Car recommendations for towing trailer with MTC 1600KG

Bernice101

Hi there

The murky world of towing specifications.....

I bought a mare&foal horse box with laden weight capacity of 1600KG. trailer itself weighs 750-770KG and load capacity of 830KG.

From reading the RSA website I see that for a B licence I must have a combined vehicle weight (this car is about 1000KG + max permissible weigh of trailer (in this case 1600KG) of less than 3500KG, that's fine, no issue there. However, I take it that my car must have a towing capacity of 1600KG to pull the trailer, because the car must be able to woe the max recommended weight for the trailer being pulled.

I was planning on buying a 09 to 11 Skoda Octavia 1.9 diesel to tow it. Max braked towing capacity for the car is 1400.

Although I do not plan on towing more than 1400KG, I don't want to go 'chancing it'. Thus, I think the Octavia (with its max towing capacity of 1400KG isn't an option for a trailer with max laden weight of 1600KG.

Does anyone have recommendations for a car with MTC of 1600KG that would not cost the earth to run? I don't want to go down the road of buying a jeep.

CJhaughey

Bernice101 wrote: »

Hi there

The murky world of towing specifications.....

I bought a mare&foal horse box with laden weight capacity of 1600KG. trailer itself weighs 750-770KG and load capacity of 830KG.

From reading the RSA website I see that for a B licence I must have a combined vehicle weight (this car is about 1000KG + max permissible weigh of trailer (in this case 1600KG) of less than 3500KG, that's fine, no issue there. However, I take it that my car must have a towing capacity of 1600KG to pull the trailer, because the car must be able to woe the max recommended weight for the trailer being pulled.

I was planning on buying a 09 to 11 Skoda Octavia 1.9 diesel to tow it. Max braked towing capacity for the car is 1400.

Although I do not plan on towing more than 1400KG, I don't want to go 'chancing it'. Thus, I think the Octavia (with its max towing capacity of 1400KG isn't an option for a trailer with max laden weight of 1600KG.

Does anyone have recommendations for a car with MTC of 1600KG that would not cost the earth to run? I don't want to go down the road of buying a jeep.

Volvo XC70 would be a good choice for safe towing at that weight.
Probably the D5 would be the best and most economical in that series.

BrianD3

Seeing as you plan on towing no more than 1400 kg, the first thing to do would be to get the trailer "downplated" to 1400 kg if possible. You would then have more choice in towing vehicles.

An Octavia weighs more than 1000 kg unladen and in any case it's the design gross vehicle weight of the car plus trailer that counts when determining if the combination is under the 3500 kg limit for a B licence

There are cars that are rated to tow 1600 kg and stay below this 3500 kg limit for a B licence - the current model Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI is one.

Max braked towing weight 1600 kg
Design gross vehicle weight of the Octavia 1880 kg.
Total 3480 kg

It's more difficult to find these figures for vehicles that are no longer in production.

The Volvo XC70 as recommended by the other poster won't work for a B licence as the DGVW of that car is too high.

ianobrien

I thought that the weights for class B is 3500kg but E+B is 4000kg.

I can't find the legislation and I don't have my licence to check

mullingar

No.

A B licence only covers a car/van/jeep with a trailer up to their combined designed gross weights to 3.5t, this is not the unladen weight or actual weight, its the max plated weights combined.

Take say a Mondeo that has a towing capacity of max 1.8t and a horse box of DGVW of 1.8t. The car is fully legal to tow it.

However, if the Mondeo's max DGVW of say 2.5t, plus the DGVW of he horse-box of 1.8t = total 4.3 tonnes. A B licence does NOT cover you for this.

You need a BE licence.

Dont forget, the licence is only for the designed/plated max capacity of the vehicle, not the actual load on board. The vehicle must be plated for the weight on-board.

So, if you know that the laden trailer is less that the max plated towing capacity of the car (@1400kg), then you are fine, but ONLY with a BE licence.

If you look at the weight plate of the car there are 4 main numbers. The first is the max permissible train weight (car+trailer), the second is the max car weight, the third is the front axle max weight, 4th is max weight rear axle. By subtracting the 1st and 2nd number will always give the cars towing capacity.

bridster007

You also need to consider the nose weight and the towbar rating. And the generally recommended ( not legal requirement) laden weight ratio of trailer to tow vehicle is 85% for a stable tow.

http://www.towcar.info/

This website although designed for caravans will be useful. Just select a caravan with a similar weight to your trailer for comparison.

mullingar

This is also a good site for actual capacities:

http://www.uktow.com/towing%20capacity.asp#123

Nothing in the 2WD Skoda range will tow anything over 1400kg.