We are looking to purchase a 1987 caravan with a kirb weight of 780kgs. My husband has a ford transit 300t one plate 2.oL turbo diesel. Would it be able to tow it? Thanks
A caravan doesn't have a kerb weight, it's the towcar that has. A caravan has an unladen weight known as the MIRO and the MTPLM which is the Maximum Laden Weight but you need to work on the caravan's MTPLM figure to calculate the match.
Sounds like quite a light caravan to me, so I doubt whether the Transit would have any problem towing it.
However, you don't say what use you intend to put the caravan to. If you intend to use your outfit for holidays on commercial caravan sites, please be aware that you may have problems on some sites, where they won't accept commercial vehicles. Best to ring ahead to check.
Yes for holidays. We were avid campers up until last year but kids growning up on us! We usually take the van and have experienced having to park it off the campsite. Thank you.
If you want to know what the caravan's MIRO and MTPLM weights are, there should be a metal plate just below the caravan door with the specific details on. As you are new to caravanning I thought it may be of help.
I used to tow a flat-bed trailer with a very early 2 litre flat-bed Transit. The empty trailer weighed around 750kg, and could carry 2 tonnes. I had no problems, and I often did journeys of over 200 miles at a time.
The only problem you may have is with your licence. If it idated after 01/01/1997 then you would have to take an extra test to tow with that transit. I think the 300t has a max gross weight plated at 3000kg and with a b licence that would only allow you to tow a caravan that had a plated max weight of 500kg. Sadly for you that 3500 kg sum of the maximum plated weights is an absolute.
However, if the date on your licence is before 1997 then the Transit will tow it and your licence will allow you to.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013