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YOUR FIRST
7
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A GUIDE TO
TOWING AND THE LAW
➲
Outfit matching – choosing the
right caravan for your car
ADVICE FROM
Terry Owen
Before buying a caravan it’s
really important to ensure the
car you intend to use to tow it
can do so safely and legally.
For safe towing, it is
generally accepted that
the MTPLM of a caravan
should not exceed 85% of
the kerb weight of the tow
car. Ensure, though, that
this does not exceed the car
manufacturer’s maximum
recommended towing weight.
Figures can mislead!
Relying on the VIN plate
alone can produce towing
figures well in excess of the
recommended 85% and so
is not recommended. A good
example is the Land Rover
plate shown below. It gives the
Maximum Permitted Weight
of the vehicle as 3200kg
and the Gross Train Weight
(GTW) as 6700kg. Subtracting
one from the other gives a
towing capacity of 3400kg.
That may be all right at really
slow speeds, but for towing
a caravan on the open road
the recommended maximum
is 85% of the kerbweight of
the car. The Land Rover has a
kerb weight of 2580kg so 85%
of this is just 2193kg.
When deciding on a
caravan for a particular car,
another important aspect to
consider is noseweight. This
is the downforce exerted
by the caravan’s hitch onto
the towbar when the outfit
is stationary. For stable
towing, it’s important to
have some nose weight and,
in recognition of this, UK
law requires that the nose
weight of a trailer should
be a minimum of 4% of its
MTPLM, or 25kg, whichever
is the heavier. Tests carried
out by the Caravan Club
suggest that a caravan’s
noseweight should be in the
region of 5-7% of its actual
laden weight. This usually
means a noseweight in the
region of 70-100kg, but find
out the limits specified by
the manufacturers of the
towcar, towbar and tow
hitch; as these should not
be exceeded.
A number of cars have
noseweight limits as low as
50kg and so are not ideal for
towing a caravan. Some of
the more common examples
include the following: Alfa
145/146/147/156/166,
Chrysler Neon, Citroen
Berlingo Multispace and
Picasso, Ford Focus (pre
Jan 2001), Honda CRV Auto
(pre 2002), Renault Espace
(pre 1997), Renault Laguna
Estate (pre 2010) and the VW
Golf (pre Mk IV).
Nose
weight
can easily
be
checked
using
bathroom
scales and
a couple
of pieces
of wood.
Here the
nose
weight is a
shade
below
78kg
What happens if you have
been disqualified?
If you are disqualified from
driving for more than 56 days
you’ll need to apply to renew
your driving licence before
you can return to driving.
The new licence will only give
you a category B entitlement
regardless of
what you had
before. Therefore,
if you wish to
drive an outfit
weighing more
than 3500kg,
you will have
to take the test
to upgrade the
licence category
to B+E.
A European photo card
driving licence shows
entitlements like this (below).
The holder of the licence
is covered for categories
A&B (motorbikes & cars) but
not for towing more than
750kg where the train weight
exceeds 3500kg.
It’s not always sensible to rely
on a towcar’s VIN plate when
working out what weight of
caravan it can tow
