Towing a trailer. What is the size car that is powerful enough to pull a small to medium trailer thanks
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silverhatchet,
Oct 4, 4:40pm
What is the size car that is powerful enough to pull a small to medium trailer! Thanks
morrisjvan,
Oct 4, 4:50pm
anything with a towbar.1000 cc +
crzyhrse,
Oct 4, 5:01pm
Well answered (although the towbar isn't compulsory).
pitchey,
Oct 4, 5:11pm
Depends on whats on the trailer as well!
morrisjvan,
Oct 4, 5:14pm
! !
morrisman1,
Oct 4, 5:15pm
Depends on what you are loading on it. If it is a small trailer with lawn clippings then almost anything will tow it. If it is a trailer full of camping gear for the weekend, full of stuff when you move house or has a dozen bags of coal on for the winter then I wouldn't go any smaller than a 1600 in general but a 2000 would be much more suitable.
Of course each engine will perform differently regardless of the size and also vehicle gearing comes into it too.
jrlaw,
Oct 4, 5:20pm
I pulled a 6x4 trailer full of gravel home with my 105E Anglia, not very fast as it took a lot of stopping.You can tow any trailer with a small car if it is loaded well with a good balance( slightly heavy on the tow bar)just dont over load it. Take care if you are not used to it, backing can cause all sort of problems for some.Hope this helps you.
morrisjvan,
Oct 4, 5:27pm
depends on how far you're going too, I've towed some pretty dodgy stuff around over the years,just a couple of blocks or so that I wouldn't want to take on the main roads under any circumstances.
bellky,
Oct 4, 5:32pm
my xr8 has the grunt, but the towbar (ford issue) says 1200kg max and 60kg on the tongue, the disco can tow 3500kg braked and 150kg on the tongue.
greenwing,
Oct 4, 6:55pm
I towed a 6x4 trailer with 1/2 cub.metre builders mix about 10km and my Suzuki Baleno S/W (1.6 manual) was never the same- it really struggled.
crzyhrse,
Oct 4, 7:01pm
Motorway Patrol.
tokyo_rose,
Oct 4, 7:14pm
If the car can tow it, it still will have to be able to stop with the load in 1/2 the lane visable / available to it. The police cviu was stopping a heap of motorists a couple years ago for over loading boats & caravans for excess tongue weight due to all the camping gear loaded in the boat or caravan. Many years ago i was working in a engineering company just down the road from a placemakers store & the amount of trailers that were overloaded & broke axles near us was unbelievible from people that had no idea of weights of items. ie 1 cu mtr of sand or gravel is approx 1700kg on a single axle trailer with old bearings & scungy grease
richardmayes,
Oct 4, 7:35pm
Any car that has a towbar will tow a small/medium trailer provided it's not excessively loaded. (Subject to what the tow rating of the car may be.)
If you are asking what car you should buy specifically as a trailer-towing vehicle. get an automatic Commodore or Falcon IMHO.
Tow a medium sized trailer behind a Ford Falcon, and you'll forget the trailer is even there after a minute or two.
Tow a medium sized trailer behind a Ford Laser, you'll still get there, but you'll have to slip the clutch heaps getting it started, and once you're up and running you'll feel the trailer trying to throw the back of the car around every time there's a puff of wind or you go over a bump in the road. You'll be going up hills pretty slowly, and if you're smart you'll be going down hills pretty slowly too because your brakes will feel pretty weak and spongy with all that weight behind you! And if there's a steep driveway where you're going, you'll most likely be parking in the street and carrying the load up to the house.
In short: Most cars CAN tow a small/medium trailer if they have to. But not all cars are GOOD tow vehicles. generally the bigger they are, the better. Your circumstances will determine whether you want/need a good tow car, or just an adequate tow car.
Hope this is of some help.
crzyhrse,
Oct 4, 7:50pm
Incorrect. The combination must be able to stop within 7m from 35km/h.
The NZTA recommend keeping the weight of a full unbraked trailer under 3/4 the weight of the empty vehicle. That will probably be twice the car manufacturer's suggested limit.
tokyo_rose,
Oct 4, 8:44pm
Ah quote its 30kmh. not 35kmh Any way who gives a toss as i had said previously re the overloading. have or cause a prang & find out what your insurance co will wangle out of. I have seen the results of badly overloaded trailers many times & seen the police cviu photos of clowns they pinged for stupid loads on trailers & roof racks that the driver has no way of containing in the event of a emergency stop let alone a normal stop!
elect70,
Oct 4, 8:48pm
Ex panelbeare mate had acorrolla incustomersays doors would close properly . Found the whole body out of shape, turned out he towed tandem trailer loaded with firewood every dayfor 3 years .
bellky,
Oct 4, 8:52pm
we used a 2.0l sigma for years to tow a 2 cubic meter trailer carrying anything from bark, soil, rocks, builders mix, you name it - went for years untill one of the dickheads overheated it. it was dangerous though, if you got the load too far back on the trailer; the rear of the car would start skipping about and you knew you were on the verge of jack-knife!
crzyhrse,
Oct 4, 9:03pm
That's nice. But insecure loads have nothing to do with anything here.
why bother towing just put a enginr in the trailer or caravan
compchick,
Oct 5, 9:18am
What about using a mid eighties 2.8 hiace to tow a trailer loaded with a car!Recommended or not!
stevo2,
Oct 5, 11:46am
When I was an apprentice (many years back) I always towed an unbraked tandem trailer behind our Morris Minor ute. Sometimes it would have up to 2 tonnes on the back for up to 15km. Recently, I towed 3 tonne behind my Hiace for 80 km on a braked tandem. It was an easy trip until we hit the hills.
stevo2,
Oct 5, 11:51am
I had a mid 90s diesel hiace 2.8lt 5 spd that I used to tow my workshop gear from Taranaki to Tga. I made 3 trips over, each one loaded with up to 2.5 tonne on the tandem and another tonne in the van. It towed nice and straight but stopping distances increased and it ran out of puff on all of the hills. The Kaimais were 2nd gear all the way to the top.
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