# Towing with the CTD



## Grr (May 14, 2014)

Thought I would share my experience towing my small camper with this thing. What an awesome car, really handled it well for the most part.

i used the curt hitch which fits great, and the curt trailer wiring adapter. The camper is 7 wire and the adapter is a 4 wire with a small control box. I did not run the 12v wire as I didn't need it and was out of time. Come to find out evidently the control box needs 12v to operate as I had no lights, so that needs to be done.

so my camper is a 15' [email protected] which is about 1475# empty.












First 70 miles of my trip I was in some pretty decent hills with a 30mph headwind, and the car would do about 65mph wide open in 4th gear uphill. I set the cruise at 64 and averaged 16.7mpg. It was also 95* though and it was just killing the power. As the wind died down it went up considerably.

i filled up and wind was 10mph or so, temp dropped to 80-85 and the car could easily pull 75mph and after trying every speed the magic number is 67 in 5th gear. For the remainder of the interstate trip it averaged 18.7mpg with the ac blowing cold.











i had another 50 miles to go on 2 lane 60mph stuff and tried everything from 52-67 and oddly the car gets the same mileage from 62-67, but with the ac off and running 57-58mph it would pull 22-24 and you could barely tell the camper was back there











couple other points, even at 95* 30mph wind and the ac on the temp gauge never moved. As far as the car it was rock solid and could be driven with one finger the whole time even in the wind. It was also funny passing 1 ton pickups with 5th wheel campers like it was nothing lmao!. Anyway if you have any questions LMK.


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## ParisTNDude (Oct 7, 2013)

Very interesting....the owner's manual doesn't mention towing with a CTD and may even recommend against it. I wondered why? We installed a hitch on my daughter's CTD shortly after she bought it and it had about 3,500 miles on the car. She was moving and I have a little 15 foot enclosed trailer she used to carry her things on a 400 mile one way trip. She was very pleased and commented similarly to what you've said. Her most often repeated comment was, she didn't even know it was back there. She was used to getting fuel mileage in the 50s and when it went under 30 she didn't like it..lol (some people would be happy to get 28).

I started a thread on it somewhere on this forum.

Thanks for your comments.


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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

I posed up a thread regarding that curt wiring adapter and got no response. I figured I was the only fool to try and hook up a trailer to my CTD.

Please post up pics and describe how you ran that wire. The curt adapter instructions says to run it all the way from the battery in the front of the car all the way to the rear. I think I would much rather get a small sealed lead acid battery and hook it up in the trunk for as often as I was towing with it. the battery would last even longer if I outfitted the trailer with LED lights. (I already put LEDs in the CTD)

also how much did you have to tear apart in the trunk area to get to the wiring connectors for the lights and where did you mount your ground wire? 

Thanks in advance.


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## Grr (May 14, 2014)

The harness is just a few push pins and the def tank cover. Double sided tape below drivers taillight for the box. Ground there is a good spot below the taillight as well.
havent ran the 12v yet that's on my list of things to do. Probably just run it under the car.


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## BradHerr (Sep 29, 2013)

msav said:


> I posed up a thread regarding that curt wiring adapter and got no response. I figured I was the only fool to try and hook up a trailer to my CTD.
> 
> Please post up pics and describe how you ran that wire. The curt adapter instructions says to run it all the way from the battery in the front of the car all the way to the rear. I think I would much rather get a small sealed lead acid battery and hook it up in the trunk for as often as I was towing with it. the battery would last even longer if I outfitted the trailer with LED lights. (I already put LEDs in the CTD)
> 
> ...


Sorry I missed your question. I installed the Curt harness on my CTD. I mounted it near the inflator pump, behind the trunk liner. Ran the wire down the left side of the car, under the threshold moldings and terminated it at the fuse box under the headlight switch. 


-Brad


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## Danny5 (Dec 22, 2011)

Wow, that is some dismal mpg! I think I would cry!


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## Grr (May 14, 2014)

Danny5 said:


> Wow, that is some dismal mpg! I think I would cry!



Seriously? Short of a good diesel pickup that's as good of mileage as you can get pulling a trailer. My tbss only did 14 and my suburban got 12.8 pulling it this weekend. Welcome to the real world where people use their vehicles for more than an easy chair I guess.....


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

Grr said:


> havent ran the 12v yet that's on my list of things to do. Probably just run it under the car.



really?


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## Grr (May 14, 2014)

Yes really, just zip tie it to the frame like the rest of the cars on the road. I'm not going to disassemble the interior to run 1 wire


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## Danny5 (Dec 22, 2011)

Grr said:


> Seriously? Short of a good diesel pickup that's as good of mileage as you can get pulling a trailer. My tbss only did 14 and my suburban got 12.8 pulling it this weekend. Welcome to the real world where people use their vehicles for more than an easy chair I guess.....


Didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Just an observation. Glad I have nothing to tow.


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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

BradHerr said:


> Sorry I missed your question. I installed the Curt harness on my CTD. I mounted it near the inflator pump, behind the trunk liner. Ran the wire down the left side of the car, under the threshold moldings and terminated it at the fuse box under the headlight switch.
> 
> 
> -Brad


so what power feed did you use, It says you need 10 amps.


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## BradHerr (Sep 29, 2013)

msav said:


> so what power feed did you use, It says you need 10 amps.


I just put an inline 10 amp fuse on the feed wire and found a "hot in accessory" empty power feed in the fuse box. It looks like there are several power feeds in the box that don't have a "load" hooked to them. I just picked one of those. 
The wire stays "inside" the car for the whole run. It follows the existing run that goes from the left trunk wall, behind and outboard of the rear seat back, along the left rear and driver threshold, then up the driver kick panel and into the fuse box. 


-Brad


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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

did you remove the door floor plates or did you just tuck. I will have to go take a look. I notice when I got my CTD that there were a few empty fuse holders. I used a fuse tap and just plugged a fuse in an empty slot for my gps. It worked great. (a fuse tap slides underneath the fuse "load side" and has a blade connector that comes off of it.) I guess I could do the same for this.
[URL=http://s801.photobucket.com/user/msavides_2010/media/misc/fusetap.jpg.html][/URL]

sounds like a piece of cake, once the wire is run That is the hard part for me don't want to damage the interior.


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## BradHerr (Sep 29, 2013)

msav said:


> did you remove the door floor plates or did you just tuck. I will have to go take a look. I notice when I got my CTD that there were a few empty fuse holders. I used a fuse tap and just plugged a fuse in an empty slot for my gps. It worked great. (a fuse tap slides underneath the fuse "load side" and has a blade connector that comes off of it.) I guess I could do the same for this.
> [URL=http://s801.photobucket.com/user/msavides_2010/media/misc/fusetap.jpg.html][/URL]
> 
> sounds like a piece of cake, once the wire is run That is the hard part for me don't want to damage the interior.


I am having a hard time uploading pics. I've got some sweet pictures of the routing in the trunk but I can't upload them. The trunk wiring is pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself. The wiring then just got "tucked" under the moldings in the cabin. I was afraid of cracking them as well. I made a similar "add-a-circuit" and just found an empty spot. 


-Brad


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## BradHerr (Sep 29, 2013)




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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

easiest way to have pics show up in your post is to crate an account with an image hosting site, I use photobucket. once you upload your pics to photobucket. copy the img link address of the photo and paste it into your message and it will magically show up after you post. 

The way you did it above is uploading it to the forum web site and I am sure they have image size and capacity restrictions.

I like they way you did it in the trunk. Just curious how you did the wire run But I am sure I will figure it out. Just got to go look at it..


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## SportBilly (Nov 25, 2013)

Grr said:


> The harness is just a few push pins and the def tank cover. Double sided tape below drivers taillight for the box. Ground there is a good spot below the taillight as well.
> havent ran the 12v yet that's on my list of things to do. Probably just run it under the car.


Installed it today and run the 12v cable from drivers side plastic covers. I just pushed in to hide it. All connected and installed il about 30 min myself. Easy if you can do some basic stuff. Oh and passed the cable from the cabin to the engine baby threw the main harness entrance under tge steering wheel..


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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

Wow. I just went out to look at it and I thought man, that may just be that easy. So I grabbed the wire and before I knew it I had the wire ran from the kick panel all the way to the back quarter panel. I used a fishtape to pull the wire under the back seat into the rear trunk area. 

Now all I have to do is install the wiring adapter and T connectors and connect the other end of the wire to the 10 amp fuse at the fuse block. 

I Just did not want to run it under the car or punch interior to exterior. This way it is all non-permanent and I can remove it with no evidence it was ever there. I wont be splicing into any wire because I will just use a fuse tap with the existing blank fuse slot. 

BTW it took me about 10 mins to run the wire. should only be another 30-40 mins to do the rest of it. 


Just one question

since I have not pulled out the trunk liner yet. Is there an existing hole to pull the wiring connector through to the hitch area?


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## BradHerr (Sep 29, 2013)

msav said:


> since I have not pulled out the trunk liner yet. Is there an existing hole to pull the wiring connector through to the hitch area?


Yes. Right in the middle, below the trunk striker, there is an existing pass-through. I ran it through that grommet with the existing run. 


-Brad


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## SportBilly (Nov 25, 2013)

You can also keep it in the spare tire area and just pull it out from the trunk whenever you need it. Just to avoid rust and something hanging in the back. I run the 12v wire straight to the battery. Easy pass..


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## Scott M. (Apr 23, 2013)

Thanks for posting this. Its good to know. Do you use trailer brakes ? How does it do when you hit the brakes ?


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## msav (Apr 24, 2014)

with this class hitch you pull anything that would require trailer brakes. I think the max on the hitch is 2000lb and only 200 lb on the hitch (tongue weight).


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## Grr (May 14, 2014)

I also just leave the harness in the trunk and just pull it out when it's needed. I don't like it hanging under the car the whole time.

my trailer has surge brakes, if you are not familiar with them the force of the trailer collapses the hitch which then pulls a cable and actuated the brakes. The more force put on the hitch (more brake applied in the car) the more brake is applied on the trailer.

another thing was the car handled big bumps and dips like a champ, never bottomed out and actually sat quite level. With my big battery and a full LP tank the tongue was approx 150#.

i will get that wire ran soon as well if it's that easy to go through the car. Thanks for the tips guys!


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## Cruze2.0TD (Feb 12, 2014)

So, I'm not criticising or anything, just sharing some interesting information. The owner's manual actually says that you aren't supposed to tow with the Cruze Diesel or the Cruze Eco, but says you can tow up to 1,000 lbs with the other models. It's on page 9-70 of the owner's manual. Kind of strange because you'd think that it'd be more likely that the Diesel was the only one recommended for towing.


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