Towing horsetrailers with cars.............

Meandtheboys

Meandtheboys

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 June 2008
Messages
1,652
Location
Hampshire
Visit site
ok so I am ready to be shot down for posting this but.............I often read about people looking for towing solutions and peoples opionions do differ but can anyone honestly say they have had a successful claim towing horses with a car (non 4X4) whether they have had vet fees covered, 3rd party insurer has fully covered all losses, replacement trailer / horse losses paid?

gut feeling is that most people only claim through their own horse policy...........buy I may be wrong!!!

and just to add for those that do tow with a 'car' are your insurers aware..........?
 
I have towed with various mondeos for over ten years. I have never had to claim against my insurance policy in relation to towing. I'm kind of suprised that the questions asked - have you had to make claims after towing with a 4x4? If si I think I will stick to normal cars! Its perfectly legal if tow capacity of car isn't exceeded and insurance co are informed of intention to tow.
 
We tow with a big Merc estate, 3l TDI. Our insurers are aware we tow - the car is rarely unhitched from a trailer of various sorts - horse, flatbed, box etc

We have a lightweight trailer and ponies.

Insurance is only there in case of operations/car write offs, don't claim for small things or cosmetic damage to cars.
 
its just curiosity............i have been reading upon insurance policies and failed 3rd party cases due to 'driving without due care and attention'.........both cases were towing livestock with an 'unsuitable' vehicle.

One was a simple 'speed wobble' that resulted in the other party writing off their vehicle, the insurers would not payout as the tow vehicle was not deemed as suitable.
 
what's deemed as suitable though?

alot of 4x4's are LESS suitable than some of the bigger cars.

we're about to buy a vectra estate to tow two ponies with. Previously towed with an escort estate. Yes, the insurance knew and even more hockingly, OH took his test AFTEr 1997 and didnt do a trailer test.
The car and ponies and trailer..... meant he didnt need to do one as it came within the law.
Insurance company were great about it.


People do get incredibly huffy about it though, seem to go on about how you shouldnt use a car for towing ponies. Yet seem to know sod all, except that someone at their yard told them they must use a 4x4. When in fact, the law states no such thing.
I'd rather use a heavier estate than a freelander.
 
An unsuitable towing vehicle is one where the weight of the trailer and horse/equipment combined exceed the maximum towing weight of the vehicle - that can be with a 4x4 or an ordinary car, although it is more likely to happen with an 'ordinary' car as generally 4x4's have a higher towing weight
smile.gif


I must admit I do cringe when I see ordinary estate cars towing a trailer with a horse on board, as I usually suspect they exceed the maximum towing weight
crazy.gif
 
You would need to check tow vehicle,trailer and contents really. I know loads of people who tow ifor williams and e horses with freelanders and honda 4x4s that are well outside their plated tow capacity, where's with my old modeo, richardson rossette and solo pony I was 25 percent within mine. I think its a bit like the single trailer debate. Loads of anecdotal tales of their being unstable, no real evidence. I asked Ifor williams about stability issues and they said they knew of no real incidents- but they were not wholly unbiased!
 
I get very confused with towing weights so when the Road Policing Unit guys came down our way I actually took them out to my car and asked them to explain to me what I can and cannot tow with my diesel 406 estate.

They showed me the plate under the bonnet and explained all the weights on there to me and lo and behold it would be perfectly legal for me to tow a large horse box and a large horse (I can't actually remember the weights right now without having a look!)

However, despite the fact that I am perfectly legal to do so - with the very steep topgraphy that we have round here I would burn my clutch/gear box out in no time if I have to keep stopping on a steep hill to let another car pass and pull away again.

That is why, in my mind, its much better to tow with a much larger 4 x 4 because they can deal with the road conditions in this area.

Although legal, if I continued to tow with my 406 I would ruin it in no time.
 
yes, we find that. Thankfully OH is a capable mechanic so just replaces the broken / worn parts. Works out cheaper than running and taxing a 4x4. And hence we only have ford or vauxhall... cheap parts and free labour lol
 
I think you find for it to be perfectly legal the maximum tow weight of the car should be equal or more than the mam weight of the trailer stamped on the trailer irrespective of how many horses you actually have in the trailer, the law actually goes by the mam weight.

So even if you have one horse in eg a 510 ifw trailer as the mam weight is 2700kg even though you only have one horse in it so it actually weighs 2200kg you have to have a car that is capable of towing 2700kg for it to be legal.

You can however to make it legal have the trailer dergulated by the trailer manufacturers stating its mam weight now as if carring one horse say 2200 however how many people towing a 2 horse trailer with estates have really bothered to do this.

link http://www.towinghorsetrailers.co.uk/towing_weights_law.htm
 
Me and my boyfriend looked at buying a 2ltr astra van and that couldnt tow more than 1.4 tonnes braked so im not sure the estates can tow anything other than the trailer and maybe a payload of .4 of a tonne which is just a small pony I rang ifor williams and they said their big trailer for 2x horses weighs 1 tonne

I was shocked because you see it all the time
 
The key thing should be realism about local conditions ie if it is hilly then you need a powerful 4x 4.

You will be insured as long as you stick to your vehicle's max towing weight.

My Volvo V70 2.4 has a max tow weight of 1800kg. This is an estate car. I guess the big mercedes estates, can tow even more.
1800kg will tow a standard trailer (not an equitrek), plus an average horse. Trailer is insured by NFU, who I guess have a clue, on my vehicle policy.

Personally, I get more worried when I see small 4x4 towing 2 horses or an equitrek.
 
Before i passed my trailer test last year, dad used to tow my IFW505 with 15hh horse in it with a Ford Mondeo Estate, he also regularly tows a car trailer and rally car on the back, this is heavier than horse and trailer and he is still within the weight limit. Now that i can tow myself i use a Daihatsu Fourtrak, which is a lovely vehicle to tow with and can tow more than what some of the larger 4x4's can. It's max towing weight is 3.5ton so even if i had 2 horses loaded i stil have 1ton to spare. However this is unlikely to happen as my horse is not the best traveller in the world so travels without the partition in so that she can balance better.
 
www.uktow.com

has alist of all cars and their towing capacity
if you think a trailer weighs around a tonne then you could work out what you'd need

id say to tow 2 horses you need about 2.5tonne minimum to allow for water saddles and petrol ect

but im no expert

hope that helps x
 
But thats just it you are not legal with a two horse treailer as the mam weight ie the weight of the trailer with two horses is the weight that the law considers not the actual weight you are towing.
 
What worries me MUCH MUCH more is seeing two LARGE horses, and an old, heavy trailer being towed by a Freelander, or even worse....a RAV4.

I know our Merc has a much higher towing capacity than either of the above. Dad checked all the plates/books etc, before buying the car.

Our Merc falls into a high tax bracket, and drinks fuel, so it probably isn't much cheaper than a 4x4, however, doing what we do for a living, it gives us a much larger load space, and more comfortable long journeys.

Interestingly, my mare travels better when towed by the long wheel based Merc, than she ever does in a SWB Jeep or the like.
 
[ QUOTE ]
But thats just it you are not legal with a two horse treailer as the mam weight ie the weight of the trailer with two horses is the weight that the law considers not the actual weight you are towing.

[/ QUOTE ] No this is not true,because horse trailers has a manufacturers plate and not a ministry plate. The manufacturers plate is a "Do not exceed" recomendation only.
 
You do see it alot. It's not for me, I prefer to use my LWB 4x4. It's not the biggest 4x4 in the world, (55 plate Terrano), but it copes brilliantly in all conditions.

I would be terrified to pull up on a showground field in an estate car. The only times I've seen people struggling to tow over grass have been those towing in cars, not 4x4's. I am pretty confident that I can get my trailer/vehicle across any road or off road conditions I might face whilst out and about.

The centre of gravity of a car versus a horse trailer would also concern me. That said, so many do it and horse trailer related towing accidents are not restricted to saloon or estate cars. Plenty of 4x4's come a cropper too.

Whatever the tow vehicle, the common factor for mishaps is the person behind the wheel....or persons behind the wheel of other vehicles which might cause your accident.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top