Club towcar review confusion

viatorem
viatorem Forum Participant Posts: 645
edited February 17 in Towcars & Towing #1

Just looking at the club magazine towcar review of the VW T-Roc along with the TCOTY report in the 1100-1300Kg capacity thinking it might tow my van and now I am confused.

Here are the figures quoted in the reviews as tested : kerbweight 1358Kg, GVW 1850Kg, GTW 2858Kg VW max tow weight 1500Kg  my van weight MTPLM 1154Kg .  presumably GTW - GVW = legal tow weight = 1008Kg

 In order to Tow my van legally do I have to de-rate the maximum car load by 146Kg? Have I made an error? 

Or have the Club made an error, or VW or is it just a misleading review?  Just a note that on previous cars that I have owned the maximum towing limit =GTW- GVW so it all adds up nicely.

 

 

 

Comments

  • eribaMotters
    eribaMotters Club Member Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited February 17 #2

    You do not need to worry or do anything.

    I can understand your confusement regarding the weights. It is not made any easier by VAG often giving two max tow limits that are dependant upon gradient. The club also looks at an 85% max weight match.

    I look at the whatcar website https://www.whatcar.com/make/volkswagen/t-roc/hatchback/versions?id=n17376 and towcarinfo website https://towcar.info/

    Over the tail end of my 25 years of towing trailer tents and caravans I've found the later site to be very helpful.

    The 1.5tfsi engine in the T-Roc is an excellent power plant. I have this engine in my Audi A3, a vehicle that under the skin started with the same floorplan as the T-Roc. The T-Roc is about 20kg heavier though.

    I currently tow a pop-top Eriba that at 2.17m width is fairly standard, but at 2.24 high is low. It does however typically run at about 1350kg [I can go to 1500kg] so it's significantly higher than your 1154kg. I have towed this van for about 3.000 miles.

    The engine easily copes with these weights and returns 30-36mpg when towing. I have found stability to be very good as I am sensible with my tow speeds

    My previous van was a slightly smaller and lighter Eriba at 1200kg. I towed this for about 16,000 miles with the Audi, returning 34-40mpg. 

    Interestingly, for me, I have found towing the heavier van feels even more sure footed.

     

    Colin

     

     

     

  • Lutz
    Lutz Forum Participant Posts: 1,564 ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 18 #3

    It strikes me that the magazine added the 1500kg towload limit to the kerbweight to arrive at the maximum permissible gross train weight, which is, of course, wrong. At least one variant of the T-Roc can even tow up to 1800kg.

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