Tow cars
Hi does any one tow with a Ford Kuga if so mpg when towing and performance when towing thinking of changing from 10 year old ranger any help would be grateful
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My 140PS 2WD 09 Kuga towed 1350Kg. and usually returned around 32mpg. More if it was flat, less if hilly. Cruised at just below 60mph.
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You need a bigger or rather heavier car to tow that. Kuga comes in at 1716 kgs Kerbweight and to tow a 1750kg caravan would be a bit iffy. The 85% rule applied to the Kuga would only give you a caravan loaded weight of 1460kgs maximum and nowhere near your 1750 kg even on twin axle. This would give you a severe Tail Wagging Dog situation and not recommended!
I would suggest if you want to pull a van that big you look at a Kia Sorento or a Hyundai Santa Fe which with the 2.2 diesel post 2010 model will give you a nice towcar, good weight ratio and comfort when towing.
These driven about 55/60mph would give you a return of around 29/30mpg towing and about 45/50 solo at about 70mph
I would certainly look into this more deeply before you buy either the car or the van if you haven't already
Mike
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Your Ranger will tow your T/A easily - because it's designed to do so. However, some caravan manufacturers suggest you don't tow with a commercial vehicle.
A Kuga is simply not up to the job and suggest you look at another model which will safely do the job
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adding anything to the vehicle does not add to the kerbweight including a tow bar. all this just comes of the max axle weight of the vehicle as stated in the V5C doc. If you have 4 people,dog,roofrack and fully loaded boot then you could be overloading the car and max axle load. Lutz is your man for weights.
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We've got the 180bhp model with 4 wheel drive on demand and tow a 1450 kg Bailey. It does so with ease and sits all day at 60 mph on motorways, returning low 30's if I'm careful with the right foot! It is quiet and relatively refined but small on boot space.
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Hi thanks for all replies will only be 2 people in car no roof rack worked out approximately 95% tow ratio so will be over 85% but not over 100% so no problem with insurance legal car can tow 2100kg and have found twin axle better to tow than single axle ordered new car today thanks to all replies
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Don’t forget it’s your car's kerb weight which is used in working out the ratio. Whatever you carry, or not, in the car will not alter that kerb weight.
It's your choice but not a good match in my opinion.
Good luck.
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It make me think why you asked for advice on this, as everything being suggested tells you that they would not pull a TA with that weight with a Kuga and totally egnoring them, or was it an opportunity to tell all that you can buy a new car and caravan.
It's not just your safety but every road user also.0 -
I have a 180ps AWD Kuga. It is an excellent towcar. According to my V5 doc the Mass in service is 1773kg. So it would give you a ratio slightly better than 100%. I recently recorded 36mpg when towing when most of the journey was at a speed of around 58mph on a motorway. The cruise control is really useful and I like that cruising speed because I don’t have to overtake too many lorries. On that occasion I think I probably had the wind behind me. It really can make quite a difference. If I drive faster the towing mpg can drop to around 28mpg. For solo driving it is possible to achieve 50mpg but with any amount of stop start motoring it drops to around 43mpg.
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I tow a Quattro replated to 1800kg with a Passat All-track without any problems. The mass in service of the Passat is around 1720kg. With passenger, dog, awning and various goods and chattels it probably weighs in around 1850kg, probably more. Sur le continent they don’t get their underwear in a knot worrying about weight ratios and they dont have any more accidents than in the UK. it’s either legal or it isn’t.
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And if its legal it must have been deemed safe
You've only got to look at the amount of Pickups with excavators on trailers behind them you see on the roads and other similar towing combinations to realise exceeding 85% or even 100% is quite common practice as long as ,MM already said, you don't exceed your max train weight.
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where is the data for caravan accidents over there? Have you done a country by country analysis regarding caravans alone?
What is the accident rate for caravans for the UK btw?
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from what I've been able to find the UK and Sweden has the lowest number of serious accidents per million population, France is almost double.
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That doesn't necessarily mean that France has double the accident rate with caravans as well. Besides, the only accidents involving caravans that I have seen in France were Dutch or German oufits that were probably driven too fast for the prevailing conditions anyway.
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never suggested that at all and I did say that I couldn't find any data on caravan related accidents for over there (unlike the UK which varies around 0.007 to 0.008%), I was just replying to flatcoat's thoughts that there were just as many caravans accidents over there as over here.
What I was trying to say is if the UK (and Sweden) has the lowest accident rate per head of population and France has double that figure then it wouldn't be too far out to suggest that their accidents with caravans would be higher?
The UK.GOV site records a lot of detail for road accidents, does the EU do the same?
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Yes, but it doesn't follow that the percentage of caravan accidents relative to all other traffic incidients is any higher in France, just that in absolute numbers there may be a higher accident rate there. Therefore, the data doesn't really tell us anything or that the absence of any weight ratio recommendation has any bearing on the result.
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I drive more miles each year on the continent towing than I do in the UK. On occasions I also drive abroad solo. In 8 years since I first ventured abroad by car (with or without Caravan) I cannot recall seeing any incidents involving a Caravan other than a puncture.
However to get back to OP, the Kuga sounds as if it will be fine in respect of power, the weight issue is upto you. My Passat has 177 horses with DSG, probably more in practice. I get mid 20’s mpg towing and low 40”s solo. Whatever you get I strongly recommend you fit all weather tyres.
Having had my Caravan on the weighbridge it is around 1760kg when fully set up for our main hols, probably a bit less when weekending.
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