To change tow car or not?

[Chris1985uk]

Hi, I'm currently towing with an 2015 nissan xtrail 1.6dci n-tec.

My caravan is an adria altea 472ds eden.

Kerb weight of my car is 1675kg
Mtplm of caravan is 1370kg.
Max mass of car is 2090kg
Max braked towing weight 2000kg

It has 130bhp and 320nm of torque at 1750rpm.

I've been towing my caravan now for over a year. Been away 10 or so times. Tows Well haven't had any issues, sure acceleration is not the fastest but always reaches speed.

I see more powerful tow cars on sites regularly, and i keep asking myself
'is my car underpowered?' Having had no previous experience to towing I'm not 100% sure.

I do like my car, it gets excellent mpg 60+ going to work over 30 towing.

....but in the back of my mind I'm thinking should I change it for a more powerful santa fe or sorento?

What are your thoughts? Be curious to find out.

Thanks.

 

[Jcloughie]

Please don’t change just because others have what appears to be better tow cars. My tow car is 135 bhp, I too would like a more powerful car. But it actually tows very very well, and fast enough. My first diesel tow car was 60 something bhp. We went everywhere with that, including the Baltic. Flat out all the way, but it wasn’t that bad considering. Before that I had a 1.6 Fiat Mirrafiori. Don’t know the bhp but 40 years ago it would be poor. We towed a largish van with that and we had two teenagers with us then.

I have also had a 2005 X-Trail, 2.2. Great tow car, but not a good comparison to a much newer one.

Do it because you want to do it, not from peer pressure.

John

 

[otherclive]

If it’s been okay for 12 months and a good number of trips I don’t see any reason why you would want to change, other than you want another car. So it’s not really that easy to give advice when there’s nothing wrong with the X trail.

I am afraid that you are the only one who can answer your question.

 

[Mel]

If it ain’t broke,dont fix it …as they say.

Do you have B +E on your driving licence. If not, this will restrict your choice anyway.
mel

 

[ProfJohnL]

From what you have told us it seems your present car is doing very well and it all seems to meet the legal requirements and the advisory ratios, so why change?

For family caravanners do far more miles solo that towing, so if you need to compromise do so for the least amount of miles (towing).

 

[Woodentop]

Whilst agreeing with the correspondents above, these days it is generally thought that the towing vehicle should have around 40bhp per tonne of train weight. Given yours is theoretically 2090+1370=3460 which gives about 138bhp so could be deemed ever so slightly (around 5-6%) underpowered. Having said that many more modern 140bhp engines don't achieve 320Nm of torque hence why your rig tows well. If you are not running the car at near maximum load (and you are probably not) then that is in your favour.

Don't just change for the sake of it - you may not like the replacement so much! Also more modern vehicles tend to be a bit heavier which could take you into B+E licence territory (thanks Mel) whereas you are safe where you are.

 

[Damian]

Simple really, if you like your current vehicle , and from what you have said it returns good MPG then keep it.

Just because others seem to have more powerful cars does not mean anything.

As regards speed, if it gets to the speed you need why bother if it takes a fraction of a second more than others, with the van on the back you are in relax mode, no need to rush anywhere.
You can bet that at the next holdup you will be right behind them !!!!

I know some people have a "thing" about how nice their car goes etc, and need to show off at every opportunity, however, a car is a box on wheels that gets from A to B , hopefully without incident and reasonably comfortably.

 

[Beachball]

Me personally would keep it and it pulls your caravan great and good return on the gallon 60 +

 

[otherclive]

Whilst agreeing with the correspondents above, these days it is generally thought that the towing vehicle should have around 40bhp per tonne of train weight. Given yours is theoretically 2090+1370=3460 which gives about 138bhp so could be deemed ever so slightly (around 5-6%) underpowered. Having said that many more modern 140bhp engines don't achieve 320Nm of torque hence why your rig tows well. If you are not running the car at near maximum load (and you are probably not) then that is in your favour.

Don't just change for the sake of it - you may not like the replacement so much! Also more modern vehicles tend to be a bit heavier which could take you into B+E licence territory (thanks Mel) whereas you are safe where you are.

The 40 bhp per tonne figure is quite outdated. It was around when I towed with a 2 litre petrol Mondeos with 136 bhp. By your figures my 138 bhp diesel Sorento should have been underpowered towing 1500 kg. But it was excellent albeit no rocket ship and a TCoY overall winner too.
It’s torque that makes for good towing and this X trail has a good torque output.

 

[Beachball]

Please don’t change just because others have what appears to be better tow cars. My tow car is 135 bhp, I too would like a more powerful car. But it actually tows very very well, and fast enough. My first diesel tow car was 60 something bhp. We went everywhere with that, including the Baltic. Flat out all the way, but it wasn’t that bad considering. Before that I had a 1.6 Fiat Mirrafiori. Don’t know the bhp but 40 years ago it would be poor. We towed a largish van with that and we had two teenagers with us then.

I have also had a 2005 X-Trail, 2.2. Great tow car, but not a good comparison to a much newer one.

Do it because you want to do it, not from peer pressure.

John

Like what everyone says do not change it
i use to own a Seat Altea XL 1.6 TDI DSG 105 bhp it pulled my caravan great

 

[RogerL]

The 40 bhp per tonne figure is quite outdated. It was around when I towed with a 2 litre petrol Mondeos with 136 bhp. By your figures my 138 bhp diesel Sorento should have been underpowered towing 1500 kg. But it was excellent albeit no rocket ship.
It’s torque that makes for good towing and this X trail has a good torque output.

The 40 bhp/tonne came from the days when everyone towed with petrol-engined cars with relatively low torque - the modern use of turbo-diesels, and turbo-petrols, does mean that torque is more useful - but difficult to quantify as the torque-to-wheels is different in each gear and those automatics which still use a torque converter can double the engine's torque at the wheels.

It comes down to what's acceptable to each driver - long motorway gradients are where you'll notice any lack of power.

 

[ProfJohnL]

The 40 bhp/tonne came from the days when everyone towed with petrol-engined cars with relatively low torque - the modern use of turbo-diesels, and turbo-petrols, does mean that torque is more useful - but difficult to quantify as the torque-to-wheels is different in each gear and those automatics which still use a torque converter can double the engine's torque at the wheels.

It comes down to what's acceptable to each driver - long motorway gradients are where you'll notice any lack of power.

And that's why you have a gear box.

The 40bhp per ton was an advisory figure, and as others have said it was based on 1960/70's petrol engines before diesels became so popular. They became popular because of their pulling power (Torque) which makes them great for towing. I personally use a 1999 115bhp TD Renault Espace to tug a large TA box trailer of about1700kg, and its not unduly slow. that's only 33bhp per tonne.

 

[RogerL]

And that's why you have a gear box.

The 40bhp per ton was an advisory figure, and as others have said it was based on 1960/70's petrol engines before diesels became so popular. They became popular because of their pulling power (Torque) which makes them great for towing. I personally use a 1999 115bhp TD Renault Espace to tug a large TA box trailer of about1700kg, and its not unduly slow. that's only 33bhp per tonne.

40 bhp/ton as it was originally expressed converts to 41.2 PS/tonne in units generally used nowadays.

The power at the wheels is consistent, regardless of which gear is selected - torque at the wheels varies enormously, going up as you go down the gearbox - and importantly vice versa so at cruising speed, torque at the wheels is reduced..

I had a couple of Vauxhalls which only gave 39-40 PS/tonne, which gave leisurely acceleration and couldn't hold 60 mph on the steepest motorway and dual carriageway gradients - these don't normally exceed 3% but there are a number of places where the terrain forces them to go up to 7%..

The highest power-to-weight I had was a Vauxhall Senator towing our original 800 kg Ace Globetrotter, that was 65 PS/tonne.

I certainly wouldn't want to be down at 33 bhp/tonne but as Beachball says, Each to their own.

 

[Dustydog]

For me it’s always been weight ratios. BHP and Torque these days tend to look after themselves. Age and relaxation determine I like towing at 56 on the motorways , dual carriageways, staying very simply with most of the HGVs. Other roads it’s 50. A 155 mph 0-60 in 5 seconds vehicle isn’t really going to help a caravanner🤣🤣🤣🤣