Car towing.

dvae

Hi, looking for help with information regarding the pulling of caravan with my car. Everywhere I look I find posts talking about mam weights, gross vehicle weights, kerb weights, and laden and unladen weights. I'm a bit of a gobshite and was wondering if someone could please simplify the rules for me please. I'll give an example. If my car weighs 1500kg. The car handbook says the car is capable of pulling a 1000kg trailer. Can I legally tow a 1000kg trailer on a standard b licence. Thanks.

WildWater

I’ll try and give a simple explanation.

You have to consider 2 things.

1) the MAM (Maximum Authorised Mass) of your tow vehicle and the caravan do not exceed 3,500kg

2) the laden weight of Caravan (the caravan and everything in it) does not exceed the towing capacity of your tow vehicle.

If BOTH of those are in order then you are good to go.

https://www.ndls.ie/about/cars-and-trailers.html#can-i-tow-a-trailer-on-a-car-licence

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977197#Comment_120977197

The MAM includes the weight of the driver and passengers, and all the stuff in the caravan and car too I believe

dvae

Thanks for the quick replies guys. So I can tow a caravan over 750kg as long as the caravan and it's content's is within the car manufacturers towing limits and myself, passengers, car and van don't exceed 3500kgs? 🤔

WildWater

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977462#Comment_120977462

Yes is the short answer but there is a caveat. It is the MAM weights that counts. Not the actual weight on day (well, unless you have over loaded). What makes it confusing is that you could be under 3,500kg if put on a weigh bridge, but if your tow vehicle and trailer/caravan had a combined MAM (what it is permitted to carry) of over 3,500kg you would be in bother. (Note for a caravan I believe it terminology is MTPLM - Maximum Technically Permissible Laden weight. So technically MAM + MTPLM. Either way it’s just the max permissible of both.)

For example, a Hyundai Tucson can be up to 1999kg* in kerb weight i.e. the weight of the car. Now you put on your caravan at 1000kg (kerb weight - maybe it’s not that weight but just for the sake of example) some gear and people totalling less than 500kg and you think you are good to go. Well not necessarily.

The MAM of the Tucson is 2415kg* thus, if the MTPLM of your caravan was over 1,085kg then you would be in trouble even if your actual weight came in at less than 3,500kg.

*The weights of a Tucson will vary according to the model. I picked the highest one.

What I would suggest is:

1) look up the MAM of your tow vehicle and the MTPLM of the caravan. Combine these and if under 3,500kg then so far so good.

2) look up the kerb weight of your tow vehicle and the kerb weight of your caravan. Subtract that total the total you got in step 1 and that will tell you the maximum weight of gear, fuel and people that you can carry.

3) Make sure that you distribute your load such that you don’t exceed the MAM/MTPLM of either vehicle OR exceed the towing capacity of your car.

Then you are good to go.

Hope that helps 🤪

dvae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977834#Comment_120977834

Wow, while I get what your saying, they don't make it half confusing. Im looking to buy a caravan at the moment. I'd better do my sums before looking.

BrianD3

Here's a brochure which lists MTPLMs for various Swift caravans. As can be seen most models fall into the 1100-1700 kg MTPLM range

https://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/media/js5p4xok/2023-caravan-tech-spec-booklet.pdf

If your caravan is 1500 kg or more MTPLM your choice of car to tow it legally with a B licence gets limited. Contrary to what you might expect and what seems logical and safe, lighter, smaller cars are "better" from a licence point of view as their MAM is lower so it doesn't "eat into" the 3500 kg total limit. But smaller cars also generally have have smaller towing capacity. See below discussion. if you have a biggish caravan the best cars to tow it from a licence POV are cars such as VW Golfs and Renault Meganes. Cars smaller than those don't have the towing capacity and cars bigger than those have too high a MAM.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058080944/best-car-for-towing-using-a-b-licence-2020

PS, note the comments in the thread above about maximum train weight. If your car has a towing capacity of 1500 kg that doesn't mean you can tow a 1500 kg trailer if the car is fully laden. Max towing capacities, afaik, assume there is only a driver in the car. Relevant for a caravan if you are going on holidays with a car full of people and stuff.

dvae

turns out i might be in trouble. at least with the towing capability. it looks like my car only has a 1300 kg limit.

Toyota Verso 2.0 D-4D 126hp, 2010 generation AR20 (2009 - 2013)

Curb Weight

1,515 kg

Gross Weight

2,260 kg

Max Trailer Load, braked 12%

1,300 kg

Max Trailer Load, unbraked

450 kg

Cargo Capacity

745 kg

Max Roof Load

100 kg

Max Towbar Download

55 kg

creedp

Jaysus thats unbelievably complicated. Im wondering what proportion of caravan owners towing with their ever increasing in weight SUVs comply with these regulations?

Curious if anyone knows if these guidelines are ever updated or are were they equally applicable when the roads were populated with 1200cc VW beetles woth their towbars hammering off the road surface as they bounced along😂