Can a "normal" car pull a two horse trailer?

FinkleyAlex

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My dad and I were just pondering over this, we have a 200 vauxhall vectra 2.2 (diesal) and would be pulling a standard 2 horse ifor williams type trailer. The manual says the car can tow upto 1500 kg, we would only have one pony in the back - a 14.2 PBA fairly lightweight - assume he weights about 400kg (although he would be properly weighed if we became serious about this) and a couple of haynets in the back, the trailer itself weighs aound 910kg, would it be dangerous to consider this? (we dont have a trailer this is all hypothetical)
 

Tinkerbee

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my aunt used to tow with a peugeot...erm...summat....was avg. sized...

and it coped ok...but we did once have to unload to get up the hill to the yard lol

not much help i know
tongue.gif
 

Christmas_Kate

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I wouldnt. Is it an estate? I think the newer estates are much better, and you *can* tow a small pony with one (ie a 12.2hh) but I wouldnt risk it. What would you do about water? and grooming kits etc?
 

FinkleyAlex

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everything else would be carried in the car as there would just be my dad and I, we were quite doubtful but thought we'd look into it, I may ring up vauxhall and ifor williams on monday to see what they think, thanks everyone!
 

Christmas_Kate

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you add the weight of what's In the car to the weight of the trailer i think.

I know we looked into towing with a Xsara and it looked a bit dubious.
 

PennyJ

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Well, my dad has an old volvo estate 760 2.8l petrol engine, and it is a fabulous tow car, far better than my (also old) LR90 which has the engine before they introduced the 200Tdi engines. I started to tow with the volvo when we only had 2 little ponies. the Landrover came a year ago when we got the second big pony. I prefer to tow with it than the landrover, the volvo has the power to go up hills effortlessly rather than struggling at 20mph. I will still use it if we're only taking one of the 14.2's rather than both on a long journey. I don't use it with both as it's rated only to tow 1800kg, but actually I think it's capable of more than that although I'm not prepared to try it with both my big ponies on board. As the man in the car parts shop said when I went to get new brake pads for it, "you can tow anything with that" and I suspect he is probably right. Never had any scary problems, I've done some pretty big hills in Wales and also around Bath and Yeovil in it, no troubles whatsoever.

I have an Ifor 505 trailer.

I think the answer may be possibly, with just one pony on board.
 

Fiona_C

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Ideally you need to take into consideration your kerbside weight which is 85% of the maximum towing capacity. Personally, I wouldn't risk it, if you got pulled over and spot checked, you could well be overweight!
 

FinkleyAlex

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single trailer would be brilliant if we were buying, however we are looking to rent so single trailers are fairly rare! Luckily our area is very flat and we would not be doing journeys of longer than an hour, we will ring up both companies on monday to see what they say, would never try it without investigating it properly!
 

Janette

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You have to consider stopping as well. My OH who is an ex Truck Driver/owner says to look at 'The Plate' on the car. It will have the axle weights and VIV number on as well and might be a sticker - not a plate. That will tell you what you can tow. It might be at the bottom of the inside of the door frame.
 

Ferdinase514

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Its all about the kerb weight of the car and not exceeding this with the trailer. Ideally, you shouldnt exceed 85% of the kerb weight.

Have a look at this:
http://www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/kerbweights.htm

An IW 505 weighs 950kg. A 510 weighs 1000kg.

Unfortunately, i think you will not be able to safely (let alone legally) tow with this car.

You can get very lightweight trailers, designed to be towed by cars - Bateson do one, as do Cheval Liberte. Both weigh around 600kg, but are generally rear unload.
 
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lilym

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it would pull it, but wether it would stop it is an entirely different matter. we have a vauxhall vectra and wouldn't consider towing the horses with it, we bought a second hand dihatsu fourtrack to do the job instead. cheap insurance and tows like a tank!
 

Selkie

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I have a Henra it weights 750k and my Scenic 1.9tdi will tow it with one horse in, even through it was within the legal weight limit I always feel the car struggles to get up hills. My horse doenst travel well and you can feel every time she stamps about. We now use OH van which will pull 3000k and has loads of room for saddles, changing and everything else I think we could possibly need
 

pottamus

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I am sorry to be rude but how many times are we going to have people posting about whether they can use a car to tow a trailer with horses or ponies in it!!!!!!!!!!! For lords sake.....NO! It is not safe and has little to do with the engine size or whether the manual says it can tow up to all of 1500kg...you need a 4x4 that has a heavey chassis to offset the weight of the trailer...otherwise you will be looking at a jack knifeing and snaking situation where by the weight of the trailer starts to dictate the direction of the travel because the 'car' is not heavey enough to counteract it.
You should never be towing trailers with horse in it with a car...as I said in a previous post...people that tow horses with cars should have their licences taken off them because they are a liability to themselves and other road users.
 

JM07

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wel lsaid Pottamus.

these posts are quite frightening.

but god help ANYONE who has the misfortune to cause an accident in their ill-equipped vehicle if it involves me and my horses/family...i will sue their sorry a55es off!!!
 

henryhorn

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What happens is in a sticky situation the trailer will overtake the car if the weight is greater, jack-knifing and out of control.
You really need to have the car being slightly higher weight than the trailer when loaded. Power wise I'm sure the car would tow, it''s the safety aspect you need to worry about, in an accident you could be found liable if it's wrongly weighted for your trailer.
 

Persephone

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My car is perfectly able to legally and safely tow my cheval liberte trailer and 16.2 hh horse. It's a 4.4L BMW 5 series touring. We made exhaustive enquiries before buying the car and trailer and have had no problems. We specifically chose our trailer because it is 200kg lighter than the equivalent ifor willkiams. It also tows my husbands boat legally and safely which is a great deal heavier!
 

SirenaXVI

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[ QUOTE ]
My car is perfectly able to legally and safely tow my cheval liberte trailer and 16.2 hh horse. It's a 4.4L BMW 5 series touring. We made exhaustive enquiries before buying the car and trailer and have had no problems. We specifically chose our trailer because it is 200kg lighter than the equivalent ifor willkiams. It also tows my husbands boat legally and safely which is a great deal heavier!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes but a 5 series BMW is a heavy german built car - the OP is talking about a Vauxhall Vectra which is a totally different kettle of fish!
 

Puppy

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[ QUOTE ]
but god help ANYONE who has the misfortune to cause an accident in their ill-equipped vehicle if it involves me and my horses/family...i will sue their sorry a55es off!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Baaaa!
smirk.gif
 

Patches

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[ QUOTE ]
I'd a VW Passat, 1.9tdi 130bhp. I pulled two horses (17.1hh and 15.3hh) in a Ivor williams 510 Horsebox and it pulled it fine.

[/ QUOTE ]


Seriously?
crazy.gif
 
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