please can someone give me a simple answer

vick

vick

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Yo,

Please help....Towing dilemma any information gratefully received. (the towing clinic has lots of information, but I don't understand it, it confuses me, it doesn't take much!)
I have a licence where I can tow a max of 3,5 tonne, combined weight of car trailer and load.

I need a vehicle that will pull a trailer with one horse in approx 550kg, me and our tack. Any suggestions on which trailer/car combination I need would be great....the car will mainly be used for school runs, visiting horses, and shopping. Which car is cheapest on petrol/diesel, tax? I will only use the car for towing maybe a couple of times a month. I've ruled out a horsebox as don't have the finances to tax insure and mot another vehicle.

I cant wait to go places.....

Thanks in advance x
 
I have the same license as you and used to tow with my Mondeo Diesel estate (I found this had best fuel consumption and its braked towing specs were better.

The trailer I had was a single Ifor Williams.

I never had any issues towing with it. You don't necessarily need a 4x4, but be mindful if you have muddy fields to tow through (although I never had any problems).

You'll need to do lots of research!
 
Thank you,,,not sure how to access the sticky's ! (what are they? lol) a mondeo sounds ok, does it have to be an estate? what model? will any do? Any other combinations? please, heard skodas are ok?
 
A mondeo is only legal to tow a lightweight trailer with one horse. I had one and loved it but the head gasket didn't last long as they aren't really designed for it. You need to look at the specs of different cars to understand the maximum you can legally tow with them and asses this against the weight of the trailer you choose plus your horse. If you got your license after about 1998 you will need to take a towing test. The old licenses allowed you to drive up to 7.5 tonnes so I'm guessing yours is newer and you will have to do the test. You could drive a lorry up to 3.5t without a test.
 
I first looked at Auto Trader to find out the braked towing maximum and weight of the vehicle (both of which you will need to find out). However, I have just had a look and it appears they don't list this information for cars anymore?

When I was looking for cars to tow with, I looked at Mondeo Estates, VW Passat Estates and VW Sharans. Estates give you more maximum towing capabilities as they are heavier and have a longer wheel-base.

For example: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...e/1/make/volkswagen/postcode/pe86dw?logcode=p

This is an example to show where the information is. It says max towing weight is 700kg. However, this will be for a trailer which is not braked (most horse trailers are). From what I can remember, a Sharan's braked towing is 1500/1600 kgs (but don't quote me on this!) AT used to provide a lot more information than this, as the ad also doesn't provide the kerb weight of the vehicle.

Diesels are better IMO and you will be prudent to buy a car without a tow bar, then get one fitted as the car would have had less wear on the engine.

If its definitely a car you are after (I think it will have to be as most 4x4's which can tow will take you over the 3.5t limit if you include a trailer), I would look at the 3 cars I mentioned earlier and Google their specs separately. Also look at other estates/large family vehicles.

You will need to look for trailers at approx 750kg unladen weight.

Good luck!
 
I've looked into it and I can only tow something (trailer and horse weight combined) that is not heavier than the car. the combined weight altogether cannot be more than 3.5 tonne, is this possible? ahhh, headache material this is.. Thanks
 
I know you asked for a simple answer but I don't think there is one. This is an old chestnut for us, a vehicle that is safe to tow with but economical enough to use for general motoring. Came to the conclusion that it doesn't really exist so we tow with a Terrano which isn't cheap to run every day but great for towing. You simply have to get to grips with the fact that it is expensive to haul a horse around the country safely.
 
I looked into this at length. Have the same licence as you and same desire to keep running costs low!
I *think* that a Nissan x-trail and single trailer (eg ifor 401) is legal on a cat b licence if downplated. I liked the x-trail as it is a 4x4 but seems to be relatively cheap to run - fuel economy is better than my golf!
From memory the kerb weight of the car (2000kg) has to be greater than the MAM of the trailer (1600kg), and combined weight less than 3500kg for cat b licence. You can get round this by downplating the trailer to 1450kg which still leaves enough weight for about 700kg of horse + equipment in trailer.
Plenty of people tow with x-trails, it seems safer to me than an estate car but I have no experience of that. The stumbling block for us has been that I put the mother of all dents in the car we were going to trade in for the x-trail so had to put it on hold while I save up to get it fixed! D'oh!

(Sorry if my post doesn't always make sense. Am on my kindle and typing is such an effort - my fingers are just too fat!)
 
I have a manual diesel nissan x trail and tow a iw 401. Had it downplated to 1450 so can tow my 450kg horse with just my b licence. Love my x trail!! Can have it in 2 wheel drive for normal running about and it makes it a bit more economical and then for towing I put it in auto. Wouldn't like to tow a double regularly but I'm sure it would do it! Nice big boot for saddles, feed etc too. 😃
 
Thanks for your replies. I see I need to research this properly. Safety 1st.
....p.s what's downplaying mean?
 
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