I have a Toyota RAV 4 5 door 4WD 2litre Petrol Manual. I have bought a 1999 Bailey Ranger 510/4. I checked on one website which said good match. I have checked on another which gives different result saying experienced towers only. Can anyone advise. I have been a truck driver but have not towed a caravan,
Tow Car pairing
- Thread starter mrw5646
- Start date
Please give us the kerb weight of the car and its max allowed trailer weight.
Also the MTPLM of the van.
Also the MTPLM of the van.
Hello
Kerb Weight is 1275
Max Tow 1500
Nose Weight 75 of Witter Bar
Gross Weight 1825
Train Weight 3325
Thanks
Mike
Kerb Weight is 1275
Max Tow 1500
Nose Weight 75 of Witter Bar
Gross Weight 1825
Train Weight 3325
Thanks
Mike
Your towing ratio is MTPLM/(kerb weight) ie 1199/1275, which comes to 94%. The recommendation is for persons new to towing a caravan to use a ratio no larger than 85% and for more experienced towers up to 100%. The reason being as vans have high sides they are not 'ideal' trailers to tow and are easily affected by crosswinds and buffeting from other traffic.
Hi mrw5646,
One of the major and recurring problems of using tow matching services, is they all use different databases, and I am pretty certain ALL of these data bases contain some errors or omit some details. This means you mustn't implicitly trust any result from them. It is vitally important for the details they have about cars and caravan are for the exact make and model, becasue similar models may have some very different technical detail that affects their towing characteristics. Even the level of trim (eg, Grand Luxury vs Grand Luxury Sport) has been known to affect towing performance even though the same engine and power is available. This can be a particular issue with sites based abroad where multinational car companies sell what appear to be the same car, but it may well have different specifications in different markets.
The basic caravan industry calculation is the towing ratio where the 100 x caravan's MTPLM/Cars Kerbweight. This produces a percentage figure. This is always based on the worst case scenario, (Empty car and fully loaded caravan) and uses the paper based document figures and never changes for that outfit, except where the cars own specification limits towing to a lower figure. Some versions of cars are not even permitted to tow anything.
The caravan industry uses this calulation to provide guidance for caravanners. It recommends novice caravanners limit their first towing experience to a towing ratio of 85%. It goes on to suggest the ratio can increase as you gain experience, but they reccomend (subject to the tow cars specification) you should never exceed a ratio of 100%. All this guidance is just that - Guidance and has no basis in law.
Whilst I suspect it doesn't apply to you, drivers with licence issued since 1st Jan 1997 do have a weight ratio limit applied in so far that Entitlement B limits the Trailers MAM must not exceed the tow vehicles ULW. and the combined MAM of car + caravan must not exceed 3500kg.
Based on the figures you have supplied Woodland Camper has worked out your towing ratio at 94%. As a truck driver you will probably be aware of side wind issues and especially empty tall sided trucks, well caravans are definitely a bit more complex becasue of the way they are counterbalanced, and are coupled to a relatively light towing vehicle. With reasonable care though such things are manageable and shouldn't put you off.
I personally find the towing experience is not directly attributable to the the actual towing ratio, but more to do with how the caravan and car are loaded. Good loading practice creates and controls the nose load, and that has more to do with good towing than ratio alone.
Many of the skills and experience you have as a truck driver will be an advantage as a caravanner, for example the use of the side mirrors, anticipating the space you need on the road, the relative performance of a car towing compared to the solo car. The way other (unreasonable) drivers may treat you because you are towing a caravan, and the speed restrictions that apply.
If you have never towed before, then it may pay to find an area where you can practice reversing the outfit.
One of the major and recurring problems of using tow matching services, is they all use different databases, and I am pretty certain ALL of these data bases contain some errors or omit some details. This means you mustn't implicitly trust any result from them. It is vitally important for the details they have about cars and caravan are for the exact make and model, becasue similar models may have some very different technical detail that affects their towing characteristics. Even the level of trim (eg, Grand Luxury vs Grand Luxury Sport) has been known to affect towing performance even though the same engine and power is available. This can be a particular issue with sites based abroad where multinational car companies sell what appear to be the same car, but it may well have different specifications in different markets.
The basic caravan industry calculation is the towing ratio where the 100 x caravan's MTPLM/Cars Kerbweight. This produces a percentage figure. This is always based on the worst case scenario, (Empty car and fully loaded caravan) and uses the paper based document figures and never changes for that outfit, except where the cars own specification limits towing to a lower figure. Some versions of cars are not even permitted to tow anything.
The caravan industry uses this calulation to provide guidance for caravanners. It recommends novice caravanners limit their first towing experience to a towing ratio of 85%. It goes on to suggest the ratio can increase as you gain experience, but they reccomend (subject to the tow cars specification) you should never exceed a ratio of 100%. All this guidance is just that - Guidance and has no basis in law.
Whilst I suspect it doesn't apply to you, drivers with licence issued since 1st Jan 1997 do have a weight ratio limit applied in so far that Entitlement B limits the Trailers MAM must not exceed the tow vehicles ULW. and the combined MAM of car + caravan must not exceed 3500kg.
Based on the figures you have supplied Woodland Camper has worked out your towing ratio at 94%. As a truck driver you will probably be aware of side wind issues and especially empty tall sided trucks, well caravans are definitely a bit more complex becasue of the way they are counterbalanced, and are coupled to a relatively light towing vehicle. With reasonable care though such things are manageable and shouldn't put you off.
I personally find the towing experience is not directly attributable to the the actual towing ratio, but more to do with how the caravan and car are loaded. Good loading practice creates and controls the nose load, and that has more to do with good towing than ratio alone.
Many of the skills and experience you have as a truck driver will be an advantage as a caravanner, for example the use of the side mirrors, anticipating the space you need on the road, the relative performance of a car towing compared to the solo car. The way other (unreasonable) drivers may treat you because you are towing a caravan, and the speed restrictions that apply.
If you have never towed before, then it may pay to find an area where you can practice reversing the outfit.
The kerb weight you quote looks lower than I expected and I am not sure if it is the correct figure to start with. The figure should include 75kg for the driver and half a tank of fuel which might give you a bit better ratio. The car has a very short overhang which is usually a pointer to good towing so a figure higher than 85%should be possible but take things very easy to see how it goes.0
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