Volvo XC60 D5 AWD 205 Auto. First Tow.

[JimC]

I took my Lunar Ultima EW Twin axle 1600 Kg for a service this morning. First time towing, I was very impressed. Previous car was a Sorento XT Auto so had some competition there.

It handled very well at 60 mph.It also seems wider than the Sorento I felt I could almost get away without using towing mirrors.Another thing it stays in top gear for longer than the Sorento but as it has such good torque even at 1500 rpm it works well. Not tried it on any big hills yet.

Jim

 

[xtrailman]

The real test will be when fully loaded, i had a good look at the volvo range while having the xtrail serviced, the dealer deals with both makes, quite like some of them, good build quality, but found the interiors a let down, the XC60 did well in the whatcar tests i'm sure you will be happy with it.

 

[JimC]

Hi Ray

I love the interior, I went for the Premium upgrade which gave leather, Sat nav, and better radio upgrade to performance. I would have waited for the 2010 Sorento but the deciding factor was that they have lowered the nose weight on the auto to 80 Kg.

Also no fitted Sat nav on the UK market.

Jim

 

[otherclive]

With modern cars the need for a top end noseweight is not as imprortant as it was some years ago. The van A-bar can normally only take 100kg and given that most will not want to load it to the max, you are only realistically looking at a difference of 15kg with the Sorento auto ( 95kg-80kg van-car limits) so it's hardly a buying discriminator.

Cheers

Other Clive

 

[Zafiral]

You may not need 100kg nose weight for stability, but with our new caravan (Pageant S7 Bretagne), it was a real nightmare getting the nose weight down to 75kg (or 80kg for that matter) as the caravan had about 67kg noseweight when it left the factory.

By the time you have 2 gas bottles in the front and a 110Ah, you are having to put stuff behind the axle to counter.

We have now changed the car and have 100 kg noseweight limit (Pug 4007) so thing should be a lot easier.

 

[xtrailman]

The tests done by the uni for bailey, concluded that more nose weight added to stability, i found this with my 2009 xtrail, i always loaded the old xtrail to 85kg nose weight, and it was fine.

However with the new xtrail for some reason with 85kg the rig was very twitchy with passing vehicles, vans included!

By increasing the nose weight to 90/95 kg the rig is now much better.

The caravan is the same one, but although again the bar is a witter, for some reason the ball height is around 25mm lower than the previous one, so the rig is slightly nose down, previously the rig was level.

I can only assume this is the reason for having to increase the nose weight?

Anyway my point is if you don't have a 100kg nose limit, then your options are limited. I see little point in having a 2 ton car that lacks either the structural or transmission strength, to carry 100kg.

 

[JimC]

I do not agree with Other Clive. My Lunar lexon is very nose heavy when empty. To get the nose weight down to 90Kg to 95Kg when loaded was a juggling act I can do without.When towing the big twin axles you have to have a car capable of a nose weight close to the 100Kg mark; otherwise you can not get the best out of your vans storage facilities, front locker for example.

Jim