Towing with regular car?

[Liv.t2412]

Might be a daft one but does anyone tow with a regular car??? I have a 2.0 ltr Golf TDI and I want to tow a box with a 15h sports horse in it.
Is it wishful thinking or does anyone else tow with something similar?
Cheers!

 

[Gloi]

I've towed a 403 with a 14h cob with a regular car for years. Usually 2l but now have an old Volvo V70 and I can barely feel there is a trailer on even on the steepest hills. I avoid muddy showfields though but that's just me.

 

[Boots*McGruber]

I tow one 15hh Welsh Cob with a 2.0 ltr VW Passat Estate. Trailer weighs 905kg and horse 500kg. It’s been fine in most situations but I haven’t tried to get off a muddy field yet!

 

[nagblagger]

Depends on the towing weight of the car whether it is legal or not. Seems a bit heavy to me, but i haven't looked up the weights.

 

[webble]

My friend tows her 14hh in an Ifor single trailer with an insignia. She gets in fine must of the time but struggles with traction. On gravel, very steep hills or mud

 

[phizz4]

You can check the car's towing capacity here.
http://www.towingcapacity.co.uk/
Most 2 litre golf tdi's have a 1600 kg towing limit, which would very much put you on the edge, depending on the trailer weight and horse weight.

 

[holeymoley]

These cars aren’t up for the job of towing horses regardless of their towing capabilities. They’ll maybe tow a jetski or something of that calibre but certainly not livestock. In the long run it’ll just wear it out quicker. Traction, hill starts are only some of the problems, there’s weights and car handling especially snaking to take in to account on faster roads and not to mention the braking.

I have passed a hatchback Audi A4 towing an ifor 506 on the motorway. Eek! I’ve also seen a lady with a Honda Civic towing at a yard on social media but I do think this was just for reversing practise, I would doubt they would tow proper with it.

Eta- I don’t see a problem with some of the beefier estate cars and a single trailer combination. As long as they have a decent engine and horsepower they normally have a tow capacity of 1800kg/2000kg. I wouldn’t go off main roads with them though.

 

[Nudibranch]

I'm not sure of the legality but I would be very surprised if a Golf could safely tow a horse trailer - even a single. You need to think about safe braking capacity as well as weight in terms of engine power. The weight of the towing vehicle itself is a big factor in braking.

I tow a light, double continental trailer but with a pickup with 3.5t capacity. You don't want to be on the edge of what your car can do, it's just not safe for you, your horse or for other road users.

 

[Gloi]

Single Ifor trailers are only about 770kg. My Volvo has 1800kg towing capacity.

 

[Widgeon]

now have an old Volvo V70 and I can barely feel there is a trailer on even on the steepest hills. I avoid muddy showfields though but that's just me.

I have an old 06 plate diesel automatic XC70 and I love it to pieces. I accidentally towed my IW401 + horse up a road called "The Cliff" last autumn (my bad. Didn't route check properly) and it just heaved us up. It wasn't the car or the horse that were shaking when we got to the top! So I think the engine is the critical thing to look at - if that's beefy enough you should be fine. Mine is fine on grass verges, rubbly little lanes, beasty hills etc, but as Gloi says I wouldn't ask for trouble by trying to heave it through a muddy showfield. You just have to get to know your car I think, start carefully and figure out your limits.

Ah - I see that HM has already said this! Yes that, down there....

Eta- I don’t see a problem with some of the beefier estate cars and a single trailer combination. As long as they have a decent engine and horsepower they normally have a tow capacity of 1800kg/2000kg. I wouldn’t go off main roads with them though.

I don't think I'd want to tow with something as small as a Golf though, the situation webble describes would frighten me. Those are the times when you really need your car to have some guts and haul you out safely.

My friend tows her 14hh in an Ifor single trailer with an insignia. She gets in fine must of the time but struggles with traction. On gravel, very steep hills or mud

 

[Squeak]

There'll be others who are far far more knowledgeable than I am but just logically - the Golf itself apparently weighs about 1.2t so you'd be asking it to tow it's own weight equivalent. Add in to the mix that it would include a live animal that weighs half of what it does, it just doesn't seem like it would have a chance if a horse started throwing itself around even at low speeds. If that trailer did anything the car wouldn't have the capacity or the weight to be able to counteract it.

Doing a quick google - a discovery weights about 3t.

 

[TRECtastic]

Yes I tow with a regular car , toyota Aventis estate
Towing capacity 1.8 kg
Trailer is an ancient bahill that weighs 800k, pony weighs approx 450k
My car doesn't struggle to tow the above , but I would only ever tow 1 horse/pony
For me a golf may be too small to tow with ?

 

[Annagain]

No manufacturer is going to put a legally binding towing capacity on a vehicle if it can't cope with it - apart from opening themselves up to criminal negligence cases they would be sued every time there was an accident involving towing, not to mention mechanical issues. Having said that, you do need to make a bit of an allowance for the fact that a horse is a living creature and therefore a potentially unstable load and take into account that cars with a bigger capacity are designed with towing in mind so will have more heavy duty parts. You'll get through brakes, clutch etc more quickly as they're working harder.

You need to find out the towing capacity of your EXACT model - If you look here Volkswagen Golf - Towing Capacity & Weight Limit Information , you'll see a 2L Golf TDI can have a towing capacity anywhere between 0kg (!) and 2000kg. Most are between 1400kg and 1600kg. Depending on the trailer you have and the weight of your horse (we had the weighbridge to the yard a few weeks ago. The rep also had a measuring stick. We had three horses all within 1" of each other at (15.3 to 16) but their weights (all with 5/10 body score) varied by 130kg from 480kg to 610kg!

Lets estimate your horse to weight about 500kg. The right trailer (Bateson Derby is the lightest, I think, at 675kg so let's opt for that one) you would be at 1175kg so you would be within the legal capacity of most 2L Golfs even if you horse weighed a bit more. You also need to consider where you're towing - a wet field will probably be like Everest to a Golf and you have to think of lower ground clearance on a rutted / pot holey track too.

 

[scruffyponies]

Not sure about the golf, but I regularly towed with the Octavia estate, which is on the same chassis. The 1.9 diesel would happily tow uphill and down all day long. No doubt it wasn't doing the rear suspension any good, but it didn't break.
Pay very close attention to the trailer balance and tyres. The lighter the towing vehicle, the less margin for error if you get into trouble, and soft tyres / back-end heavy trailers will snake.
If parking on a field, you will need to plan carefully. Driving on, don't slow down or stop on soft ground, and when you stop, make sure it's down hill, facing the exit gate.

I loved towing with the Octavia. Great visibility, and 4x the boot space of anything else.

 

[Annagain]

There'll be others who are far far more knowledgeable than I am but just logically - the Golf itself apparently weighs about 1.2t so you'd be asking it to tow it's own weight equivalent. Add in to the mix that it would include a live animal that weighs half of what it does, it just doesn't seem like it would have a chance if a horse started throwing itself around even at low speeds. If that trailer did anything the car wouldn't have the capacity or the weight to be able to counteract it.

Doing a quick google - a discovery weights about 3t.

Many towing capacities outweigh the car's kerbweight. A Disco 5 weighs 2298kg (the 4 weighs 2583kg) and has a towing capacity of 3500kg. An old Defender 90 (probably the best tow car -- discounting comfort!) weighs 1746kg and can tow 3500kg - more than twice its kerbweight.

 

[Tiddlypom]

No manufacturer is going to put a legally binding towing capacity on a vehicle if it can't cope with it - apart from opening themselves up to criminal negligence cases they would be sued every time there was an accident involving towing, not to mention mechanical issues.

I'm afraid that I pick up on this point as soon as anyone mentions it. Some vehicles are much better suited to towing than others.

Our old gutless high geared low powered Renault Clio had a tow limit of 1200kg, so I could, completely legally, have put a tow bar on it, put a few bales of shavings in the Ifor 510, and headed out to the M6 to tow it at 60mph ?. The Clio would have probably been incapable of even getting the trailer up to 60, and anyway well before that the trailer would have been wagging the Clio all over the place.

As a very experienced tower who in the past winged it towing with underpowered vehicles, I can assure anyone that all vehicles are not equal at towing, and always get a vehicle which is fully up to the job not matter what.

Skoda Octavia Scout is awesome.

 

[holeymoley]

I'm afraid that I pick up on this point as soon as anyone mentions it. Some vehicles are much better suited to towing than others.

Our old gutless high geared Renault Clio had a tow limit of 1200kg, so I could completely legally have put a tow bar on, put a few bales of shavings in the the Ifor 510, and headed out to the M6 to tow it at 60mph ?. The Clio would have probably been incapable of even getting the trailer up to 60, and anyway well before that the trailer would have been wagging the Clio all over the place.

As a very experienced tower who in the past winged it towing with underpowered vehicles, I can assure anyone that all vehicles are not equal at towing, and always get a vehicle which is fully up to the job not matter what.

Skoda Octavia Scout is awesome.

This for sure.

 

[Annagain]

I'm afraid that I pick up on this point as soon as anyone mentions it. Some vehicles are much better suited to towing than others.

Our old gutless high geared low powered Renault Clio had a tow limit of 1200kg, so I could completely legally have put a tow bar on, put a few bales of shavings in the the Ifor 510, and headed out to the M6 to tow it at 60mph ?. The Clio would have probably been incapable of even getting the trailer up to 60, and anyway well before that the trailer would have been wagging the Clio all over the place.

As a very experienced tower who in the past winged it towing with underpowered vehicles, I can assure anyone that all vehicles are not equal at towing, and always get a vehicle which is fully up to the job not matter what.

Skoda Octavia Scout is awesome.

I don't disagree and did say in the next sentence that cars with a bigger capacity will have been designed with towing in mind more than smaller cars. That was in relation to parts and wear and tear on the vehicle but I take your point. However purely in legal terms, it's doable. Back in the day in pony club one girl's mum used to tow her horse there with a Fiesta! We were so jealous that she had a trailer at all that we never thought abut the towing vehicle. There were 3 families out of about 40 who had trailers (and one of them had 3 kids so they'd have to take in turns to go in the trailer) now it would be 3 out of 40 who don't - and nobody would be towing with a Fiesta!

 

[Birker2020]

Might be a daft one but does anyone tow with a regular car??? I have a 2.0 ltr Golf TDI and I want to tow a box with a 15h sports horse in it.
Is it wishful thinking or does anyone else tow with something similar?
Cheers!

I have always towed my 630KG trailer with a saloon car.

First of all it was a Sierra Sapphire, followed by a Peugeot 406, then a Vauxhall Vectra.
The last time I towed with my current car - a Vauxhall Insignia was from 2017 - 2020.
My horse was probably 700kg and our outfit was 350kg inside the weight limit. I've never towed more than one horse, never planned to, my trailer partitions are configured in such a way I couldn't even if I want to travel two small lightweight ponies.

There is no issue with towing with a car, the only time I ever ran into a problem was leaving MKEC after the 3 day event as each time I went it had rained and my car couldn't get purchase on the muddy grass. So I had to walk the horse over to someone, ask them to hold and then drive off to the hardstanding and then go grab the horse and load!

I also used to find long slow inclines on the motorway were a bit of a nightmare with the Peugeot but the Insignia has a 160BHP engine so its a doddle.

I used to tow on average three times a week for years and years with the cars. You really don't need a great big 4 x 4 to tow with, so long as you have a very lightweight trailer (mine was one of the lightest on the market) and a single horse. In 2020 my car was towing 44 mpg. Today I'm getting 48-55mpg out of it but not towing anymore.

 

[Gloi]

Don't tell anyone but back in the 1970s my dad had a MK2 escort 1300cc engine and I had a little wooden single trailer and a Fell pony. We used to chug along to shows. Occasionally if we came to a particularly steep hill and the car started slowing down in first he'd stop and I'd get my pony out, I'd lead him or jump on and ride him to the top ,and my dad would tow it up empty. Then we'd load him back in and carry on. ?

 

[Red-1]

When I was a teen, mum had a company car that was a Vauxhall Cavalier 1600 petrol. It legally could tow my Bahill rear unload trailer with a 15.2hh.

It was fine, but I did include an anti snake device stabiliser for motorway use. That made a huge difference and I would not motorway drive without. That said, it was a low car with a flat fronted trailer, which will have exacerbated the problem.

I did prefer towing with a 4wd once I had one, but the Cavalier got me out and about.

 

[holeymoley]

Don't tell anyone but back in the 1970s my dad had a MK2 escort 1300cc engine and I had a little wooden single trailer and a Fell pony. We used to chug along to shows. Occasionally if we came to a particularly steep hill and the car started slowing down in first he'd stop and I'd get my pony out, I'd lead him or jump on and ride him to the top ,and my dad would tow it up empty. Then we'd load him back in and carry on. ?

Haha! Love it. I hope you didn’t come across too many hills.
Was it one of the completely wooden trailers? I seen one of these in person and was amazed by it.

 

[Gloi]

Haha! Love it. I hope you didn’t come across too many hills.
Was it one of the completely wooden trailers? I seen one of these in person and was amazed by it.

It had wooden floor and varnished wood plank sides and an arched metal roof. It wasn't very big because my pony's ears just about touched the roof but it was quite heavy towards modern one.
It was all a great adventure though back then though. I have pictures of it somewhere but I'd have to scan them in.
My friend's trailer had wooden sides and a canvas roof.

 

[Gloi]

Haha! Love it. I hope you didn’t come across too many hills.
Was it one of the completely wooden trailers? I seen one of these in person and was amazed by it.

I found a picture ??
This must be 1980 because the pony was born in 1978 and he won the 2yo gelding class.

 

[holeymoley]

Oh that's amazing! Pretty horse too and proud owner

Yours doesn't look as scary as the one I seen, I think it may have been older. Everything was made of wood- except the tyres obviously. It was quite a muckle looking thing, didn't look very inviting, I aged it about post-war time but may be wrong.

 

[Gloi]

Oh that's amazing! Pretty horse too and proud owner

Yours doesn't look as scary as the one I seen, I think it may have been older. Everything was made of wood- except the tyres obviously. It was quite a muckle looking thing, didn't look very inviting, I aged it about post-war time but may be wrong.

I bought that mid 70s. I don't know how old it was when I got it but it was a long way off new.

 

[PeterNatt]

The issue is not if it can tow but what would happen if you hit high side wind, wet slippery conditions such as heavy rain or ice or the trailer started snaking. My advice would be to use a heavy long wheel base vehicle to tow such as a Long Wheel Base Landrover, Range Rover or similar vehicle.

 

[YourValentine]

Absolutely this ^ (PeterNatts comment as I can't quote it for some reason).

My most terrifying moment towing was getting rocked half way into the next lane on the motorway when the horse shifted/did god knows what (as he was still standing and uninjured, eating happily when I pulled up. Normally a good traveller who didn't budge an inch), in the trailer.
I don't know that 'rocked' is the right word, just one moment we were cruising steadily in our lane, next we were half in the next and I hadn't done anything.

This was on a dry, summers day and I was towing with a tank of a Nissan Patrol and well within its towing capacities. I have no idea how it happened but was incredible greatful to be towing with a solid stable car.

I know a bigger car is an expensive pain in the neck but honestly wouldn't want to risk it with anything that was borderline. As while it's all going well its fine, it's the minute it starts to go wrong...

 

[Leandy]

I would be surprised if a Golf would tow enough, have you checked the weight it can tow? Back in the day, before everyone decided they needed a Chelsea tractor, lots of people did this. We towed one pony or small horse in a lightweight double trailer most weekends with the family saloon when I was a child. It clearly isn't the ideal towing vehicle but as long as you are sensible it is doable. All the comments above about less than optimal handling, ability to cope with muddy, slippery fields etc apply and of course it won't work if you are precious about wear and tear and dirt, scratches etc to the car. A rear wheel drive will be better than a front wheel drive for traction.

 

[teapot]

What’s the weight it can tow?

My chunkier built VW has a max of 1200kg!