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Goodmorning to you all

Soo here, new to this caravanning life.  We are currently in the process of wondering 'do we buy a new car with towbar or put a towbar on our Honda Civic (petrol!).  We also have no idea at present what we need to be aware of towing a caravan. 

With regards to insurance  what companies do you suggest and what do we need to be wary of when signing up.

We use Drewes - have done for years - we haven't claimed but know people who have and apparently they are great!

http://www.drewe.co.uk/caravans.asp

Good morning and welcome to UK Campsite the best on the net. Have a look on here to see if your car is a good match, http://www.whattowcar.com/  The laden weight of your  caravan needs to be 85%  or lower of the kirbweight of your car. I don,t know what your van is but I don,t think a civic is a very big car is it?

Someone I,m sure will be along soon to put you right I,m sure.

Once you start you will be hooked I,m sure

Depending on what model a Honda Civic has a maximum tow weight of between 1000 and 1200kgs. However as a newcomer the usual recommendations is to not tow more than 85% of the kerbweight of the car. If you follow this suggestion you will be restricted to a caravan with a maximum laden weight of 950/1000kgs. There are not so many vans around this weight now. You don't say what engine size but Civic's seem to have 1.4 and 1.6 engines, this does not seem very powerful to me for towing. As for insurance, the one the others are judged by is the Caravan Club, not sure if you need to be a member.

David

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to the UKCS.

You need to know the kerb weight of your car.  The weight of the van (mtplm) should be no more than 85%. Recommedation from NCC and Caravan Club. Any good dealer should tell you this as well.

There are some tips here that should help.

I used to have a 2001 (new shape) Civic SE 1.4 petrol. Can't remember what it weighed but 85% was 960 kgs.

Used it tow a Compass Shadow 340/2, also a Conway Countryman Folding Camper.

It didn't struggle even on hills. I think Thomas's new van would be ok weight wise as it stands, it is not a very big one, but it should be checked.

Thomas, be careful when you renovate your van as you could be adding a lot of weight to it if you are putting in water heater etc. You will have to make sure that you don't exceed the Maximum Authorised Weight of the caravan, and don't forget you will be reducing the loading margin.

Sterkerman in Stafford produce lightweight caravans although I know little about them. We had to find a lightweight caravan for our car - we could go heavier than you can, though, but we needed a six berth. We chose a Bailey.

There was an article at the back of Practical Caravan around December time which had a list of caravans and the weights and dimensions and so on. I don't know if you can track it down.

Clare