turning too many rpm. Try to get out on the interstate with this tow combo and the tach will be spinning to the moon!

I've already done the multi quart, tranny oil change like fishrdan mentioned. Its about time that I start thinking about doing it again.

Like I said, its fine for our 9 mile roundtrips but I'm on the lookout for a real tow vehicle so that we can travel with our boat. I'd love to take it to Lake Murray in Columbia, SC where my parents and my sister and her family live.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Guess you got some great feedback here !!!!
You need to do some weight calculations before making any decision in my opinion.
Just my 2 cents though.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Air bags on the rear suspension are a great upgrade on the Ody, and are very cheap.

Trailer brakes would be an awesome addition regardless of the trailer/boat weight. Electric over hydraulic would be ideal.

If you are in the market for another car, it's obvious that you should get one more suited for towing, but it will always be cheaper to maintain and repair the older vehicle, regardless.

Automatic transmissions only generate excess heat while shifting. The heat is caused by the slipping necessary to keep the shifts smooth. The easiest way to prevent excess heat while towing is to let the transmission shift (up or down) on a lifted throttle. That's easy to do while upshifting as it will want to up shift when you lift the throttle anyway. Downshifts on a lifted throttle require some manual intervention. This comes into play while hill climbing. If you suspect you'll need a lower gear to climb a hill, lift the throttle and down shift manually to that lower gear before you start climbing. Yeah, the engine is going to rev up for the entire climb, but that won't hurt a thing. If the transmission keeps downshifting on it's own while you are driving, you should manually downshift until conditions change.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Mischief Managed said:

Automatic transmissions only generate excess heat while shifting.

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Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

fishrdan said:

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Yeah, I realize that's not entirely true, but it's the shifting that really strains them. The heat generated by having extra load on the planetary gearsets is not nearly as locally intense as the heat generated by the bands when they are slipping. It's the very intense local heat that destroys the fluid, not the slightly elevated overal transmission temperature.

A friend of mine used to own a transmission shop and he gave me great advice about always shifting on a lifted throttle. I'm certain that's why my original '99 Durango transmission still works perfectly after 130,000+ miles of towing 7000+ lbs.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

mini vans are not made for towing boats...get a SUV or a full size truck...you can get a good used one for less than a new transmission for that van..I do the trans oil change every time I change my synthetic mobile 1 oil..about every 7000 miles., same for my accord..no trans problems yet.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

We looked at the Odyssey when we bought our new van and and quickly learned of the really bad tranny problems with the oddy. Even the wikipedia page for the honda odyssey talks about the poor transmission issues associated with certain years. In the end we ended up going with the Nissan Quest.

Not sure how much better the Nissan tranny is but so far so good. Reading this thread makes me want to flush the transmission on the quest. It's cheaper than a new tranny.

Re: Towing with Honda Oddy

Here is my take and suggestion on this.
Clearly towing is better done with a rear traction vehicle with bigger engine and towing capacity. But lets give the Honda engineers some credit, they create great reliable fuel efficient vehicles, and the rated 3500 lb for Odissey towing capacity must have been well thought out.
The Honda pilot has the same 3.7L engine, with a few tweaks, and same exact towing capacity on the 2WD version. On the 4WD it goes up by a 1,000 lb to 4500 lb. Same engine.
My wife has had her 2000 Odissey for 10 years without any problems except for a recent but leaky oil pump replaced, making 240,000 miles of worry free drive. I am going to set it up to tow my 3,200 lb (sailboat + single axle aluminum trailer), installing the power steering and transmission fluid coolers.
Here is my approach: I will remove the midle row seats, on my LX they are 49 lb each, so I am removing about 100 lbs. Then I will fold the backrow seat, and use the large flat space for gear, moving it as far forward as possible. For longer drives, alone (I don't expect more than one occasional companion at the most) I will try to get my keel on the back space of the Odissey, over a crate, thus reducing tongue weight. The fin keel of this sailboat is long and it is removed to lower the boat for trailering. I don't expect to be towing a lot long distance, but will move the boat around at the marina a lot, for single point launch w/ a crane.
I will let you know if it does not work out, but I think it will.