Kia Sorento 2.2l towing two horses

[ali123]

Hi I am having a bit of a wobble about our plan for towing our horses. We have a Kia Sorento 2.2l 2012 model manual. It has a max towing capacity of 2500kg. When we bought the car we always planned to tow with it but we only had one horse. We now have two horses! We haven't bought the trailer yet but looking at a bateson deauville with an unleaded weight of 860kg. Our horses weigh 550kg and 600kg and are unlikely to ever go over 1250. I just want to know if anyone has ever towed with the Kia (or something similar) that has a max capacity of 2500kg with two horses on board and how they got on. Often will probably only have one horse but definitely will want two on like once a month or something. Thanks in advance.

 

[Tiddlypom]

What sort of terrain do you tow on - fairly flat roads or steep Devon type hills?

 

[ali123]

What sort of terrain do you tow on - fairly flat roads or steep Devon type hills?

We are in Nottingham so pretty flat majority of the time. Occasionally might want to go to Skegness to the beach but think that's even flatter!

 

[abbijay]

I tow 1 horse (850kg) in a richardson supreme ultra (1100kg) with a passat alltrack (2.2t towing capacity) so I am within about 10% of my towing limit by the time I've got hay and water on board. I tow on motorways and local roads without any issues but I have refused to tow over to cumbria as I'm just not sure I'd have the stopping ability on the hills. If I were towing in tough country I would want something more up for the job but Cheshire is flat and fairly easy to drive around.

 

[brighteyes]

Not enough spare capacity for me. I had the 2.5CrDi manual and felt OK at 2/3 max of the available towing allowance on average terrain.

 

[asmp]

Personally I wouldn’t tow two horses with your car. Ours weigh about the same as yours and we have a VW Touareg with 3.5 engine.

 

[paddi22]

I towed with my old kia and found it was doable, but struggled. it had a rubbish clutch tho and struggled in 4wd in bad ground. engine also blew on it twice, which I always assumed was due to towing two big horses around a lot

 

[Renvers]

I have towed two warmbloods in a Bateson with the 2.5l mk2 Kia it was okay but felt like it was having to work up the one hill on our journey, but with one horse it was brilliant to tow. Looked at buying the 2.2l until then as Sorento was lovely to drive as commute and tow car. However I was advised against it for two horse towing by garage.

Edited to add, if you are looking at a 2.2l for towing I have heard a lot of good things about the Ssangyong Rexton, might be worth a look

 

[dixie]

Edited to add, if you are looking at a 2.2l for towing I have heard a lot of good things about the Ssangyong Rexton, might be worth a look

I tow with a Rexton in Devon and it’s effortless.
I tow a IW510 with two horses and it doesn’t falter at all up our steep Devon hills.