Our daughter is a keen horse-rider and part-loans horses. There is now a possibility that she might be able to loan a horse box to take her horse to events which means we'd need to get a towbar fitted to our car. I know 0% about towbars so here goes:
– How do I find out what weight my vehicle can tow (2011 Quashqaui 2.0TDi auto)
– What is the difference between 7-pin and 13-pin electrics?
– Are there any benefits/drawbacks to removable towballs?
– Are all towbars equal in terms of towing a horse-box?
– Is there anything else I should know?
– Finally, recommendations for reputable fitters that could come to my house to fit one.
Thank you!
1200-1400 kg depending on exact model http://www.towingcapacity.co.uk/car-make-model/nissan/nissan-qashqai/
https://brink.eu/en-gb/about-brink-towbars/blog/selecting-using-right-socket/
Sounds expensive
There's no capacity difference between removable and fixed models. I prefer removable cos it looks nicer and I don't bang my leg on it.
Westfalia detachables are nice.
Sorry, no idea. What I did was go to the reputable tow-bar fitter that all the local mountainbikers go to and he sorted me out. I went for a fixed one because it was cheaper and it's a van, so no-one cares what the back looks like. He also took exactly the same time to fit it as I took to ride from the garage to the trails, get some laps in and return. Win!
On the v5 registration document is a section with max braked weight for your model. It should also be on the VIN plate under the bonnet/boot/wherever nissan stick it.
7pin electrics give you sidelights, indicators and fog light. 13 pin adds reversing to that and a pass through for minor lights/fridges (light inside the box for instance). 13 pin is better than 7 pin which has a tendency to corrode.
Removable towballs are great. Only down side is that some mechanical stability systems won't work with them (alko).
Go for a well known brand (Westfalia, Witter, Brink) - see who Nissan use for OEM. If possible use dedicated electrics as it'll integrate with the car's systems better if correctly coded. This should give you trailer stability control, alter gearbox mappings when connected, disable reversing sensors & blind spot detection which would all otherwise go haywire when towing.
– Is there anything else I should know?
A Qashqai isn't a suitable car to tow a horse box.
A horsebox isn't like a caravan. You've got a big moving load that will overpower your car if things go wrong.
Limits here...
https://towcar.info/towing.php
From experience 2100kg braked is the minimum for towing x1 horse. 2 horses no chance - you need Discovery type vehicles for that with 3500kg towing capacity.
What horsebox too? Weights vary massively for those.
And you don't just carry the horse - there's hay, feed, water, all the tack, rugs and every other smelly thing that goes with them and it's not light stuff. 🙂
Check what weight your car can tow first and check the gross trailer weight. Your car needs to be able to tow this gross weight to be legal. Even if your trailer has only one horse in and is within it’s towing weight but that trailer is rated at over your towing rate then I believe this is against the law. More info on gov uk I think, I can give my advice on the other stuff from my experience but the weight needs to be sorted first - weights are on a plate normally under the bonnet. Hope this helps.
Hmm, so our other car (on a lease so I didn't want to fit a bar to it) isn't capable of towing a horse box either. Plan completely scuppered!
Plan completely scuppered!
You lucky bugger!!!
Horses suck all the money out of a household - get her on a new hobby sharpish!
(speaking from vast experience 🙂 )
" Even if your trailer has only one horse in and is within it’s towing weight but that trailer is rated at over your towing rate then I believe this is against the law. "
Urban myth. So long as your train weight is within the defined limits of your vehicle (and obviously dimensions are within legal limits) it doesn't matter 1 iota what the plate on the trailer says.*
Just to clarify. You cannot obviously carry more than the trailer is plated for, but if your car can legally tow 1000kilos you are more than within the law to tow a trailer rated at 3.5 tonnes provided its' total weight behind that particular vehicle is no more than a tonne!
You lucky bugger!!!
Horses suck all the money out of a household – get her on a new hobby sharpish!
There is 0% chance of that happening - she'll just not be able to go to events away from either of the yards she is regular at (unless someone else has space which does happen sometimes).
Towing capacity is top of the features list on your next car then! 🙂
Even lightweight trailers will come in at 700 kg unladen, then a 15 hand horse likely around 450-500kg so instantly at a level where you are at limit of towing weight before you add in all the other paraphernalia that horses and owners need to take with them.
One option to consider would be renting a 3.5t Horsebox for when she needs it We used to have a trailer and an X5 but she never enjoyed towing it. Trial rented a Horsebox and much better so sold the trailer and bought a Horsebox. Now I use it to move stuff and go biking in because I can't make it any dirtier no matter how muddy I get and it's dead easy to get changed in etc. Bloody expensive but they do hold their value like camper vans
My OH has horses, as someone said to pull 2 of them you need a vehicle with at least a 2.5t towing capacity (assuming lighter weight trailer), she had a Freelander Gen2 180bhp which was greater, but a full 3.5t would be preferred.
She's got a Sportage now and we had to get the 2.0d to get the additional towing capacity, her's is 2.0t - enough for her trailer, horse and all the gear.
And if anyone doubts the requirements over weight and towing it's not about pulling it's about stopping. I remember towing an overloaded twin axle trailer (off-road and slow speed) with a Honda CRV down a track and suddenly realising the trailer was pushing me down the hill despite the brakes.
Anyway detachable tow bar for the win if you like your shins and 13 pin electrics can be converted down to 7 pin, 7 to 13 pin doesn't work.
<p style="text-align: left;">The legal towing limit is on the vin plate, take the highest figure and deduct the second highest figure, the answer is the tow limit. (Max combined vehicle and trailer weight (train weight) minus max vehicle weight (gross weight)). A quick Google suggests it should be 1200-1350kg ish.</p>
I think the rule stated above about the max weight of the partially laden trailer needing to be within the towing limit of the car is specific to commercial vehicles/LGVs. I was taught it during my CE but have not seen it stated about cars.
Power isn't so important, you get people saying you need 200bhp to tow and a lot of people will only buy large horseboxes with the highest power outputs (which are pretty rare among all the working hgvs that are fully loaded each day!). We tow with our 2wd Iveco campervan which manages fine with 130bhp despite not having a low ratio gearbox, and it tows a full 3.5t with a max train weight of 7t, although our actual weight is more like 5-6t.
