Hoping someone could give me a bit of advice. We are have just purchased a Compass Venture 544 and will pick it up this week. But now I am getting rather concerned that our Toyota 2005 2.0 XTR Diesel will struggle towing. I know about the towing limits and the MTPLM on the van is 1350kg which I presumed would be ok. The dealer put it through the computer but the Venture did not come up so he put in a similar model which gave the ratio of 88%. The van is also 24ft long. Any advice would be appreciated.
I had the same nightmares just before we tok delivery of our van last year. We have a Bailey pageant monarch and a long wheel base petrol RAV ...pulls the van like a train. Motorways no problem. Only the BIG hills causes a drop down a few gears...but steady away !!
We have just put a deposit on a caravan with a MTPLM 1750kg and was told by the sales man that would be fine with our Rav 4 2.2D which we knew to have a maximum tow limit of 2000kg so well in, but the caravan is over the kerb weight. We have only had folding campers before so never been a problem. We are now worried how well it tow but if we give back word we could lose £500.
If something has been sold to you with a misleading description, which yours has, then you can legally cease the contract with no financial loss to you. Go back and quote the Sales Description Act and the Sales of Goods Act, and suggest that you will also be talking to Trading Standards.
The problems is the caravan is well within the legal towing weights, the kerb weight isn't a legal requirement, just a guideline to safe towing which I think caravan dealers should give advice on especially because if the caravan is unstable the police can prosecute you. It all needs to be made simpler really.
Thanks for the comments guys. We picked up the caravan and the next day drove to Tenby in torrential rain. But our little Rav coped really well. We didn't put much in the van though trying to keep the weight down. When nearing our destination though the dredded Sat Nav struck sending us down a single track road, luckily we didn't meet anything. I think we will have to save up for the caravanner's one! Then the return journey was just as nerve wracking especially when we pulled into the services and could here a knocking sound. It took a while but it seemed to be coming from the hitch stabiliser. The only thing I can think of is that we didn't give the tow ball a good clean before hitching up, would this cause the knocking sound? It has a Winterhoff stabiliser.
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Topic: Toyota Rav 4 towing
