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Hello Vertratot

I'm selling a whirlwind xl 1992 and the stated kerbweight is 891kgs, I thought that was the unladen weight and that i could load about 200kgs taking me to around 1100kgs. Am i incorrect?

Thanks

UK Kerbweight is the weight of the car and all fluids but nothing else, the EU sensible allow 75kg for a driver!!

On the power to weight ratio which I think is far to often ignored, my Dad would say 40hp per ton but they were restricted to slower speeds in those days!! so as said 45hp would seem about right today...as a rule of thumb

Quote "Is the Kerb weight the same as the Unladen weight ? "

No, they are different.Unladen is, as it says, and Kerbweight is the unladen weight PLUS 90% fuel load and driver.

I've got a Touran, unladen weight 1595Kgs., and kerbweight 1712 Kgs.

Our outfit, Discovery TDI = 2000kgs, caravan 1500kgs, 4 passengers 300kgs luggage & equipment 300kgs = 4100kgs x 45bhp = 185 bhp.

We have 135bhp and manage to keep with the traffic flow and are capable of exceeding the legal motorway limit. We slow down when climbing hills but still manage to pass other outfits.

 Why not create a shortlist of the tow cars you would consider and ask what weight people tow.

Anything for an easy life - why not look at

http://www.whattowcar.com/

They work it all out for you.

If you are considering power and torque as well as the weights of the car and caravan then instead of simply considering the maximum power of the vehicle you would be better considering the power and torque that is being produced at the engine speed that will be being used. In general the max power is achieved at relatively high revs, somewhere that most people towing a caravan would not even approach. This is why diesels are generally more relaxed towcars than petrol cars ( at least for the usual engines up to 2.5l ). When I tow my van the car is producing max torque at all legal motorway towing speeds and produces about two thirds the max power. In my previuos petrol engined car which had half as much power again but about half of the torque at motorway speeds the engine was only just about entering the power band so in fact the power it was producing was less than my mondeo produces at the same speed and the torque it produced was only about half of the torque the old Volvo produced. I once worked out that at 55mph the volvo produced about 70bhp and 130 ft lbs of torque, at the same speeds the mondeo produces 100bhp and 210 ft lbs of torque this depite the Volvo having an advertised BHP of 163 and the mondeo 115.

Any description that says that you need 40, 50 or whatever figure of power per ton of the train weight can only be at the very least misleading you need far more specific information

Quote: Originally posted by EJB986 on 26/10/2008For those of us that towed caravans 20, 30 and even 40+ years ago the actual BHP on all modern cars is irrelevant because it's quite sufficient in all cases.

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The two cars in my Gallery had 75 and 85 BHP. They both coped with a gross of around 2000+ Kgs on all the biggest mountains in Europe.

My rule of thumb in those days was to tow up to 100%, but never much more....I now abide by the 85% guide.