Ford Galaxy/Sterling Amethyst

[paul.bower]

Hi All

looking to change car and have seen a great 06 new shape Galaxy, just put the details in to what tow car and its saying the caravan is 36kg too heavy for the car ! Yet on the scales on the what towcar site the figure is 80% (don't understand)

Does any one tow a caravan of 1236kg (miro) with a new shape galaxy ?

Is the site correct as if you work out 85% of the galaxy weight (1793kg) = 1524kg

You comments & advice would be appreciated

Paul

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Paul,

There are a lot of variables and it is has happened before that third party sites, have not transcribed the correct data into their web sites, so if people ask for a match using compromised comparison data, an erroneous answer comes out. and you have no way of knowing if it is right or wrong.

The only sure way of doing it is to get the information from the horses mouth. Data plates on the specific vehicle you are looking at, or data direct from the manufacturer.

Published vehicle kerbweights are usually only guides, because of the different 'standard' equipement fitted to models, and general engineering tollerances, including paint finishes. Usualy the actual kerbweight of a real vehicel is greater than the published figure. The only way to establish the true KB is to have the vehicle weighed on a calibrated public weighbridge.

The MIRO of a caravan likewise can vary, It can only give an indication of the available payload capacity. The legally enforceable limit is the MTPLM. No one tows a totally empty caravan, so the MIRO is of little practical use.

The 85% figure is a sensible approach to helping to get good towing match. (Caravan MTPLM/Car kerbweight)x100 But it has no basis in law. Nor does it guarantee a good match. Equally there are some outfits that are well behaved up to and beyond a 100% ratio. whilst weight ratios are important, of equal importance are vehicle maintenance, Loading strategies, and driver habits.

The legal towing weight limit is defined by the tow vehicle manufacturer. And by your own driving licence categories.

 

[Alan Partridge]

Chances are that you are just exceeding the maximium towing weight? 1236kg MIRO plus 200kg payload would exceed the 1400kg limit of some Galaxy variants by 36kg...

Essentially you should be looking at the MPTLM, not the MIRO.

 

[Garfield]

I would disagree with the previous two posts in that the MIRO is every bit as relevant as the MTPLM as the difference between the two can vary widely, our caravan for instance has a MIRO/MTPLM of 1266/1600 with a huge 336 kg payload, our freinds caravan has an identical MIRO but an MTPLM of just 1400kg, a lighter caravan you may think but considering that we carry virtually the same kit there is no real difference in the towed mass, similarly you could get a caravan with weights, for instance 1350/1500, by John and Alans reconing it is a lighter, more towable caravan than ours but with the same kit in it is 84kg heavier.

We tow our van with an S-max (Galaxy coupe!!) we are sensible and do not "Pack the kitchen sink" and I would be surprised if there were than 150kg loaded into the van each time, even if the manufacturers tow limit on our car was only 1400kg it is still completely legal to tow it with an mtplm of 1600 as long as we don't have a payload of more than 144kg ie the actual towed weight of the van is no more than 1400kg