VW Touareg Mk3 (2018 on) - Standard Coil Springs
Hi all
We're about to purchase a Touareg R-line Tech, 2019 or 2020. Ideally I'd like to find one with air suspension however I'm struggling to find anything in our price range.
I've driven the R-line tech on standard coil springs and find the ride perfectly acceptable. Coming from a large estate car on sports suspension, I really don't mind a firmer ride and have always found it beneficial for my motion sickness prone children (And myself as a passenger, if I'm being perfectly honest).
However, I can't find any review or forum comments about towing on standard springs for this generation Touareg. Does anybody have any experience towing with the standard R-line suspension? Do you see much of a drop at the rear with a van hooked up? Is it likely to affect stability towing?
We have a 2018 Sussex Coneyhurst (Lunar 586) which the Touareg will have no problem pulling and currently pack with a 75 to 80kg nose weight due to the limitations of our current car.
Thanks
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practical caravan did a review of the that VW a while ago so might be worth a read via there website. I do believe that with air suspenssion you can tow a little bit more weight wise but not sure if I am right.
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Thanks lornalou
I've read every review I can find, including that one. The annoying thing is they all focus on the a model with air suspension, as I assume that's the vehicles VW pushed at the Press.
The practical caravan article briefly mentions standard coil spring suspension but only in relation to ride comfort - nothing about towing with it.0 -
I've been towing with a Touareg Escape for the last five years and can confirm that it's a great tow car - probably the best I've had. Can't help much re the suspension because mine has raised and stiffened suspension as standard and with a nose-weight of around 90-95kg, doesn't seem to compress the suspension at all. The short rear overhang is an advantage and makes for very stable towing. Don't know how much difference there is between mine and the standard set up, though.
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I think I've read a few of your previous comments about towing with your Escape Richard. You're one of the few people I can find on any forum talking about towing with a Touareg on standard springs.
The R-Line also has firmer dampers and springs, albeit lower so called "sports suspension" rather than your raised Escape. I currently have Eibach sports kit progressive springs with Bilstein B8 struts on my estate. Despite lowering the car, they've improved it's stability towing. Being stiffer, the rear ride height with the van hitched is the same as it was with the standard suspension, however there's far less bounce. With the springs sitting the stiffer range of their progressiveness, I'm yet to hit the rear bump stops, even on some of the more challenging rural roads we've traveled along.
So in theory the stiffer "sports" setup of the R-Line should be just fine towing.I'd still be really keen to hear from anyone who actually tows or has towed with the current generation Touareg on coil springs.
EmiliysDad - I absolutely hear you and many others singing the praises of air. Including the CAMC's comments on the Touareg winning it's class in the 2019 and 2020 towcar awards!
One of my aims here is to have a newer low mile car with a decent amount of manufacture's warranty left on it. There's nothing on air suspension registered late 2019 or 2020 that fits into my current budget... I've seen one 2018 Touareg on air suspension (with the ErgoComfort seats, that are must for me) that was affordable. It had higher mileage and more importantly sold before I had chance to run it past my better half...0 -
Try the myTreg forums https://www.mytreg.com/. Theres a whole section on towing and you might find something on there.
I tow with the previous generation Touareg, an R-Line on steel springs and it's great, no noticeable movement on the back when I hook up and tows like a dream
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Thanks to everyone for chipping in.
Without meaning to sound ungrateful (as I'm not) but I have trawled the internet in search of an iota of info about the 3rd gen towing with standard springs and have come up with nought!The mytreg forum is full of very useful info but unfortunately no definitive comments about towing with on coils. Plenty about the 1st and 2nd gen. Although the 3rd gen is a new platform, I'm going to have to assume VW won't have changed the formula so much that the positive comments about towing on coils for the previous generations, bode well for the current one.
I assume that the CAMC testers must have driven the 3rd generation on standard suspension during their comparisons for the tow car awards this year and last, as they mention it. Just a shame there wasn't more in-depth information given, other than 'air is better'.
I'm in no major rush. I may hang fire for an example with air suspension but that would mean accepting an older, higher mile example. We don't do HP (bar the inevitable mortgage) so our budget is fixed at what we've put aside.0 -
@ noob .... I may hang fire for an example with air suspension but that would mean accepting an older, higher mile example. We don't do HP (bar the inevitable mortgage) so our budget is fixed at what we've put aside.
I wouldn't worry specifically about high mileage (within reason) High mileage cars have usually been serviced as & when, especially as many new cars on the road are leased. Low mileage cars can have as many, if not more problems. Admittedly it was a few years ago now, but I've had a few cars (Senators) that were bought at around 100k miles ... never had any problems with them. If I saw a car with the 'toys' on it I wanted, the mileage wouldn't put me off.
And there's nowt wrong with debt as long as it's affordable 😉 But I'd likely not use a dealer's credit
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No - it was an option for an additional £2500 when I bought mine - but that would have meant a 3 month wait for a built car as opposed to buying from stock and getting the £5k discount VW were offering at the time.
It does have the locking diffs - plus low ratio box, raised and stiffened suspension and under-body protection as standard. Just a pity they discontinued it in 2016, or I would have swapped mine before now.
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Having only done 44k miles in 5 years, I think this one should last me a bit longer😀
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As I interpret the OP's enquiry, the issue at stake is whether the coil spring version would result in a back end down attitude when the caravan, in this case a Lunar 586, is hitched up. For a Touareg a noseweight of 75 to 80kg, as mentioned in his post, is well within its capability without having to worry about any appreciable loss of rear suspension travel. That alone wouldn't justify the need for air suspension.
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I've no idea how VW self level their cars with steel springs.
On my Vauxhall Omega the HID auto level & the car's self levelling suspension were definitely two completely separate systems. The HIDs were controlled by level sensors front & back which altered the internal reflector of the headlight. The suspension had its own level sensor & altered the level using the rear shockers. The HIDs on my Merc do their own thing independently from the air suspension .... they do a dance when they first come on up/down left/right which makes it obvious they move independently from the actions of the ride height. I'd be surprised if levelling the car via its suspension would be fast enough to level out the beam of a HID headlamp to avoid dazzling on coming traffic. 🤔
I suspect a VW with steel or air springs would be the same or similar. 👍
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I suspect a VW with steel or air springs would be the same or similar. 👍
Correct ED - my Escape definitely has steel springs, and as you say, the headlights do a little dance when they first come on.
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Hi Lutz and thanks for bringing the discussion back OT.
There is no self levelling suspension on the standard coil suspension.
Any car with high output headlights, Xenon, LED etc will have a self levelling system. This is a legal requirement in the UK.
I currently load with a nose of 75 to 80kg as 75kg is the max for my current tow car, a 13 year old Saab 9-5 Aero estate! Which is actually a very competent tow car, regardless of but better for the uprated suspension I've fitted to it.
It's not easy to pack the van like this so I suspect 100kg is more likely when I have a toerag. Since when I first chuck stuff in the van without thinking to carefully, I usually find it's around 100kg.
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Bonkers isn't it, for that much money you'd think it would be easy to find something with air suspension. In fact I've just started browsing Q7s. There are plenty of reasonably low mile 2018 models, TDI 50 s-line with air suspension and within budget.. I'd sooner a toerag and so would the Mrs. They're a bit more our style. I guess they just haven't sold in the same numbers as the Audi for there to be as many used examples in the desired spec.
I have found some very good offers on the v6 TSI toerags. I can only assume they're struggling to shift them due to the fuel consumption? But one dealer was literally trying to throw one at me. Have to say, I'm quite tempted. We only drive around 8k miles a year (both commuting on the train) so the poor fuel consumption doesn't really bother me. And it's a cracking engine with lots of low down grunt.
Whatever the weather (unless something jumps up at me) we've decided to put this on hold until after the lockdown. I want to drive a Q7 and the TSI toerag, which is obviously not possible at the moment..
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Hi,
We have a 2018 (3rd Gen) VW Touareg RLine Tech with standard steel springs. We have a 2020 Twin Axel Elddis 860 with a measured nose weight of 100kg. The caravan is correctly loaded and our axel weight is within spec. I have the answer that you are need and unfortunately it is not pretty! I found out the hard way that this Touareg is completely incapable of delivering upon VW’s towing capability promise. We put two suitcases in the boot (trunk) and put the caravan on the back and the back of the car squats so badly the following happens:
The clearance between the tyre & wheel arch drops to 4cm at the back front lifts to 15cm.
The caravan nose drops so the front of the van only clears the ground by 18-20cm
The front steering becomes so light it gives very little confidence or feedback.
The icing on the cake is the failure of the Radar mounted behind the huge VW badge on the front grill of the vehicle. Because the nose of the car is pointing in the air, the automatic levelling radar moves out of range and shuts down the Cruise Control, Accident Avoidance System, Pedestrian Impact Avoidance, Lane Departure etc and causes a huge stream of error messages to appear on the screen in the car every time you start it. Unfortunately you would expect these codes to disappear after you remove the caravan! Unfortunately not, you need to book it into the VW dealer and get them to remove the codes because any normal aftermarket code reader will not clear the codes and they have to be done by the dealer! I have the very latest VCDS (VAG COM) diagnostics hardware and it still does clear the codes!!
So in an attempt to overcome this, I bought suspension spring packers and do not put more than half a tank of fuel in the car. Unfortunately it makes absolutely no difference and within 20-50 miles it fails!
Our warranty runs out on the car next month and I’m not going to start paying extortionate dealer fees and having to wait 3 weeks in order for the dealer to clear the huge string of fault codes we get from towing. I am so disappointed with this car (we also had a MK2 Touareg for five years) that I am buying a BMW X5 which has air suspension as standard.
I spoke to my local VW Dealer, they don’t care.
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That's a real shame you've had issues. Sounds like you have an awful local VW dealer. Have you tried escalating to VW UK?
As you can see I bought a gen3 Touareg with air suspension about 7 months ago. I've towed several times with it. First fully loaded trip last week to a CL in Battle and it's a fantastic tow car.
I load our Lunar so it sat with it's max nose weight of 100kg also. Had an awning kids bikes and a whole bunch of other guff in the boot along with 90 litres of diesel in the tank. The car sat perfectly level and towed like a dream. No error codes and in fact I've grown to like using ACC and used it for the majority of the time I was towing. I'd feel quite short changed it that stopped working.Hope you get on better with an X5!
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Deepblue - it sounds to me as is something is seriously wrong with your car. OK - so mine has raised and stiffened suspension, but I doubt it makes THAT much difference. I usually aim for a nose weight of about 95kg and the suspension hardly compresses at all with the van on the back, boot full of large, heavy awning, Weber BBQ, EHU cable, dog in cage, few cases of wine
and all the other junk I take with us.0 -
I've driven the Gen3 R-line on coil springs. It's a much stiffer spring than the SE or SEL. As firm if not firmer than my air suspension on Sport setting. I'm seriously surprised you're seeing that much compression.
As richardandros say's, it sounds like yours has a serious problem
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I currently tow with a Range Rover Sport and previously Discoveries with air suspension which as others have said is a definite advantage. One thing not mentioned but which I find really helpful is the ability to lower and raise the height of the tow vehicle (from a button in the boot). It makes unhitching and hitching up really effortless. Especially hitching up with no more lifting the caravan onto the ball which at 100kg gets physical (even on the jockey winder when it is carrying the full load).
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