Recent content by Gary_5039903

As with most American family saloons, the Neon has quite a low towing limit, which from memory is 1000kgs. You will have to look at older family caravans (pre 1990's) to get something it can legally tow. I also have a funny feeling the automatic version was even lower.

There also a growing number of larger US trailers being imported which use a 2 5/16" towball, which cannot be accomodated by most recovery companies.

If you stretch your budget a bit, go for one of the new 2.0TDi Passats. 140bhp and very heavy. I take delivery of one in four weeks time (2.0S TDi estate) which weighs nearly 1750kgs.... Or, if you can stretch it even further, one of the 170bhp diesels!

Yet again, someone else who thinks that you have to use a Cheiftan tank to tow an Eriba Puck. The Mondeo TDCi estate weighs between 1560 and 1645kgs depending on spec. It has a max. tow of 1800kgs. Towing at 95% of the kerbweight is neither illegal or stupid. From memory the X-trail weighs...

Ahah!!!! Don't worry, you're not the first! My trailer has a similar coupling and I lent it to a neighbours daughter. I was about to show her how to couple it to the car when her father came out. Remember the Harry Enfield character "Only me!!!" with the know-all father-in-law type figure...

One further point is that some swan neck towbars leave the factory with a thick powder coated finish. This will stop the towball going into the hitch & must be removed with paint stripper or abrasives.

It never ceases to amaze me how much rubbish is banded about. The European (and a lot of the rest of the world) standard towball size is 50mm with a tolerance of +0, -0.8mm (from memory) NOT 52mm as someone else stated. The US have three different sizes, 1 7/8", 2" and 2 5/16". The UK used to...

There are so many factors influencing stable towing that it is almost impossible to give straight answers! Basically, the heavier the tow car, the more chance you have of controlling the outfit in the event of any instablilty. Instability can be caused by many things and the ability to re-gain...

My Mondeo is the 2.0 TDCi (130bhp) estate in LX trim and the kerbweight is 1540kgs. The higher spec'd cars (Ghia etc) are around 1620kgs.

Put an American in a manual car & they will ask what the third pedal is for......

I tow a 1465kg caravan with a 130bhp ford Mondeo and it is fine. I'm actually changing it in August for a 2.0TDi 140bhp Passat so that should be even batter!

Mondeo TDCi, estates have kerbweights of 1560kgs & up, max. tow of 1800kgs and

The 1.8TD Mondeo is about 90bhp which is "typical" of a mid to late 1990's family car. True, they are no Hot-Rod, but they have enough torque to pull a family caravan. Ford gave them a maximum towing weight of 1500kgs, so they are capable of moving heavy loads, but they won't do it...

The new VW Passat diesels weigh in at around 1750kgs and have a max tow of 1800kgs (12% incline) and 2000kgs (8% incline), so as the others have said, don't necessarily dismiss some larger estate cars.

Interesting point made by Rob. Back in 1995 I was considering buying a new Mondeo (about