4wd or 2wd

crackcrack30

Thinking of getting a suv type car/crossover 2 litre diesel i.e tuigan , yeti ect and i am doing some research now as would probably hold onto it for a while.
With the likely intention of buying a 4/5 berth caravan would the general consensus be to buy a 2wd vehicle or 4wd/4x4?
would the benifits outweigh the added costs of purchase and fuel consumption??
I would only be using caravan in the summer months & in purpose built caravan parks/sites...............cheers cc30

alanclarke1975

It really can depend on the weight of the Caravan for this to make a huge difference and where you want to go.

2wd Tiguan and 4wd Tiguan would weigh fairly similar - so no great advantage with regards stability

But the plated towing weights of 2wd and 4wd cars could be different. 4wd allowing heavier.

Advantages of 4wd over 2wd while driving solo - good during our artic winters..

paddyp

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Thinking of getting a suv type car/crossover 2 litre diesel i.e tuigan , yeti ect and i am doing some research now as would probably hold onto it for a while.
With the likely intention of buying a 4/5 berth caravan would the general consensus be to buy a 2wd vehicle or 4wd/4x4?
would the benifits outweigh the added costs of purchase and fuel consumption??
I would only be using caravan in the summer months & in purpose built caravan parks/sites...............cheers cc30

4wd is not a necessity, half the caravans in ireland are towed by hiaces

Diesel is generally better for towing as you will have torque at low revs and a stronger clutch for manual.

There are an awful lot of people driving things like land rover v6's all year round so that they can tow a caravan 500 miles. Even if your caravan was so heavy you needed something that size it would probably be cheaper to rent it for the time you're towing.

Its important to balance the load in the caravan so that your nose weight is correct. I see people labouring with the jockeywheel to get the caravan onto the hitch .. if you can't lift the nose you're either the guy from the mr muscle ad or you haven't balanced the load. Too heavy a nose weight will make your tow unstable and wreck your suspension.

Buford T Justice

paddyp wrote: »

......mr muscle ad ........

LOL

Betsy Og

paddyp wrote: »

Its important to balance the load in the caravan so that your nose weight is correct. I see people labouring with the jockeywheel to get the caravan onto the hitch .. if you can't lift the nose you're either the guy from the mr muscle ad or you haven't balanced the load. Too heavy a nose weight will make your tow unstable and wreck your suspension.

My own view is that too light would be worse, if the caravan wants to lift it can be unstable.

Noseweight is generally recommended to be about 80kg, now maybe its the fact that its not a "dead weight" lift, in that the axel will carry some of the load (more as the front gets higher), but not too many will lift 80kg (a 50kg fertiliser bag is enough for most).

So if I saw someone nonchalanty lifting the caravan onto the hitch I'd be thinking he's either been working out with Arnie or his noseweight looks light.

Ideally I suppose one should invest in heavy duty rear suspension to cope with the extra weight in the car (you'll want plenty of weight in the car compared to the caravan - caravan should only be about 85%-90% of the car weight at a max - there's better braking in the car and you want to avoid a "push" by a caravan that outweighs the car - better if you could get some of that weight in front of the rear car axel, and generally towards the front, so have less "sag" on the rear of the car, not that easy though if 4 or 5 passengers).

Have had no problems ever, anywhere, with a VW Passat 2wd 1.9tdi (100 BHP), 2003 - so as already mentioned I dont think theres any need to go OTT on the towcar. See the caravan club website for technical advice, and I think also "what-tow-car" website (or something like that), that tells you how your proposed combo should fare out.

paddyp

Sorry I meant lift it with the jockey wheel at 80kg you shouldn't be labouring with the jockey wheel. The nose weight is supposed to be a percentage of the caravan weight - 7% according to the caravan club which can add up quickly.
We have a diesel passat estate and at its max nose weight 85kg and a couplf of adults in teh back its definitely overloaded and needs spring assistors.

Some of the crossovers are no great shakes for towing weights can be small e.g. nose weight 75kg - older kia sportage, older rav4, 70kg - older cr-v.