Towing speed !

The towing limit is much higher in France (depending on outfit) and much lower in Switzerland. Which is correct? Seems fairly arbitrary to me but we all see badly matched, badly loaded outfits which are unsafe at 50 mph and others that are probably OK at higher speeds.

I try not to judge others,  just go at the speed I consider to be safe for the outfit.

I am with MM and DaveFL on this one, Can someone please explain why 60.1mph is dangerous but 59.9 is safe? How Is the OP sure he was doing 60 (how accurate is your speedo) and the others were all 'pasting' him at 70? Perhaps at an indicated 60 you are only doing 55. I am not condoning the speeding and do think it generally unwise to drive at 70 with a 'van in tow but I have yet to see unbiased data that says such speed in itself is a significant cause of caravan incidents as opposed to other factors such as poor load distribution, tyre blow outs, driver inattention etc etc. I have seen outfits exceeding the speed limits with the van like a dogs tail wagging about, particularly when coming home from Devon 2 years ago and do think they are idiots to drive like that, however as long as they stay clear of me both on and off the roads and caravan sites, I don't care too much what they do.

but in the real world ..... 

On a forum it is so easy to portray oneself as a model of perfection  but in real life 

We have all seen people exceeding the speed limit(towing and solo) and wonder whether they have a desire to sample the benefits of the local A&E. I try to keep to the speed limit when towing, but modern cars and stabilisers create a sense of security. The best way to appreciate speed is to breakdown on the hard shoulder of a motorway, really scary. 

I would also add that the difference between 60 and 70 doesn't seem a lot, but at 60 you travel 89ft a second, but at 70 you are travelling at 104ft a second. 

Enjoy the journey.

one of us can't do sums .....I get 88ft  @ 60mph  and  102.666ft @ 70mph 

How do we not end up in A&E when we cross the channel?

Not only are we driving the same vehicle on the wrong side of the road, but at a higher speed that if we go below it we get pulled over for not driving fast enough 

How also do we not end up in A&E when we go from 30mph, to 40mph, to 50mph, to 60mph when towing and to 70mph when solo 

How, then are motorways with higher speeds the safest roads?

Thinking time to react to an event is on average 0.7 seconds, so in your sums that is 61.6ft and 72.8ft.

Mollys Mummy - I think both of us I originally used metric measurements and reverted back to feet. However, you might need to check your calculation for 70. 1 foot per second equals 0.682 miles per hour, which gives 102.667 per second. 

However, the message remains the same , give or take a few inches!

I did the sums to see whether my maths was the same .... not to check your maths .... 

70mph divide by 60 = 1.1666 miles per min

1.1666miles per min x 1760 x 3 = 6160 ft per min divide by 60 = 102.6666 ft per sec

Those are my working in the margin  .....

but as you say, what are a few feet per sec between friends? 

Less than the reaction distance