Has anyone towed with a BMW 320d touring sport?

[Cyclewalkbob]

Once again coming back to caravaning.

My car is a BMW 320d spoert tpuoring. I am told by BMW you can tow with it but bit concerned about wheel arch clearance/suspension.

Has anyone towed with the sports kit/lowered suspension in this car or any other.

Will be looking for 2 berth caracvan within or on 85% weight rule

cheers

Bobob

 

[Gavin1974]

Hi Bob,

We're new to caravanning and have a 54 plate 320d 150 bhp sports tourer and have just brought a new Ace Jubilee aristocrat, MIRO 1254kg.

Performance isn't an issue, it pulls the van along very nicely and when weighted the backend of the car sinks by no more than an inch (that's with a van on the hitch and the boot loaded), so I'm not worried by wheel arch clearance...

However, we're having an nightmare with towball height.

My new Witters towbar costing over

 

[Guest]

Hi Bobob,

We had a new'06 320d M-Sport Touring with a Bosal detachable tow ball. The car was absolutely fine pulling out Sterling Europa 540 (1490kg) even though it was a near 100% match.

As Gavin has already said it did feel as if the van was pushing the car about a bit but no fish-tailing or other scary stability issues.

Best of luck with you return to caravanning and I hop your combination choice works out.

Regards,

Simon

 

[Guest]

Hi Bobob,

We had a new'06 320d M-Sport Touring with a Bosal detachable tow ball. The car was absolutely fine pulling out Sterling Europa 540 (1490kg) even though it was a near 100% match.

As Gavin has already said it did feel as if the van was pushing the car about a bit but no fish-tailing or other scary stability issues.

Best of luck with you return to caravanning and I hope your combination choice works out.

Regards,

Simon

 

[Lutz]

Hi Bob,

We're new to caravanning and have a 54 plate 320d 150 bhp sports tourer and have just brought a new Ace Jubilee aristocrat, MIRO 1254kg.

Performance isn't an issue, it pulls the van along very nicely and when weighted the backend of the car sinks by no more than an inch (that's with a van on the hitch and the boot loaded), so I'm not worried by wheel arch clearance...

However, we're having an nightmare with towball height.

My new Witters towbar costing over

 

[Gavin1974]

Lutz - where are you getting you information from?

In a letter from swift, they state "the towball height should be 430mm to the centre of the ball"

The witters ball on my car comes to 380mm when laden...which is within the British standard and EU directive recommended range, but the jockey is probably no more than 6 inches of the ground.

 

[DJM]

Hi Bob,

I used to have a 2004 320d tourer with the sports suspension.I used to tow 1250Kg no problem with good economy (30+mpg). However, ground clearance was an issue as soon as I went off the tarmac and I had to be careful what kind of terrain I drove over. I towed extensively througout europe with this outfit for three years and was quite happy with safety / stability except for bow waves from panel vans and lorries when they passed you at speed, which was not to bad when you got used to it.