We recently purchased a lovely second-hand van, it is a Avondale Leda Grampian 98 Four Berth, we are really thrilled and can't wait to get away in in for the first time! however the problem is that our previous van - an older but lighter Swift Pirouette was easly towed with our Ford Mondeo Estate with a V8 engine, however when we collected our new van a week or so ago, when reversing it up a slight slope the car's back wheels did not like it at all, and did a skid!! This made us concerned that perhaps our Mondeo is not man enough for the job of towing the new van, although the salesman who sold us the van said is would be fine, when we looked in to the weights it turned out that our car and new van are evenly matched! therefore we have decided to buy a new tow car, haven't got loads of money to spend at the moment, but wondered if anyone had any ideas of what we should go for? our new van weighs 1086 unloaded, and has a max loaded weight of 1250, i am going to try and find a outift matching service if i can, we thought that a Volvo 850 or V70 might be good, and also considered an older 4 x 4 like a Range Rover, any advice would be great? especially if you have the same van, what do you tow yours with?
Yes, if the weight's of your van and car were evenly matched then a bigger car is definitely needed, the salesman was wrong in telling you it would be fine, and i'm sure only said that so that you would indeed buy the caravan! - i would avoid that particular salesman in future as if he knowing lied about that, what else has he lied about?
Re: the Volvo's - great cars! (I am biased though) ha ha...but in all honesty they are excellent tow-cars, have reliability second to none, and are a lot less 'thirsty' than the the Land Rover etc you speak of getting, - although Land Rovers and the like are also great workhorses.
Why not go and view a few cars and see which one 'feels' best.
Hi Grub, thanks for that, i think in this case the salesman was a bit unsure about this, and should have said nothing, as he was great in general, and the van is fantastic. I am glad about what you said about Volvo's, as this is the car i think we should get, i think they seem very solid and reliable, and will probably be ideal for us. Cheers.
Quote: Originally posted by Mirabelle on 06/2/2006
Hi everyone,
We recently purchased a lovely second-hand van, it is a Avondale Leda Grampian 98 Four Berth, we are really thrilled and can't wait to get away in in for the first time! however the problem is that our previous van - an older but lighter Swift Pirouette was easly towed with our Ford Mondeo Estate with a V8 engine, however when we collected our new van a week or so ago, when reversing it up a slight slope the car's back wheels did not like it at all, and did a skid!! This made us concerned that perhaps our Mondeo is not man enough for the job of towing the new van, although the salesman who sold us the van said is would be fine, when we looked in to the weights it turned out that our car and new van are evenly matched! therefore we have decided to buy a new tow car, haven't got loads of money to spend at the moment, but wondered if anyone had any ideas of what we should go for? our new van weighs 1086 unloaded, and has a max loaded weight of 1250, i am going to try and find a outift matching service if i can, we thought that a Volvo 850 or V70 might be good, and also considered an older 4 x 4 like a Range Rover, any advice would be great? especially if you have the same van, what do you tow yours with?
The car and van look like a good match to me. If you reverse up a hill its not unknown for the caravan brakes to come on (that means its happened to me). Check this out before spending any money.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Which Tow Car? What do you think?
