Tow vehicles

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
I know its been done before but bare with me :) I've always been in the needing a big vehicle to tow camp after a nearly bad situation where we had to stop quickly years ago (everything was fine but I put it down to the large 4x4 we were towing with) but I've got a few friends now towing with larger cars and perfectly legally too (I've checked as they offered to take jess out when she's better).

So my question is, if a car is rated to tow 2t would you be happy with that?
Is there any advantage with a 4x4 that might only be rated at 2t also?
If your trailer is say 1t (eg ifor 505 is sub 900kg) and you're horse is around 500kg and you are mindful of your limits would you consider it?

Towing with a bigger car might make the possibility of me getting mobile a whole heap easier as they tend to be much more economical so could swap out my current car and use tow vehicle for everyday too.
 
Until recently we had a Nissan X Trail, rated for 2t I think. I can't tow (though I would be allowed to on my licence - how scary is that!) but a friend borrowed it in a crisis (dead lorry) and ferried 2 horses at a time in it to a nearby venue up a steep hill. It was fine.

We used it as our everyday dog-and-hay car as well. It was a bit big - I prefer the Honda Cr-V we have now - but perfectly serviceable and economical.
 
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What you have to be mindful of is it doesn't matter what you have IN the trailer, if the trailer is plated as 3.5ton, your car must be able to tow that. So you may well be towing a 505 with a Shetland in it with something like an X trail or freelander but if stopped, you'd be illegal as trailer is rated higher than max tow weight of the car. I know more and more people using single trailers and softroaders like the X trail, Vauxhall thing or the crv. That's legal because of the max weight of trailer being equal to/less than vehicle tow capacity.

We are looking at the transport issue just now as my car is needing gotten rid of. Realistically with my chunky welshie and highland I need the biggest tow capacity. However we are also looking at figures if we got me a run around and a small Horsebox for transport. Neither cheap unfortunately as hubby looking only at new/nearly new :eek:
 
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We tow our Rice Beaufort and Albi with our X-trail. For towing Albi and G we would deffo use our Shogun tho!!! :p
 
What you have to be mindful of is it doesn't matter what you have IN the trailer, if the trailer is plated as 3.5ton, your car must be able to tow that. So you may well be towing a 505 with a Shetland in it with something like an X trail or freelander but if stopped, you'd be illegal as trailer is rated higher than max tow weight of the car. I know more and more people using single trailers and softroaders like the X trail, Vauxhall thing or the crv. That's legal because of the max weight of trailer being equal to/less than vehicle tow capacity.
When my friend started towing with her big car I said the same but aparently that is not the case, that was a misinterpretation when the laws changed, I checked it out on official . Gov websites and they said the same, that is only relevant in relation to licencing, as long as the vehicle tow capacity isn't exceeded then you are legal as long as you are licensed appropriately.
 
I used to tow an Ifor 505 with Raf and a friend's horse in my old Pajero with no problem, but a few years later in an emergency I had to borrow a 505 to take Raf to the farrier and tried towing it with our Passat which has a max towing capacity of 1800 kg. It was horrible, felt very jerky and unsafe. Maybe it would have been different if it had just had that extra bit of capacity or maybe modern cars are better, or maybe I'm just a wuss - the woman we bought the trailer from towed two horses with a Passat.

Have you looked on the caravan forums? I bet there's plenty of discussion about tow vehicles on them.
 
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I had a long wheel base Pajero when we had our near miss, it was a beast :) I wouldn't be happy towing with a smaller vehicle if I lived in a hilly area or if I was still doing lots of motorway miles, but for pootling about locally in the pancake flat brecks I am considering it, I had a good look on towing forums and it seems they basically say if your vehicle is rated for the load you should be good but having a bit of extra poke is always a good thing :)
 
We tow with a Terrano and can't even feel you've got a horse on, it's a machine. We only use this car for towing though and have smaller cars for everyday as we do too many miles. When I looked into it if the car is rated to tow 2000kg then it will tow that as a max fine otherwise car manufactures would get in trouble if the car wasn't capable. In the future we may look at doing the same and get something like a VW Tigun which can tow 2000kg and would only be taking one small horse so would be within it's towing capacity.
 
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When my friend started towing with her big car I said the same but aparently that is not the case, that was a misinterpretation when the laws changed, I checked it out on official . Gov websites and they said the same, that is only relevant in relation to licencing, as long as the vehicle tow capacity isn't exceeded then you are legal as long as you are licensed appropriately.

Interesting coz it's been debated on our local Facebook group and consensus was max tow weight of vehicle had to be equal to/greater than max weight of trailer. I'll go check that out! Like I said, would a single trailer appeal? My pal has a new one and it's lovely, much more solid looking than the older Ifor single trailers.
 
Interesting coz it's been debated on our local Facebook group and consensus was max tow weight of vehicle had to be equal to/greater than max weight of trailer. I'll go check that out! Like I said, would a single trailer appeal? My pal has a new one and it's lovely, much more solid looking than the older Ifor single trailers.
There are very few 4x4 that could pull a 3.5t trailer, the equitrek's are pushing it on most vehicles. If unbraked you can't pull nearly as much as with a braked trailer, I think all horse trailers are braked now days. Its a rule of thumb to stick to a trailer being only 85% of your vehicle weight but that came from caravan club reccomendations (many of which were unbraked way back when) but legally speaking its physical weight at the time you are towing, not the potential weight it could be, as I now understand it.

I would prefer not to have a single as I'd like to be able to take both out, they're a combined weight of 700kg so with something like a 505, if carrying hay for a day I'd likely be pulling about 1650kg total. I'd load all other stuff into the car.
 
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I have towed with a vehicle that was rated at 2tonnes because i didnt have any other choice. Having the choice now Id always opt for something with as much grunt as possible. So many people dont realise many 4x4’s cant actually tow 3.5t. Its only very recently the new model of Toyota Hilux was upgraded to a 3.5T capacity. Now how many farmers up and down the country do you think use Hi Luxes day to day towing big livestock boxes and more.

We just changed from a Landrover Defender to an Isuzu Dmax - mainly because the Defender clutch really aggravated my back. Like the DMax a lot - tows my big livestock trailer loaded up with ponies no bother and it’s nice to drive too :)
 
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I have towed with a vehicle that was rated at 2tonnes because i didnt have any other choice. Having the choice now Id always opt for something with as much grunt as possible. So many people dont realise many 4x4’s cant actually tow 3.5t. Its only very recently the new model of Toyota Hilux was upgraded to a 3.5T capacity. Now how many farmers up and down the country do you think use Hi Luxes day to day towing big livestock boxes and more.

We just changed from a Landrover Defender to an Isuzu Dmax - mainly because the Defender clutch really aggravated my back. Like the DMax a lot - tows my big livestock trailer loaded up with ponies no bother and it’s nice to drive too :)

I've also got a D-Max - traded in the Hyundai Santa Fe as I found it struggled to pull the trailer even though the towing weight was technically (and legally) fine. I like it! Also I am thinking of swapping my Ifor Williams 505 for an Equitrek so I need something with enough heft!
 
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