I had a 2005 Camry which broke down last year, so I replaced it with a 2015 Mazda 5. The towing section of the manual for the Camry said something along the lines of “Well, this car is not really intended for towing, but if you must use it for that, here’s what you have to do…”. For the Mazda, the manual just says that it is not recommended to use the car for towing at all.
That said, I am not aware of a single person who thinks you can’t tow with a car (so long as it has the little hitch plug thing… or you are a dumbass kid with some rope).
What I assume you mean in this pro cars post is: People think you need a giant pickup truck or an SUV. And that is closer to accurate. Except those people buy their giant vehicles with the dream of towing or hauling but never would for fear of ruining their paint job or getting dirt on the bed.
Wouldn’t this be more an issue of manual vs automatic transmissions? I would think towing in a manual with a healthy clutch should work just fine. Whereas, I would towing could have negative implications for the lifespan of a car’s automatic transmission.
Forget the wear and tear of towing and look at the towing capacity and safety. Cars here in the US aren’t rated too safely tow much, hell even trucks have a pretty low limit.
So either the car in the picture was rated to tow a higher weight (could be the unibody or frame, or other structural components), or the laws there are more liberal towards towing safety and weights, or this is an ultra light camper that is safe to tow.
Not all campers or cars are made alike, same with laws around them.
2017 R-Pod RP-176 is a very small travel trailer weighing dry in at 3800lbs/1720kgs, it’s not the trailer in the photo but… It looks about the same size, single axle, short as shit, tear drop shape. And that’s the dry weight, once you add in gear That’s a lot more weight. Typically most people expect to add in about another 1500 lbs/680kg from the dry weight. So that’s a total of about 2400kgs, which is past what that car should tow.
In fact I’m not really seeing any trailers that aren’t pop-ups that would qualify at the weight you’re saying, even without gear.
That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, hell maybe my Google searches aren’t showing me shit from across the pond that would work, but metal is heavy.
I would recommend checking the manufacturer specs. The company is called Wilk, it should be one from the Sentos range. The numbers are literally from the spec sheet.
Just yesterday I was towing about a half to 2/3 of a cord of a wood with my wagon. Folks assume you need a giant truck to tow anything. Full disclosure though I was pushing the limits of my car, it pulls this weight without issue but stopping it risky and I have to drive very carefully and keep huge buffers between myself and the next car.
if you saw the sheer scope of trailers, campers, Tour Bus RV’s, custom toy haulers etc that invade the coastal areas of where I live, you would realize the problem isn’t the semantics of tow vehicle size. the whole “adventure camping” myth when two people bring a 800 square foot Motorcoach with a car in tow makes me want to vomit. its like a car brain with sepsis. leave your fucking house at home.
Whenever I see a giant RV towing a giant SUV bigger than any of the vehicles I own I get a little frustrated and irritated. If you want to explore the country you can do it without taking every amenity and gadget from home. Just go out there, see and be in the world, don’t take the ‘world’ with you.
I used to tow in the UK with a Chrysler Voyager ( American Made, 7 x Seater SUV ) it did pretty well.
Fully ladden, all seats occupied + a dog, 2 x Roof Boxes and towing my massive Trailer Tent.
Even came back from one holiday on Three cylinders cus of a HT Lead fault and yes we went up some pretty steep hills, just needed to get a bit of a run at them that’s all, lol.
Been there as a kid in the 90s. Sitting in the back my my parents Toyota Carina with my 2 siblings, while we were towing a caravan.
That car had a 2l, 4 cylinder petrol and got through the Alps and Pyrenees. Iwas more comfortable touring that way than going by tent only. Now I’m in Australia where I’m gobsmacked by how much shit people “need” to go camping. All while I’m exploring the same locations and actually spending more time camping in the bush as I tour on a tiny, economical 125cc motorcycle.
Almost to prove a point, I took that little thing to Cape York and will take it RTW next year, partly to show that you don’t need much.
But they are not alitowing caravans. That one time a year to France. Unlike Americans who drive a dodge ram to supermarket around the corner because they don’t even have sidewalks
Once at work I said “My Audi sedan has a towing capacity of over 5,000 lbs, isn’t that crazy?” A coworker said “That’s almost as much as my Tacoma!” (Early 2000s model). Turns out 5,000 is closer to his combined vehicle weight + towing capacity.
I remember my grandfather using the Grand Prix to tow and pull out stumps and stuff instead of the work truck.
The old Passat 4motion v6 diesels, B5.5 for those who want to know, were in fact bought by people who wanted to tow, because it had something insane like 3.5 tonnes of rated towing capacity. The 6mt ones anyway.
Yanks are so accustomed to the idea that “more litres = more torque” that they actually can’t imagine the amount of engineering that’s gone in to smaller more efficient European and Japanese engines.
≈1hp per cc is pretty standard in modern cars but why invest in all that engineering when you can pour cheap gasoline down the throat of your 5 litre V8?
In 2018, the average engine in the UK was 1.61L, in 2022 in the US it is 3.42L (literally over twice the capacity), but yh, it’s me that’s behind the times.
Edit: Imagine getting down voted because someone doesn’t like the data. No rebuttle, no counter data, nothing to show my data might be wrong, just burying it because you don’t like it lmao
And you’re still wrong. Most new cars in the US (other than sports cars) are using small turbocharged four cylinders. But keep trying to act like you know anything about cars in the US, it’s fun to watch.
You wouldn’t believe it, but they routinely haul these over major alpine passes. Works well on climbs, but sharp corners and switchbacks require careful handling, causing everyone else a bit of grief.
This actually the reason why I really don’t like it how so many folks take tow hitches off of antique cars as I’m told they used to be on damn near every car during the 50s and 60s today while yes today they are quite impractical but like you don’t have to have a trailer on a hitched car 247 but still your making a already impractical car and making it slightly more impractical
Tow hitches are an essential thing for me, even though I would never tow a trailer. Reason being? Bike rack on the hitch. It’s so much easier to load then on the roof, no risk of destroying anything and carrying bikes on the roof is not possible with heavy e-bikes. You don’t need a flatbed to carry 2 bikes to your destination (as you can see in the picture)
That’s about to change. After finding out the vast minority, if not all, car manufacturer were found cheating emissions tests, diesel car usage has been limited and production stopped, or will stop in the near future.
That’s about to change. After finding out the vast minority, if not all, car manufacturer were found cheating emissions tests, diesel car usage has been limited and production stopped, or will stop in the near future.
i’m aware of volkwagen and co. doing this; what other manufacturers have been caught?
No. Simply that Volkswagen, then another company was caught, then they went after all of them and they all admitted before they could look into each individual company.
Basically all of them have cheated. You needed good emission test results, but without having a miracle idea that evaded everyone else in the business you simply had no competitive results without cheating. That’s physics, and physics is a very hard and unforgiving ruler.
Not the core issue. My car does not run on Diesel, but I would not have any issues dragging such a caravan around. That is perfectly normal in Europe.
Why the Americans think one would need a thick fat pickup or truck just to pull a caravan is beyond me. Maybe it is just smart marketing to make people buy even bigger cars than they ever need.
Are they? As caravans are quite popular in Europe, I can’t imagine we are missing something in a lighter caravan, so who do Americans have in theirs that makes the heavier?
From a quick look at an store for caravans a bit back it seems like the American caravans are much longer and have expanding sides. Basically you would need a lorry permit in Europe to be allowed to pull one of those.
So they don’t really look like the ones that are intended to be left in place.
The lightest of these you might be allowed to drive in Sweden with a standard license but most would require an extended license for heavy load at the least.
I’d still consider these not “caravans” but “mobile homes”. That’s some monsters I’d expect to be hauled around by film crews and circuses for permanent living on the move.
I’ve seen plenty of small “Euro-sized” cars pull fully loaded horse trailers, so I suspect weight is not much of an issue. You need to get power on the road, and for that bulkyness of the frame is hardly the main factor.
A quick search shows a civic can tow 1,100 lbs. A dodge caravan can tow 3,600 lbs. An F-150 tows 14,000 lbs.
Now someone may have a legitimate reason to need to tow thousands of pounds, such as someone who moves horses around.
But for normal use, my tool trailer comes in under 1,000kg (2,200 lbs); maybe someone working in a mountainous area would need more power? Most likely marketing.
I haul more stuff with my little 4x8 utility trailer and small hybrid than most of the big F150 people around me. I routinely get full loads of compost from the municipal dump.
My parents used to have a 2008 dodge Durango that they were told would be good enough to haul their 3500 lb camper. (Needed 7 seats for 5 kids + them)
This thing did not do well hauling the camper. It struggled going up the mountains where we vacationed and it struggled just as bad coming back down because the brakes couldn’t handle the dead weight.
Now us kids have grown up and moved out and they got an F150 that hauls their new camper, about the same weight (3700 lb) like it’s not even back there.
I think there’s a lot more to it than how much weight the car can actually pull. But I couldn’t say since I’m not that knowledgeable.
It’s like choosing to drive a tractor around. Those F150 are great machines in circumstances where they are needed, but to go food shopping, you don’t need that. I have a RAV4 hybrid (my work requires a large trunk space, and I have kids and a dog) and I get 50mpg and people are amazed compared to 12mpg of their truck. Go figure.
Yep. I’ve got a SEAT Alhambra because I need trunk space, too - and it’s a nice trunk space, easy to use. And I can tow 1800kg, despite it being not a diesel.
![[image] Since many people seem to believe you can't tow with cars, here's roughly what dutch people end up doing on vacation.](https://feddit.de/pictrs/image/ea1db421-ccea-4e3d-af37-aec9b3e62de4.jpeg){kind=link}
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