Towing weights, trailers and small vans

Currently we are running a 2.5tdi Transporter and can pull a couple of ton on our twin axle ifor trailer – we never get near that in reality, it’s pretty grim dragging that sort of weight and realistically it’s a ton max, normally of sand.

We are planning to downsize the van in the near future – probably to something in the Peugeot Partner lwb kind of size.

I’m a bit concerned about what we would be able to tow, firstly in terms of the trailer and secondly the total weight

Am I right in thinking our current trailer will be  too big for a Partner? If our current trailer can take 2 ton and the Partner isnt plated for that, am i legal even if the trailer is empty?

And secondly what are people pulling in their partners? I’m looking at 1.5/1.6 diesels but it all depends on what we can get our hands on at the time.

In terms of towing weight, that is done using the actual measured weight of the trailer I.e. a vehicle with a towing capacity of 1 tonne, can tow a trailer plated at 2 tonnes, provided the trailer’s actual weight is less than 1 tonne.

In terms of license weight, that is done using the plate weight (not that is an issue now everybody can tow 3.5t). I.e. in the above example, if the towing vehicle’s gross vehicle weight was more than 1.5tonne, then you couldn’t tow it on a standard B license.

Isn’t there a website that lists towing capacities for vehicles? Might only cover cars, but a google should turn up manufacturer weights.

Get yourself onto the government website for towing.  It’s mostly in plain English.

Really important that you understand the VIN plate numbers these are the indisputable capacities of the vehicle.

Do not rely on online guides or manuals for a given model.  This is because they tend to ignore things like whether that model needed factory fit towing prep.

Vans are likely easier than cars.

Bear in mind that a 2t rated trailer will have more metal to it and so be a heavier starting point in terms of total mass.  It might be worth downsizing the trailer to reduce the tare weight.

I own an old Pug Partner with the 2.0hdi turbo engine, standard power is 90hp – mine is stage1 130hp. I also have a Cayenne that’s rated to tow 3.5t that we use for a lightweight caravan. I’ve previously towed our large Ifor BV box trailer with our Defender 110 with a tweaked 200tdi.

As much as I love my Pug/Berlingo – with reference to the Cayenne and how the 110 was I couldn’t imagine towing much more than a small Erde type trailer with the Pug.

garage-dweller
Full Member

Really important that you understand the VIN plate numbers these are the indisputable capacities of the vehicle.

Do not rely on online guides or manuals for a given model. This is because they tend to ignore things like whether that model needed factory fit towing prep.

Not relevant to the OP but- on top of this, I contacted VOSA earlier this year and was told that they’re the <only> relevant factor. Got an old car where it’s all in the manual but not on the plate? Now meaningless, you should not tow (but discretion is to be shown if the total weight is under your plated PVW, ie you have a zero gravity trailer). Some people had succefully received in writing permission to tow with grey imports as long as there was a UK equivalent, and that’s also apparently gone.

To the best of my knowledge this is a policy update and has not yet been tested in court, and when I asked for the specific law that applied I got blanked. But still. I passed it on to a classic caravanning group and some jdm groups, and some classics magazines and a lot of people basically shat a brick.

May be worth getting familiar with the vans you are after as certain engine and transmission options will throw up a wide range of capacities meaning you may need to focus on a specific spec to get the capacity you need.

Downsize the trailer too to maximise payload, this is partly why I’ve always run twin rather than triaxle trailers as worth another 150-200kg load when aiming for the full 3.5t towing capacity. The other reason was for manoeuvrability.

Finally keep an eye on gross train weight to see if you can fully load trailer and van. I could with older Land Rovers and 7t GTW but Hilux and Dmax need to be near empty to max out the trailer as around 6t or less GTW.

I tow a 2750 rated ifor with a b2 pug.

Even empty you really know it sthere.

It’s 700kg empty. Pug has a 1300kg tow capacity .

I cnt tow much with it. You know it’s there

On the back of the land rover even with a 2t digger onboard you barely notice it .

What northwind says. Read the vin plate or the v5. Many manufacturers are not bothering to homologate certain models for towing at all. Even though the platform might well be up for it not enough of that particular combination of options will be made to make it worth their while.  VW are the main offenders that I can think of, but Stellantis and Mercedes are also at this. With VW it can be down to whether the vehicle is rhd or not (t7 Multivan and IDBuzz are examples).

Okay thanks all, this is confirming the general direction of my thinking

How often are you towing +1 ton, and if you couldn’t do it, would you just have to get it delivered instead?

FWIW around us the delivered price of bulk is barely more than the collected price.

How often are you towing +1 ton, and if you couldn’t do it, would you just have to get it delivered instead

Yes that is something we have been thinking about too.

I was already quite keen to downsize the trailer for storage and off hitch manoeuvrability.

Mind you have you seen the price of new ifors? Holy crap sticks. Second hand prices are also mad so at least there’s that when we punt ours on

Used to tow an I for Williams tipper trailer with my ranger pickup but have now downsized to a gd 85 single axle so that I can tow it with my Skoda kodiaq as well if needed. The gd 85 is still braked and is much lighter and more manoeuvrable off the hitch. The tipper was easier to reverse though!

To the best of my knowledge this is a policy update and has not yet been tested in court, and when I asked for the specific law that applied I got blanked.

Unfortunately thats their default approach. There are a lot of grey areas relating to towing, particularly towing with a commercial vehicle rather than a car (part of the popularity of dual cab pickups is/was being commercial vehicles in the eyes of the tax man but cars in the eyes of VOSA and therefore exploited two loopholes for the price of one)

An organisation – I can’t remember which – tried to address VOSA’s reticence for answering anyone questions by making multiple freedom of information requests to VOSA for what should basically have been a list of FAQs on VOSA’s website. Each FOI request basically described a scenario – a type of tow vehicle, a commercial circumstance and so on basically to try an clarify what the weight limits actually were in that scenario, which if exceeded would have required Operators Licences, Tacographs and so on as adding a trailer to most vans takes the all up weight over the 3.5t threshold for needing a Goods Vehicle Operator License. There were however lots of scenarios where you can be over that threshold and be outside the scope of that requirement.

The main problem was drivers were getting pulled over by police who themselves didn’t know when O license / taco legislation did or didn’t apply.

The folk who made the FOI requests published the replies online as an attempt to create some sort of resource for drivers – but VOSA in answered each request outlining how the law should be applied in each situation added the line ‘this doesn’t constitute legal advice’ at the end.

Later they did create an FAQ section on their website – and it was the same questions and answers as those FOIs.