HOW DO YOU MATCH TOW CARS AND VANS?
I have received my January issue of Practical Caravan and have to say that I’m confused at some of the content. On page 6-7 of the magazine, you show a lovely picture of a large twin-axle Sprite hitched up to a Volvo XC40. However, the car and caravan outfit looks out of balance – the van looks far too large for the smaller Volvo. As you review this caravan further on in the issue, you state that the match for it would be a tow vehicle of 2004kg to keep it within the 85% guideline, but this is well above the Volvo’s kerbweight of 1735kg. In the same magazine, you test the Volvo towing a Swift Expression 635 with MTPLM of 1680kg. I appreciate this is perhaps done to test the vehicle’s towing ability, but again, this is not a sensible match. Finally, in Running Reports, you state that the same Sprite comes just within the Volvo XC40’S 85% limit, which I think you must have calculated on the caravan’s MIRO. Gordon Smart
Sarah Wakely says…
Many thanks for your email, Gordon – I would like to answer your points here.
For the purposes of our tow tests, the caravans are matched by the Mass in Running Order (as stated in the test) because the caravans are not loaded.
In this instance, we always request a test caravan with a Mass in Running Order that is close to the 85% match figure of the car we are testing, provided that this does not exceed the vehicle’s legal towing limit.
For regular towing, when a caravan is due to be loaded, it makes sense to use the Maximum Technically Permissible Mass for matching purposes (or better still, for us to weigh the caravan in its loaded state).
We believe our readers are sensible enough to understand that there is a clear difference between towing an unladen caravan in order to test a car’s towing abilities, and best practice when it comes to outfit matching for a caravan holiday. Please note that we also frequently refer to the 85% and 100% matching guidelines both in the magazine and on our website!
With regard to the Volvo/ Sprite match: the tow car’s kerbweight is below what we suggest as an ideal weight for the caravan. However, I would point out that this is a good car weight for someone who is about to go off on an extensive tour with all of the luggage necessary for a family of six.
On this occasion, we towed the caravan unladen, which meant that it was close to its MIRO weight of 1479kg, which I calculate to be just
0.2% above the car’s 85% limit.
I'd also point out that, as we at PC are all experienced at towing, we believed this to be safe for the relatively short journey we were making.
I hope that this answers any concerns and you will continue to enjoy reading Practical Caravan.