Our towing vehicle
For our visit to Goudmyn, we drove an Opel Zafira Life. It is a luxurious car with, among other things, blindspot sensors, a reversing camera, a table that sets up between the seats of the second row, and the heads-up display projected on the windscreen shows your speed as well as the local speed limit.
Vans like the Zafira are designed with small groups of people in mind, but the Zafira is not really built for towing. You may hitch a caravan weighing no more than 600 kg – we looked around and the Tonga caravan’s weight was low enough: 580 kg. Obviously, with the 370 Nm of torque, you don’t feel the weight on the towbar, and moreover, the tiny Tonga easily fits within the van’s slipstream.
Our tow vehicle was equipped with a Brink towbar. Its load index (D value) is 13,86 kN which is equivalent to 1 413 kg, and the nose weight limit is 104 kg. According to the booklet, you must stick to the heaviest possible nose weight, and not lighter than 25 kg (this is also what the legislation stipulates).
The electrical coupler works with a 13-point socket for which you also get a nine-point adapter so that it fits on a standard plug.
The booklet suggests a towing speed of no more than 80 km/h and up to 100 km/h if you use a stabiliser. The Zafira also comes with automatic sway control (it’s part of the electronic stability control) and once you connect your caravan, aids such as the reversing camera and blind-spot sensors are deactivated by the computer.
Four of us hit the road with a fully loaded Zafira and Tonga over Ou Kaapse Road and the Du Toitskloof Pass, and after 560,7 km, the fuel consumption was a respectable 9,7 ℓ/100 km. So, we could drive there and back on one tank, with enough fuel remaining for another 160 km.