[Closed] Caravanners, towing weights etc

<85% ratio between caravan and car recommended, maybe 100% if you have lots of experience. All cars have a max towing limit that it's illegal to exceed.

See http://www.whattowcar.com/ for weights etc.

Wife is a caravanner.

Cheers, not come across that site.

If you check in your hanbook it will tell you the max nose weight you can tow.

Nose weight is different to towing weight! Nose weight is the suggested weight to be on the towball.

Normally a max nose weight of 75kgs, and the towing weight is roughly as cheshirecat says.

Tis why I drive a 2.2T Kia as I tow a car and trailer combined weight of 2tonnes.

Aye, but the car will be close to 1.7 tonnes, so not a huge claim! 😉 For some reason my dad has become a caravanner - got some fancy thing that weighs 1600kgs (or thereabouts) - it was about 40kgs below the max weight for the old Volvo 940 so they bought a brand new Kia Sportage (which is a cracking beast of a car - it can pull just over 1800Kgs and the difference is noticeable).

The manufacturers maximum towing weight is determined by the maximum weight a vehicle can successfully tow up a moderately steep hill from a standstill.

This is why 4x4's often have a permitted towing weight of 3000 - 3500kg, the low range box means they can pull away with a significant load. Rwd cars will also usually have a higher towing limit.

But when you are driving along a motorway at 50 or 60mph with the caravan being dragged all over the place by sidewinds, overtaking coaches and lorries, the percentage ratio between the car and caravan makes for a much more sensible method to calculate the safe towing weight. The ability to drag the caravan up a 1 in 4 hill is irrelevant when the tail starts wagging the dog at 60mph...

I tow a 3t horsebox, despite being relatively short, only being loaded to around 2t and being twin axled with an unusually long wheelbase of 1 metre, passing coaches will still suck me towards them quite violently, its not unusual for the trailer to pull me across the width of my lane and back as they pass.

if you past your test after 1996 theres a max you can tow without doing an additional test

IIRC max combined weight of 3.5T and trailer no heavier than 750kg, I did learn this but I've forgotten it so worth checking. It's quite restrictive.

1st Jan '97 and after is the 'new' test. You can drive up to 3.5t vehicle with a 750kg gross trailer, OR the confusing bit, you can tow a trailer who's fully laden weight does not exceed the unladen weight of the car, as long as the combination doesn't exceed 3.5t.

My Mondeo was 1400kg unladen, max tow weight 1800kg, so I could tow a trailer with a max gross weight of 1400kg. You can't tow a 2000kg gross trailer that was unladen with an actual weight of 1000kg...its the gross weight that counts.

Most small caravans towed behind a saloon will be OK, but towed by a 4x4 will normally exceed the permitted weight.

I had to take a towing test to tow the horsebox, cost about £600 and that was just three 1/2 days of tuition, with the test on the third day. So now I can tow our 3000kg trailer with our 3500kg van.

Interesting, I've just discovered I have truly awesome towing capabilities...

Cheers

Find the chassis plate.
There will be four weights marked on there.
1 is the front axle weight
2 is the rear axle weight
3 is the gross vehicle weight
4 is the gross train weight
Subtract 3 from 4. That's the maximum trailer weight you can tow.

Wrong order Graham;

1: Gross Vehicle Weight (i.e. 3500kg)
2: Gross Train Weight (6300kg)
3: Front Axle Weight (1650kg)
4: Rear Axle Weight (2240kg)

In this case, towing weight would be 2800kg, axle weights add up to more than GVW but thats normal to allow for load distribution.

Dont FFS use a van to tow a caravan!!! You wont be allowed on any sites despite the fact it will carry all the bikes inside, has a 112kg nose wight limit and can tow the biggest caravans!
Bunch of snobs!

mr bump - Member
Dont FFS use a van to tow a caravan!!! You wont be allowed on any sites despite the fact it will carry all the bikes inside, has a 112kg nose wight limit and can tow the biggest caravans!
Bunch of snobs!

Well, it's also to do with historical problems of sites being "over run" with travellers. Some sites don't care about vans, they often use a loose phrase though of "commercial vehicles" that could include any vehicle used for business such as a sign written estate or 4x4. Its also to do with the fact that some of the bigger continental caravans (Tabberts etc) that are favoured by travellers are wider than most UK caravans and require a commercial vehicle to tow them.

Noseweight is limited by either the towcars max noseweight, OR the max noseweight from the caravan chassis. lots of new/younger caravans are based on Al Ko chassis, that chassis & hitch is rated to 100kg regardless of what the towcar can manage. Noseweight is suggested to be approx 7% of the laden weight of the caravan, not to exceed the lowest max noseweight of either towcar or chassis/hitch. We used to tow with a Nissan terrano, max noseweight was 120kg, and it towed best with a noseweight of 90-100kg or so.

The 85% of kerbweight is just advice, not enshrined in law, but a novice tower would do well to follow it, as towing up to 100% of kerbweight is more likely to result in the caravan "overtaking" the towcar (sometimes called tail wagging the dog) and the safest way to avoid this is to have a towcar significantly heavier than the caravan. While this advice doesn't apply to things such as horseboxes, or car trailers, some of this is down to the fact that a caravan is much more susceptible to the draft from overtaking vehicles, sidewinds etc, and whilst device like stabilisers or electronic stability system can help, they'll never make a poorly matched outfit work.

We tow with a nissan X trail, our new caravan is a 99% kerbweight match, but we've been caravanning for a few years now, so have left the "novice" tag behind in the past. Will still change to a slightly heavier towcar next time round though.

Its the historical 'Traveller' that i seem to be asscoiated with as i have the obligotor white transit van.
However the last time i passed a travellers site i seem to remember seeing a number of Shoguns, Kia's etc.

I recently looked at a campsite for the bikeradar festival but the local site said i could take the van on site to drop off the caravan but would then have to leave it in the car park from then on!
Its all about the image if you ask me. 🙄

Try using black vinyl to 'give' your van windows. I've seen it done on a VW T5 and it was very convincing, almost impossible to tell unless you went right up to it and noticed there was no edge to the glass. Works best on vans that can have bonded windows fitted such as the VW, Transit Mk6 & 7 etc.

I've also heard from someone who got turned away from a site as his campervan had no windows (it was a stealth camper). He drove off, marked on a couple of windows with black insulation tape, then came back and they let him on. They were worried that once one van was allowed on, they wouldn't be able to prevent anyone else.

I like it!
Problem is my van is sigin written so windows wouldnt look very convincing as the compant name would stop short. 😀
However we use it to tow in france and have never been turned away from any sites.

I thought Pikeys all had Audis and Bentleys nowadays anyway.

Im only a poor 'Pikey' despite the van saying landmark lifts northampton!
Its anoying as i can lock the bikes in the back and know they are secure.
But leaving the van in a carpark away from the caravan is stupid.
😥