Towing caravan with 1.6 16v

[MikeMaxo]

Hi guys.
I bought a small 2 berth caravan yesterday, picked up and drove the 66 miles home....
My auto LWB 1993 1.6 had a bit of a hard time with it, had to work hard on hills reving very high and eventually got a bit too hot so had to stop a few times..

I am certain the heat build up is down to me being a tit and not cleaning the rad since i last went off road as a fair bit of the rad is still covered in mudd....

So my question is has anyone towed a cvan with a 1.6 and how did it behave, hard work high reving on hills or is it just mine. The cvan is around 800kg.
Cheers.

[twiss]

I haven't but I know Jay tried towing a caravan with a 410 and ended up getting a grand vitara!

[RickUK]

I have 2.0ltr V6 Vitara LWB and that would have no problems pulling a Caravan,but you have nearly everything against you,its a big old bus to pull along with a 1.6 anyway but then another thing is the Auto box as i would think that would be working overtime.One possibility to when you get to a steepish hill is prehaps manually change down the gears so you keep it on the powerband all the time and that may help you a little.

If you plan on doing alot of towing then its very under powered but for the odd weekend away then it may be all right.

[88SJ]

I had an '89 Vitara soft top that I bought new...towed a caravan across France a couple of times then I bought a LWB 1.6 in 1994 that also towed a caravan. At the time I thought they were fine and I was happy with the way they performed

I had BMWs from mid nineties and then I realised that the Suzukis weren't that good after all. Now I use a Porsche Cayenne as a tow vehicle which is just awesome

As said...I think the auto box is against you a bit but the caravan you have sounds nice and light so go for it.

Don't forget to drive via Chipping Norton to piss off Clarkson..!!..

[Rhinoman]

I towed a car trailer with my 8V Vit and it did alright. I would suspect that most of your issues are down to the auto box, do you have the 3-sp?

[twiss]

Oooooh not the 3 speed... and easy way of making a vitara rubbish!

[i_am_me]

ive towed a car trailer with a vitara on it with my 1.6 16v manual vitara.
done around 70 miles with it in one trip
and a total of about 210 miles towing it.
it does struggle a bit on hills and does need to be revved hard sometimes,but the vit does about 4k rpm at 70 mph anyway so they are designed to be able to rev
it towed fine apart from the lack of power but i did hit about 80mph at one point when i wasnt paying attention to the speed i was doing
i have towed it on motorways and round town and its managed it all.motorways are easy enough but it did drop speed on up hill sections.
round town is tricky becuase it takes a lot longer to set of from junctions but as long as you allow for it its ok.
i dont recommend doing it but if its the only option it is capable of doing it occasionally.however you should make sure you arnt violating your driving license limitations.
and be aware that depending on the caravan you may be towing more than the vit is rated to tow

[Jay18]

My 410 towed my little caravan around the storage yard without any problems, but with the amount the wind blows the SJ on the road I decided I needed something bigger, heavier and with more power, so I bought a 2.0 16v Grand Vitara, it seems to tow the caravan ok but only towed it about 10 miles, next weekend I'll be towing it 40 miles so will see how she goes then, do miss my old SJ though

Your vit should be ok with a caravan I would think, I'd change thermostat as well if it's getting warm, maybe check the fan is working correctly etc, mud in the rad probably wont help either though haha

[MikeMaxo]

Thanks guys.
To be honest the caravan is just a test van, if we enjoy using it a few times then we will get something bigger so at that point i will start looking for a v6 Vit

I changed the thermostat when i serviced her last year Jay so sure the mud must be the culprit and the fact she was trying so hard

[i_am_me]

my vitara used to overheat slightly at one point because of the mud on the rad so it is a very likely suspect.
i just jet washed the rad and its been completely fine since.