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Subject Topic: Problems towing Pegasus Milan with C5
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05/9/2012 at 5:21pm
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Hi, can anyone help please.  I replaced our 2007 Sprite Alpine 2 with a Pegasus Milan 2012 which is absolutely fabulous to stay in, but towing is causing some problems. 

We are ensuring the noseweight is around 70, as the C5 has a limit of 67, and am restricting what we take as the caravan to kerbweight ratio is around 92%.  We are also being careful to stow items over the axel after adjusting for the noseweight. 

Although the car has no problems towing the caravan, it does feel as if the caravan is causing the front wheels of the car to sway (feels like being at sea!), with the slightest wind, or when being passed by a lorry, and sometimes just anyway. 

Is this because the car is low (someone said), or the caravan is long (7.25m) single axle, or what?  Is there anything we can do?  We have a lovely caravan and a newish car, but dont feel that great travelling on the motorway.  Top speed about 60,

 

Carole

 



05/9/2012 at 5:42pm
 Location: Midlands
 Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram
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Not sure where you get 92% from, But i think your closer to 100% than you think.

What is the cars year and exact model and engine size and power?

If you have the heaviest car in the range the ideal weight for teh caravan would be 1350kg.

Your well over that.

Ideally you need something bigger, People carrier or 4x4 type vehicle.




05/9/2012 at 5:53pm
 Location: Co. Antrim
 Outfit: Bailey Pegasus Milan & Terracan
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The Milan is definitely a great van, we love ours!
Fortunately with my Terracan I am only towing around 66% so no problems there.

The problem you mention sounds something similar to what I had towing a Swift Challenger years ago with a Passat Estate. The solution was simply increasing the pressure in the rear tyres to the maximum load recommendation which I think was 5psi more per tyre than for normal driving.

Perhaps you have already tried this but if not then it is worth a go.

Good luck.

-------------
Al






05/9/2012 at 6:20pm
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Thanks for the responses - I will check the back tyre pressures.  The car is a 2.0 HDi with a kerbweight of 1595; tow hitch download 67.   The Milans MIRO is 1331, and MTPLM 1499.  We aim to restrict our load to around 80 - 90, bringing the weight to 1421 or 89%.  Allowing for a bit extra, I get the 92%. 


05/9/2012 at 7:30pm
 Location: Midlands
 Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram
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Thats heavier than the figures i have. My info shows the heavier 2.2HDI to be slightly lighter than that.

My opinion is still its too much caravan for that car.



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05/9/2012 at 7:50pm
 Location:  lincolnshire
 Outfit: N A
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What year is your Citroen C5 if it a new one they have a Towing limit of 1670kg and if older rather you then me i agree with Grampian91 you need a bigger towcar...


05/9/2012 at 7:50pm
 Location:  lincolnshire
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What year is your Citroen C5 if it a new one they have a Towing limit of 1670kg and if older rather you then me i agree with Grampian91 you need a bigger towcar...


05/9/2012 at 8:59pm
 Location: tamworth staffs
 Outfit: avondale highlight 505le
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i drive a 2003 110hdi , this has a max tow weight of 1500kg and a nose weight of 75kg , i pull 1125kg with ease i wouldnt even think about pulling 1500kg.The car has self levelling suspension so i dont think its a noseweight problem


05/9/2012 at 11:30pm
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Hi - its 2011, the max tow for the car (per the car specification) is braked 2238, unbraked 1670.  If we have to we will change the car, but I didnt want to do that if the problem was more to do with the length or something.


06/9/2012 at 12:04am
 Location: Midlands
 Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram
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The max braked max towing weight is 1820kg. Some models are much less than that.

Manual or auto? Saloon or Tourer?

The manufacturers figures are not the safe to tow figures, They are just the maximum limit the car can pull up a steep incline.

Some cars can easily tow more. But the risk of something breaking as you try and tow up that mountain slope is greater.

But when the wind catches a caravan you wish for a heavier car. And a soft suspsension setup doesnt help.

Does the suspension have a sport setting?



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06/9/2012 at 8:28am
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Thanks for this, it is a manual tourer.


06/9/2012 at 9:25am
 Location: Lichfield
 Outfit: Coachman Amara 450
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In the Camping & Caravanning magazine forum a few years back, a guy had been caravanning for well over 30 years without a problem. However, he bought a brand new Bailey and said that it was the worst towing experience he ever encountered in all of his years towing knowledge and experience. The caravan went back to the dealers twice and also to the manufacturers once and each of them said that they could find nothing wrong with the caravan. It wasn't till he went to a rally and got talking to a chap and said that he was towing down to Cornwall in a few weeks time and was dreading towing the caravan due to this problem. The chap asked him, "Have you had your tyres balanced?" to which he replied he hadn't and was advised to do so. Apparently he did have both caravan tyres balanced and towed his Bailey to Cornwall and back without any problem at all. So it's worth having your caravan tyres balanced for the sake of a fiver for each wheel and you never know, it may just resolve your problem once and for all. I always have mine balanced whether the tyre fitter says they need doing or not but because as we are not allowed to travel in the caravan when in tow we don't know how severe the unbalanced wheels can be which in turn can lead to uneven tyre wear, higher risk of a puncture and an unstable outfit even if the noseweight and loading is perfect.


06/9/2012 at 9:39am
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit:  Volvo X60 Coachman
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As already advised make sure the tyres on you car are inflated to the correct pressure for a fully laden car, When i first got my last S Max i forgot to increase the pressures on the first tow.  The car was terrible that bad i ended up pulling on the services to check it over. Thats when i put the guage on the tyres and realized that they were actually below normal running pressures, The difference was unreal when fully inflated you can imagine i've never made that mistake again.

Bessie   



06/9/2012 at 9:59am
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Thanks so much for all this advice - any more suggestions welcome!


06/9/2012 at 1:26pm
 Location: Derbyshire
 Outfit: ElddisAvante462 Honda CRV SE2.2 i-Dtec
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We also tow with a fairly low car at near to the manufacurer's tow limits, and find that indeed, getting the rear car tyre pressures spot on for towing makes a great difference to performance and fuel consumption.

We also try and load the caravan floor slightly behind the axel, as apposed to directly over it, which takes a bit of the weight off the tow hitch, and in our case thats around 5kg, not much really, but it does make a big difference in handling capabilities towing with a hitchweight of 65kg as apposed to the 70kgmax, especially in a fairly long single axel caravan, ours is 20ft 10ins shipping length and 1150kg max laden weight.

if its the cars front steering thats a bit squiffy and untrue when towing then its highly lightly to be a hitchweight problem puttting too much weight on the rear of the car and lifting the front up too much. if you look at the car and caravan hitched on a level road, are they level and without any dip at the hitchpoint or is there a discrepency causing the unit to be towed slightly nose down or up?

Julia



-------------
Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife

Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!


06/9/2012 at 5:35pm
 Location: Sitingbourne
 Outfit: baily champaign
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I think you are a bit out on the cars max tow load,1670kg would appear to be its max
see here http://www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/citroen.htm#c5e09

If you have the sport setting on your suspension I would try that as well as increasing the tyre pressures



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