New Skoda Yeti and Yeti Outdoor review

[LizziePope]

Practical Caravan's Motty has been driving Skoda's new Yeti and Yeti Outdoor. Could one of these be your next tow car? Read his new review by clicking HERE!

 

[Raywood]

I thinlk they are excellent towcars but unfortunately my caravan weighs more than any of them so to me they are very limited in what they can tow. If I had a very low weight model I would look at them though.

 

[Tukums]

Looks like the Yeti will take the towcar of the year award off the Octavia!

 

[Raywood]

Not if I was judging as both too light to tow alarge enough variety of caravans.

Looks like the Yeti will take the towcar of the year award off the Octavia!

 

[xtrailman]

Yeti would be ok towing a light weight caravan.

But lack of torque for me, the 170 version isn't as torque as the 177 tig engine. Don't forget newer cars are becoming more and more high geared, setup for low emissions solo.

And nose weight limit of 80kg up to 85 kg model depending, isn't very impressive for a tow car, again tig is 100kg limit.

 

[otherclive]

Yeti would be ok towing a light weight caravan.

But lack of torque for me, the 170 version isn't as torque as the 177 tig engine. Don't forget newer cars are becoming more and more high geared, setup for low emissions solo.

And nose weight limit of 80kg up to 85 kg model depending, isn't very impressive for a tow car, again tig is 100kg limit.

how much noseweight do you need, seems to almost be a case of 'bigger must be better' but even at 80kg its only 20 kg below the maximum of most A frames. If you take some rule of thumb guidance then 6% for a 1400 kg van is 84kg so the Yeti is pretty close to the higher end of the accepted norms for that weight van. And I very much doubt that load gauges re hitch height get many of us within 4kg of target. If it was that critical I'd suggest that few outfits would ever go touring. There has to be a sense of proportion used in decision making and in offering advise. Such factors as car tyres/pressures , suspension, van tyres and pressures, van load distribution etc play the major role in stability once ones noseweight is at the cars maximum or vans maximum whichever is the lower.

 

[seth1]

Christ how much torque do you want?The 170 comes with 268lbsft,surely thats enough for anymatch?We know your around the 300lbsft mark now RAY but i,d doubt the difference would be noticable to be honest.

 

[xtrailman]

Christ how much torque do you want?The 170 comes with 268lbsft,surely thats enough for anymatch?We know your around the 300lbsft mark now RAY but i,d doubt the difference would be noticable to be honest.

I was always disappointed with my last xtrail on torque delivery, that had a claimed 266 pound feet at 2K revs with 90% of it available at 1750 rpm (if i recall correctly).
While the T30 xtrail with only 131 pound feet at 2K revs always felt powerful enough, but that car was both lighter and lower geared.
So i was determined to buy a car with substantially more torque, and i'm not disappointed.

And yes you will noticed the difference, it very noticeable in performance towing.
Thing is with the VAG engines the tig comes with 280 pound feet, and 177ps so that would be my target, plus it has a 100kg NW limit.

 

[xtrailman]

Yeti would be ok towing a light weight caravan.

But lack of torque for me, the 170 version isn't as torque as the 177 tig engine. Don't forget newer cars are becoming more and more high geared, setup for low emissions solo.

And nose weight limit of 80kg up to 85 kg model depending, isn't very impressive for a tow car, again tig is 100kg limit.

how much noseweight do you need, seems to almost be a case of 'bigger must be better' but even at 80kg its only 20 kg below the maximum of most A frames. If you take some rule of thumb guidance then 6% for a 1400 kg van is 84kg so the Yeti is pretty close to the higher end of the accepted norms for that weight van. And I very much doubt that load gauges re hitch height get many of us within 4kg of target. If it was that critical I'd suggest that few outfits would ever go touring. There has to be a sense of proportion used in decision making and in offering advise. Such factors as car tyres/pressures , suspension, van tyres and pressures, van load distribution etc play the major role in stability once ones noseweight is at the cars maximum or vans maximum whichever is the lower.

Preferably a minimum of 100kg is ideal for my caravan, most of the Unicorns are very nose heavy.
I can get mine down to 80kg, 85kg is easier, but sometimes i'm on the 88kg limit for my car.
considering ordinary cars come with 90kg now, i would expect more from a new design SUV.
I think we all agree that backloading ideally should be avoided, and the general advice from the bath uni report was to run with as high a NW as possible.
With new models i'm looking for more than before, not the same or less.
It appears that finding a suitable tow car is going to get harder and harder, as the drive for lower emissions continues.

 

[seth1]

A person would do well to notice a difference of 12lbsft,even as much as 25lbsft.Even manufacturing tolerances can be nearly this much,what your right in saying though is a person could quite easily notice the difference in the progression of the torque curve,i e were it ramps up earlier or later.

 

[xtrailman]

Its only when towing that the difference is really noticeable, solo the xtrail was great, stick 1565kg on the back and it makes a difference. It wasn't really a problem with my 1333kg caravan.

The CX-5 gives me another 44 pound feet of torque, via a twin turbo, at 1500 rpm it gives out around 345nm. So lots of pull low down.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Ray,

You reference the Bath University towing report. What you should take into account about their testing was it was carried out on a single tow car, and as such the results cannot be assumed to translate exactly to all outfits.

It is generally assumed that more nose weight improves towing, but once enough nose weight has been created to maintain adequate stability is there any real advantage in setting a nose weight any higher than that? I am not aware of any formal testing carried out to prove the relationship between varying nose weight and stability.

I would agree that adding mass to the rear of a counterbalanced trailer to reduce nose weight is to be avoided if reasonable, but again, it is some time unavoidable, and in most cases where it used instability is not a problem.

Over all is not a black and white situation, its a question of degree.

 

[xtrailman]

I agree.

 

[otherclive]

Hello Ray,

You reference the Bath University towing report. What you should take into account about their testing was it was carried out on a single tow car, and as such the results cannot be assumed to translate exactly to all outfits.

It is generally assumed that more nose weight improves towing, but once enough nose weight has been created to maintain adequate stability is there any real advantage in setting a nose weight any higher than that? I am not aware of any formal testing carried out to prove the relationship between varying nose weight and stability.

I would agree that adding mass to the rear of a counterbalanced trailer to reduce nose weight is to be avoided if reasonable, but again, it is some time unavoidable, and in most cases where it used instability is not a problem.

Over all is not a black and white situation, its a question of degree.

We have had two 4 berth caravans ( Gulfstream and Daystar) where the kitchen was across the rear of the caravan. The tow car at the time had a 70kg noseweight yet never once did I feel that the stabilty of the outfit gave me any cause for concern.

 

[xtrailman]

Hello Ray,

You reference the Bath University towing report. What you should take into account about their testing was it was carried out on a single tow car, and as such the results cannot be assumed to translate exactly to all outfits.

It is generally assumed that more nose weight improves towing, but once enough nose weight has been created to maintain adequate stability is there any real advantage in setting a nose weight any higher than that? I am not aware of any formal testing carried out to prove the relationship between varying nose weight and stability.

I would agree that adding mass to the rear of a counterbalanced trailer to reduce nose weight is to be avoided if reasonable, but again, it is some time unavoidable, and in most cases where it used instability is not a problem.

Over all is not a black and white situation, its a question of degree.

We have had two 4 berth caravans ( Gulfstream and Daystar) where the kitchen was across the rear of the caravan. The tow car at the time had a 70kg noseweight yet never once did I feel that the stabilty of the outfit gave me any cause for concern.

I'm not sure what your point is?
I've towed a end kitchen leda chiltern with a ex works NW of 35kg, and had to load it up front to get to 65kg.
Today if i bought a primera type car, it would more than likely sport a 90kg NW limit, not the 75kg back then, thats what i mean be expecting more from a new model.

 

[otherclive]

Ray, you mentioned that "we all aggree that backloading is to be avoided". My point is that placing some load towards the rear of the van in order to attain noseweight isnt a major issue if you are sensible, as the rear kitchen vans have far more weight at the rear. and it's CoG is higher than any load likley to be added in order to attain the desired noseweight.