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   Caravans and Caravanning -  Caravan Towcars and Towing Advice
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Subject Topic: Towing with an S Max Post Reply Post New Topic
03/2/2014 at 9:42pm
 Location: West Yorkshire
 Outfit: Sterling Eccles Sport & S-Max
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Does anyone on here tow a caravan with an S Max? How do you find it? What mpg do you get towing what weight of van? Anything I should think about?


03/2/2014 at 10:20pm
 Location: Royal Forest of Dean
 Outfit:  Swift Major 4SB
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We had a Galaxy which is basically the same. Ours was a 2.0 diesel auto which gave around 36mpg around town but dropped to 25ish sometimes when towing. Our caravan is just under 1200kg and it was so easy to tow, very stable with 75kg noseweight and always felt we had plenty of power in reserve.

The car has a max noseweight of 85 or 90kg if I remember correctly but many of the towbars only have a noseweight of 75kg so be careful when buying a tow bar.

Rob


03/2/2014 at 10:26pm
 Location: Royal Forest of Dean
 Outfit:  Swift Major 4SB
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Something else I remembered. Our Galaxy needed 4 new tyres at around 14000 miles, I'm very careful with tyre pressures and I'm not a hard driver so I was surprised at how quickly they wore out.

Rob


03/2/2014 at 11:40pm
 Location: Midlands
 Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram
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Lack of a spare puts me off buying one and they are pricey for what they are.



04/2/2014 at 9:30am
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit:  Volvo X60 Coachman
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I had and towed with one for 4 years and it was a brilliant car, Around town i think i got around 38 mpg but that was sitting in horrendous work traffic for 18 miles to and from work, On a run i'd be getting around 45-48 mpg, Towing our 1500kg caravan to cornwall i got 32mpg. Make sure the you adjust your tyre presures for towing i forgot once and the difference was unreal.

Mine was a company car and the 1st car i've ever had for 4 years, when it came to changing the car i was gutted that i could'nt get another, when you consider that would of meant that i would of had one for 8 years i think that speaks volumes.

Bessie      



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04/2/2014 at 9:33am
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit:  Volvo X60 Coachman
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Something else I remembered. Our Galaxy needed 4 new tyres at around 14000 miles, I'm very careful with tyre pressures and I'm not a hard driver so I was surprised at how quickly they wore out.

Rob

My S max used to go through front tyres from 12k onwards rears lasted ages, But i used to drive it hard at times and change them as soon as they hit the wear bars, if i didnt it was shocking getting traction in the wet.

 

Bessie  



04/2/2014 at 11:40am
 Location: West Yorkshire
 Outfit: Sterling Eccles Sport & S-Max
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Thank you all - the car ticks practically all the boxes, but I don't know anyone who has used one for towing, hence the question. However, I'm still very much put off by the lack of a spare wheel and the absence of anywhere to stow it if I had one. We had a bad experience with a tyre blow out on a C-Max, in an area with poor phone reception, late at night, on a motorway, with two small children in the back - that little tube of squirty stuff really didn't cut it!

However, having discovered that I got last year's purchases of both car and caravan just plain wrong, I guess I need to start the searching process all over again :-( I'm grumpily holding tight to the quote "the only real mistake that we make is the one from which we learn nothing!"


04/2/2014 at 11:51am
 Location: Lancashire
 Outfit:  Volvo X60 Coachman
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If your worried about the spare then buy one and keep it in your caravan while traveling, I'm sure you could get a cheap second hand mondeo steel wheel that would do the job, loads of new cars now come without a spare   to be honest i'd of hated having to empty the boot of my s max to get at a spare, it;s that big you tend to chuck everything including the kitchen sink in 

which model are you after ??

Bessie   



04/2/2014 at 3:02pm
 Location: East Cheshire
 Outfit: Jeep GC & Bailey Unicorn Segovia
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We have the 2.2 TDCI Auto which Mrs G uses for the day to day stuff and gets about 25 MPG. On a run it comes in at about 38 MPG.

With the van which is about 1500 Kg its any where between 22 and 27 MPG dependant on distance and loading.

In general terms it pulls the van like a train and has a cavenous boot with the 3rd row of seats down.

At this present time it ticks the boxes for us as a 7 seater which tows a 1500 kg caravan without the perceived extra costs of a 4x4.

 

 



-------------
Mike


08/2/2014 at 10:10pm
 Location: West Yorkshire
 Outfit: Sterling Eccles Sport & S-Max
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Thank you all again - Bessie I'm pondering the 2.0 manual diesel - I suspect I'm going to be looking for as close to a zero cost change option as I can for my 57 plate Santa Fe So I think it'll be a question of of seeing what's the best deal I can pick up...

Mike - that's not much better figures than I am currently getting, hopefully switching to manual and dropping to 2.0l will see some improvement.

Will sit down tomorrow with the caravan club's towing guide site and see what sort of towing weights they suggest ...


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10/2/2014 at 11:01pm
 Location: south yorks
 Outfit: bailey senator indiana seris 6
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hi white rose we tow with a 2010 titanium tdci 2.0ltr manual we tow a 1500kg laden weight bailey senator 4 berth. the nose weight for the smax model we have is 90kg the towing match according to the caravan club is 87%. at the moment running round town that's back and fore across Doncaster we average 38.8 mpg. towing it drops to around 27/29 mpg. when I bought it I purchased a full size alloy wheel of (ebay) which is carried in the load space we never use the third row of seats. Has for tyres I put a full set on at 39000 but the pld ones still had plenty of tread but we were going to be towing in France for 5 weeks so more than likely got a few more thousand out of them. Would I buy another one yes malc.


10/2/2014 at 11:50pm
 Location: Blyth Northumberland
 Outfit: Bailey Pageant Monarch two berth
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I have an Smax 2L tdci 140bhp.
I get about 38 mpg local. My wife gets about 25 to 28.
I just did Blyth, Northumberland to Blackpool and back at 70ish mph. Computer says average 53 mpg.
Towing my caravan 1550kg twin axle, I get about 30 Mpg.
Towed a 1300kg caravan to Benidorm and back two years ago with the same car got about 32 mpg. lowest 29 highest 36.
Car has been good so far.
Fred.


11/2/2014 at 12:03am
 Location: Blyth Northumberland
 Outfit: Bailey Pageant Monarch two berth
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Forgot to mention tyres. Michelin premacy. About 28k front and 35k back. Like Malc above, there is still a good bit of tread on mine also but we are going to Benidorm next month so new ones going on soon. I also got a full size spare off ebay which I have in the car on long runs and towing.
Fred.



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