Help on caravan and car compatability

Thanks EasyT. 

Have tried it but not had a lot of luck mainly because I am unable to find a petrol driven vehicle that will do the job.  Not very keen on spending out on a new diesel when I suspect that in the not too distant future diesel owners are going to be penalised even more as the clamp down on polution increases.

My present vehicle is a Maxda CX5 AWD Auto (diesel) and I put that in on towcar inconjunction with a Lunar Clubman and was disturbed to find that it only recommended that combination was suitable for experienced towers which I am not.

I have been driving large vehicles around the UK and Continent over a number of years but whilst a lot larger than a caravan they were rigids. Naturally I had intended to go on a CC training course but I don't think that it make me an "experienced caravaner".

Hadn't expected it to be so involved.

Anyway, thanks for trying, much appreciated.

85% is not a legal limit but a recommendation based on some very old research and possibly needs up dating. Certainly with a good modern 4x4 or SUV it should be possible to exceed this by a small margin although as a beginner I would not go beyond 90%. Easy T is a very experienced tower so while 96% is safe fir him I would not start out that high. 

Personally I would say the Lunar is a big caravan and challenging as a first tow and I would go for something a bit smaller.

The caravan will require a B+E licence to tow it. If you passed your test from 1997 onwards then you need to take an extra test to tow this.

Easy T is a very experienced tower so while 96% is safe for him I would not start out that high. 

If you re-read my post WW you will see that I tow at around 87% if you don'y consider that the car being laden with OH makes a difference and that the CC matching site is bunkum 

Hi

Have tried thanking you and entering in a conversation but it would appear that for some reason my reply has been Deleted User.

If you get this one, thanks for trying.

Diesel isn't going anywhere anytime soon so don't fall victim to the ill informed scaremongers. As a fuel it is too embedded into the transport infrastructure of Europe to kill off too quickly. And the reality is, as you are finding there simply are too few alternatives - for very good reasons, the alternatives either cost a fortune, don't work or the environmental credentials are a mirage. The club matching service is simply rubbish however there is more to the club and for all its detractors and faults, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for me. 

yes have got this one - thanks.

Don't worry too much about diesels, they will be here for a long time yet and the latest engines are as clean as they can be.

Agreed, diesel will be with us for a long time. However, that wont prevent the Local and Central Goverments from trying to dissuade us from buying diesel engined vehicles by imposing charges or even bans on entering city centres and , of course, increasing fuel duty at a higher rate than for petrol.

Thanks for your comments on the matching service.

Just to give confidence to future of diesel, for those with deep enough pockets Audi have just introduced mild hybrid performance versions of the SQ5, S6 and S7 all with V6 diesel INSTEAD of petrol.... and with 5.1sec 0-60 time..... so no, diesel ain’t dead. 

I take what you say, but the 85% figure is the kerb weight of the car plus 75 kg for the driver. It does assume that the car will be loaded further, so you cannot take the laden weight as the figure for calculating the ratio.