Small 4 x 4 for single trailer

[Mr Punch]

Does anyone have a small 4x4 used for towing?

Have been weighing up all the options for transport and going round in circles and think this might be my best bet.

I'll be getting a single ifor Williams if I go ahead and have been looking at the Honda CR-V and Nissan x-trail.

Any reviews good or bad or any other smaller 4x4's people use for pulling a single trailer?

 

[Welshie95]

I have a 2011 CRV with an Ifor 505 and a 470kg horse and absolutely love it

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Following with interest.........

 

[texenstar]

I use my Toyota Rav 4 to tow a single trailer

 

[sarahann1]

I have a Kia Sportage, tow my 403 which is 960kg and my cob who's about 450kg, it's ok, but I'd rather have something heavier.

 

[Annagain]

Do you have a B+E (either passed test before 1997 or done the test) licence? If not, that will limit your choices and you may need to downgrade the maximum weight of the trailer. Easily doable but a bit more fiddly.

If you do have the B+E, that makes things much easier. The 401/3 (new/old model) weighs roughly 770kg, so even with a very large 700kg horse (my 17hh TBxWelshxShire is 685kg) you're only going to be towing about 1500kg. Nearly every small 4x4 will tow between 1800 and 2200kg so you can take your pick or even go for an estate car which will also tow that weight easily. I'd test drive a few and see which you prefer. I've driven quite a few, and I favour the Freelander but I know others dislike them so it's all about personal choice.

 

[Batgirl]

I just changed from an xtrail to a Tiguan after my gearbox went. Bloomin love it!

 

[DappleDown]

Land Rover Discovery. Manual gearbox.
Lots of room in the back for all that extra kit too.

(Freelanders are underpowered).

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I used to tow a single Cheval, small horse with a CRV. I was well within its official towing limit. It was ok but reversing up a slope wasn't, sticky ground wasn't, steep hills weren't good and I always felt far better when I could borrow my mates Jeep. for routes and places I knew it was fine. always go as big as you can imo.

 

[Annagain]

I burned out the clutch on my Dad's CRV when I first had a trailer. I only had a Fiesta so used to borrow his CRV to tow - only one pony on a fairly lightweight pony trailer. It was fine on the open road but couldn't manage the low speed manoeuvring. That was a while ago now though and I know the CRV's towing capacity has increased with newer models so they may be better. Never had any issues doing the same with 3 Freelanders I've used to tow, even with a heavier trailer and a bigger horse.

 

[coss]

I have a single horse box and used to tow with a CR-V - it was a 55 plate (they've had 2 or 3 model changes since then). It was ok but the tow bar was slightly too low (and couldn't be raised) meaning that the trailer would weave above 40mph. It was fine towing otherwise.
I now drive a vauxhall antara and can feel a clear difference. It has a higher tow capacity which helps, diesel instead of petrol so lower revs gives more power and it has sensors to aid if the box were to start weaving (which i've only had in crosswinds - didn't realise the wind was going to get THAT bad or wouldn't have been towing!) The antara is pretty economical and a dream to drive compared to the honda. There are things I dislike about it but they are outweighed by the good. I travel in hilly places (signs say the hills are 10% gradients) and after sharp bends you can't gain momentum so rely on the car having the power and not had a problem there.

 

[EmmaB]

I have a single ifor and tow with my freelander (old shape), tows perfectly fine. My horse is only 15.3 so not huge though.

 

[Mr Punch]

I don't have my B & E licence so will need to have something that I can tow legally once I've down plated the trailer (still figuring out how I go about doing this)!

 

[Annagain]

I don't have my B & E licence so will need to have something that I can tow legally once I've down plated the trailer (still figuring out how I go about doing this)!

How heavy is the horse? This will affect the downplating of the trailer and therefore your choice of vehicle.

 

[coss]

I don't have my B & E licence so will need to have something that I can tow legally once I've down plated the trailer (still figuring out how I go about doing this)!

I would just get your trailer test done - downplaiting used to be free... it's now over £45 . Gives you more choice of car and if you need a bigger trailer and/or car in the future you'd need to do the test anyway.

 

[Mr Punch]

How heavy is the horse? This will affect the downplating of the trailer and therefore your choice of vehicle.

He's a 14.1 Highland so i'm guessing around 550kgs.

 

[Mr Punch]

I would just get your trailer test done - downplaiting used to be free... it's now over £45 . Gives you more choice of car and if you need a bigger trailer and/or car in the future you'd need to do the test anyway.

I will be doing at some point in the future but for now just need to tow one.

 

[Abi90]

My Nissan Qashqai is excellent with my single trailer and is much lighter than the x-trail

 

[Annagain]

He's a 14.1 Highland so I'm guessing around 550kgs.

The first thing I would do is get an accurate weight for your boy. The easiest way is to arrange for a feed company to visit your yard with a weighbridge but you'll need about 10 horses for them to agree to come. Invite some friends if you don't have enough at your yard. I'd then add 30kg to allow for fluctuations to be safe. Alternatively, if your vet has a surgery local to you they may have a weighbridge they'd let you use.

Add this to the weight of the trailer (770kg for 401/3) and that's what you can downplate the trailer's MAM (maximum authorised mass) to (you just send details to IW along with a payment and they send you a new plate, which you replace the old one with). I'm estimating about 1300-1350kg. Take this away from 3500kg (the maximum you can drive/tow without B+E) and that will give you the maximum GVE (gross vehicle weight) you can have. In this case that would be 2,150-2,200 kg.

You then need to be very careful which particular model of vehicle you buy, e.g different models of the X-Trail range from 2,000kg GVW to 2,320kg and the CRV from 1955kg to 2250kg. You'd be fine with the former weights, but obviously not with the latter. Towing capacity shouldn't be an issue as the 1300/1350kg you can put on the trailer won't be anywhere near the towing capacity.

If you bought a car with a 1900kg GVW (certain models of Octavia estate, for example) you could tow the 401/403 without downplating as its MAM is 1600kg anyway. This would save you some money and would make it easier to sell on as it would still be standard (you can always plate it back up but that costs more again).

Hope that makes sense!

 

[EmmaB]

Honestly I tried to get around it with the weights, but its such a pain I ended up doing the test. It really wasn't that bad. And probably will save money in the long run rather than only being able to have a specific car to tow it. If you get stuck that means you can't borrow another car to tow with or anything. I've got an ifor 403 and you can only downplate in increments of 100kg, I think the trailer is 767kg so if your horse is 550kg you could only downplate to 1400kg. So you need a car with a gvw of 2100kg or under and its hard to find the gvw of specific models without looking at the actual vin plate on the car. Do-able but such a pain I gave up!

*Think those weights are all right but open to being corrected if I'm wrong!*

 

[Mr Punch]

The first thing I would do is get an accurate weight for your boy. The easiest way is to arrange for a feed company to visit your yard with a weighbridge but you'll need about 10 horses for them to agree to come. Invite some friends if you don't have enough at your yard. I'd then add 30kg to allow for fluctuations to be safe. Alternatively, if your vet has a surgery local to you they may have a weighbridge they'd let you use.

Add this to the weight of the trailer (770kg for 401/3) and that's what you can downplate the trailer's MAM (maximum authorised mass) to (you just send details to IW along with a payment and they send you a new plate, which you replace the old one with). I'm estimating about 1300-1350kg. Take this away from 3500kg (the maximum you can drive/tow without B+E) and that will give you the maximum GVE (gross vehicle weight) you can have. In this case that would be 2,150-2,200 kg.

You then need to be very careful which particular model of vehicle you buy, e.g different models of the X-Trail range from 2,000kg GVW to 2,320kg and the CRV from 1955kg to 2250kg. You'd be fine with the former weights, but obviously not with the latter. Towing capacity shouldn't be an issue as the 1300/1350kg you can put on the trailer won't be anywhere near the towing capacity.

If you bought a car with a 1900kg GVW (certain models of Octavia estate, for example) you could tow the 401/403 without downplating as its MAM is 1600kg anyway. This would save you some money and would make it easier to sell on as it would still be standard (you can always plate it back up but that costs more again).

Hope that makes sense!

Thank you I think i've got it!

I've just had a look at the Vauxhall Antara that someone else recommended and it weighs 1795kgs so if i'm right the combination for the trailer and pony can be up to 1705kgs which should be plenty with a single trailer to allow me to downplate it.

 

[coss]

Thank you I think i've got it!

I've just had a look at the Vauxhall Antara that someone else recommended and it weighs 1795kgs so if i'm right the combination for the trailer and pony can be up to 1705kgs which should be plenty with a single trailer to allow me to downplate it.

That must be an old antara - mine is over 2tonne fully laden. The older ones don't have such a high tow capacity but i'm not sure of the exact values...

 

[bootsandmud]

We pull a single lightweight Ifor Williams trailer with a Nissan Qashqai. We only have a 15.2 but if she was any bigger the car wouldn't legally be able to pull it. However we are upgrading to a Mazda CX-5 as the Qashqai struggles with big hills!

 

[Fuzzycat]

Yes i tow a 505 and one horse with a 2012 CRV. it's great, I've been doing it for two years now, no problems at all whether up or down hills or on long motorway journeys. I go out a least once a week with my trailer.

 

[Annagain]

Thank you I think i've got it!

I've just had a look at the Vauxhall Antara that someone else recommended and it weighs 1795kgs so if i'm right the combination for the trailer and pony can be up to 1705kgs which should be plenty with a single trailer to allow me to downplate it.

It needs to be the Gross Vehicle Weight NOT the Kerb (or Unladen) Weight. I would think the Antara is far too heavy.

ETA - yes its GVW is 2350kg which would only allow you 1150kg of trailer. The trailer alone is 770kg so that only leaves you 380kg to put a horse on. You've already said your horse is probably about 550kg.

 

[Annagain]

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/skoda/octavia-estate/20-tdi-cr-scout-4x4-5dr/spec-1

Something like this might be good. Its GVW is 2096kg so you'd need to downplate the trailer to 1400kg but that still gives you 630kg to play with in terms of what you can put on the trailer. The towing capacity is 2000kg so you'll have no problem with the 1400kg maximum of the trailer.

ETA - the Top Gear website is good - on the right hand side you choose the make and model then you get a list of all the variations of engine size etc. Just click on the one you're interested in and you'll get the full spec including GVW and towing capacity.

 

[GoldenWillow]

We've towed with an 08 and now a 14 Honda CRV, generally one cob very occasionally cob and Shetland and never had any problems at all. Have got out of muddy gateways although it's obviously no Landrover. ALso use it for taking heavy stuff down the field which is on a fairly steep hill hope never to get stuck as I'd then have to admit to this to OH!

 

[Mr Punch]

Thanks for all replies. Understand now it's the MAM and not just the weight of the vehicle. I just need to get my test sorted really.

 

[ROG]

More info on post number 3000 of the HHO TOWING CLINIC - link in signature below