Hi Douglas,I tow an Abbey 318 @ 1450kgs with the 2.0 old Santa Fe it is a superb towcar in all respects but I suspect your extra 300kgs and TA might be a bit to much for the Santa Fe,either a Terracan or the new Santa Fe would be a much better proposition weight and power wise.
I towed a 1500kg MTLM van with an old version 2 litre deisel manual. (it was 86%) Generally it was execllent but you i frightened myself a couple of times going round bends too fast and the van tweeked the car. THe Santa was excellent on wet fields and utterly reliable. I would recommend it. (To keep this in perspective we did 106 nights out in the last year and so the Santa had lots of use. ) Have now moved to a Kia Sorento 2.5 auto and it is so stable, but at 68%. Not so good on wet fields though as i have to engage lo ratio whereas in teh Santa is is all automatic. If you go for a manual Santa make sure teh flywheel has been changed, or that it is a solid one. I had athe bimass one and the clutch was terrible until cahnged.
I tow a 1300kg with the 'old' model 2ltr diesel Santy. For this weight of van it's a great towcar, stable, pulls well, lots of room & useful on wet fields & farm tracks. Possibly for a heavier van in the 1450-1500kg range it would struggle a bit though, particularly uphill & m/way inclines.It would still pull your van but might make heavy weather of it.
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