anyone tow with a subaru?

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weebarney

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I was wondering how well these cope with towing horse trailers? My current lump is a terrano and its not a cheap car to run when you only tow a handful of times a year.
 
Depends which subaru really. We have towed with a forester and legacy with two ponies in our old trailer. Wouldnt tow that with an Imprezza though.
 
I've got a Subaru and because I love it so much I looked into this and I couldn't find one that would legally towa double trailer unless it was downplated. Having said that though you'd probably still struggle because most trailers like that weigh 900kgs empty so you'd be right up to your car's towing capacity or over with a horse on board too.

Must admit though, having read that other thread I'm tempted to see if I can get a souped up Forrester and a Bateson trailer! Love my Impreza so much couldn't imagine having a car that wasn't a Scooby!

Btw might be worth looking at the tribeca, when I looked they hadn't published kerb weight figures etc so couldn't find out towing weight but they might have done it by now! Good luck. :)
 
bikerchickone said:
I've got a Subaru and because I love it so much I looked into this and I couldn't find one that would legally tow a double trailer unless it was downplated.
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What difference would down plating the trailer make to the total weight being towed? .... Answer = none so why downplate it ? :confused:

Or was it for B licence towing ?
 
Because with a double trailer I'd still only be able to carry one horse to stay within my car's towing maximum, and although it might seem silly to buy a double trailer to then downplate it doubles are much more common and easy to find. Maybe I've understood it wrong as it's been some time since I looked but I thought your trailer had to not have a maximum of more than the weight your car is allowed to tow, or smething like that! My car's limit is 1200kgs and my cob weighs 600 so I couldn't find a way to make it work. Oh and I only have the B category too not B +E which is annoying!
 
bikerchickone said:
Because with a double trailer I'd still only be able to carry one horse to stay within my car's towing maximum, and although it might seem silly to buy a double trailer to then downplate it doubles are much more common and easy to find. Maybe I've understood it wrong as it's been some time since I looked but I thought your trailer had to not have a maximum of more than the weight your car is allowed to tow, or smething like that! My car's limit is 1200kgs and my cob weighs 600 so I couldn't find a way to make it work. Oh and I only have the B category too not B +E which is annoying!
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There is not and never has been a law or rule which states the trailer MAM cannot be more than the vehicle towing capacity

Even the lightest single horse trailer would not work for B licence towing with a max towing capacity of 1200

There are plenty of examples for legal B licence towing in the HHO towing clinic link in my signature below :)
 
I towed a Sinclair trailer with one pony in it with my heavily modified, jap import, gtb twin turbo legacy. It coped no problem! I only get about 17/18mpg without the trailer though and I think I got about 12mpg with it on!

Ideally they need a up-rated oil cooler fitted if used for towing a heavy load.
 
Thanks for the clarification, as I said I haven't looked at it for a while, and my whole point was that I didn't want to change my car, therefore not being able to find a way to do it ;) I do believe you also had a look to see if there were figures available for the Tribeca cut couldn't find them either at the time, hence my giving up as I'm not that keen on the foresters, but if I can get a chipped up one then maybe ;)
 
I towed with a Forester for a couple of years and liked it, especially nice to have the low box for sticky places.

However that was a petrol Boxer-engined version (diesel hadn't quite come out then) and we had to change it as the fuel economy was pretty awful. It was my work vehicle and I do 100+ miles a day - just too expensive. With a trailer on you could practically watch the fuel gauge dropping. I swapped to a Ford Kuga and the fuel economy and towing capacity is much improved.
 
weebarney said:
I think it was the legacy i liked. Cant afford anything newer than 4-5 year old though.
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Make sure that the towing capacity of whatever you buy will cope with the weight of what you want to tow

Capacities range from 1300 to 2000 depending on model

If for one horse of 500 and a trailer weighing 1000 empty then you would need a towing capacity of at least 1600 to allow for any extra bits that go in the trailer
 
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