Towing experts advice please

kezz86

kezz86

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Hi all,

I can't tow (yet) but my OH has now had his towing licence for 4 months and has been towing he's racing car to the track and so gain a whole load of experience in this time.

He tows his race car which is a little Lotus Elise on an enclosed trailer with my BMW 330d auto estate (2001 plate).

Would this car be good enough to tow one horse (15.3hh cleveland bay) in a trailer?
(have no trailer at the moment so if this is possible trailer suggestions welcome (I believe if it is possible the trailer would need to be lightweight)

My OH is adament that this car is up to the job for one horse but I'm just not convinced...

I'd appreciate comments both positive and negative thank you!
 
if you look at autotrader and search for the car type you click on a similar car and see in dimensions it will tow 1800 - which gives you enough for one horse in that trailer. If it were me I would want to be towing with something much meatier but you could do it - beware though that you will struggle on hills - i towed with a freelander (2200 limit) one horse in ifor 505 - fine on flat but uphill you wouldnt want to stop and start again - I would also be avoiding parking on fields as you may not get off again!

Also some of those trailers are very tight on room - you could however take out partition and get a front and back full width breech bar. Or, look at bateson they are very light although a bit dearer.

Hope this helps.
 
kezz86 said:
Hi all,

I can't tow (yet) but my OH has now had his towing licence for 4 months and has been towing he's racing car to the track and so gain a whole load of experience in this time.

He tows his race car which is a little Lotus Elise on an enclosed trailer with my BMW 330d auto estate (2001 plate).

Would this car be good enough to tow one horse (15.3hh cleveland bay) in a trailer?
(have no trailer at the moment so if this is possible trailer suggestions welcome (I believe if it is possible the trailer would need to be lightweight)

My OH is adament that this car is up to the job for one horse but I'm just not convinced...

I'd appreciate comments both positive and negative thank you!
Click to expand...
ANSWERED HERE post number 533 :D
 
kezz86 said:
Hi all,

I can't tow (yet) but my OH has now had his towing licence
Click to expand...
You can tow on a B only licence under certain rules but it needs the right set up of vehicle and trailer - click that link to my answer in that last post I did on here and see how ;):D

PS - Sinclair trailers cannot be downplated because the manufacturer is no longer in business
 
ROG said:
You can tow on a B only licence under certain rules but it needs the right set up of vehicle and trailer - click that link to my answer in that last post I did on here and see how ;):D

PS - Sinclair trailers cannot be downplated because the manufacturer is no longer in business
Click to expand...

Ah so does that mean the car would still have to be able to tow the max weight that the trailer is plated to? (even if we weren't going to tow the max weight?) so we wouldn't be able to tow this particular trailer anyway if it wasn't already downplated?

Edit

"DOES THIS BMW 330d (2006) HAVE THE SAME SPECS AS YOUR 2001 MODEL?
KERB 1615
GVW 2155
TOWING MAX 1800

Assuming those weight are correct for YOUR BMW then using one of these trailers but downplated by contacting manufacturer (little or no cost) will work for B licence towing like this .....

BATESON LIGHT HORSE TRAILER
CHEVAL LIGHT HORSE TRAILER
IFOR LIGHT HORSE TRAILER

Downplate any one of those to maximum of 1345 MAM (2155+1345=3500)
BATESON leaves 670 kgs for load/horse
CHEVAL leaves 690 kgs for load/horse
HB401 leaves 575 kgs for load/horse

This reply is not definitive for your situation because I really need the weights for your BMW"

I'm not sure I'd need to check with OH but thank you very much for this I'll see what he says about weights of my BMW.

Also when you say you can tow on a B licence would that mean (with the right set up) I could tow on my licence? (I only passed in 2005)
 
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I'd need to check with OH but thank you very much for this I'll see what he says about weights of my BMW.
Click to expand...
When you find the weights for you BMW please reply in the HHO TOWING CLINIC thread as that has been set up for issues such as this - I have an E-mail alert for when a post is made in that thread so I can answer ASAP - thanks

Also when you say you can tow on a B licence would that mean (with the right set up) I could tow on my licence? (I only passed in 2005)
Click to expand...
YES :):D

does that mean the car would still have to be able to tow the max weight that the trailer is plated to?
Click to expand...
NO

Quite often especially with B+E towing the trailer MAM can far exceed the towing capacity and that is legal

In every case of towing the LOWER of these two weights is used when deciding how much load can be put in the trailer
Vehicle towing capacity
Trailer MAM
The unladen/empty weight of the trailer is deducted from the LOWER of those two weights and what is left can be loaded into the trailer
 
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