towing with a 1.9 td vitara

[Famerbennie]

Hi all, thinking of getting a 1.9td vitara do you with it would be alright towing a car trailer with sj on and a horse trailer?

[ScottieJ]

Which model vitara? an old 1.9tdi or a newer GV?

Do you have a B+E license?

If not then it will be hard to get the weights correct to tow a trailer with an SJ on, The trailer and load cannot weigh more than the vehicle doing the towing and the combined weight must not be more than 3500kg to stay legal.

Would probably be fine towing a horsebox though.

[Famerbennie]

an old square shape

and yea i'd be doing my trailer test

was just wondering if it would be alright towing it all?

[Famerbennie]

this shape

vitara.jpg (78.66 KiB) Viewed 9092 times

[ScottieJ]

Apparently the weights for that shape are

450kg unbraked
1500kg braked

That's going to be very close if it's a modified sj being towed and would depend on the trailer weight.

Personally I think you would be better off with a GV.

[d_r_1989]

And they can hardly pull them selves. Be better with a grand vitara.

[RickUK]

They are under-powered,and also being a SWB Vitara you could end up with the 'tail wagging the dog' problem for sure.

Not a very good tug me thinks,a long wheel base one would be better i guess.

[twiss]

Yes I believe the LWB/commercial model has a slightly higher towing weight... but they are few and far between these days

[Anton]

Apparently the weights for that shape are

450kg unbraked
1500kg braked

That's going to be very close if it's a modified sj being towed and would depend on the trailer weight.

Personally I think you would be better off with a GV.

Bear in mind that this is the plated weight of the trailer, not the actual weight of the trailer. An empty trailer weighing 200kg which is plated for a maximum of 1600kg would be illegal to tow, even empty. Doesn't matter that it's perfectly safe.

And if the manufacturer's max tow weight is more than the manufacturer's unlaiden kerbweight of the vehicle, then ignore the manufacturer's max tow weight if your licence isn't pre-1997. The unlaiden weight is the max unless the vehicle's manufacturer states the max tow weight is less than the unlaiden weight - it's the lower of those two that matters.

Mike told me he knows a guy who got done for pulling an empty horsebox with an Astra. The empty horsebox was perfectly safe to tow, but the law says that it's the plated MAXIMUM of the trailer and the plated UNLAIDEN weight of the tow vehicle that matters (although you're gonna get done if you load more than the max plated weight into the trailer too). Because the plated max of the horsebox was higher than the unlaiden weight of the tow vehicle, he was prosecuted.

So you cannot tow a trailer who's plated maximum exceeds the vehicle's unlaiden mass unless you have a pre-97 licence. Even with a B+E. A B+E licence ups your max gross trainweight with a braked trailer from 3500kg to 7000kg.

Weirdly, with an unbraked trailer your max is 3500kg for vehicle (max laiden weight this time, NOT unlaiden weight) and 750kg plated maximum for trailer, meaning an unbraked trailer of 750kg makes for a limit of 4250kg. So in theory a vehicle with a max weight of 3500kg cannot tow a 750kg braked trailer, only a 750kg or less unbraked trailer. And you can't take brakes off a braked trailer (even a sub-750kg one) to make it an unbraked trailer. If it has brakes, it's a braked trailer legally, no matter what you do to it - taking the brakes off makes it a defective and illegal braked trailer, not an unbraked trailer.

With a pre-97 licence your max gross trainweight is 8250kg in any combination you want, so a pre-97 licence holder can tow a 6000kg plated trailer with a 2000kg plated max tow vehicle perfectly legally, as long as the tow vehicle's manufacturer's spec isn't exceeded.

If that sounds complicated and stupid, it is. But if you assume that people who tow things are stupid, it *kinda* makes sense (post 97 does, at least).

With all that in mind, I have to ask what the plated weight of the trailer is - because that's going to determine what tow vehicle makes sense.

For referance:

https://www.gov.uk/towing-with-car/driv ... ou-can-tow

[twiss]

Theres a large difference between what you can legally tow and what you can physically tow.... my tow rig coming to Malta from the UK was quite a bit over 650kg i think!
It was bordering on unsafe towing it down the big mountain hills, braking very carefully. If I'd have got pulled I think the coppers would have had a fit.
Fortunately I only got spoken to by Italian police and they are not bothered about such petty rules and regulations