Tow cars
Comments
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once again I never suggest anything of the sort. If there was comparable data kept we would be able to make a comparison, there isn't so we can't
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but you stated that you stated they don't have any more accidents than in the UK. That is quite a precise statement, but all you are basing it on is your own observations not real data?
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If you read my posts carefully I never mentioned serous accidents for the UK and caravans, just serious accidents involving cars in the UK and EU only and used that as a basis for extrapoltaion (which I know is dangerous). On the Uk roads accidents involving a caravan are at about 0.008% at worst per year. What is it in the France, Germany...
I'm not really bothered what caused the accident but it shows that towing is really a relatively safe thing to do in the UK.
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Nobody know if the accidents in france were all french drivers, or UK accidents were all british drivers so why argue the fact. The post was about pulling a certain caravan with a specific car. Ony he will know in the long term wether it is a good match or not, but its his choice after all.
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Hi Ken.
That's a big difference between mass in service and kerbweight. I know that one figure includes extra weight for a driver and some fuel. Where is your kerbweight recorded? I use mass in service because it is on the legal v5 document. Sales ltierature is unreliable and the outfit matching service is even worse. Of course 85% is quite a vague guidline anyway. So many other factors contribute to a good stable combination and here we have a driver with at least 10 years towing experience. I'm looking forward to hearing about his new Kuga.
Rgds
Tony
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Tony,
The kerbweight came from Land Rover. Obviously it changes slightly with the model variants. The point here is that as I understand it the 85% guideline works on kerbweight and not the newer and much heavier Mass In Service. If the MIS is used of course in theory much heavier loads can be pulled, but not within the guidelines, which some now believe with modern vehicles and safety systems is ok.
From what I have witnessed out on the road, my personal choice is to keep as close as possible to the guideline percentages.
Ken
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Another case of less is more. 85% is a guideline. Less is even better. Pushing anything to its limit, whether weight, engine performance, tyre tread, stress loads, aircraft range etc. reduces the margin of safety.
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If anything, mass in service will be less than kerbweight because by definition, apart from the 75kg for the driver and sundry items it includes less than what is included in kerbweight, so something is wrong somewhere.
Kerbweight is specific to each and every car so it must be linked to the respective chassis number. Mass in service is generic for all vehicles of the same model.
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Hi both clubs 85% rule new to Caravanning 100% people who have years of towing guidelines onley not law ordered car Friday garage phoned today car not built yet so possible 6 to 8 weeks wait factory closes for 2 weeks at Christmas not in rush so will probably pick car up in January
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Hi Mylo.
Are you having a factory fitted tow bar? My tow bar was an after fit. It’s OK but I don’t get the benefit of the Ford trailer control. There doesn’t appear to be any way of upgrading it now.
Rgds
Tony
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how would you benefit from the trailer control, if you had alko hitch head and ATC on caravan I would be interested as to what extra this gives, and would you know that it is working and would the car system be fighting the caravan system.
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The tow vehicles trailer stability control can directly act on the tow car's systems, the van's ATC can't.
Almost certainly with the car's system this will be via differential braking, probably engine management and if electric steering that could also be involved.
Good and effective as it is the van's ATC is rudimentary, simply exploiting the tow vehicle to pull the van back inline by braking the van.
I can't see the two "fighting" each other, very much more complimenting each other. Should it be otherwise then both the car's and van's manuals would have dire warnings not to allow operation with the other?
Personally I would be happy enough to have a system there to manage the car's behaviour, anything and everything to tame a snake please.
The hitch so called "stabiliser" can play a near minimal role in snake abatement, it is there to make the ride less uncomfortable, little if anything else but that it does quite well
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Hi tonyburton not having factory tow bar think it was about £800 for electric bar and anther 6 weeks wait thinking of having fixed type bar as don’t want to mess about removing and refitting bar think it’s swan neck and won’t affect rear sensors
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