H&H article on Towing- transport special (rant!)

[seabiscuit]

Sorry to H and H for putting this up, and delete this if you want, but just wanted to say that I am flabbergasted at the vehicles that you have reccomended for towing in your article yesterday!
Not only have a few estate cars been reccomended (towing with an estate is out of the question IMO) but these estates have a towing capacity that would only take a pony in a tiny trailer at the very most. Also the 4x4 cars mentioned would hardly meet the correct towing capacity's either!!

I.E- You suggest using the Volvo Sportwagon for towing- it has a towing capcity of 1306 kg! Umm, a trailer is 1000kg, and a horse is 500kg, meaning that the total weight is 1500kg- WAAAY over the towing limit for the vehicle.

None of the best cars for towing have even been mentioned, go to any competition and almost everyone uses a Dhiatshu Foutrack for their trailers- they do have a towing capacity of 3500kg! And what about the shoguns- they have a capacity of 2800kg! Way better and more suitable than any of the cars youve mentioned.

Correct me if I am wrong but it seems like facts have been muddled and vehicles reccomended for towing here would pose an extremely high risk of danger were they to be used for towing.You have said in your article that the vehicle should only be towing 85% of its total towing limit!

 

[Irishcobs]

I thought that, there was no land rovers, range rovers or anything you normally see on the front of a trailer. I use a L200 to pull my two cobs in a 510. Most people I know use a Range rover, land rover or as you said a fourtrack.

 

[Chex]

I've not read it, but that does sound like bad advice! We used to tow with a 1.8 estate, but towing a 600kg trailer and a 450kg horse, so it was just about do-able. Now have an Izusu trooper and its soooooo much safer!

 

[seabiscuit]

Yes that is what I meant- I would have expected that list to be as you say something like a range rover, land rover, a fourtrack and Isuzu Trooper! Now that is a good bunch of 4x4's!

Most people have the Ifor Williams trailer or one of similar, so they should have based their facts on those weights- you never see these pony trailers/single trailers about anymore!

 

[icestationzebra]

Well said - exactly what I was thinking! Wasn't there some kind of Suburu sporty thing on there too?

 

[S_N]

Well done for posting this - I too thought it was ludicrous!!!

 

[benrolo]

I have a Fourtrak which has managed on many occasions to haul my Ifor 510 up steep hills with over 1200kg of horse, unfortunately they no longer make them so if anything major goes wrong (back axle) it's onto the internet to find a reconditioned part. Then some b****** stole my trailer!!

 

[Ferdinase514]

This is one of my bug bears too. I've recenlt seen a trailer with 16hh horse being pulled by a citroen saloon. These people have no idea how dangerous it is.

 

[seabiscuit]

They suggested a Volvo estate, a subaru thingy and a VW estate thingy!! Arrghh! And the 4x4's they mentioned are mostly pretty hopeless!A shame for H and H to get it so badly wrong

 

[Chambon]

Yes! We have a Suburu Impreza but there is absolutely NO WAY we would tow anything with it, not even a shopping trolley!

It's just not designed for towing at all. It's a rally car for heavens sake!

They also had the L200 in the list, which I have to say I think is a fanatastic tow car - they got that bit right, however I nearly fell over at the price they quoted - 12k for an L200!

I looked up on the mitsi website and the absolutely bottom of the range single cab is 14.5k otr. When I got mine last year, which is the double cab warrior with leather etc, it was closer to 24k!

(Edited as I'm bad at spelling)

 

[airedale]

Totally agree

lunacy for article to imply towing with a subaru impreza - tail, dog, wagging springs to mind

..........although with that car and a trailer they'd probably nick the car and leave the trailer ;-)

 

[burtie]

Yep, I was rather shocked too, the only decent one was the L200(I have one!), and the price quoted was way off!

And as for recommending normal estate cars well the mind boggles?

 

[VictoriaEDT]

I know, the mind boggles and I have no idea what they were thinking of when recommending those cars and as for the impreza...........need I say more! So so so dangerous for those people who actually took H&Hs advice and are thinking about purchasing one of those cars (except the L200)!!

 

[hunteress]

come on nag and dog answere we dare you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hairycob]

"Having a small car can limit your choice of trailer" - bl**dy hel. All you can tow with a small car is a toy trailer!

 

[Iestyn]

OH emailed a letter as soon as he read the article - we too were absolutely flabbergasted! Irresponsible to have printed such an article IMO.

 

[Blackhawk]

Lord! Think I may swipe a copy of this weeks to take a peek myself.

What was the angle? Towing with small inexpensive cars?

 

[burtie]

Having re-read the article in full it's a complete load of tosh and mostly I suspect copied from some caravan club literature with no thought to actually towing horses at all, other than the one quote from Emily Archer-Perkins (not the writer) who advises putting a single horse on the right hand side of the trailor.

I have to say H and H have reached a real low point with this article which is not only useless it's verging on downright dangerous and misleading advise.
Sorry H and H but if this is the best you can do I may need to rethink my subscription.

 

[burtie]

For those who don;t subscribe here is the article, but I don't think it include the recommended tow vehicles section.

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/best/396/99403.html

 

[HHO admin]

Dear forum users

Thank you for all your feedback about this article. Please find below a correction which is being published in this Thursday's issue of Horse & Hound.

HHO Admin

-----------------------

In last week’s towing guide (Tow away), freelance writer Victoria Heath selected her top eight cars for towing.

Regretfully, none of these cars is in fact suitable for towing a trailer loaded with two horses. The Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Jeep Commander and Kia Sorrento would be suitable for towing a single or light double horse trailer with one horse or pony. The other four would not be recommended. We apologise unreservedly for this error.

The formula outlined in the article, that a fully loaded trailer should represent no more than 85% of the weight of the car towing it, is, however, correct.

John Carroll, Editor of 4x4 magazine, recommends the following vehicles: Land Rover Discovery, Land Rover Defender 110, Range Rover, Toyota Land Cruiser.

 

[Patches]

Thank you admin.

However, I always thought the 85% kerbweight (which we adhered to with a caravan) wasn't obligatory.

My car has a towing capacity higher than the weight of it's vehicle. Never quite understood that and going by the 85% theory I can tow Patches but not two horses and pretty much most vehicles would be over the 85% limit with two horses and trailer...even our old Land Rover 110!

Caravans and other trailers tend to be driven at higher speeds. When towing precious cargo....as our horses are, we do tend to be more considerate at cornering and straight line speeds and allow more careful and steady braking.

I got into this debate a while ago on this forum as I always assumed the towing vehicle would struggle to stop the trailer if it weighed more than it. However, my trailer and I'm sure most others are braked trailers anyway.

 

[Sooty]

Good grief! With a load as heavy as a horse or two, and as unstable, the last thing you want is the trailer pushing the car. Great pity, as a lot of people regard H&H as the bible of the horsey world.

 

[burtie]

[ QUOTE ]
However, I always thought the 85% kerbweight (which we adhered to with a caravan) wasn't obligatory.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've always worked on the 85% rule applying to the maximum weight of the car when loaded. If I travel 2 with my L200 (which is rare!) I load up the bed with heavy water containers, if I travel one I just add a bit of weight over the back axle as the L200 can be a bit bouncy without this.

I think the difference is these cars have chassis, brakes, suspension etc, etc to deal with loads up to the maximum, in the case of my L200 it has a max weight of 2.7 tonnes and a a max towing weight of 2.7 tonnes.