Towing with a petrol automatic
Hi All
I am fairly new to caravanning and have an Xplore 422 (MTPLM 1099kgs) currently being towed with a 2008 Toyota Avensis TR 1.8VVT. The Avensis has been OK but when reversing the clutch tends to smell even when being gentle with the engine rpm. As our mileage is quite low we do not want to have a diesel engine, especially considering DPF/DMF issues.
In view of this we have test driven a Honda CRV 2,0SE+T auto 4x4 (torque converter), which drives solo very well. My question is will this gearbox have a tendency to hunt between 4/5 gears when on the motorway when towing, bearing in mind that you can only lock gears 1 & 2?
Thanks for any input,
Chris
Comments
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My last 3 cars have been oil burners with filters fitted. We are low mileage users and living in South London our cars don't get to do long fast runs unless towing. We have had no issues as can be said for many other oil burner drivers.
Your choice of course if you prefer petrol. My own personal opinion is you can't beat a Diesel with a decent TC auto box for towing. As to your question about hunting gears you'll probably find the car has a TC with lock clutch which may or may not drop out on inclines which My Freelander (190 horses) does sometimes but never known it to change down unless it's really steep and slower road speeds or I make it change down to over take the HGV's.
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I will not go into why it happened, but we had for a month as a replacement car an 2ltr petrol kia sportage ,and it was a nightmare when towing ,getting 19mpg and would not tow well at all and that was with 160 bhp engine, it was always at about 5000 revs to keep it going it never got into 6th gear and was normally in 4th and 5th if on a bit of level road,the gearbox was checked and no faults found,solo it was fine,
we now have the diesel automatic and it is even better than the previos manual version we had and we do not do high mileage, but when towing and the engine gets proper warm the DPF soon regenerates
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Me also. I've had diesels since 2002 and never had a DPF problem. My last 2 have been VWs with the 'auto' box, excellent tow cars and I get about 30mpg towing with my Tiguan (caravan is 1326kgs). Way back in the 80's I towed with a petrol 1600cc Cortina Estate and was lucky to get 20mpg, I remember spending much of my driving time trying to keep the revs up and changing down at any incline - and if the wind was against me!!. I will never go back to towing with a petrol car.
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A petrol will be fine provided it has a turbo, 2018 Tiguan 2.0T has good torque from 1500rpm right up the range, along with 180ps possibly to be 190ps after WLTP testing.
That's more power and torque than my 2004 Xtrail diesel which towed my 1333kg caravan with out effort.
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We moved to petrol last year after four diesels but had several petrol cars before and have towed successfully with all of them. Basically look for one with a decent power and torque figure.
On the road the real difference is that you will need more revs when setting off and often need lower gears on the hills. My Mazda will still do 28 to 30 mpg when towing, but that is less than the previous diesel.
We did have a DPF light come on on one car but that turned out to be an electrical fault but unless you do give it a decent run at speed on a regular basis the light will appear and you then have to give it a run to sort that.
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