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.