Small(er) towing vehicles??

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bex1984

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Am posting this on behalf of a friend - hoping you knowledgable people will be able to offer some advice?

Friend is selling her Discovery as it's too big, uses too much fuel and "drives like a tank"!!

She wants to get something "less tank like" that can still tow two 500kg ponies, diesel, with reasonable fuel consumption, ideally a 4x4. She'd like something like a freelander or a Rav 4 but isn't sure they would cope with the weight? Budget is 6k ish.

Any advice/suggestions?

thanksies
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despite the bad press the freelander gets i have one that has just sailed through its 6 yr mot & i've had no problems at all with (main dealer serviced at correct intervals) it tows an ifor505 with one large horse fine & is ok on fuel , about 300 miles on a tank costing about £58 ,
 
Tow 2 500kg horses? What trailer has she got? I don't think she'll be able to. She'll be over the kerb weight for most vehicles or very very near. She'll be able to tow one, but not 2.
 
Not sure what trailer it is...but surely that would mean no one could tow two horses?
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She tows my pony and her pony, both are only about 14hh (although admitedly they are chunky...) but plenty of people seem to two two horses that must weigh more than 500kg each?
 
Another vote for the freelander 2!
I only tow one horse though, he is 17.3hh but it copes with him fine - I havent and wouldnt tow 2 with it though!
 
our sorento has 2800 kgs capacity and it tows our 510 plus 2 16.1 tbs effortlessly , cant recomend them higher , there must be a very good reason why they have attained tow car of the year for the last 4 years
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Not sure what trailer it is...but surely that would mean no one could tow two horses?
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She tows my pony and her pony, both are only about 14hh (although admitedly they are chunky...) but plenty of people seem to two two horses that must weigh more than 500kg each?

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Many people are unfortunately over the weight limit, too. If you want to tow two 500kg horses/ponies you would struggle to find something smaller than a disco that would do it legally.

A disco has a kerbweight of about 2500kg. An HB505 weighs 905kg, plus 2x500kg ponies = 1905kg. Plus two people, tack etc you will be at about 2100kg. This puts you at about 85% of the kerbweight which is the recommended ratio. If you go over the kerbweight you are illegal.

Hope that helps
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No way anything smaller than a discovery will safely tow that sort of weight and sorry the kerb weight has nothing watsoever to do with the towing capacity, it is some bullshit drempt up i think by the caravan club !!! the towing capacity is worked out by car and van manufactures based on abillty for a hill start at certain grades and other tecnical issues Bigger is better and you wont save much fuel with somthing smaller.. hope this helps
 
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despite the bad press the freelander gets i have one that has just sailed through its 6 yr mot & i've had no problems at all with (main dealer serviced at correct intervals) it tows an ifor505 with one large horse fine & is ok on fuel , about 300 miles on a tank costing about £58 ,

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My discovery does about 550 miles on a tank full costing about £90, so the economy seems about the same. Still does 23mpg when I am towing a 505 with a 480kg horse on board!

I think you would struggle to find anything smaller that would pull 2 x 500kg horses and a trailer without blowing the engine up after a couple of journeys!
 
This post is very informative, thanks!

I am thinking of swoping my car for a Freelander to tow a single trailer and my TB (about 545KG). Thanks for the info.

Will have a look at the sorento though, is it nice to drive?
 
Don't forget that it doesn't matter what your horses weigh, if the police pull you over and the Gross Laden Weight of the trailer (on the info plate) is greater than what the vehicle's manufacturer specifies it can tow (in the handbook spec) then your are illegal. Some trailer manufacturers will re-rate the trailer to match the vehicle if you are for instance only towing one horse in it.
 
I have bought a jeep cherokee 2.8TD automatic which can tow up to 3.5 tonnes and is lovely and didy!! I paid £5500 for mine a couple of months ago, is 04 plate, cruise control, full leather, CD, AC, heated seats, full electric everything - a really smart little car with plenty of grunt for not very much ££££
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I love mine!
 
Dont worry about the max weight of the trailer just dont exceed the towing capacity there is no law in the uk to say how much the the trailer can carry relative to the tow car!! unless the trailer is over 3500kg then you are in to laws for hgvs like testing and plating, diffrent laws apply in europe and yes you need the plated weight of the trailer to be less than the tow car's towing cap over there but not here in the uk.. remember you must not exceed the train weight ( that is the total combined weight of the car the trailer and its load) and or the cars recomended towing limit.. hope this helps
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oh there is info on the dept for transport website...
 
Just a quick note regarding the Freelander 2 - Its juicy ! Ive got a diesel and I put at least £100 per week in it most weeks !
Edited to say that im lucky if I get 23mpg ! and thats not when im towing !
 
Diahatsu Fourtrak every time!
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Excellent on diesel, very reliable, plus because they dont make them anymore they fall into the cheap tax bracket!!
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As perfect11s said this is not correct. As I found out last week - the only time this is vaguely true is if you don't have a licence entitlement to tow eg B+E ie after January 1997 without a trailer test. thats when the gross laden weights etc kick in.

This DVLA leaflet explains it DVLA GUIDE TO TOWING Its difficult when people get information that is relevant to them and assume it applies to all!

Re the freelander2 - as I said in the thread last week I have one on order - manual, as it was at least 6mpg difference to the automatic which added up to about 300miles a month for me!! Sounds like i made the right decision

Mind you very unlikely you would get one for a budget of 6k.

The fourtrak is a great towvehicle - and within budget!
 
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and sorry the kerb weight has nothing watsoever to do with the towing capacity, it is some bullshit drempt up i think by the caravan club !!! the towing capacity is worked out by car and van manufactures based on abillty for a hill start at certain grades and other tecnical issues

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Yep, you're quite right that the towing capacity is based on engine factors primarily, but you are plain wrong about the relevance of the kerb weight. The thing about a trailer is that it is not a dead weight, but a "live" moving one. If the trailer is heavier than the car (or not sufficiently lighter) then its movement can be transmitted to the car. Essentially, the "tail wags the dog".

I have been in a nasty trailer accident where this happened. The engine was perfectly capable of towing the load, but the car just wasn't heavy enough to stop the snaking action. Maybe if the driver had reacted better and put his foot down as soon as the snaking started we would have been ok, but he didn't (split second decisions not always the best ones, after all) and the jack-knife was then inevitable.

Rant over!
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