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Subject Topic: Towing help for a newbie! Post Reply Post New Topic
PersonDarrylm
26/1/2016 at 5:30pm
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Hi everyone,
I'm looking to get a new car an caravan. I'm completely new to towing and I'm having trouble figuring out the weight I can tow with the car in interested in buying. I'm looking to buy a mk1 2.0 dti Vauxhall zafira and a mid nineties 2 berth caravan.
Every site I go on tells me something different and confuses me.
I've been on towcar and put the car in with a caravan of similar weight to one I've looked at and it says it is illegal to tow that caravan. The weight of the caravan was 1095kg. I tried a few other cars and all of them were also no good.
Could someone please explain what all the acronyms mean by definition, if anyone knows if the above zafira is any good for towing a caravan and whether I could tow a caravan as I passed my driving test in 2000.
As I've said I pretty much know nothing about towing so please bare this in mind with you greatly appreciated answers.

-------------
Thanks

Darryl


PersonOpensauce
26/1/2016 at 6:05pm
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The 2litre diesel Zaf will tow caravan of the weight you indicate on the licence you have.


PersonRachlN76
26/1/2016 at 6:11pm
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I'm no expert, and can't help with your specific question, but I've just sorted to tow a trailer, and I can really recommend having a owing lesson or two.

I still can't really reverse a trailer (but apparently that is quite hard), but I am more confident at least having a go at it, and I was glad I had a go on the road with an instructor before doing it on my own.


Personnavver
26/1/2016 at 7:41pm
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For the car you need to know the Max tow weight for a braked trailer. The caravan MTPLM or laden weight must not exceed it. This will be in the car hand book or on a plate somewhere or nowadays it's on the cars logbook.

You need to know the gross train weight for the car. This is the combined weight of loaded car and caravan and must not be exceeded. This may reduce the weight you can tow.

You need to know the car's kerb weight or unladen weight. The caravan MTPLM should not be more than 85% of it. This will make sure its a good match for stability.

When you look at online matching sites, the figures and data for cars and caravans are totally wrong in many cases. The sites should allow you to input your own figures and then should give you a reasonably accurate result.

Feel free to post the figures on here because they are easy to check.


PersonColin21
26/1/2016 at 7:52pm
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Quote: Originally posted by RachlN76 on 26/1/2016
I still can't really reverse a trailer (but apparently that is quite hard)


Reversing a small trailer is much harder than reversing a large trailer or caravan. Small trailers aren't easy to see, particularly behind a large vehicle, and have a great tendency to jack-knife.

-------------
Best Regards,
Colin


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Personrichardandjo2010
26/1/2016 at 8:39pm
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Quote: Originally posted by RachlN76 on 26/1/2016
I'm no expert, and can't help with your specific question, but I've just sorted to tow a trailer, and I can really recommend having a owing lesson or two.

I still can't really reverse a trailer (but apparently that is quite hard), but I am more confident at least having a go at it, and I was glad I had a go on the road with an instructor before doing it on my own.


This may not be of help to you but if you are towing a large trailer that you can see easily in your wing mirrors instead of reversing looking behind and steering the car in the opposite direction you want it to go, just try reversing using your mirrors hold the steering wheel at the bottom then you steer towards the mirror you see it in its hard to explain it well on here but with practice you may find it better

-------------
its our imperfections that makes us perfect


PersonDarrylm
26/1/2016 at 9:26pm
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On parkers car guide it says the weight of the car is 1448kg, so does that mean I can tow about 1200kg?

-------------
Thanks

Darryl


PersonNutkins
26/1/2016 at 10:41pm
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try this

Make sure to choose your model then click more info. This will show Max tow weight for that vehicle. One I just looked at said 1050kg max which doesn't sound too promising...
In theory caravan Max weight (MTPLM) should be approx 85% of the max kerbweight of your car for recommended safe towing. In your case I think kerbweight is 1448kg so yeah vans up to 1230kg MTPLM. Only trouble is your Max braked tow weight might be as said 1050kg, just make sure you find the correct model to find this figure.

-------------
I went to the top of the mountain...and looked over the other side!


PersonOpensauce
27/1/2016 at 9:43am
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Forums can only guide you. I have confirmed that you can tow the caravan you want with the car you want with the licence you have. Now you have to work backwards from that & understand why. If you cannot then you have the option of taking my word for it, buying the car & caravan you mention & towing it quite legally with the licence you have.

Matching sites are a poor guide so forget them. You need full specification of car which will indicate kerbweight max gross weight & max tow weight etc & caravan. Read those & it will become fairly self explanatory.

If you take figures from internet sites like Parkers they might be wrong.

"On parkers car guide it says the weight of the car is 1448kg, so does that mean I can tow about 1200kg?" Simple answer to that is "not necessarily". You cannot deduce one figure from another, you can only read figures from specification in car manual.

So all you can do is to try & get a handle on it. If you cannot then default to & do not deviate from...

"The 2litre diesel Zaf will tow caravan of the weight you indicate on the licence you have" & you will be safe & legal. It is advisable though to avoid 7 seater versions of Zafira as these could have lower tow weights but 5seater 2litre diesel will be more than ok.


PersonROG.
27/1/2016 at 10:06am
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Quote: Originally posted by Darrylm on 26/1/2016
Hi everyone,
I'm looking to get a new car an caravan. I'm completely new to towing and I'm having trouble figuring out the weight I can tow with the car in interested in buying. I'm looking to buy a mk1 2.0 dti Vauxhall zafira and a mid nineties 2 berth caravan.
Every site I go on tells me something different and confuses me.
I've been on towcar and put the car in with a caravan of similar weight to one I've looked at and it says it is illegal to tow that caravan. The weight of the caravan was 1095kg. I tried a few other cars and all of them were also no good.
Could someone please explain what all the acronyms mean by definition, if anyone knows if the above zafira is any good for towing a caravan and whether I could tow a caravan as I passed my driving test in 2000.
As I've said I pretty much know nothing about towing so please bare this in mind with you greatly appreciated answers.

Passing car test in 2000 but not passed B+E test means you are under B licence towing rules

You need to know a few things -

GVW of the car - that is the max permissible weight on the V5 doc or the top of the four figures on the weight plate usually hidden under the bonnet or in a door frame

Towing capacity of the car - that is the max towing weight on the V5 doc or the second figure on the weight plate (GTW) with the top figure (GVW) deducted from it

Unladen/empty weight of the car - that is mass in service on the V5 or take it empty to a weighbridge

MTPLM of the caravan - that will be on a plate usually near the door and is the highest number shown
The lower figure is the MIRO = the empty weight of the caravan

GVW MAM MTPLM all mean the same thing = the maximum actual legal weight something can be when fully loaded

For B licence towing the GVW added to the MTPLM must not total more than 3500kg

For caravan towing it is recommended that when actually towing the caravan should not exceed 85% of the towing vehicle weight
The problem can be that without the use of a weighbridge the actual weight of each cannot be determined so the advice is to use a worse case scenario where the car is empty and the caravan is fully loaded

Does all that info help you to understand a little more ?



-------------
EX Advanced driving observer (IAM)
EX LGV & B+E instructor


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PersonOpensauce
27/1/2016 at 3:01pm
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There you go Darryl, ROG. has explained it fully. If you still don't understand, default to my advice, then you can still go caravanning & pick it up as you go along.



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