Do you tow a trailer with your car and not a 4x4?

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gailt

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I have a volvo 850 20v auto estate, and an older bayhill trailer, could i tow it safely enough with my car with a 15 hh horse? everything i look up on the net gives differing views, and i have no idea where the book for the car is, do any of you tow using a car and not a jeep?
 
I'd say no, don't try it. We has a nasty accident in a 4x4 and trailer, everything was written off but if we'd been just in a car I'm 100% certain we'd have died. I think the height/weight difference makes them unstable even with the big estates. Just my opinion based on our experience though, others might disagree.
 
My dad tows my little mare with a Citroen C5 diesal estate. We only tow light trailers of course, and always make sure the total weight is within 85% of the vehicle's kerbweight. My mare is 350kg
 
The cars you have all been talking about are not legal to tow a horse trailer. They have the towing capability of 1000 - 1300kg single axle. Horse trailers are twin axle and are rated from 2000kg gvw. You must always look at the gvw on the trailer plate to determin if you are legal to tow.
 
I was thinking this as well,

just got my new estate and want to start taking the neddy out and about later in the year, he is only dinky and was going to post the same thing later on!!
 
I towed just this weekend with the family workhorse, my dad's Volvo 760 GLE auto. I had a long trip from Lymington to Bristol and it took 3 hours each way in the Volvo, probably would have been 5 if I'd used the Landrover! Not to mention comfort etc. That was with an Ifor 505 and a 440kg pony. Absolutely effortless, I could have gone up hills at 80 if I'd been daft enough to.

The technical info for you is that our older Volvo is legal to tow up to a maximum of 1800kg. Dad actually bought a newer volvo - a V70 which was also good for 1800kg, but we never used that as it didn't have a towbar.

I always used to tow the ponies with the Volvo, it was only as we upgraded to bigger ponies that the weight became an issue so we bought the Landrover instead, but I feel far safer towing with the Volvo, rather than the Land Rover.
 
I bg to differ...th legal towing limit of any vehicle is what is stated in the manufacturer's handbook. E.g my Mondeo estate has a legal towing limit of 1800kg braked trailer. I think you are referring to the rules to thos that passed their driving test post 1997 and have not done their towing test.

Any vehicle's legal towing weight will be found in the vehicle's handbook - this is what the police would go by should you be pulled in. I personally don' think it's ideal to be towing with a car of any sort but somtimes circumstances beyond our control dictate that life changes. If you passed your driving test post 1997 and have not done a towing test, this is when the Gross train weight (Gross vehicle weight and gross towing weight) becomes a consideration and should be under 3.5t.
 
We have been assured by the Citroen dealership that ours is legal and safe to tow with. I don't have a trailer test, so my dad is playing chauffeur for the moment! I was very careful about checking weights before we bought out trailer to make sure everything was safe and legal.
 
We use to tow a bahill with a volvo estate - it was fine apart from getting stuck in show grounds when it was only slightly wet!
 
No I was not referring to the later driver licences.
But you are right, there are horse trailers made for vehicles with a max of 1800kg (bateson make one )
If your vehicle is capable of towing 1800kg, then the plate on the trailer must not be rated higher than the towing vehicle
It is a bit anal but that is the law. It is possible sometimes to down rate a trailer to match a vehicle so long as the un laden weight allows this.
In the eyes of the law its about potential not actual !
I have now become a very boring man, I apologise
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Is there a reason why you are driving around with a horse trailer on the back without a horse, fashion statement? Forgot to take it off? or paranoid about theft?
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LMAO - she said she doesnt take the horse ONLY THE PONY
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I have seen pics of the pony, it is very small and sweet
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I found the manual for the car, and it says max braked towing weight is 1600kg, so that should cover trailer and horse, although i will look for the plate on the trailer to see how heavy that is. I hope its enough as im not in a position to get a 4 x4 this year and we really need to get this lad out and about.
 
I don't think there is any car going that is legally allowed to pull a horse trailer.

Apparently (after lots of confusion) the cars MAXIMUM TOWING CAPACITY (i.e what it states in the manual) must be above or equal to the trailers MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT of the trialer.

Now, the trailers maximum gross weight is what it CAN carry/weight, not what it does carry/weight.

So for a Ifor williams 505 the Maximum Gross Weight is 2340kg (that's 905kg of trailer, leaving 1435kg of horse room)) so your car MUST have a towing capacity of 2340kg or more regardless of whether you carry horses (big or little) or not . Stupid, yes, but that's the law.

You can apparently have the trailer plate down-graded to make it legal (i.e have it's gross weight changed to say 1500kg, so you can legally pull it with a 1500kg capable car but only carry a 595kg horse (1500kg-905kg = 595kg).

The 85% rule is a safely rule (a good one) but not the legal requirement.
 
Well I am with Kallibear on this one, anyone using a car to tow a trailer with a horse in it is stupid...and I don't care who that offends or gets rattled. It is not just the issue that Kallibear states but also the fact that the weight of the towing vehicle needs to be heavey enough and out weight the weight of the car. Otherwise you will end up with the tail wagging the dog, as it were. The whole point of a 4x4 is that they are built heavier, and differently in all respects to ensure that they can cope with the stress and weight loading of what it is pulling. Just because a car can 'pull' the weight does not mean it can 'control' it too and that is what you want...control. It is an accident waiting to happen.
 
It would be helpful if people quoted sources for their statements. There are statements being made on here as legal fact that may be correct, but are not what I understand and are not what the Direct Gov website seems to say.

As far as I can see the towing capacity as stated by the manufacturer is irrelevant as far as the law is concerned. The only legislation I can find relates the mass of the towing vehicle to the mass of the trailer.

There is a seperate issue of what you are licensed to tow, but that does not relate to manufacturers stated towing capacity either.

Also, would manufacturers put towing guidelines in their handbooks that did not comply with the law? That would open them up to all sorts of liability claims.

For the record, we tow with a Discos 3 and a V70 AWD. The Disco is easier and more stable, but the Volvo copes fine as well.
 
We have always towed with a Volvo 850, one horse mind. Not a prob.

I agree in an ideal world a 4x4 would be ideal but i cant justify the cost just for one or two trips a year
 
okay I am sorry for this confussion I am going to add I have an ifor william 505 and I currently have a landy but want to get a mondeo for confort ect can I tow with it or not the dvla said yes but I am not sure if they know what they are talking about!!
 
Surely if you get a single horse trailer that is LIGHT, that is 700kg and can take 1 800kg horse, surely that makes it legal to tow with a car that has 1500kg towing weight.

I hope to get a trailer when I have enough money and my dad to tow it with a VW touran. But I would be getting a single trailer (no more than 700kg ULW) to tow a horse that is no heavier than 450kg.
 
So long as the plate on the trailer does not exceed the max on the car.
Everyone is right though , it is a bloody nightmare and in my job, I do end up pulling my hair out as the rules get more complicated!
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Thanks everyone, difficult one isnt it, what with fuel prices ect the amount of people i know that are selling 4 x4's in favour of towing with a car is un believable. I think the show world is going to notice a drastic reduction in entries over the next year, shame isnt it. However it doesnt seem to of affected horse prices that much as yet. but thats another thread lol...
 
Saw a police programe the other night where 2 pikey's were stopped and licenses checked by the police computer. within seconds it came back that the younger woman didn't have b+e on her license. the police didn't bother about weighbridges just gave a £50 ticket and 3 penalty points on the license and they had to get someone to recover the trailer.
 
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