Torque
Would I be correct to think that the higher it is the better the car will pull your van. When checking the gocaravaning.com website, it gives such examples as "As a towing vehicle it delivers 135 lb/ft of torque" I can often find that the 85% for a vehicle is good yet the torque aint so great.
Comments
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Hello Markphil. Basically the higher the torque the better and if it is produced at low revs even better that is why most tow with diesel cars. The 85% you mention is a guide ratio of caravan to car the more experienced tow up to 100%; but, the weight
of the caravan must NEVER exceed the max towing weight of the car. We could get more technical and will if asked!!!0 -
Higher the better, my 2.0TDi 138bhp VW engine (just to confuse things) is 320nm @ 1,750-2,500rpm, and for my unit pulls very well.
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Actually it's horsepower that shifts the outfit up the hill, not torque, but lots of torque at low revs makes for more relaxed driving as it requires less gear changes. Horsepower is basically torque times revs so if you haven't got the torque you need lots of revs and conversely, if you haven't got the revs, you need lots of torque..
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Good post, Lutz! What makes for even more relaxed towing is a flat torque/speed curve. Even better is a curve where the torque droops slightly at higher revs. This means that if you're towing in the higher rev region and start to slow down on a hill then
the torque rises as the speed falls so that power stays more nearly constant.Diesel engines tend to have this type of torque/speed curve which is what makes them good for towing. Petrol engines, by contrast, tend to have torque/speed curves which peak at, or near, max revs so suffer from both falling speed and torque as the revs
fall so needing gear changes to maintain both revs and torque and hence power.0 -
Petrol engines are simply all talk - diesel engines however talk the torque!
I think one does have to qualify that statement a little. Take the BMW 3.0 litre diesel and compare it with its 3.0 litre petrol counterpart, for example, and you will see that although the diesel develops 500Nm of torque as against the 400Nm of the petrol, but that maximum torque is achieved across a much broader band and much earlier on the petrol compared with the diesel.
Petrol max. torque from 1200 to 5000rpm
Diesel max. torque from 1750 to 2750rpm
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