Towing 2011 Honda CR-V

[Al Lewis]

Do any of you tow a 2011 crv?  My sister bought one and the manual says to go thru about a 10 minute prep cycle on the transmission before towing and to repeat after 6 hours. This seems extreme to me. Do you do all that?

[Edward Buker]

Al,

We towed a Honda Accord for 10 years and went through the procedure, probably was less than 10 minutes, abbreviated a bit to more like 6-7 minutes. The sequence is important and pausing in each gear. Never going from reverse to neutral as the last step is critical, always drive to neutral. If we were traveling longer then 6 hours, we would when we took a rest stop break, go through a 2-3 minute gear pass through at a point that hour and travel wise was convenient for us.

From my experience there is some leeway and the times they call for are sure to be more than adequate. Some abbreviation worked for me without any transmission issues over 10 years.

Later Ed

[Bob Jae]

We have towed our 2011 CRV over 22,000 miles.  We follow the owners manual procedure.

Honda Pre Tow

Check the transmission fluid level (see page 355 ). Do not overfill. 

Start the engine.

Press on the brake pedal. 

Move the shift lever through all its positions.

Return Shift to D position and hold for 5 seconds, then to N. Let the engine run for 3 minutes, then turn it off. 

Release the parking brake.
Leave the ignition switch in the ACCESSORY (I) position so the steering wheel does not lock. 

Make sure the radio and any items plugged into the accessory power sockets are turned off so you do not run down the battery.

If we are towing over 250 miles we run through the steps again when we stop for lunch.  Takes less than 5 minutes.  We do not pull any uses and have never had a dead battery.

[Stan Simpson]

We have towed our 2006 Honda CRV for 6 years, and use the exact protocol described by Bob Jae. We have never had an issue. (our manual says to re-do at 8 hours..I can only remember two or three times when we got close to 8 hours in one stretch)