Car for towing a caravan

marlot

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Volvo. Doesn't matter what age it is as long as its 2L or above and well looked after it'll still pull a caravan with ease. Try as hard as you might their engines are pretty hard to kill.

Depends on the caravan!

As I said above, "Some friends who have caravanned for years got caught out last summer - they bought a very fancy caravan, thinking their volvo V70 'weighed more than almost anything on the road'. Except it didn't, and the huge caravan was a pig to tow. They were lucky - the dealer let them change the caravan. They got very stressed though, and nearly lost their holiday to France. "

andrew-the-cat

Buy something with a big diesel engine. Problem solved.

TrickyWicky

marlot wrote: »

Depends on the caravan!

As I said above, "Some friends who have caravanned for years got caught out last summer - they bought a very fancy caravan, thinking their volvo V70 'weighed more than almost anything on the road'. Except it didn't, and the huge caravan was a pig to tow. They were lucky - the dealer let them change the caravan. They got very stressed though, and nearly lost their holiday to France. "

In fairness I imagine a caravan to be like this:


What it sounds like you're describing is this:


One is towable with a car the other needs a 4x4.

One day I'd like a caravan, always wanted to do some caravaning it would be very cool!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

forgotmyname wrote: »

Thousand of car choices and thousands of caravans.

One thing to watch, Sellers who tell you your 1000cc small hatchback will tow their twin axle monster if you load it carefully. Too many sellers dont know what the caravan's gross laden weight is.

Decide what sort of caravan you want, Size, Layout, Berth etc.

Then decide what sort of car you want, Small economical one or a huge thirsty beast of a 4x4 that will tow the QE2 fully loaded.

ZT's dont suffer head gasket problems? Few on ebay may make you think again on that one.

kv6 quadcam engine doesnt suffer the HG problem.


A number of early units were seen off by head gasket failure brought about by poorly maintained production tolerances. This caused the height of the cylinder liners to vary resulting in over compression or under compression of the head gaskets. However, the redesign of the engine and its production facility, prior to the introduction of the Rover 75, cured this problem and it became one of the company's most reliable units. Problems remaining through until the end of production were largely confined to the inlet manifold mechanism (particularly the VIS valve motors) and leaking thermostat housings.
.

any K6 engine that has had its HG blown is the result of overheating by not looking after it.

marlot

TrickyWicky wrote: »

In fairness I imagine a caravan to be like this:


What it sounds like you're describing is this:


One is towable with a car the other needs a 4x4.

One day I'd like a caravan, always wanted to do some caravaning it would be very cool!

It was only a single axle, but did weigh 1550kg loaded!

The reason I didn't want to jump to recommending a specific car was that the OP needs to give us a clue what they want to tow.

sunshinetours

Some single axle caravans are very heavy these days and as mentioned nose weight is equally important for a stable tow.
As Marlot correctly says noone can give a sensible specific recommendation without knowing the caravan first. A Golf/Jetta diesel may be best or a 4x4 may be required witha huge difference in running costs

Caravan Club tow car winners 2012 here

EDIT - useful link here with CC opinions on various models over past 6 years or so. just click on manufacturer name