Towing Capacity?

[hipo1024]

Hello peeps...So I'm wondering what the towing capacity for my td is? Google on this occasion has turned up nothing as has a search on here My vin plate says "GVW 1690, GCW 2690" so would that be a towing capacity of just 1,000kg? This seems abit low for a car that's classed as a medium sized family car, especially considering a astra td can tow something like 1400kgs???? (according to wikianswers anyways) Its a zuzu td hatch on a k plate (facelift) if that helps?

[planetc]

My 1.8 auto was around 1300kgs.... Gross train weight minus kerb weight, minus any other load is the max. Also depends on when you passed your test

[hipo1024]

My unladen weight is 1360 iirc so would that mean if the car was empty I could tow 1330 kgs? I ask because my caravan weighs 1300 kgs fully loaded, which is still less than the car's unladen weight so I'm ok to tow it on my license but I don't want to get pulled by vosa for towing over the car's limit. Do they go by the weight that the car's at, at the time or do they assume the car is fully loaded, meaning that the cav can only tow 1000kgs???

[planetc]

Up to the weight of the car is fine, as long as the max weight on the chassis plate is not exceeded. For example the Zafira dti has a plated towing weight of 1050kg although the car is heavier. GTW, or gross train weight is the one to go by if there is no stated maximum trailer weight.

[Cavalier342]

I know it's slightly different, but technically if your car can tow another car of equal weight, than a caravan up to that weight is fine. Towing cars is quite different to fixed axle trailers or caravans but weight wise it's a marker

I had a quick browse through my driver's manual earlier, it basically says what planetc said already, and that the socket load (towball) shouldn't exceed 75kg. Although I'd imagine that only covers a specific dealer fit-towbar, and not the aftermarket ones.

[James McGrath]

For a 1.7TD LS manual the maximum towing weight is 1000Kg for a trailer with brakes or 500Kg for a trailer without brakes.
that is based on the "ability of the car, with two occupants of 70Kg each, to restart on a 12% gradient... any additional weight including luggage or additional passengers should be deducted from the maximum towing weight"

The Kerbweight is 1185Kg (saloon) or 1200Kg (Hatchback)
The Gross Vehicle Weight is 1690Kg (saloon + hatch)

The Gross vehicle weight is "the total permissible weight of the vehicle including passengers and their luggage". It hasn't got much to do with towing, just how much weight you can have in the car itself.
The kerbweight is the weight of the car with all fluids topped up with a full tank of petrol I believe. So to get the amount of weight you can have inside the car you deduct the kerbweight from the Gross Vehicle Weight.

So the maximum amount of weight you can have inside your car is 490Kg for a Hatchback or 505Kg for a saloon.

[hipo1024]

For a 1.7TD LS manual the maximum towing weight is 1000Kg for a trailer with brakes or 500Kg for a trailer without brakes.

This is the info I wanted, but I didn't want the figures to be so small. So in short no my cav can't tow my caravan that could potentially weigh 1300kgs looks like I need to find a lighter van then FFS!

[Cavalier342]

Gross Vehicle weight is 1690kg for 1.8 hatchback,

Gross Curb weight is 2900kg.

That's what it says on the VIN plate under the slam panel. I don't know where people get that 1100-1200kg maximum weight, that's rubbish. Cavaliers weigh a good ton and a half on average, if they weighed 1100 kg they would fly like sh*t of a shovel.

Now the only bit I'm confused about with regard to weights is that which system do people go by? Metric ton, short ton or long ton? Slight difference in all of them. I go by what it says on the VIN plate, which I believe is the long ton.

[James McGrath]

Cavaliers weigh a good ton and a half on average, if they weighed 1100 kg they would fly like sh*t of a shovel.

Now the only bit I'm confused about with regard to weights is that which system do people go by? Metric ton, short ton or long ton? Slight difference in all of them. I go by what it says on the VIN plate, which I believe is the long ton.

They really don't weigh that much. The heaviest cavalier is the turbo which is 1395Kg that's with the 4x4 system and all the heavy optional extras like air con.

But most cavaliers are pretty light, my LS is only 1060Kg. You can expect an equivalent modern car to weigh 1500Kg or more but not the cavalier.

A metric ton is 1000Kg

A long ton is 2,240 pounds and is British Imperial (about 1016Kg)

A Short ton is 2,000 pounds and is American Imperial (about 907Kg)

[James McGrath]

This is the info I wanted, but I didn't want the figures to be so small. So in short no my cav can't tow my caravan that could potentially weigh 1300kgs looks like I need to find a lighter van then FFS!

What you really want is a C20NE cav. Maximum towing capacity is 1350Kg braked. It won the caravan club's tow car of the year award like 4 times running.

[hipo1024]

GVW is gross vehicle weight and GCW is gross combined weight not curb and from what you've said the 1.8 can tow 1210kgs, still not enough but more than the diesel (doesn't make sense to me that lol) bloody vauxhall sending the td's out so under tuned I towed a broken down corrola verso with it yesterday and it dragged that along very happily and that's got to weigh more than a ton

[hipo1024]

What you really want is a C20NE cav. Maximum towing capacity is 1350Kg braked. It won the caravan club's tow car of the year award like 4 times running.

If only I could afford to run a green nozzle, but then I'd probably have a turbo 4x4 it be easier and probably cheaper to get a smaller van tho

[Super89]

That's the problem, they sent the diesel out very detuned. The Japanese 1.7td was 100bhp std and some marine versions were around 120bhp. Lol

[James McGrath]

If only I could afford to run a green nozzle, but then I'd probably have a turbo 4x4 it be easier and probably cheaper to get a smaller van tho

Surprisingly the turbo has a maximum towing capacity of only 1300Kg. Must be something to do with it's fragile 4x4 system.

If I were you, I'd hook it up and see how it goes. They are manufactures figures and are likely to be conservative.
Just be sensible of course and pay attention to the engine temperature and how the brakes perform.

[planetc]

.... as long as it isn't plated at 1000kg. If it is then you would be breaking the law. I went through this with the Zafira.

[hipo1024]

The other problem is that I remembered the unladen weight wrong, it's only 1135kgs so I'd need my b+e license because it's over my unladen weight so I'd be over weight on the car and my license

[Cavalier342]

I thought a normal car license is good for up to 3.5 ton?

[planetc]

Depends when you pass your test Andrei, these days it's an additional category for towing.

[Cavalier342]

Fair play. What gets me is that every qualified driver can legally tow another car, but towing a caravan/trailer over a certain weight all of a sudden becomes an issue

[planetc]

No, the weight limits still apply, it doesn't matter what it is

[Cavalier342]

Oh, so, both the towing and towed vehicle weights combined cannot exceed 3.5 tons basically?

[hipo1024]

I could tow a car of more or less any weight if it was blocking the road or otherwise causing a issue to other road users. But because I passed in 2007 I only have class b on my license so I can tow a trailer/caravan with a combined weight of no more than 3500kgs, and the MAM of the trailer has to be less than the unladen weight of the tow car.

Towing laws are a nightmare. And until they updated the wording on the gov website noone was sure if I was actually allowed to tow everything at all lol, or what I could tow if i could. And as a consequence of this I towed my caravan with my now sold 1999 frontera Dti all the way to Southampton and back genuinely not knowing that I was well over weight lol was probably pushing near the 4500kg mark, I have also towed a twin axle car trailer (probably well on the way towards 5 tons MAM) through the centre of London with a classic mini on it with the same car, again because of the rubbish wording nobody could tell me if I could or not, so as it turns out no lol, back then the gov website made it look like it was the actual weight that mattered not the MAM's so to the best of my knowledge I was ok to tow such things.

[Cavalier342]

It's a fking pain in the ass, right? Everytime legalities are involved, it's a headache. Should be plain simple black and white information.