I'll second Bill Engle's advice, and my own, to get a load equalizing hitch.
Also called a "load distributing" hitch, it does exactly that: instead of
placing all the vehicle tongue weight on the rear of the tow vehicle, it
distributes it somewhat equally between the front and rear of the tow vehicle.
This distribution is adjustable. You will find the job of towing much more
pleasant. There's less bounce and the steering doesn't get light like with a
trailer bearing down on the back of your vehicle. J.C.Whitney sells an
equalizer setup for about $100. Local shops will charge more, but then you get
their advice. I knew nothing about them going in, went the J.C.Whitney route,
and it was pretty easy to understand.
I would base my decision on trailer weight specs. I'll bet that your car plus
the 14x7 trailer would be considerably less than 5000 pounds.
As far as borrowing a trailer, etc., you may have already noticed that used
trailers are not exactly plentiful. That makes them pretty easy to sell, in
case it doesn't work out to your satisfaction.
"Lee S. Mairs" wrote:
> Thanks for the comments. I've received many "that's the way to go" and
> "your Pathfinder will handle it fine" comments ; however, two actual
> manufacturers state that the biggest trailer that they would sell me for
> that vehicle is a 6'x12' rig that is too small for the Austin Healey 3000.
> The owner's manual says up to 5000# is OK with the automatic transmission,
> but everyone says that I need to also add an ATF cooler and some sort of
> magic "load leveler" hitch.
> Bottom line is that I'm really uncertain now that this is a good thing to
> do. Anymore knowledge out there?
> Lee Mairs
> Northern Virginia
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