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I had a look on the tow cars forum but most posters on there seem to be caravanners, so that's why I'm posting here.

Does anyone know the maximum unbraked towing weight of the Ford C Max? None of the websites we've found include this information!

Also, does anyone have a rough idea of what the normal additional load in a trailer tent might weigh?

We're talking pots, pans and plates, table, chairs, groundsheet and gas bottles: everything else goes in the car. Any idea what that would add to the overall trailer weight? I don't think we've any way of weighing it!

Quote: Originally posted by Tunstallwood on 16/5/2009

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Hiya

Any posts in the towcar section will be answered whether it be regarding a caravan or trailer tent so don't worry!

I've had a quick google and the lowest maximum weight for a C Max seems to be 1200kg, in which case you towing a camplet with all the bits and bobs would be well under your 85%.

But have a look in your handbook for the proper unbraked towing weight or give us the engine size etc so that we can have a look. This site will help, pop in your car details and a similar weight for your trailer but better for braked weights.

Hope this 'sort of' helped!

Andi

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Thanks Andi for googling for me!

Unfortunately many hours of googling has already shown that there seems to be nowhere that states definitely what the max unbraked towing weight is: we don't possess one of these cars; we were planning on buying one: but needed to check first whether it would tow our trailer.

When I posted I had no idea of the engine size because we were still at the stage of looking into what car to buy. I wouldn't have thought the engine size made that much difference?

Anyway, today we found a suitable vehicle in a nearby dealers and went to look at it.

We got a look at the VIN plate and that was clear as mud: four numbers, all unlabelled as to what they meant, and the lowest was 990 so if that's the unbraked towing weight, I think we'll be ok! The dealer couldn't tell us: he showed us the detailed spec he had, and the website he uses, and it was blank. The manual was equally unhelpful. The dealer wasn't even aware that the VIN plate would show it.

We rang Camperlands, and they said there would be absolutely no problem towing a Camplet with a CMax.

A weighbridge sounds like a brilliant idea. Not sure where there is one, or whether we'd have to pay to use it, was hoping someone else might have already done this.

As well as the pots, pans, chairs and table I mentioned before, I've remembered that we also have a spare bedroom, and a canopy, which add to the weight but I wouldn't have thought would take us over 750kg. I guess it also makes a huge difference if we are ever towing the trailer with the tent wet!

I can add a definitive answer (of a sort)!

It is a legal requirement for towing an unbraked trailer that it weighs no more than 50% of the kerbside weight of the towing vehicle. Depending on the model of CMax this could be as low as 660kg (the 1.6 models have a kerbside weight of 1335kg according to the web).

With a braked trailer however you can tow up to the 1200kg manuafacturers towing limit.

As the Camplets are all around 500kg gross weight you'd be fine!

Glen

Hi Glen, thanks for your reply. Please can you give me the URL for the website where you are getting this kerbside weight figure from? The one I'm looking at just gives "weight" and doesn't say which figure it's talking about - it's also quite a bit more than 1335, and it's a 1.6.

Thanks a lot.

Hi,

http://www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/ford.htm

I wonder if the one you were looking at was for the latest model, which is a bit bigger, so presumably heavier.

Glen

Hi,

the one we're buying is the 1.6 turbo diesel, so going by the kerb weight, the max unbraked towing weight is about 695 - but this number was not on the VIN plate so I'm still puzzled! Should be ok for our camplet, anyway - as long as we don't have more than 195 kg luggage in it!

Thanks for the link.

Just a point here - the 500kg for the Camplet is the maximum weight - that's all up with the luggage. They're very light (around 250kg) unladen. So you'll definitely be OK with one of them!

Glen

Noop - the 250kg is the complete trailer and tent! They really are lightweight compared to most other TTs.

Glen

Hi Mzzy

thanks for your post.

I'm certain that what you're quoting is the braked towing limit, not unbraked: simply because it's not legal to tow an unbraked trailer that's more than 750 kg, as pointed out above.

Also, the maximum unbraked is half the weight of the car, which I am pretty sure is not 1500 kg.

The issue we have is that our trailer, being very small, does not have brakes, and it would be a large unnecessary expense to have them fitted (and something else mechanical that can go wrong!).