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Towing
Early on we knew we wanted a tow hitch on this vehicle. A hitch on something even as small as a CR-V is incredibly helpful, especially when doing yardwork. Renting a $18 5×8 U-Haul trailer makes hauling away a huge pile of dead branches a snap and makes buying mulch in bulk even easier. A pickup truck when you need it, and a comfortable, frugal small SUV when you don't.
That is quite literally a ton of mulch. And we still got double digit fuel mileage.We also bought the hitch for our Formula SAE team. University of Delaware has not yet dedicated a vehicle to its SAE car team, so the students do the moving themselves.
For running around campus, UD SAE used a small trailer more suited for a UTV than an SUV. However it was free and did the job quite well. Plus, storing such a tiny trailer is very easy, especially on a parking limited campus.There were many times we were thankful we had spent the money on the EBC brakes when towing. The CR-V is actually a decent tow vehicle, but when towing over hills to autocrosses and dyno sessions, the occasional nimrod would cut us off. Cutting off any tow rig is a bad idea, even more so when it's a small SUV with a big trailer! The EBC brakes never failed us, always giving us all the braking torque we needed to stop in time. They never showed any signs of fade either, even on hot days. We put about 1000 miles on the brakes in towing alone and were very happy with the results.
For off-campus trips, a borrowed or rented trailer does the job. We once loaded this trailer with the 530 lb car, two full sets of spare wheels (with tires), two sets of brand new tires (to be mounted), and all of our track tools. The total weight was probably near 2,000 pounds. This may not seem like a lot, but remember, this is a CR-V, not Project Tundra. It's not really designed to handle tons of weight, but despite this, we never experienced wandering or ill handling. If anything a lack of power and a marginal transmission are the only weak points in the CR-V. And the EBC brakes were the perfect addition to keep our towing safe, especially when getting cutoff by morons on the highway!Off-Road
The BFG ATs were bought specifically to help make this CR-V better off road. It does have 4WD (Honda's RealTime 4WD to be exact) and while it is not a rock crawler, it is quite capable in dirt, mud, and snow.
Such as this.In mud, the brakes worked perfectly every time, always ready to stop our CR-V after splashing through a deep or mucky puddle. The slotted rotors certainly did their job, making sure the pads had clear access to our rotors, even after sloshing through axle deep soupy mud. Delaware winters may not be the worst in the world, but we have had recent snowfalls of 3 inches in the last couple years. Even in salty, slushy roads, our CR-V never once had issues stopping. In fact with the ABS disconnected and our grippy BFG tires, our CR-V became quite the snowmobile, giving us confidence in even the most inclement of East Coast weather.
All of this traction allowed us to explore some really neat parts of the state, areas most people never get to see. 
