Mismatch or what?

Settermum
Settermum Forum Participant Posts: 127
First Comment
edited May 2016 in Towcars & Towing #1

I have just come from facebook. There was a post by Practical Caravan on our best towcar. Somone has posted a picture of their outfit which is a Volvo V50 and an Elddis Avante 630. Twinaxle jobbie. The caravan is 1650kg and the car 1400and abit. The bloke
is justifying it by saying "Oh the car can pull 2 tons, we've looked into it, don't  worry" I think its insane!

Comments

  • xtrailman
    xtrailman Forum Participant Posts: 559
    edited May 2016 #2

    Unless you have specific data of the car and caravan i don't see how you can comment.

    My caravan insurance states the MTPLM must not be greater than my kerbweight, so provided i'm on the safe side of 100% i'm happy to tow up to that ratio.

    If you are looking at 3rd party sites such as the CC, i can assure you the data is flawed and not reliable.

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited May 2016 #3

    The car may be able to tow two tons slowly round town. It is entirely different if you are doing 60 down a motorway with a slab sided caravan behind.

    Not seen the post so is it a visitor to the site or a PC employee? I would hope it is a visitor.

  • xtrailman
    xtrailman Forum Participant Posts: 559
    edited May 2016 #4

    According to Volvo they no longer make a V50.

    So what year are we talking about? the older cars only had a 1500kg tow limit.

  • DS3
    DS3 Forum Participant Posts: 108
    edited May 2016 #5

    They have only just stopped making the V50 and V70, which I am disgusted with but hey, what do they care if one of their customers goes elsewhere!
    Yell

    I sometimes tow over 100%, it's no different to towing at 85 or 90% to be honest. All things considered, I am never likely to have an empty car and a fully loaded caravan nowadays anyway and even if I did, my Volvo weighs more than it can legally tow anyway.
    Know what you're doing and drive sensibly and all should be fine and dandy.

     

  • surburban2000
    surburban2000 Forum Participant Posts: 84
    edited May 2016 #6

    Wen Iwas looking for a car to tow my 31' caravan I wanted a chevy taho shortweelbase my mait at the car lot sayd to short for towing so i took his advice and got a chevy suburban 2500
    CoolKissJ&I

  • kentman
    kentman Forum Participant Posts: 147
    edited May 2016 #7

    In my opinion, anyone who tows with a car which is not at least 10% heavier than their caravan is reckless. I have witnessed too many consequence, for example a previous generation Mondeo with too big a caravan jack-knifed and overturned on the M40 a few
    weeks ago. 

  • bassett1
    bassett1 Forum Participant Posts: 40
    edited May 2016 #8

    i could agreed more  with the last post by kentman . the caravan  club tow match is a fair guide but  i always weigh my tow cars and caravan  so i know  the weights of both out fits and when people say they been towing for years and i can tow up to 100%
    there  be the ones we see jacknifed  i been an hgv driver for the last 50 years i drive a draw bar out fit and i would not dream of putting 5 ton  on the prime mover and 10 ton on the trailor  with all my years on the road i seen plenty of vans on there side
    al because  the weights are wrong and all this does is get all us caravaners a bad name well thants my rant over bassett.

  • xtrailman
    xtrailman Forum Participant Posts: 559
    edited May 2016 #9

    That makes no sense when all the rigs i've seen turned over were usually hitched to a large heavy looking 4x4.

    Speed is the major factor leading to instability, which is why there is a low speed limit for towing. Which in the UK applies even with a ratio of 50%.

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #10

    A mate of mine had his caravan on a seasonal pitch because he didn't have a tow car. He then sold the caravan because he wasn't using it enough.

    Later, he bought a BMW 1 series (kerb weight somewhat less than 1400kg) and said to me "I should have kept that caravan. I could have towed it now, with this car"

    I asked if he was sure and he said "Yeah, no problem, it's a 1.6 litre engine"

    His caravan was somewhat more than 1500kg......but because the car could physically move it, that was all that he considered.

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited May 2016 #11

    There's a good example of a mis-matched outfit going too fast here.

  • xtrailman
    xtrailman Forum Participant Posts: 559
    edited May 2016 #12

    That's being discussed on the CT forum.

    There's no evidence at all to suggest any mismatch, or for any real conclusive reason for the incident.

    One post is from a traffic investigator.

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #13

    No, obviously it must have been a perfect match and he was doing a sensible speed / manoeuvre......

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited May 2016 #14

    They have only just stopped making the V50 and V70, which I am disgusted with but hey, what do they care if one of their customers goes elsewhere!
    Yell

    I sometimes tow over 100%, it's no different to towing at 85 or 90% to be honest. All things considered, I am never likely to have an empty car and a fully loaded caravan nowadays anyway and even if I did, my Volvo weighs more than it can legally tow anyway.
    Know what you're doing and drive sensibly and all should be fine and dandy.

     

    Write your comments here... Sorry but having a caravan weighing more than the tow car is simply not good practice. It may work most of tbe ti e but in an emergency manouvre you can never be sure. Towing over 100% should be banned it is not safe.  As the
    guy who investigated the accidents afterwards I have  met others who took the same position and were surprised at the results when things went wrong but they did. You cannot possibly know just how safe a combination is unless it is tested to the limit and
    that is simply not possible before it happens.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #15

     ...... Towing over 100% should be banned it is not safe.  As the guy who investigated the accidents afterwards I have  met others who took the same position and were surprised at the results when things went
    wrong but they did. You cannot possibly know just how safe a combination is unless it is tested to the limit and that is simply not possible before it happens.

    That would upset a few HGV drivers ....... 

  • Settermum
    Settermum Forum Participant Posts: 127
    First Comment
    edited May 2016 #16

    Since there has been some debate on this op, I did some research. I haven't been able to find a combination of this caravan and any 2 litre V50 that doesn't exceed the cars max gross train weight. So it looks like this outfit might well be illegal.

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #17

    I did a double-take when I read above that the Volvo V70 had been discontinued.

    What are they thinking of??

    That V90 replacement doesn't look half as nice.

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited May 2016 #18

    There's a good example of a mis-matched outfit going too fast here.

    The caravan certainly seemed to be able to throw the car about quite easily, as if it was the heavier of the two.

  • stankane
    stankane Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited May 2016 #19

    There's a good example of a mis-matched outfit going too fast here.

    Would be interesting to know if Alko ATC was fitted to the caravan or not (if Alko chassis of course).

    Are there more details about this accident anywhere?

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited May 2016 #20

     ...... Towing over 100% should be banned it is not safe.  As the guy who investigated the accidents afterwards I have  met others who took the same position and were surprised at the results when things went
    wrong but they did. You cannot possibly know just how safe a combination is unless it is tested to the limit and that is simply not possible before it happens.

    That would upset a few HGV drivers ....... 

    Not realy as the stability of an artic is different but they also can jacknife if driven badly. As the earlier post says where they have a drawbar instead then the truck should be heavier than the trailer.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2016 #21

     ...... Towing over 100% should be banned it is not safe.  As the guy who investigated the accidents afterwards I have  met others who took the same position and were surprised at the results when things went
    wrong but they did. You cannot possibly know just how safe a combination is unless it is tested to the limit and that is simply not possible before it happens.

    That would upset a few HGV drivers ....... 

    Not realy as the stability of an artic is different but they also can jacknife if driven badly. As the earlier post says where they have a drawbar instead then the truck should be heavier than the trailer.

     ..... my tongue was firmly in my cheek, as you probaly already knew Innocent I was highlighting that a general comment could have other
    implications

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