4 wheel or 2 wheel drive?

Depends how much you go into wet fields!  "Off-road" tyres on a two wheel drive (rear wheel drive, of course) can be  a lot better than four-wheel-drive on tarmac slicks.

If it is grass pitches on a Caravan Club site you will not be alone and it is fairly certain some other member will have a decent off-road vehicle there. For remote and lonely CLs, well, . . . . . .

Ok, thanks for the reply, pretty much what i thought, just wondered if anyone has experience of towing without 4 wheel drive.

Cheers.

I'm sure that many/most manage ok with the virtually default FWD of most cars around these days. I'd only owned RWD tow car up until I bought my current permanent 4x4. Remember that many of the '4x4' SUVs on the road are predominantly FWD until they slip and then the rear drive kicks in. 

Apart from LRs, it’s all we had back in 'the good old days'.

So much depends on the type of 4wd that it’s almost impossible to answer your question. Selectable, full time, intermediate diff, predominantly fwd or rwd or equal distribution……

4WD is supposedly better for towing.

4WD are generally heavier than equivalent 2WD versions.

4WD on a softroader with low profile tyres is a useless as a 2WD on slippy stuff.

For pulling a van off soft stuff you need a proper 4x4.

I have a big heavy proper knobbly tyred 4x4. Have I ever needed it to preform in its off road role, no. Have fellow campers benefited from its pulling power, yes. Therein lies the solution, there is always someone on site who has a mud plugger willing to help.

I have one due to physics. Its heavy, damn heavy, and was designed to pull (and importantly, stop) up to 3.5T and this makes towing stable and safe. 

Cheers, thanks for the replies, think i'll stick with 4 WD.

agree with your statement + when the beast from the east was here what got all the hgv's and others out of the snow, nurses to work and carers to the elderly, the 4x4 owners yet what will they do when there is less and less when they ban the oil burners. moan over.

I suppose a question for the OP is whether he has a mover on his caravan? If so that will usually get a caravan out of most situations providing the jockey wheel doesn't sink into the ground. I had three 4X4 SUV's when I had a caravan plus many years ago a 4X4 Vauxhall Cavalier! I can't think of many situations where I needed the 4X4 element to get me out of a difficult situation. Persoanlly I would prefer to tow with a larger SUV type vehicle than a saloon car as I find them much more comfortable to drive.

David

When I bought my Touareg, three years ago, I specified the Escape model, which not only is a proper 4x4 but also has a low ratio box, diff locks and raised/stiffened suspension as standard. I have also recently fitted all terrain tyres. To me it's the perfect tow vehicle and has got me and others out of all sorts of potential trouble on wet grass pitches in winter. Sadly, this model has been discontinued by VW, so I shall be hanging on to it for a while.

Unless you have a real 4x4 the only advantage is the extra weight,as most "Chelsea Tractors" are fitted with the same tyres as most other types of car,and the only diference in "adverse" weather is any mishap is more spectacular