The Countryman is 750kg. Towing steep uphill campsites (and underground car parks) in Spain with our Skoda Fabia 110 PS caused a nasty burning smell ( the clutch) last year.
We have decided to get a more powerful car but are not sure how much more power we need. The 2019 Seat Leon were looking at has 130PS (250 Newton Metres). We don't want to buy and find it still can't do the job. Some cars will be fine on the flat but hill starts are a no no. Any advice would be welcome.
Was the Skoda Fabia a petrol or diesel engine?
A diesel has a much lower torque and can cope much easier when climbing hills and standing starts which with 750 kgs. in tow should be somewhat easy to find the right car you need.
It is not so much the engine size as it is how much you are slipping clutch and revs pulling away making it smell. Even doing this on a 2 litre manual motor will do it. The only guaranteed way you will pull away on a very steep incline is an automatic car. 750 kg is nothing to tow compared with caravan weights.
Thanks. I didn't realise an automatic would be better on hills. Thanks for the advice. We may go that way but are a bit old fashioned : liking the business of changing gears 🙃
No two cars are exactly alike so direct comparisons aren't straightforwards, lots of factors like power bands and gear ratios to take into account, but I tow a 1310Kg MTPLM caravan (1.75 times heavier than your trailer!) behind a 130PS petrol front wheel drive manual gearbox Citroen, and yet to encounter a hill that's a real problem! Towed thousands of miles, in places like Cumbria, Wales, North Devon, Peak District, none noted for flat terrain! Had to do a standing start on a 1:5(20%) hill in Peak District on recent visit, bit of a challenge to driving skills/technique, but achieved without drama.
As previously suggested, maybe too much clutch slipping is the problem (and that can happen with any engine size/power!), assuming of course that the clutch is in good working order and not inclined to slip even when foot off the pedal.
My technique is to use minimum revs, just enough to stop engine stalling, get the outfit just rolling, then fully engage clutch and let the engine power/torque do the rest (I do benefit from quite high torque at low engine revs compared to many petrol engines), my car is happy to pull from just above tickover revs in first gear. If I do have a problem on steepish inclines it's keeping traction on the front wheels, which can scrabble a little on poor/wet surfaces, but traction control tends to stop that getting totally out of hand.
The minimum power to weight ratio for towing is recommended to be 40bhp(PS)/Tonne GTW (Gross Train Weight), yours appears to be around 59bhp/Tonne, which is more than adequate, mine's around 49bhp/Tonne and not found to be inadequate. You don't appear to need a more powerful car.
Suggest you try to change your driving technique and see how you get on before leaping towards a new car.
I think Diesels will be around for a while yet, BUT penalised in so many ways, even a brand new 'clean' Diesel has to pay a premium rate to park in my local council run car parks! The restrictions and penalties will sadly only get worse, the reason I swapped from a Diesel to Petrol on my last car change, would have preferred a Diesel for many reasons, but saw the writing on the wall!
Diesels will be around for years and in time I think their prices will hold well as people look for a decent tow car. I have caravanned 50 years now and for the last 30+years have been diesel and last 20+ automatics. Would never go back to a manual car.In fact just bought another diesel automatic 3 months ago.
Thank you so much for that wonderfully in depth reply. I'm not sure why this year we're thinking so hard about it. I think my husband just got stressed out with our Fabia in Spain going up a particularly steep hill from a car park. He seemed to panic so got out and I just put my foot down hard. The problem was that almost at the top a car came from the left fast, making us have to stop. A queue of cars lined up behind us!!
I take your comments about the diesel and automatics. I reckon we're going to be encouraged t go electric in a year or so too, so probably they'll make petrol and diesel have lots of financial drawbacks. We may go for a hybrid. Electric is too new to go the whole hog although hybrid is sooo expensive.
We're currently thinking of either a 2019 Audi or Mercedes Benz (if only for the Janis Joplin song - "Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all have Porches, I must make amends). Love it!!
Thanks a lot for your thoughts. Its so nice to have people give their advice and experience. All grist to the mill!
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Topic: Towing up hills : 750kg folding camper
via mobile 14/11/2023 at 6:19pm
