Mercedes Benz E350 Bluetec
Hi, I am not new to caravan but got caught out last year when I swapped our van and got a 2006 Coachman Laser 590/4. I was towing a Vanmaster 2 berth with my V70 2.4d (163hp) auto and was fine but with the coachman on the back it was tail wagging dog.
So I had a choice to make, sell the van or get another towcar. As I like the V70 I bought a Lexus RX400h as had one before and loved it. Tows the coachman a dream but mpg down to 16 but thats life they say!
Anyway, I want to change the wife's Mini Clubman and get an E350 Bluetec and stick a towbar on it for the coachman.
Of course I can just simply try it but thought I would ask seasoned professionals on here if anyone tows with this exact model?
TIA
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Don't tow a big van with a current model E-class. Useless at towing and motorway driving is not for the faint hearted - take it from me !!
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The Laser 590/4 weighs in at about 1750kg, better to have poor economy than an unsafe journey IMHO.
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Based on towing a TA Coachman @ 1760kgs for 3 years.
I did say heavy van David and you have said in the past,correct me if I'm wrong,that you tow at around 50mph.
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Thank you one and all...I love the Lexus and will probably just keep on towing with that as we dont do much caravanning due to work committments and the dogs.
Just looked at the Audi S6 Avant and that has a good match according to web sites. My problem is I like power and speed and cant grow up :-)
Thanks again...
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We had an E220 (our second one) when we bought a Bailey Olympus in 2010. The car's noseweight limit was 75kg which meant weighting this caravan too much to the rear to lighten the nose or else overloading the car's suspension. I reluctantly swapped the Merc for a LR Freelander 2 which turned out to be a great tow car but lacked the Merc's `feel-good' factor. The E class was a great tow car when we had a smaller caravan and it had the power to pull a bigger one but I personally would not tow a large van with one because of the low nose weight (of course the estate has a higher noseweight but still too low for the 90kg at which I find our current Bailey Unicorn series 3 tows best - now towing with a Discovery Sport).
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Oldmanmilli, I had an E220 new in 2009, one of the last of the older shape. Essentally it was a very good tow car and when solo was very good on fuel (diesel). BUT I only kept it a year before going back to a 4x4. Why?
The E220 seemed for most of the time to have adequate power, - note my use of the term adequate, - for I always felt that there was little in reserve. And that was towing a Coachman 520/4 VIP. Where it showed was coming back up from the South of France towards Clermont Ferrand. The climb in high temps was obviously causing it some distress, as I noticed that the automatic gearbox was requiring manual change inputs rather than changing automatically as it should have done. It recovered as soon as the strain became less.
I upgraded to an ML 6 Cylinder very soon after, and have never had the problem since.
The E350 bluetec should be fine, certainly its engine is. It all depends what sort of touring you intend to do, but today I will always check what the standard of transmission cooling is on any car I that I am considering.
TF
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It's not so much the power with the E-class but its towing characteristics that are the problem when towing the heavier vans.
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