The 1.9D is non turbo & only 70bhp so it will be slow up hills, you will need to use the gears. Max tow weight is 1100kg, I think. This is an old technology diesel so no cheap road tax, £185p.a & rising I think, but a long lasting engine. If you can find an hdi diesel Berlingo you will have 90bhp & £125p.a rd tax.
1267kg unladen, 1077kg 85%, 1100kg max tow. My guess is the Mayfly would be less than 1100kg fully laden but it could be close. You need to look for the fully laden weight in the handbook, or on a plate on the van. It must be less than 1100kg and ideally not more than 1077kg.
I used to tow about 600kg with a 1.4D Metro which was 52bhp max tow 460kg, non turbo. It got along fine on the motorway generally, but struggled on hills, but that was due to it being overloaded. I think yours will be better.
Oddly enough the HDI is the same max tow weight as the 1.9D; although I think the HDI will pull much better on hills. The max tow weight is the maximum weight it can pull away with on a 1 in 8 hill, so depends more on the strength of the clutch and how low 1st gear is, than the power of the engine.
I told you about towing, I used to have one towing a 750kg caravan. Its ok, but slow on hills. If your caravan is heavier it will be even slower. On motorway inclines trucks overtake you. Solo it struggles to cruise at 70mph & fuel consumption is about 44mpg. Towing at 55mph I used to get around 35mpg. The bhp is 70 & last time I taxed mine about 2yrs ago the road tax was £185.
The other thing to consider is that if this is a Berlingo van you are talking about, then you may run into some problems with campsites classing it as a commercial veichle, which quite a few of them will not allow on site.
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!
they are not great,
my mate had one for a few years, it was not very good for towing. he had a small speedboat (well under 1000kg) and even with this he was always changing gears, it was not his main tow car as he had a nissan primera too. it was much better.
My boss has a 1.6 hdi berlingo and we towed the same boat with it and it was much better. but again you really knew it was on behind you.
i can only imagine that a big wind catching caravan would be a nightmare on behind the berlingo.
you would hardly ever get into 5th gear i would imagine.
plus the clutch always got very smelly when he was starting off and at the slipway so would have doubts about its lastability.
if it even looked at wet grass while towing it would spin its wheels which was strange cos when in the snow it was like a mountain goat that would go anywhere.
not slateing them cos as a utility car it was fantastic, a very usefull layout with tons of room.
pity they are not that well put together but nothing major broke on his, just plastic bits and lots of them.
hope this helps
ihave two old model and new shape on 03,a freind a multispace, on the flat always a lower gear no eccelaration totaly gutless on hills only 90 bhp thats low for towing look for something with 110bhp or more for comfort towing
ive bought it now its a lot better than what everyone is making out ive had the caravan on the back its a lovely tow in to 5th gear no probs at 60mph and and without caravan it hits 70 mph easy doesent struglle at all and in the past ive had fast cars like a fiesta st and it aint a million miles off on hills uve just got to get yours revs and it goes up them fine
As I said, it will do the job, I owned one from new for 4yrs & traded it in for new type xtr 110bhp last yr. As you say, you do need to rev it to get anywhere which puts up your fuel consumption. Certainly a handy car size wise & old technology 1.9 diesel is much cheaper if you need repairs, injectors etc than hdi diesels. I can't help you with towing mirror as I used to tow an Eriba which was narrow. Good luck with it, anyway.