towing with a small car

[bub2006]

I was looking through the puntos handbook and noticed it says for the 1200 8v it can tow 1000kg braked. Turned my thoughts then to a small van or trailer tent to tow. Wouldn't like to tow a ton but a small van would be ideal. What's people's thoughts and experiences with towing with a small cc vehiclE? Thanks

[dollywobbler]

I know that towing with a 2CV is as awful as you'd expect. A ton sounds a lot, but then I've towed over a ton behind a BX 1.9 diesel - rated at an already impressive 1100kg towing ability. That really wasn't too bad.

 

Be warned though that small caravans are seriously in demand, so you can pay a lot for absolute crap. We had an Eriba Puck some years ago. First time I tried towing it with the 2CV, it blew a tyre and then the indicator relay. But we paid far too much for that Puck. Bigger is better.

[dave21478]

Engine power is much less important than braking power and the weight ratio between car and trailer. Light cars tend to get pulled around by heavier trailers and are much more likely to suffer from snaking.

 

I wouldnt want to be towing much more than 750kgs with a Punto. The engine will cope....it wont be fast and you will be in lower gears uphill, but it will get there. 750kgs or under should still be fairly controllable.

 

Also, with caravans, the frontal area exposed to the wind resistance makes a huge difference....trailr tents and folding campers are much easier in this regard. Infact there is a cheapy trailer tent on here now for £200 or so.

[martc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAfZ1N56qjY

 

before anyone else does - and it's helpfully entitled "small car towing caravan"

[vulgalour]

If I were towing with a small car I'd want something that could fold down so it had less propensity to be attacked by cross winds and the bow wave of air HGVs create so my rig would stand a better chance of being stable.

[bub2006]

Not viewed the YouTube link but does it involve a Renault 5?! I know it could suffer from snaking and be more exaggerated with a smaller car but greater care would be taken anyway. I've noticed that small vans are in demand and prices are high. I don't mind trailer tents either. As for the frontal drag my dad used to use a sort of wing that went on roof of car. Are these still available? A friend of mine had some fun ten years or so ago towing a 15ft van round derbyshire with a suzuki sj410! He said it took a lot of planning and occasional use of low range!

[worldofceri]

https://youtu.be/fhBpdZoB5Oc?t=26m30s

[Albert Ross]

I used to tow all over the place with Sierras, and they weigh no more than 1300kg as an average.

[explosive-cabbage]

8pm tonight.

 

 

I WIN.

[bub2006]

Can't see that explosive?! What is it?

[Junkman]

Trailers are made by the devil and should be avoided at all cost.

 

 

towing with a small car

 

Not no, hell no!

[PiperCub]

Don't know much about caravans but agree that much over 750kg is somewhat asking for trouble despite what the car is offically rated at. I recall there was a rule of thumb that stated a trailer (caravan/boat etc) should not really be over 75% of the towcar's kerbweight.

 

On a different note, I am surprised to hear small caravans are expensive now, at one time (the 90's especially) you could barely give them away. A mate & I bought a couple at different times for festival accomodation (neither me nor my g/f at time liked camping) for £50 a go, (an Eldiss? and a Sprite? or something like that), quick clean and check over, not too pretty but beats camping. Sold them for about £70-80 each, guess times change.

[bub2006]

85% I believe but it's not a law,can't go over 100% by law though.

[bub2006]

Now you mention that I don't know how much the punto weighs but it must be over a ton then!

[bub2006]

My apologies, wrong info. Cam be over 100% eg land rover discovery. Just looked and punto weighs apparently 875kg but I think it's more, 1000kg weight braked,400kg unbaked.

[PiperCub]

Was it 85%? OK, couldn't recall exactly, appreciate it's only a guideline. Be aware though that the max tow-weight of any vehicle is not necessarily the 100% full weight of the car, the manufacturers often quote less (whether this is for good reasons or arse-covering is open to question).

Surprised that a Punto is rated at 1tonne, seems alot of a small car but I guess the makers must be confident about this or they wouldn't open themselves up to issues later.

[forddeliveryboy]

Just don't try to tow a caravan, no matter how light or short, with a small car. Frontal area and all that, kind of obvious but you still see the odd one battling away at 43mph with 3 miles of traffic behind.

 

A Punto will be happy with a trailer tent, I'd try and keep its all-up weight to not much more than half the car's unladen weight, since luggage and passengers rarely weigh much less just because they're in a smaller car - so their weight is a much larger proportion of the GTW, which your little engine and clutch has to drag up hills and accelerate from junctions. Surprising how soon you find a hill which the car won't set up off.

[mercrocker]

Portafold.....Cross between Portaloo and Foldup. All plastic, sealed when closed, leaks when open (actually it doesn't....)

All up weight including camping stuff approx. 500kg.

 

Tows tolerably with Morris 1000 (1098) Big hills are a bit of a pain but its a lot better than it might appear. Very stable, has over-run brakes and if you want to faff about a lot it will sleep 4, double bed is fiddly to set up but 2 singles easy.

 

Only trouble is they now cost about a grand which is way more than they should cost but that's the fault of the home-made bunting brigade...

 

Don't fancy 250 miles like this but we have crossed 3 counties and toured the IOW with it.

 

 

[UmBongo]

My Dad towed me in my Saab 900 with his Kia Pride and up a hill, too.

 

True story.

[forddeliveryboy]

I raise you... I towed a Land-Rover out of a ditch with a 2cv, then along the road to the nearest garage. Years ago I pulled 8 complete (brakes, starter motors and so on) 2cv engines and boxes over the North York Moors. I'd lent the Saab to a friend and the hoard had to go by the end of the day. So a 2cv pulled the load, avoiding Blue Bank so via Castleton instead. It breezed it, I was quite surprised with the ease and lack of bother it towed such a heavy load, having three boxes in the car probably helped.

[bub2006]

Always remember dad's mate towing dads volvo 245 back from Pleasley to Skegby with a small Talbot. Anyone who knows Skegby will know buttery lane isn't a small hill and the Talbot wasn't happy. Anyway. I do like small vans, trailer tents I'm unsure of but folding vans would be fun. Ideal to bugger off alone with cb and fishing tackle if I wanted to.

[bub2006]

Portafold.....Cross between Portaloo and Foldup. All plastic, sealed when closed, leaks when open (actually it doesn't....)

All up weight including camping stuff approx. 500kg.

 

Tows tolerably with Morris 1000 (1098) Big hills are a bit of a pain but its a lot better than it might appear. Very stable, has over-run brakes and if you want to faff about a lot it will sleep 4, double bed is fiddly to set up but 2 singles easy.

 

Only trouble is they now cost about a grand which is way more than they should cost but that's the fault of the home-made bunting brigade...

 

Don't fancy 250 miles like this but we have crossed 3 counties and toured the IOW with it.

 

 

dorset.JPG dorset12.JPG DSCF2045.JPG

Now that's the sort of van I like.

[Six-cylinder]

I used to tow a large car trailer loaded with a Triumph Vitesse with a Triumph Vitesse and think nothing of it. The Vitesse I have now has a towbar but I only use it to pull a 8X4 trailer.

[captain_70s]

I had three passengers in the Dolly 1300 on Sunday, had to tackle a moderate hill in 2nd gear at 25mph. Don't think towing is it's forte.

 

Apparently the tow limit for a Dolly is 762kg according to my brochure, the 1850 has enough "oomf" to tow a tiny period caravan (tempting...) but the arse end weighs nothing so I imagine it'd be all over the place and would attempt to turn itself around under braking. Having said that I've spoken to people who used them for caravan duties back in the day so I imagine it's possible to survive as long as you are very slow... 

[Jim Bergerac]

Freedom Caravans posed their vans with a range of small cars in their brochure:

 

 

[Lord Sterling]

I once towed my nieghbours broken down Vauxhall Agila with Mother_Sterling's 1.0 K11 Micra, that included up a slight incline to some traffic lights. K11 coped extremely well apart from feeling like it was pulling an equal weight of car when pulling off, but once we got going it was fine.

[stuboy]

i towed a series 3 lwb landie with pug 405 td estate... arse to get going but ok on the move

[theorganist]

I have somewhere a motoring Which test from the 70's where they test a fiat 126 and a very small caravan. Will try and dig it out and scan it.

[OwdChina]

Towing with a small car with a ball and hitch ?............not unless the entire load is equal to the weight and size of a pack of 20 No6.

[castros_bro]

I towed a 40 foot microlight trailer from near Heathrow to Davidstow in Cornwall with a ex Peter Waugh Hire "for local use only" Tolbot Solara , on a bankholiday, Sorry. Gave the thing away as I couldn't face tying to tow it back.