[Closed] Question for the caravaners...

From a quick Google the max towing weight appears to be 1100kg so you are well within that, assuming 700kg is the maximum weight of the caravan, as detailed on its vin plate. Obviously a larger car is preferable, but if thats not an option...

Personally I would tow it a few times in the UK before heading for Europe. The mileage of the car is irrelevant as long as its well serviced.

the issue is can you get it up BIG STEEP hills and brake it down the other side whatever the rules say

I know nothing about caravans but surely the towing weight ratings include hills, even big and steep ones. And I bet they have a safety margin too.

I'd say you need to think about how much weight in gear and luggage etc will be in the van as well. Gas bottles and assorted piles of stuff soon add up. just my opinion 🙂

the issue is can you get it up BIG STEEP hills and brake it down the other side whatever the rules say

Cheers spooky b329, it looks like a plan might be forming...

the weight is based on the unladen kerb weight of your vehicle you can basically go to 100% this and tow as much as the car weighs.
700KG is within the 85% weight limit [ maximum is 1110kg] which most recommend so you should be fine but the alps may test it
I have no idea where you want to go obviously but as you mountain bike I thought you may have gone to the mountains...then again i forgot how obtuse you were 😉

Sounds like an escape plan to me. 😉

How's Kala?

Sounds like an escape plan to me.

How's Kala?

Molly chased a big black lab away yesterday after he got a bit boisterous for her 😆

I think it's safe to say she's good. She had great fun in Scotchland last week.

Where you headed? "Across" Europe or just north?

now, where's that video ?
Ah, yes:

Good on her. 😀
To the UK, I think it's a good time to take a break from Spain. I'm looking at setting up a company as a link between a Spanish manufacturer and UK users. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

😕 What video? Aah! the car going up the hill then back down in reverse, no?

Offer's still open if you're nearby.

Cheers, I'll drop you a mail later. 😀

The towing weight of the car is determined by how much weight can be added to a trailer before the car is not capable of pulling away on a certain gradient. 10% gradient comes to mind but not sure if thats correct. A pretty crude method really.

[i]the weight is based on the unladen kerb weight of your vehicle you can basically go to 100% this and tow as much as the car weighs.[/i]

Afraid you are wrong!

The towing weight is unrelated to the weight of the tow car, although the general rule is the heavier the car, the heavier the trailer that can be towed. Some tow cars such as 4x4s can tow trailers heavier than the fully laden weight of the car, and many vehicles can tow more than their unladen weight. Not recommended though. Your statement does have some input when it comes to what a post '97 license holder can tow, but there is much more to it this.

I'd ask the same question on a caravan forum and be prepared for a very long thread. There are several weight measurements that need to be considered when towing - the kerbweight of the car (not the max tow, that is different), the max loading of the caravan, the max weight that can be applied to the towball of the car, and the max load that can be applied to the rear axle of the car, and maximum train weight for the vehicle, that is towcar & trailer weights together.
Common guidance is that for caravans, due to their high sided nature, a caravan should not weigh more than 85% of the towcar kerbweight [i]for a novice tower[/i], but up to 100% of vehicle kerbweight still remains legal but increasingly less stable. Exceeding 100% is possible, but usually this will be with a none caravan type trailer (think car transporter) which are greatly less effected by cross winds and overtaking traffic than a caravan. I'd think a 206 with a 700kg caravan will be overtaken a lot too!
Noseweight on the hitch should be approx 5-7% of the caravan max load, but cannot exceed the manufacturers stated max hitchweight (noseweight) or the actual max loading stated for the hitch itself (usually Alko, which is in the region of 100kg). That means the 700kg caravan will sit with a noseweight around 35kg (5%).
Rear axle weight of the car cannot be exceeded but is nearly impossible to weigh without taking the loaded car & caravan to a weighbridge. Noseweight can be measured using bathroom scales and a piece of wood equivalent in length to the height of the vehicles towball. Max train weight is again best measured on a public weighbridge and cannot legally be exceeded.
When a vehicle has a max tow of say 3500kg, like a lot of bigger 4x4's do, this is based upon engine & gearbox being able to cope with the description that Spooky gives, being able to pull away from a stop on a given gradient in the region of 10-12%. A very small number of cars might have a max tow lower than their kerbweight, but the 206 doesn't stand out as being one of them. Some small cars don't even have Type Approval for towing due to too low kerbweight etc.
There are also a couple of obscure laws regarding length & width of the caravan that mean some big continental caravans need "commercial" vehicles greater than 3.5tonnes to tow - hence why travellers often use Transits to to tow their big Hobby or Tabbert caravans.
So long as the maths adds up there is nothing to stop the OP's proposal, I'd want to make sure that car & caravan are both mechanically sound and up to the job.

A 1.4 should be fine.
Even with bikes on the back.

simple answer - don't put a caravan on a car at all!!

You might aswell get sandles and a beard and some leather arm patches

I think you will find I said it in relation to HIS car rather than explain the general rules which are far more complicated than one line would ever explain or he would ever need to know.
Yes you and the other long poster are correct in what you say. It is 50 kg max nose weight according to Peugeot FWIW
I have the same car and had the same dilemma I chose to not get a caravan as I thought it would just be a pain and underpowered tbh.

Cheers guys now fight nicely...
This looks just the ticket.
[img] [/img]
[url= http://www.segundamano.es/madrid/caravana-2007-surveyor-sv210-menos-de-750-kg/a26069550/?ca=28_s&st=s&c=42 ]More here.[/url]
No problems with towing experience as I worked on a daily basis with trailers and could reverse park a car and trailer quicker and better than just a car. Was able to pull out of a snaking trailer at around 90/100mph and had a trailer nearly rip the rear end of the car because someone had loaded it badly.

My eyes!

(It's not the vans per se, it's just those ****in graphics that are always down the side)

What;s the caravan? I'll run it though the caravan club outfit checker if you like and send you the details

NBT. (inept) caravan owner. I also have an SS. Don't have beard, sandals or elbow patches though 🙄

You realise that those graphics will probably help it put another 5mph on top speed and mabye get to the heady heights of 45-50mph...
@ mikewsmith that could be a contender for he funniest post ever. I think my sides have actually spilt.
@nbt there isn't a specific caravan yet, I'm just looking. It'll be a Spanish van, would the caravan club checker cover Euroboxes?

Will it really be able to pull a twin axle rig?
I own one [pug hdi] and would not fancy towing a caravan tbh. I feel the trailer and that cant be more that 300kg.

BTW our 1.6 Octavia towed our Avondale Mayfly (950kg) up the glenshee pass. Slowly, admittedly, but it got there!

Just has a look for that Surveyor, and no it doesn;t appear - but when you do find somethig let me know, theyhave Hobby caravans on there which are German

Need these details:
CAR:
Make
Range
Year
Body type
Fuel type
Transmission

VAN:
Make
Range
Berths
Year

Entering those details gives me a range of cars / vans to choose from so any extra details you can prvide will help

http://www.whattowcar.com/

Cheers nbt.

I feel the trailer and that cant be more that 300kg.

The towing weight is unrelated to the weight of the tow car

Not entirely sure that's true actually. I think that the recommended towing weight won't exceed the weight of the car, but it could be less than it if the car's underpowered. That's what the towsure stuff seems to say anyway.

However you shoud be fine, but 700kg is pretty small for a caravan. Either a very old two berth one or one of the small mini caravans.

Having said all of the above - my Auntie and Uncle drove their three teenage kids and a 5 berth van all over the place including the lakes in a 1300 mini. No, I don't know how on earth they managed it either.

If you are in the market for a cheap cheap van, we might be persuaded to part with our 2 berth in the near future.

molgrips, don simon lives in spain...

I know, but he needs it in the UK no?

PS if that pictured van actually weighs 750kg I'll eat my hat.
PPS 2400 euros? JESUS!

I think a trip to Spain is needed!

I mean the pug is not the best vehicle I have ever towed with IME

True but it's his car, he probably doesn't want to change it 🙂

Changing the car is a question of time, something I don't really have, and the van is needed for some storage work as I'm going to be based in the UK for a while and it would be a bit silly to pay for a house for 6 months plus when I won't be using it, so I'm selling or carrying stuff.

Why don't you buy one here? Will be cheaper, easier and quicker to drive up solo.

As molgrips - drive up without one and buy one here. no *WAY* if that surveyor under 750kg. 5 berth twin axle? It's made by Forest River BTW, looks american, but still not on the club listsings

It does look American yes.. I looked at American caravans out of curiosity as my Father in Law was amazed we could tow with our 'tiny little car' (a Passat!). That kind is the smallest they do besides micro ones, and they all weighed 2 tonnes. I don't think that is one of those though - axles and chassis on the US vans look really chunky and the wheels are bigger.

I'll be using it like a trailer for carrying stuff, but I haven't decided if I should buy a caravan, a trailer or just try and load everything I'm bringing into the car and sell the rest.

Trailer.

I don't know. The 1.4HDi isn't the beefiest engine in the world. There's a fair bit of low-down grunt, and the Pug 5-speed gearbox is tougher than the one used by Ford when they use the same engine, but I'm not sure it would be powerful enough- 75bhp?

7b5hp is enough for a small van. But that's not really the figure you want to look at since to get 75bhp you'd have to be redlining it all the time. Being a diesel it's probably got more sensibly usable power than a 100bhp petrol ie enough.

I've only ever towed with a 140bhp car, and in normal driving I barely use any more throttle than I would solo. Only time I ever use any sizeable chunk of full power is joining motorways, or some of these steep autobahns in the Alpine foothills here. But you see plenty of other vehicles on those crawling at 30mph - most lorries are, so you'll be fine joining them.

My octavia is 75bhp. As I said it tows a 950kg caravan. I was getting 30mpg towing round scotland

It will tow fine. Just load it low down over the axle, & pay attention to noseweight & tyre pressures.

I don't tow caravans, but I do tow trailers and have down with everything from a Pug 205 1.8D (H reg so a while back!) and a 1.3L Mazda 323 to a 2L Citreon C5 (which was a dream to tow with!).

I wouldn't be towing 700 kg with a little 206 unless the trailer was braked (this may be required legally, if not it will be borderline - and stopping will be interesting!). Once you experience the trailer trying to overtake you whilst doing an emergency stop at 50 mph - you'll never want to tow a borderline trailer again!

As for the age of the car - I'd certainly want to make sure it was recently services and had breakdown cover (remember to check they cover the trailer too) before doing any real mileage in it.

I wouldn't be towing 700 kg with a little 206 unless the trailer was braked

Caravans always are. Unbraked trailer weight limit will be what, 3-400kg for that car.

I'm trying to work out if this has turned into a troll 🙂

That caravan is probably around two tonnes, once hooked up to a 206 your exhaust will probably be touching the floor. Its even got an air conditioner on the roof ffs! Then you say you are just planning to use it as a trailer?! You said a 700kg caravan, not a 700kg trailer with 500kg of stuff in it.

This is a 780kg caravan. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FREEDOM-JETSTREAM-200-CARAVAN-2-BERTH-FIBREGLASS-10-/260774229958?pt=UK_Campers_Caravans_Motorhomes&hash=item3cb75af7c6&clk_rvr_id=235929666602

Get a trailer, just not one of those crappy Erdes 🙂

Caravans always are. Unbraked trailer weight limit will be what, 3-400kg for that car.

Personally I think I'd sell the Pugeot and trade it in for a van - you can always convert that to camper van if you want the nomadic lifestyle...

I'd go with a box trailer if it is to shift gear, no load weight lost to sinks, cookers, cupboards and crappers that you don't need. Will also allow for a smaller trailer that'll be more efficient to tow (or more stock carried at full weight limit) and can be secured more easily.
Small stock trailer? Quite a few small holders around here with family cars towing trailers that'll take a dozen sheep/couple of pigs/quad bike.

A van's no good, cos the OP said he wanted to store stuff in the UK, which would mean leaving the van parked up.

Nobody has mentioned the clutch yet, its gonna get battered

Needn't be an issue. 2000 miles of motorway isn't going to hurt it that much.

once you're moving it won't make any difference, but starting and stopping will take its toll, even on slight inclines.

It's a very small clutch on that, my missis used to have one.

Well he's not tourin' the lakes, is he?

Not a troll spooky, I live in Spain and need to uproot and relocate in the UK. I'm looking at alternative ways of getting all my things moved from Spain to the UK. Different solutions will provide me with different quantities of stuff I can carry, but I can be ruthless with regard to throwing stuff away, think pictures- do I take the picture and frame or bin the frame and just take the picture? Or even bin the picture too?
I'm now thinking that a big roof box for clothes and computers, tow bar rack for 3 bikes and various odds and sods inside car.
Clutch comments were something I was waiting for, 250,000kms and the original clutch...
The van in the picture looks nice and is listed as 750kg, but looks way too big to be 750kg, unless it's made from balsa wood.

Just for transport & storing stuff, I'd go with a trailer, caravans are too prone to damp ingress over time. A purpose made "U-Haul" type trailer might be better. Storage of caravans in remote/rural locations also runs a risk of rodent infestation
We limit what we store in our 2010 Swift caravan to reduce risk of damp & attraction to rodents.
I suppose a compromise may be a caravan shell but with all of the unneccessary kit removed - don't know what an insurer would make of that though.

You might consider shipping. I had basically a palette's worth of stuff shipped to Finland for 800 euros or something - less than the cost of a trailer.

But not much actually, come to think of it.

A caravan's payload will only be 150-180kg anyway, which isn't much when you're moving house.