Citroën DS4 tow car

[FrankBullitt]

Good morning,

We have bought our first caravan, a Bailey Pursuit 430/4, after a number of years of trying to persuade my wife, she eventually said to me this summer 'time to get one', the three of us are very excited and after looking at used we have got an excellent deal on new that I couldn't resist.

I'd like to take some advice on our car please - we have a 2013 Citroën DS4 1.6HDi manual, it's a superb car which we have enjoyed owning and still enjoy. It has a kerb weight of 1417kg and the Bailey is fully plated at 1229kg - also, the difference between the two plates on our car is 1300kg although Citroën have the towing limit down as 1450kg (I assume you have the flexibility on that 150kg between car load and caravan) so from a weight perspective I'm happy as we would never load the caravan to the hilt.

What I was wondering about really is the power of the car to tow; our main holiday has been 2-weeks in France and will like to to continue to be and of course there will be plenty of weekends away (many in hill-Free East Anglia although the occasional week in the Lakes and Dales is on the cards) so as I see it I have three options;

1) Keep the car, it'll be an ideal tow car

2) Keep the car, put a hook on it and accept that if it feels a bit gutless I need to buy a more powerful one and the money on the hook was wasted

3) Buy a replacement DS4 with the 2.0HDi 160bhp engine, sit back and enjoy the holidays

Obviously the last will cost most money (or more accurately the second will!)

Advice from anyone, ideally somebody who tows or has towed with a similar outfit would be appreciated.

Otherwise I will look around to avoid asking stupid questions!

 

[TD42]

Hi welcome to caravaning , firstly you WILL find that the payload of your van is insufficient for a a family of 3 when you come to loading it for a 2 week holiday .so presume that you will be towing a van at its MTPLM
Ideally if you are new to towing the suggested ratio is the MTPLM should be 85% of the kerbweight of the car
your car is not ideal but should tow your new van OK & the tow bar can always be transferred to a new car if you do decide to change it .what you do need to know is how to load the van ,a , to achieve the correct nose weight ,& b, to achieve stability when towing.
you can check for your self for car/van suitability on several websites such as http://www.towcar.info/outfitmatch.php
good luck in your new holiday mode

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Frank,

Welcome to the forum, and I hope we will be able to guide you to successful and enjoyable holidays.

The first thing I will mention is your driving licence, I cannot be certain because you do not tell us what the cars Gross Vehicle Weight is but if the sum of GVW and the trailers MTPLM added together exceeds 3500kg them you must have cat Be or B+E on your licence.

When it comes to the power of a car to pull a caravan, both power and torque are important, and torque at lower RPM is usually preferable, The Citroen/Peugeot range of diesels have a pretty good reputation for towing. Its often been said you need 40bhp per Tonne to produce a respectable performance, and whilst that was true for petrol engines, the modern smaller turbocharged Diesels can produce the goods with lower overall BHP figures, so the 1.6HDi will probably be adequate, but its performance may not be sparkling.

As for weights, based on the figures you give of caravan MTPLM 1229 and kerbweight of 1417 gives a towing ratio of 86% which is close enough to the industry 85% guidelines as to not matter ( the tow ratio guidance has no legal significance), so on the face of it things should be compatible.

As TD points out its very important to get the loading correct to achieve a good tow. Don't under estimate the size of your outfit when driving, give your self space and time to pull out etc.

Where I have to disagree with TD is about the use of outfit matching services. I am certain they have the best of intentions, but unfortunately all of them do contain some errors or omissions, so unless you can confirm ALL the details of both the car and caravan match exactly with what you have, don't trust their results. In practice once you have got all your details collected its easy to check the essentials your self.

 

[FrankBullitt]

Thank you both for your input, it's much appreciated.

In the end I decided to change the car to a DS4 2.0HDi 150, I can't remember the exact figure but the kerb weight is something like 1485kg, gross train weight 3185kg and the towing limit 1300kg that can be increased to 1550kg if the total payload in the car isn't used, so outfit wise I think it's perfect.

Just waiting for the towbar to be delivered and fitted now with collection a week Friday.

 

[Jaydug]

the towing limit 1300kg can be increased to 1550kg if the total payload in the car isn't used,

.

I think if you do that you'll end up with a very unstable outfit. I prefer to put most of my gear into the car. The van carries only the stuff thatt normally lives in there.

 

[Raywood]

Not a lot I can add but Citroen are one of a small number of manufacturers who quote the gross train weight differently to most. In general the towing limit is added to the maximum laden weight of the car to get the gross train weight but as you thought Citroen allow for some leeway between the load in the car and the trailer which might make life more difficult for you. There is not a lot of weight allowed if you have four in the car and two weeks clothes etc. You would have to be careful with what you take but staying within the limits is possible.
As for the car it will be no ball of fire with that caravan on the back but provided you accept that it should manage. In practice though I would think something a bit more powerful would be the best thing when it comes to replacing it.

 

[FrankBullitt]

It was just a suggestion of what Citroën advise, we won't be anywhere near it as the caravan will only go up to 1229kg; assuming we get close to this then all the stuff we take will be in the car - it's my intention to put the awning in the boot as a heavy item, for example, the caravan will only really have clothes, food, bedding and the lose items such as the water roller, waste etc.

 

[Jaydug]

It was just a suggestion of what Citroën advise,.

Yes - I don't know why they quote these stupid figures. My C5-X7 has the same engine as your car. They give me a maximum towed weight of 1670Kgs which if I towed a van of that weight would have me towing at a weight ratio of 109%

 

[ProfJohnL]

Yes - I don't know why they quote these stupid figures. My C5-X7 has the same engine as your car. They give me a maximum towed weight of 1670Kgs which if I towed a van of that weight would have me towing at a weight ratio of 109%

THe maximum towed weight limit is not defined by the engine used, its based on the vehicle in question being able to perform a series of tests as part of its whole vehicle type approval legal requirements.

There have been plenty of examples where the same engine is used in more than one model of vehicle, and due to the total design of the vehicle, its towing capacities can be quite different. Its an old example now, but the MK1 2.0L diesel Zaffira had a towed weight limit of 1050kg where as the same engine in a Vectra was rated for 1600kg. The difference was down to the ability of the two cars body work to facilitate engine and gearbox cooling.