Getting confused re towing and weights

[sidsmum]

I have my B&E entitlement on my licence and have been happily towing an ifor 505 with two horses (weighing just over 1000kg together) with no problem.

However, my trusty tow car (Hyundai Terracan) is becoming less and less, well, trusty and is costing more and more money. It has to go to the garage today as the turbo is not kicking in.

I can't afford to replace it with another big 4x4. Can't afford the outlay and can't afford to run it as my main car. (At the moment my mum drives it but she no longer works etc so cannot afford it either).

Otto, one of my horses has just been retired to a light hack and the only solution I can see so far is to replace the car with a smaller 4x4 like a Grand Vitara or something and only tow one horse at 520kg.

My ifor is an old pre '97 trailer with an aluminium floor and I would probably take the partition out as Bria travels better without it when on her own.


Would this work and would I need to downplate my trailer?

I was under the impression that it was the car's towing capacity and the fully laden weight of the trailer that had to be taken into account but after googling a little I am finding lots of conflicting advice, particularly in this thread here>>> https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=1019747&i=0

If anyone can help shed light I would be most grateful!
If my trailer is too heavy then are other makes lighter i.e. Bateson. I'm not keen on single trailers, and a quick look on horsemart only returned 2 in my area, so I'm not sure that would be a solution.

Many thanks!

 

[ester]

Pop your question on this thread
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...Welcome-to-HHO-Towing-Clinic&highlight=Towing

 

[sidsmum]

Thanks Ester.

 

[AandK]

If you have B+E then you need to make sure the unladen weight of the trailer and the weight of your load are within the car's towing capacity. e.g. Ifor 505 is 905kg unladen, plus your horse at 520kg is 1425kg, plus you also need to allow for anything else you carry in the trailer. So you'd want something that can tow 1500kg as an absolute minimum (Grand Vitara has 1800kg capacity I think), but keep in mind that if you go for something around this mark, that you would never be able to take more than one horse.

 

[Annagain]

Downgrading the trailer is only necessary to comply with licence restrictions, not to the car's towing capacity. As you have the B+E, all you need to ensure is that the actual weight of trailer + horse (not the maximum allowable weight) does not exceed the car's capacity.

A 505 is about 900kg so with a horse weighing 520kg, you'll need something capable of towing in the region of 1500kg. The vast majority of estate cars will do that easily so you don't really need a 4x4 but if you do want a 4x4, most smaller 4x4s will tow about 2000kg. You'd be fine with something like an X-Trail, Freelander, CRV etc.

 

[sidsmum]

Ah, thank you! So it's to do with licensing then? One less thing to worry about, phew!

 

[Annagain]

Ah, thank you! So it's to do with licensing then? One less thing to worry about, phew!

Yes. If you passed your test after 1997, you will only have a B licence, which means that the weight of the car plus the maximum allowable mass (MAM) of the trailer cannot exceed 3500kg. This is why people downgrade trailers.

As an example: If your car weighs 2000kg, the trailer's MAM can't be any more than 1500kg. A 505's MAM at manufacture is about 2300kg so you can't tow it, even empty on a B licence. However, if you downgrade its MAM to 1500kg (a paper exercise and replacing the plate), you can tow it legally. As the trailer itself weighs 905kg this allows you to put 595kg of horse on it and be within both the 3500kg and the trailer's new 1500kg MAM.

You don't need to worry about that though!