Towing With 6 Gears???

[William_5106786]

Hi,

I am looking for a new tow car to tow my 900 Kg Adria,

I had decided on the new 105 Bhp Tdi Skoda for Economy, However I have been offered a great deal on The New 140 Bhp Version which has 6 Gears.

1. Does anyone have any experiance with either of these cars or Even another Diesel with 6 Gears?

2. I have been advised that cars with 6 gears are not good tow cars ? Any advice on this would be of great help Thanks Willie.

3. If anyone does have either of the skodas what kind of Mpg are you geting towing and Solo?

 

[rayc]

William, I have a 2006 Honda CRV 2.2 diesel which has 6 forward gears. It is a fantastic tow car and is able to keep up to the legal speed limit if I want it to. I have a 1350kg van and I can use 6th gear on the flat but obviously on a slope I have to drop down a gear or two.

The benefit I have found, compared to the petrol version, is that everything is happening at lower revs and it appears completely unstressed by having a van on tow.

I get about 30mpg towing,mid 40's on solo long motorway runs at 70mph and about 40mph solo mixed roads.

 

[rayc]

William, I have a 2006 Honda CRV 2.2 diesel which has 6 forward gears. It is a fantastic tow car and is able to keep up to the legal speed limit if I want it to. I have a 1350kg van and I can use 6th gear on the flat but obviously on a slope I have to drop down a gear or two.

The benefit I have found, compared to the petrol version, is that everything is happening at lower revs and it appears completely unstressed by having a van on tow.

I get about 30mpg towing,mid 40's on solo long motorway runs at 70mph and about 40mph solo mixed roads.

Sorry meant 40mpg on mixed roads, ray

 

[everton1]

I have a 2.0 Diesel VW Touran,solo 45-50mpg.Towing 25-30mpg.

6gear on flat and slight inclines good.I tend to use 5th more,but thats just me.Same engine as the Skoda so I think you would have no problems.

Best of luck,

Frank e.

 

[Stephen_5077753]

I drive a 6-speed Dci Xtrail and tow a 1430 mtlpm (?) coachman. Will quite easily pull the van in 6th on a level, even accelerate enough to overtake quickly on a motorway in that speed. Even inlclines dont seem to phase it providing Im doing a decent speed into the incline it will generally maintain it, may just drop down to 5th or 4th for longer or steeper inclines.

Steve

 

[Stephen_5077753]

I drive a 6-speed Dci Xtrail and tow a 1430 mtlpm (?) coachman. Will quite easily pull the van in 6th on a level, even accelerate enough to overtake quickly on a motorway in that speed. Even inlclines dont seem to phase it providing Im doing a decent speed into the incline it will generally maintain it, may just drop down to 5th or 4th for longer or steeper inclines.

Steve

 

[Merve_5103671]

Hi william,

I have a 2.5TD Touareg (6 Gears)and whoever advised that 6 gear cars do not make good tow vehicles has not driven a Touareg.It pulls a 1700KG van with ease and I always have the right gear!

 

[Ken_5040834]

William

I have a BMW 320d Touring with 6 gears. When towing on motoways, I usually set cruise control at 60 and leave it in 5th - mine has a digital display for mpg and it makes no difference to the economy whether its in 5th of 6th, but seems more relaxed in 5th. Usually use our Toyota Surf for towing, but used the BMW to tow Burgundy (1400kg) to Knareborough last weekend and got 29mpg.

 

[RogerL]

There's nothing inherently unsuitable about a 6-speed gearbox. It will generally be better at all types of driving than a 5- or 4-speed box because it will normally have a wider range of ratios.

Turbo diesel engine have narrow torque and power bands, naturally, so to widen these bands the torque is often limited electronically. Recently, to compete with petrol engines on power these artificial bands have been narrowed to increase the output.

Many manufacturers publish the mph/1000rpm in each gear for their vehicles. If you multiply this by the upper and lower points on the flat torque, eg 2000-3000, 1500-4000 or whatever, then this will give the efficient road speed for each gear. If there is some overlap, ie no gaps, then all is well.

If 60mph doesn't fall into the torque band in top gear it doesn't matter, it'll be in the torque band for one of the other gears.

 

[Icemaker]

my alhambra tdi has exactelty the same engine as the skoda and has the six speed box, whoever told you they are not good gearboxes to tow with was talking out of theire a**e. my car very rarely needs to be taken out of sixth gear on the motorway and will sit at sixty all day long with the cruise control set wether i have the van on or not. towing my ace celebration 590 twin axle the car returns about 35 mpg and solo around 50 - 55 mpg, definately go for the 140 is is far far better than the 105.

 

[NorfolkMike]

Agree with Frank's comments on the Touran great car and as yet no problems.

About to leave for Italy so the jury is out on it above the clouds.

I like the 6 gears and the transition in hindsite was seamless.

ttfn

 

[cokey1970]

Hi William.

I used to tow with a Skoda Octavia 2.0 FSi estate with 6 gears and had no problems with it. On flat sections of motorway I would frequently use 6th and it would pull the van with ease. I would usually get between 26 to 30 mpg which is not bad for a petrol.

I've now changed the estate for an Octavia 2.0 TDi Sport which also has 6 gears. Will be using this to tow the van down to Cornwall in 3 weeks time.

 

[John_5112393]

Hi Willie, I tow my van (1300kg)with my Citroen C5 VTR 2200 turbo-diesel,6 speed, it's the best towcar i have owned!! It pulls well, but obviously i have to change a couple of gears on long inclines!The self leveling suspension is also very good!

 

[Royston]

Re the question towing with 6 gears, I have a vauxhall estate

2.2 dti with a five speed gearbox. Manage to tow on the dual carrageways and motorways in 5th gear no problem, but when driving solo through the 30 mph areas I find to keep the engine

running normal i have to keep in 3rd gear , In 4th gear 35mph.

How does this 6th gear ratio work in comparison.

Roy

 

[Lutz]

It depends on how the car manufacturer has selected the spacing between each gear ratio and what the torque curve of the engine looks like. When towing, one can normally expect to be able to use 6th gear only on level ground. Otherwise, one will probably find that 6th gear is pretty redundant. This appears to be the experience of others who have posted here, too. If it's a 6 speed gearox with fairly equally spaced ratios, 3rd and 4th gear will probably be used more often than with a 5 speed box.

 

[philip_5109302]

Hi William, we tow our Pageant Burgundy (1400kgs)with a Mondeo Estate 130bhp TDCi with 6 gears. Great car for towing, I always use 5th not 6th on motorways and get a return of 35mpg. If I'm honest, 6th speed is not much use when towing heavy loads like our Burgundy, but 5th is relaxing and perfectly adequate. Go for the extra bhp!!

 

[joeby]

Hi William i also have a mondeo estate 130 BHP 6 speed box ,and i tow an 1500Kg senator indiana allthough its not loaded to full capacity ,i find when i am driving on the motorway i keep my speed just over 60 mph you can keep it in 6th gear and still go up slight inclines without changing down ,other things like the weather will affect you,we came back along the M4 last week in them high winds and most of the time we were in 5th gear and our fuel consumption went down from 29 MPG to around 24.5