Message Forums

There are caravans out there (bailey ranger for example) below this weight but by the time you fit gas bottles, clothing, an awning if you cannt get it in the car, perhaps a motor mover water containers spare wheel etc etc you may be struggling.

I sugest you visit the Towcar site, put in details of your car and possble caravan and it will give a report on hill climbing, maintainig speed Weights etc.

I had a similar problem to you so ended up buying a new car.

Me to, I had an Astra td estate which on paper was supposed to be able to tow my previous caravan which was a tiny 750kg but it couldn't even tow it past 30 mph up minor hills so I had to change my car,

I would say really look into what your car is capable of towing before commiting to buying a van.

reaches for practical caravan.....

4 berth under 1000kg gross...

steckerman starlet 430dd 900kg gross http://www.steckerman.tm.fr

going 350 954kg gross http://www.rlcaravans.com

looking used, sprite alpine up to about 1995 is 1000kg gross, some lunar's are okay as is the Elddis wisp and avondale perle but please please get a damp meter as older vans are prone to damp. I looked at a load of vans until I found mine which is just a 2 berth

i was going to say GOING just the same

    http://www.rlcaravans.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=53

http://www.jcleisure.com/GoingUK.htm

As has been said though what it will do on paper and what it actually does are two different things.  You will be labouring a 1.6 engine quite considerably, I can't think it is going to be punchy in all honesty.

Ali

We towed our first caravan with a Cavalier 1.6 and it was fine BUT the van was very light - only 10 feet, probably about 750Kgs all up.

On the other hand, car engineering has moved on in 20 years and my Honda Jazz 1.4 will tow my current van which is 750 Kgs MTPLM with ease. I've just read a post by takisawa on another thread stating that they tow a 1,050 Kgs van with their 1.6 Toyota Corolla.

20 years ago you had 8 valves on a 1.6 sometimes no overhead camshaft, carburettors now most cars are 16 valve injection okat the cat loses a bit of power but overall the engines are probably 40% more powerful and with tweaking you can get lots more power out but whether you get it at the bottom of the rev range is a different story. I reckon a modern 1.5 engine would equate to a 2 litre also you see 2 litre mondeos pulling big vans so say for 500 cubes (cc) they are taking andother 400kg hmmmm

I have given the almera/van combo a right good shakedown and okay the van was probably just over 900kg so well under the 85% figure of 1000kg and she coped no probs, did hill starts on quite steep hills with no clutch slip, cruised at 50 on the motorway no probs, coped on the a/b roads okay you did have to use 3rd gear on the twisty bits to keep revs up

I would only panic if I had to change down and was in 1st at the time LOL

confused , i am now. i was about to buy an astra 1.9 cdi to pull a 1250 4 berth.

give me some advice, please.

Found it! just put in the car and caravan weights and it'll tell you if its a good match or not.

http://www.whattowcar.com/basic_index.php