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If you are or know a Caravan Club member, the towcar of the year summary write up was enclosed with the latest mag that landed the other day. Amazingly, the winner in Class 1 (under £24,000) was the Ssangyong Korando.
I'd take what the CC says with a shovelful of salt though. Last year Class 1 was 'under £20,000' and the car they named the winner was the Citroen C4 Cactus. This is so ridiculous that I actually wrote to the Club suggesting that they point out the limitations of this wonderful towcar.
For the curious, and to save me looking it up again, this is what I sent them -
"The Club tested the car with a 825Kg caravan and gave it the win. I am astonished that this car has won and that there is no mention under “Caravanability” of the fact that towing the caravan used for testing was at the expense of a large chunk of the car’s own payload allowance. The nearest the comments come is to say that “loadspace for a family is restricted”. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be able to carry the family at all.
The Club quotes a kerb weight of 1143Kg, presumably after weighing it. From the Citroen brochure, the maximum laden weight (MLW) of the car alone is 1610Kg. The maximum gross train weight is 2210Kg. The maximum towing weight (MTW) is 825Kg.
Perhaps you have already seen the problem. If the car is loaded to its maximum of 1610Kg, including the 55Kg maximum noseweight which must come out of the MLW, the heaviest caravan that can be towed without exceeding the MGTW is 655Kg.
Put another way, if one were to tow a 825Kg caravan, then the available payload in the car would be 2210-1143-825=242Kg.
That 242Kg has to include the driver and passengers, any luggage or possessions, and the 55Kg noseweight. My wife and I together weigh 146Kg (we are not especially heavy people) so we would only have 41Kg to play with for other contents. A further passenger would have to be well under 7 stones not to break the MGTW limit, with no other items in the car at all.
I think a mistake has been made. Perhaps someone from the Club would like to comment?"
The Club did not accept my criticism, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to find a caravan that the Cactus can tow with anything except a driver and passenger in the car or caravan. Although they tested this 'class winner' with a Bailey caravan, Bailey don't now actually make a caravan that comes under (or even within 100kg of) the Cactus's towing allowance so presumably they used a stripped out shell weighted up to the allowance.
The Club replied "The Citroen Cactus was the best towing vehicle in its category, despite its GTW limitations. Please note that the Peugeot 2008 was also restricted on its towing weight based on the GTW."
I admit I am venting a bit here, but the important point for you is to check not just the towing capacity of your potential tow car, but also the maximum train weight, and do the sums.
Most cars can accommodate the towing allowance plus a full car within the max train weight. The main offenders are French!
FYI I tow a 1200Kg caravan with a Mitsubishi Outlander diesel.
You might find towcar.info/GB/index.php useful. I'd say you still need to check your own numbers though.
The CC suggests that the loaded caravan should ideally weigh no more than 85% of the car's kerbweight. That's not law, but worth heeding IMO. Lots of cars have towing limits higher than their kerbweight. OK by some, but not for me.
That's before you run it by SLO76 of course:)
Good luck with your quest.
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