Sep 18, 2005
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We're thinking about changing tow car, and I quite like the look of the Honda 2.0 crv. Was just wondering if anyone had towed with one of these. I'm looking at both diesel and petrol as we don't do a lot of milage when we are not away with the caravan . Our caravan is a swift challenger 514 sport 1350 fully laden.
Many thanks
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Andrew_5080451 said:
We're thinking about changing tow car, and I quite like the look of the Honda 2.0 crv. Was just wondering if anyone had towed with one of these. I'm looking at both diesel and petrol as we don't do a lot of milage when we are not away with the caravan . Our caravan is a swift challenger 514 sport 1350 fully laden.
Many thanks

What are the exact specs of teh Honda eg weights and power etc.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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I bought Subaru Forester 2.0 petrol in 2014 as we had sold the caravan et al, so it wasn't planned to use it as a tow car. However plans change and we bought caravan which at 1300kg MTPLM was well within the Subarus rated tow limit. It was very stable but the engine just required too many revs for comfortable towing. You required a calendar to plan your overtakes on the motorways. It was rated at 150bhp but it lacked torque so its power came in well up the rev band. It only averaged around 20-22mpg when towing. So I decided to go back to diesel. However, I have towed with petrols but these were all either turbo, or large NA engines all with 225+bhp and oodles of torque. The modern range of petrols now often do use turbo engines which have good levels of torque so all other things being equal I would check out if the Honda petrol option. It's torque wouldn't be as high as a diesel but might well be sufficient for comfortable towing. But as said above you need to reconcile caravan weights, car kerb weight, towing capability and loadings.
 
Feb 3, 2008
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Andrew_5080451 said:
Towing capacity: 1,700 kg
Kerb weight: 1,521 kg

The recommendation for towing a caravan (which is NOT an ideal trailer) is that the MTPLM of the van is no more than 85% of the car's kerb weight. From your figures this means the van's MTPLM should be no more than 1293 kg, which is less than your van at 1350 kg. Therefore the car is not recommended. :(
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Andrew_5080451 said:
Towing capacity: 1,700 kg
Kerb weight: 1,521 kg

Diesel or petrol? Towing capability really doesn't give much idea of how a car will tow in everyday motoring. It is more linked to the car's ability to carry out a number of repeated hill starts on a specified incline. My Forester was rated at 2000kg tow load, but as I said its ability to provide a relaxed tow off the caravan was quite poor. Yes it would tow the 1300kg van and with the car loaded but having a lowish torque nothing started to happen under 4000 rpm if you needed to overtake a HGV on the motoway and even on inclines on the A30 west of Exeter 4500-5000 rpm wasn't uncommon and no I want trying to hold 60mph on the dual carriageway stretches. So as our aim when buying the caravan was to do long trips to Scotland and southern France having a car that was more relaxed was necessary. Now had I owned a diesel Forester with the same 150bhp, I would still have been a full paid up member of the Subaru Owners Club as in all other respects it was a really good car, with a good off road capability too for exploring those way out spots along tracks.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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WoodlandsCamper said:
Andrew_5080451 said:
Towing capacity: 1,700 kg
Kerb weight: 1,521 kg

The recommendation for towing a caravan (which is NOT an ideal trailer) is that the MTPLM of the van is no more than 85% of the car's kerb weight. From your figures this means the van's MTPLM should be no more than 1293 kg, which is less than your van at 1350 kg. Therefore the car is not recommended. :(

OOOh that's a bit draconian Woodlands.

I want to address another possible pitfall first,"What you are licenced to tow".its all about the combined Maximum Authorised Mass (MAM) which is the sum of the trailers MTPLM added to the cars GVW

if added together the combined figure is 3500 or more, then you must have either Cat "Be" or "B+E" showing on your driving licence entitlements.

If you passed your driving test after 1st Jan 1997, you will not have entitlement "Be" but just "B" This specifically limits you to outfits of less than 3500kg combined MAM. To drive a heavier combined MAM combination you would need to take an extension test to be awarded "B+E"

Combined MAM confuses many people and it is easy to fall foul of it. You have to know exactly which car and trailer you are using and each will have their MAM stamped on their data plates, For cars its the GVW, and for caravans its the MTPLM. Because its based on using the weight limits it is a simple paper exercise, and there is no latitude given.

Why do I mention this? becasue bearing in mind the type of car the CRV is, it is likely to have quite a large GVW limit, and with a caravan of 1350MTPLM, you only need a car GVW limit of 2150kg to reach the magic 3500kg limit. You will find the GVW figure on the cars data plate. and it will be the second largest figure on the plate.

Now back to Woodlands stark announcement.

For reasons that I hope are obvious, it make a great deal of sense to keep the weight of any trailer as small as possible. The caravan industry do give the advice for new caravanners of 85% and a maximum recommendation of 100% for experienced caravanners. Part of the problem here is the advice is a blanket cover and takes no account of the abilities or weakness of individual vehicles. consequently it cannot be trusted implicitly to provide a good tow. On the other hand it doesn't also mean that if you creep over the recommendation you are going to have problems. Thins just aren't that black and white.

Bearing in mind the car in question , its semi ruggedised 4x4 style vehicle with a relatively short tow hitch overhang. This is good thing. So of all potential out fits that may be pushing the envelope a bit I suspect the CRV will be a reasonable good tow car.
 
May 7, 2012
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It should be a competent tow car although it misses the 85% figure. That is essentially for beginners which should mean the combination is OK for an experienced tow car driver.
 
Feb 18, 2015
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I have a 2008 2.2 diesel crv and it tows my compass pentara well, just back from a 200mile trip around france. No issues at all.
I Bought the car at 90k miles and have covered another 40k in the last 18months and bar a hunger for tyres (that could be my driving style ;) ) its not missed a beat.

Matt
 

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