Caravanning without a towcar
We have just been informed that our tow car (MPV style Peugeot 5008) does not have the capacity to legally tow our caravan. As we are not in a position to replace it yet we're looking at alternatives for holidaying with our caravan.
Does anyone have any experience of the following options and/or would be able to provide advice?
1) Hiring a tow car : we're looking at quotes in the region of £300/week.
2) Caravan transport: arranging shipment of caravan to the site and back again.
3) Seasonal pitch (possibly prohibitively expensive) with caravan transported to the site.
I'm sure there may be other options we've not thought of?
Many thanks!
Rob
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Do you know anybody personally who you could trust and who would tow your van to a site and back for you?
If we had a problem, our son would willingly tow ours if we asked him.
Worst case - put holidays on hold for a little while and work on replacing your current car.
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Some French cars have a tow limit published which assumes the car is emty apart from driver and a bit. In other words a low maximum Train Weight.
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I assume that the OP knows the legal limits and has taken this from the plated figures given on the car's B post. (Maximum Train Weight minus Maximum Car Weight = Maximum Trailer Weight).
It depends on the precise figures for the outfit involved but, it may be possible for the car with driver to tow the caravan empty or very lightly loaded to site and then make a second journey with passengers and luggage. This would at least mean the car would be available for the family whilst on holiday. For vehicle limits it is the actual weights which are used to determine compliance (whereas for licence limits it is the plated weights).
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It’s a 5008 and the current max braked towing weights range from 950 up to 1800kg.
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I think the OP knows his car model and what it can tow.
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Firstly, thank you for all the responses. Secondly, my apologies for the lack of clarity in the original post. Having looked into it I'm fairly confident that our car should not be towing our caravan.
We bought our first caravan 3 years ago having bought the 63 plate Peugeot 5008 (2.0L HDi 163 horsepower automatic Allure) with the intention of using it as a tow car. The caravan dealer assured us that our car would be a suitable tow car pointing out the kerbweight of 1694kg. Our caravan is a 2005 Abbey Aventura 317 with max laden weight of 1304kg (77% of our car's kerbweight).
We were nervous of towing and have regularly checked our carvan's weight using a weighbridge and packed carefully keeping an eye on the noseweight. We have always driven carefully and have never had a problem in the three a bit years of touring.
We were considering a larger caravan to accommodate our growing daughters and my wife was checking with a dealer whether our car was a match when he introduced us to towing capacity. He entered our car registration into their 'computer' and it came back with a maximum towing weight of 1200kg. As I understand it towing with this set up invalidates our insurance and is not legal. On checking the car's plate we found that gross train weight - gross vehicle weight was 3530 kg - 2330 kg = 1200 kg.
We've looked for four berth caravans under 1200 kg and have investigated changing our car early which we can't afford at this point in time. We've looked at hiring tow vehicles (which is a possibility) and using a caravan delivery service (which is too expensive to be practical) but, to cut a long and rambling explanation short, I was wondering whether anyone had a plan C! Perhaps we need to follow Jill's suggestion and make friends with someone with a towcar!
Thanks again.
Rob
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I just thought I’d mention...
For practical reasons, we went without a tow car for a few years. I got a friend to tow the van to a campsite near Newton Abbot (Twelve Oaks). The arrangement was that they would store it for me, and put it on a pitch when we wanted to visit. From memory, the storage costed around £400 a year, with a £10 charge each time it was pitched, pitch fees on top. I’m pretty sure other campsites offer the same service.
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As far as I ma aware the maximum train weight means that from a legal point of view as long as the actual combination weight does not exceed 3,530kg then you are legal regardless of maximum vehicle weight. For licence categories it is based on Max vehicle weight. For other purposes it is actual weights.
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Hi, a very quick check on tow car.info gives a different perspective and looking at the figures you quote also seems to suggest that it’s OK?
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Hi Allen and Jean. Thank you for that - I had a look and it certainly seems that it may not be as clear cut. Just to be clear, looking at the numbers...
GTW = 3530 kg = caravan and car can't exceed this?
GVW = 2330 kg = car can't exceed this regardless of being solo or towing?
Digging out the weighbridge ticket from when we went to Norfolk earlier this month, car = 2130 kg, caravan = 1300 kg.
As the combined total is less than the GTW does this make it road legal? And the caravan mass is still well within 85 % kerb weight. I think this is the point that EasyT was making?
From what my wife says the person in the dealership was pretty adamant that towing anything over 1200 kg would categorically be illegal and invalidate our insurance. I think we may go back to the dealer for clarification.
Thank you for your patience!
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Hi Rob, You latest post figures seem to confirm that the outfit is ‘legal’.
Who knows why/how the dealer arrived at their figures-a simple mistake maybe-but it looks OK.
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