Towing

law or whats safe to those above sr900 and twerka

Check out the towing weight tables we provide per model or your vehicle's handbook for maximum braked and unbraked towing weights. Use these as a guideline. With a fully loaded trailer, braked or unbraked, you must be able to stop from 30km/h on a dry road within seven metres.

Trailer brakes are not required unless total weight exceeds 2000kg. As another guide, don't tow an unbraked trailer which, when fully laden, weighs more than three-quarters of the weight of the tow vehicle

if you exceed these you are breaking the law
another words 75% so as i posted above add 25% of the weight towed and you have to use a car of that size eg 1,200kg caravan towed car has to be 1,500kgs
and to tow this you will need at least 170hp

@fineo

Best guide for suitability for towing is to look at car manufactures tow ratings, and compare to the weight of your proposed trailer (including load). Most caravan's have their unladen and laden weight advertised.

Engine capacity is a minor consideration for towing, compaired to things like the on road weight of the car, drivetrain setup, cooling setup, breaking setup, engine power etc.

Regarding car's, below are some examples of braked towing weights for current cars.

2.0L ford mondeo sedan (conventional auto): 1000kg
1.8L toyota corolla sedan CVT: 1300kg
2.0L Audi A4 sedan (DSG): 1500kg

In general, you will find most smaller sedans sit around the 800 - 1300kg braked towing rating.

Regarding UK caravans, I picked a couple at random.

A 14' (4.5m body length) weighs 914kg empty, 1100kg laden. This is a very small caravan.
An 18' (5.5m internal length) weighs 1370kg empty, 1575kg full.

In short, you are only going to be able to tow a very small caravan with a small sedan if you want to stay within manufacture's guidance. (best practice (especially if you are at the shopping stage), but not strictly legally required.)

Frankly, I think you would be better served by either going for a large sedan (something like a used 4.0L ford falcon is rated to tow 1600kg (or 2300kg with a weight distribution hitch), or a medium SUV. (2.0L & 2.4L outlanders are rated for 1600kg towing.



Very few insurance companies have a clause about this in their policy. State definitely doesn't, and I have heard of them telling people that they will insure them when towing with a Nissan Leaf (0kg manufacture tow rating)

Couple of issues.

Will the engine / transmission stand up to the load? Maybe if you take it easy on the hills, and become a moving roadblock.

More important is ability to stop (under control at least). That relies on the weight of the tow vehicle (and other factors like brakes and load balance). But the more weight you have behind you, the bigger your problem in an emergency.

I've towed things with a 2.4 Nissan Navara diesel. Wasn't fast, but it was solid. Current is a Toyota Blade V6. Lots of power and pretty solid gearbox. But I'm careful about the trailer weight as it's only an over powered Corolla, so you have to be careful about the stopping.

For a "regular car" tow vehicle, something with a 6 cyl is going to be a lot more pleasant. A Camry or Mark X V6 has a 1500 kg rating (with brakes) and a regular auto. I'd have no qualms about towing a light caravan with something like that, and it's still a perfectly practical car to drive around in.

Yes, that is the first thing I add to a car when getting a towbar put on. I have seen a few cooked transmissions over the years too.

The thing people tend to forget about caravans is yea it might only be say 1.2 ton an easy tow for most cars, but the things are a massive wind sock to tow, sucking horsepower and making lighter cars terrifying in a cross wind. Best to oversize your tow vehicle for caravans.

Wow, thanks guys for your responses.
Definitely going to go bigger tow vehicle.

Will definitely make for more comfortable towing. A heavier tow vehicle is definitely better as the trailer will push it around proportionality less.

Towing a big trailer behind a small car is not that fun (even if is is a car with heaps of power) as you can feel the trailer impacting the cars dynamics. Towing with an under-powered (but heaver) vehicle isn't so bad, but does mean you will have the engine flat out up most hills, and will be frequently pulling over to let long queues of cars past.

As others have said, adding an trans cooler (if the car does not have a dedicated one from the factory - most cars share the engine & trans cooling system) is a good idea if you are going to be doing a lot of towing. Will make your transmission fluid last a lot longer, and reduce the risk of transmission damage.

Other things to watch out for is if you are looking at euro cars, they often have high tow ratings, but very low tow ball down force ratings. (their stability control system's are set up for this, but it means you need to load the caravan to keep within this parameter).

Many Japanese built cars have soft rear suspension (despite decent tow ball down force ratings), and will sag a lot in the rear when loaded & towing. Can be sorted out by putting stiffer rear springs in, or some other ways.

Most caravans will require mirror extenders.

Also note that many cars have in the manual that certain gears (often any overdrive gears on a conventional auto, sometimes the top gear in a manual) should not be used when towing. This includes vehicles that advertise their towing ability, like the ford ranger. Best to abide by this restriction if there is one, but note that not using higher gears will make the car use more fuel, and make more noise when towing. I think the toyota fortuner looses it's top two gears in it's 7 speed auto when towing.

Most insurance companies have a Exclusion similar to this
: Unsafe or Unroadworthy . Clarification that there is no cover if the insured vehicle is being used in an unsafe or unroadworthy condition .

I know of 3 cases where claims have been declined for an accident whilst towing overloaded trailers .