I want to buy a new car soon - hoping to buy a Toyota Auris 1.6. It has a kerb weight of 1315 kg. I hope (in the next few years) to be able to buy a lightweight caravan to tow. 85% of the Auris' kerbweight is 1118 kg. The caravan that is my current "fave" has an mtplm of 1180 - so too heavy. However, if the car weighed 1390 kg then the 85% guideline would be met. If my wife and I were in the car we'd take the kerb weight of the car over 1390 kg. Is this allowed? Or do I need a heavier car if I wish to tow the desired caravan (Sprite Alpine 4)?
to be legal you must keep the outfit below the gross train weight as specified by the manufacturer which in the case of our C5 theoretically means I can to a trailer of up to 2000kg.
That said the 85% exists as a guide for a good reason, this should give a stable outfit if the weight is properly distributed.
So in my opinion creeping a bit over the 85% should be fine but a lot is down to how fundamentally good the car is for towing and the skill/ability of the driver.
The car has a max tow weight of 1200kg so the caravan is just within that but I doubt you will be loading caravan to its max tho so it is within the legal limit of the car & within the 85% guideline. The 1.6 petrol will have a high fuel consumption towing & hill climbing won't be that good. The 2.2 diesel would be much better.
85% is Caravan MTPLM vs Cars Kerbweight. As 888dee said, its just a guide from the Caravan Club etc, & it is based on a fully loaded caravan & the cars kerbweight. I guess it depends how you classify the kerbweight, in some quarters its an empty car in a driveable condition with fluids etc. Others class it as previous but with an allowance for a driver. If the former then not quite sure how an empty car is going to tow on its own, so in reality by the time a driver, passengers & luggage are loaded the ratio will change in favour of safety; but the 85% rule is a good established & proven starting point.
Pretty sure the Auris can pull up to 1200kg so even if you fully load the new van' you'll still be legal. We used to tow a 1057kg MTPLM caravan with our 1.6 Corolla. That came in at about 1300kg on our weighbridge at work & it was a brilliant little outfit. Really really stable tow, & although you will be working the engine quite hard sometimes, it will make a good match. The D4D would be better...
We tow a much bigger van' now, 1500kg, & rather than go down the 4x4 route we use an old Mondeo to tow. Its getting on for 100% match based on the above, but we load pretty much all of our kit in the car (& roof-box), & we dont take a lot of kit away anyway. We're probably at about 90% mark & I've no problem as its a lovely outfit, bonus is the 34mpg we can get towing. I'm very regimental when it comes to loading, noseweight etc & it does make a big difference. I've weighed both our Mondeo, & the caravan & the Mondeo is 1580kg against the caravans MTPLM of 1500kg. Based on this I'm comfortable that our fully loaded caravan is well inside the weight of our totally empty car. Not sure where the law is on this, my licence pre-dates 1997 but as said I'm happy with our outfit.
Kerb weight is as defined in EU Directive 95/48/EC – weight of car on leaving factory plus 7Kg for luggage plus 75Kg for the driver . So you can't stick the wife in plus three kids to lift the kerb weight as its a fixed sum. (I'm 3.5 Kg below the standard EU driver.... must put weight on!!!)
Maybe best to get as big a kerb weight car now as you can afford as that will give you more options when you come to buy.
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
Phil - concerning your comments...The 1.6 Auris (manual) has a stated kerb weight of 1315 kg. So if I add on 75 kg for me and 7 kg for luggage that gives 1397 kg. So is this what I work from for my 85%? I know it's only a guideline, but I do want to stay safe.
Quote: Originally posted by 888dee on 04/5/2010
the gross train weight as specified by the manufacturer which in the case of our C5 theoretically means I can to a trailer of up to 2000kg.
I don't think GTW is what you can tow....
You can tow up to 100% kerbweight or the manufacturers limit, which I suspect is somewhat lower than 2000Kg.
GTW is the maximum the vehicle and the trailer can weigh combined.
Eg...
Unladen towcar 1500kg kerbweight with a max tow of 1500kg
MTW 3000kg, Because the max GTW = the max towing limit of an empty car + trailer would mean every 1kg loaded into the car would mean you should deduct 1kg from your towing allowance.
Add 300kg to your empty towcar would put you 300kg over your GTW so your new max tow limit is 1200kg.
No pwrrwp the kerbweight quoted for your car already includes for you and 7kg for luggage. 1315kg is the kerbweight
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
Good points about the kerbweight. I see the bhp question hasn't been answered, so I'll just put my bit in. Bhp is not as important in caravanning as getting the weights right.
However, more is always better. The car will be "on top of the job" and will not be undergoing a lot of stress and strain. Things like the clutch will be bigger to cope with the increased power. How many people have said on this forum that their clutch is smelling (and, of course, slowly being destroyed) when reversing?
I do remember about 40 years ago towing a caravan with about 60 bhp, but I wouldn't like to do that now. Of course, caravans are heavier, as indeed are cars. My Jeeps have been steadily growing heavier each time I buy one. Things like air conditioning and extra rollover protection are very heavy items.
It depends on your caravan of course. Mine is heavy, and I have 215 bhp. You could probably tow it quite comfortably with a lot less, maybe 130bhp. With a smaller caravan, you could probably go down to 90bhp, but you wouldn't get very good performance.
Don't be fooled by mpg. People always look at what fuel is costing them, and some buy a smaller car just for that reason. What they don't take into account is the wear and tear on the engine, clutch, transmission and other things.
The question is always "Can I tow this big caravan with my little car?" In many cases you can do so legally, but it will cost you far more than the extra fuel consumption of a larger car.
Much better to get a tow car that will pull your chosen caravan easily.
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Topic: kerb weight or kerb weight plus
