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 Thebluewold.

I would point out that towing a vehicle above 85% of the kerb weight of the vehicle is not recommended, however exceeding 100 % is forbidden. My source is the dvla website.

Should the VOSA or Police pull you, and you are pulling a fully loaded cruiser at 900 kg with a vehicle less that that you are breaking the law.

Too much credence is given to vehicle power when the tow cars weight is the stabilising force, after all its when you are under heavy breaking that accidents tend to happen. Also it should be remember that brakes on a trailer only contribute to breaking and still put additional stress on the tow cars brakes.

Im tired of all this bravado of how small a car people tow with !! This is safety we are discussing and its safer to have a properly matched unit.

To "zaccy123" here below are the official weights of the Conway Cruiser taken from the pennine-leisure.co.uk Website;

Let's also not forget the weight of driver (myself 82Kg) and possible passengers, plus all the extra paraphenalia one fills one's boot with and of course the weight of fuel, (without which one goes "nowhere") etc. and you soon find your towing vehicle way up there! More importantly; A Cruiser can "legally" carry an extra weight of  260Kg which is 573lbs or 40 stones! When I say mine's fullly laden, I don't mean with gold or lead bars, I simply mean the usuals i.e., windbreaks, fold-away chairs, BBQ, sleeping bags, quilts, some food and so on. I would love to know where one could find the space to stick the weight of 3 fully grown (large no less!) men in a folded up Conway Cruiser, in order to take it up to its legally loaded limit? Best Regards.

I was not boasting about how small a car I can tow with. I was challenging the comment that a larger camper (than the Challenger) could not be towed by a 1.4 litre car.

The Honda Jazz has a Max tow weight of 1,000 kgs and a kerbweight of the same. The Cardinal is a heavy camper at MAW 850 kgs. A perfect 85% match.

Obviously it depends on what the car is and it's weight. 

Please would you tell me whereabouts on the DVLA website it says that it is illegal to tow a trailer that is heavier than the tow vehicle? As far as I am aware this restriction only applies to drivers who passed their driving tests after 1/1/97. All drivers who passed their driving test before 1/1/97 have B + E entitlement on their licences and for this it states "For driver licensing purposes there are no vehicle/trailer weight ratio limits for category B+E."