I have a Renault scenic W reg 1.6 rv 16v & i am not to sure what would be the ideal caravan for me to tow. I would like a van thats big enough for 2 people due to my partaner being disabled.
towing safe
- Thread starter JohnBeresford
- Start date
- Mar 14, 2005
- 19,014
- 4,241
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Hello John,
As soon as anyone mentions Renault and towing, then some alarm bells start ringing, its not that they bad cars, but the way Renault specify allowable towing weights is different to the vast majority of car manufactures and not particularly helpful. I have to assume that Renault have used the same unhelpful scheme for you car as they did for my 2000(W) Espace.
According to my data source, the 2000(W) 1.6 Scenics (manual gear box) seem to have a kerbweight of around 1250kg, and a maximum towed weight of 1300Kg. Now that might look good on paper, but Renault have a habit of quoting the maximum towed weight with the car virtually empty of every thing except the driver. In essence for every Kg of payload you put in the car, you have to reduce the maximum allowable weight of the trailer by the same amount.
I note that you say your partner is disabled, and obviously I dont know if you need to carry specialist equipment, but my wife is also disabled, and I often find that we need to carry 40 to 50Kg of extra weight in the car just to keep her sufficiently mobile when we go out, so this type of thing will eat up the available towing capacity.
On my Espace, there is a data plate, which carries 4 weight/Mass limits The largest is the GTW, and the next largest is the GVW
If you deduct the GVW from the GTW you get the biggest trailer weight you can tow when the car is fully loaded. but as I dont have access to the figures i cannot offer any more detailed advice except to say I urge you to check the cars details very carefully,
GTW = Gross Train Weight
GVW = Gross Vehicle weight
As soon as anyone mentions Renault and towing, then some alarm bells start ringing, its not that they bad cars, but the way Renault specify allowable towing weights is different to the vast majority of car manufactures and not particularly helpful. I have to assume that Renault have used the same unhelpful scheme for you car as they did for my 2000(W) Espace.
According to my data source, the 2000(W) 1.6 Scenics (manual gear box) seem to have a kerbweight of around 1250kg, and a maximum towed weight of 1300Kg. Now that might look good on paper, but Renault have a habit of quoting the maximum towed weight with the car virtually empty of every thing except the driver. In essence for every Kg of payload you put in the car, you have to reduce the maximum allowable weight of the trailer by the same amount.
I note that you say your partner is disabled, and obviously I dont know if you need to carry specialist equipment, but my wife is also disabled, and I often find that we need to carry 40 to 50Kg of extra weight in the car just to keep her sufficiently mobile when we go out, so this type of thing will eat up the available towing capacity.
On my Espace, there is a data plate, which carries 4 weight/Mass limits The largest is the GTW, and the next largest is the GVW
If you deduct the GVW from the GTW you get the biggest trailer weight you can tow when the car is fully loaded. but as I dont have access to the figures i cannot offer any more detailed advice except to say I urge you to check the cars details very carefully,
GTW = Gross Train Weight
GVW = Gross Vehicle weight
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