Volvo XC60 Towing Capacity - Sanity Check

Unfortunately not!

 Your kerb weight will be more like 1800kg, it's the unladen car + driver + some fuel usually.  Refer to Volvo technical details.

You will be probably over 90%, but within the car's capability.

What is the permitted train weight?

Hi KjellNN - 4305kg

So working on train weight, the gross vehicle weight and caravan MTPLM is %97 of train weight. Tight but within tolerance. But the chances are we will rarely have a fully laden car with passengers and luggage.

Gross train weight is not the figure you need to be looking at for safely towing a caravan. It has certain technical legal meanings but its not what keeps you the shiny side up.

According to Volvo UK,  the heaviest XC60 has a kerb weight of 1879 so the calculation is as follows

1879 - 15% = a maximum loaded caravan of 1597 kg.

Remember this is for the very heaviest XC60 , the kerb weight drops to 1700kg on some models which = a maximum loaded caravan of 1445kg .

On the heaviest XC60 there is not much user payload and for the lightest non at all.

Assuming of course you wish to stick to the recommended 85% max towing weight in order to maintain a satisfactory safety margin.

Hi Fysherman, thanks for that. I may have to cancel the purchase then and go for something lighter.

Sorry for the bad news but it's just not worth risking your neck over.

It's poor that the dealer did not research the details for you. It only took a minute to look up.

The XC 90 has the weight if that pulls your chain.

Better to learn now, I'll have to speak to the dealer tomorrow. My kerb weight calculations need a bit of work ;-)

I am rather afraid he will quote the maximum towing weight as stated by Volvo. A lot seem to be doing this but it is a dangerous practice.

It's a theoretical figure that the car manfacturer estimates the car can tow without suffering damage or componant failures such as the suspension or clutch. It is most certainly NOT the figure the car can safely tow a caravan. This figure causes more confusion than anything else and certain dealers use it to sell totally unsuitable cars and caravan combinations.

Good luck and if he comes out with this nonsense you know thats what it is.

Now if you had kept your Califfornia

Hi all, im also new to the caravan club, i have never owned a caravan before, myself and my wife have recently decided to go touring, had a nissan qashqai 2011 1.6 petrol and assumed it would be a heavy enough car to tow with, how wrong was i, after having a towbar fitted i then found out it was only capable of a max tow weight of 1200kg, not suitable as we want a four birth, so exchanged for a 2014 zafira tourer, tow max 1500 kg, have done a towing course with the caravan club and am now all ready to buy my first caravan in a month or so, towing weights are so deceptive arnt they?