can anyone offer advice. Have been offered a 1993 abi award dawnstar caravan. can I tow it with a 2009 1.6 zetec ford focus.
any advice would be appreciated as new to caravaning
thanks
How heavy is the caravan? You need to find out for certain, but from memory I think this one is about 1tonne loaded weight so ok. You don't want to towing much more than 1 tonne with this car.
You haven't stated if it's a petrol or diesel engine as the diesel capabilities are much greater than the petrol versions. Also you need to state which model you are referring to whether it's the 3 door, 5 door or estate as they all have different kerb weights. Details for the 1.6 diesel taken from the official Ford focus brochure, the weights are: 3 door = 1338 kgs., 5 door = 1357 kgs. & the estate = 1391 kgs. So calculating on an 85% match for towing, the 3 door equals 1137 kgs. 5 door equals 1153 kgs. & the estate equals 1182 kgs. Also, there are two versions of the Ford focus 1.6 TDCi which are the 90 bhp which has a towing limit of 1200 kgs. and the 109 bhp which has a towing limit of 1300 kgs. Please note that these figures have been taken as reference from the official Ford Focus brochure for the Ford Focus MK 3 which is a 2009 model. I also tow with a Ford Focus diesel myself and still have the brochure for personal reference if I need any.
Brochure states that the 1.6 Duratec (which is the petrol version), 5 door has 100 bhp, the kerbweight is 1249 kgs. and the maximum towable mass for a braked trailer is 1200 kgs. This is what the brochure details are but calculating the 85% towing match to the kerbweight is actually 1061 kgs. which is quite low really for towing a caravan. If it had been the diesel version it would have been better as they have more torque and pulling power on the hills.
We used to tow our coachman Amara 380/2 with a 1.6 petrol Astra estate and found it a struggle on an incline but ok on flat. we now tow with a 1.8 zetec diesel ford focus and have no problems at all... Hope this helps x
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Topic: ford focus towing
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