Towcar for Heavy Caravan
Haven't visited this forum for a very long time so please be gentle!!!
We have recently bought a Coachman 545 vip with a mtplm of 1630kg. Therefore we need to buy a beefy towcar. I like the look of the Kia Sorento and, when owners write about them, they seem to give them the thumbs up. But having looked into it further, they can be troublesome and the dealers don't have the best of reputations. Another car up to the job is the Hyundai Terracan which would tow the caravan easily but looks, in my opinion, a little dated. As my husband is quite handy with car maintenance, should we look at a car that he could maintain, such as an older Landrover Discovery? Has anyone got any advice please?? The last thing we want is to buy a car that ends up at best, expensive to maintain and, at worst scrap!!!
Many thanks
Juliec
It all depends how much you want to spend and whether the vehicle is to be used also for commutting. We have a caravan with MTPLM 1695kgs and use a 1996 Toyota HiLux Surf 3.0L auto diesel for towing and it cost us less than £4000. Generally they are priced lower but this one had less than 70,000 miles on the clock when we bought it in June this year.
Spares are readily available and they are easy to maintain even if you have limited mechanical knowledge. Here is a link to the Surf forum where you can ask all the necessary questions. We have a newish Ford Fiesta for around town and short journeys.
Hello Julie,
Don't fall into the trap that makes people automatically think a 4x4 is the only choice for towing, for a few it might be, but the vast majority would be served perfectly well by a larger car or perhaps an MPV.
Remember that for most caravanners most mileage is solo, so the costs of 4x4 ownership may be an unnecessary millstone.
Its worth thinking carefully, however its all down to personal choice - happy caravanning
If you are considering a Land Rover, take a while to read the comments here: http://landroverhell.com/article/4010/
then make a choice.
Kia are generally good, the Sedona will pull your van with no problems and is a very comfrotable car to use, but its big and whilst not extravagant on fuel, is not exactly frugal either.
The 2.9 diesel is a great tow car.
With any make there will be tales of woe, its the nature of cars.
I had a Series2 TD5 Land Rover Discovery and sold it as it came out of warranty because I did not want to have to be continually spending money and time keeping such an unreliable vehicle going. I then bought an 04 Sorento auto and kept it for nearly 7 years and it did not have anything go wrong at all. It was even good off roading on Salisbury Plain and in France, but not so good as the Disco on that front. The Kia dealer was okay but as it came out of warranty I used our local independant garage where I supplied all the lubs and filters and just gave him the service schedule. I took the latest Sorento out for a test drive when they first came out and whilst it was better on the road with a cracking engine the car had clearly moved away from the mould of the 2003-2010 models. So deciding that off roading was not an essential motoring need I opted for an Xc70 instead. However I am still strongly drawn to a Land Rover for off roading and exploring vague parts of Europe so I have not ruled out getting a Defender....now there's a car that can be maintained for ever from the parts bin!
Have you thought of the Kia sportage, has a maximum tow of 1600 (up to 2008) but a kerb weight of over 1800 so reduce your payload by 30kg and have the sorrento little brother for a lot less and lower running costs. We have one and pulls our 1480kg caravan very well. Just upgraded to a new caravan to a max weight of 1630 myself, with some careful loading to ensure we dont go over the 1600kg the car is more than man enough to tow it.
Kev
Have you thought of the Kia sportage, has a maximum tow of 1600 (up to 2008) but a kerb weight of over 1800 so reduce your payload by 30kg and have the sorrento little brother for a lot less and lower running costs. We have one and pulls our 1480kg caravan very well. Just upgraded to a new caravan to a max weight of 1630 myself, with some careful loading to ensure we dont go over the 1600kg the car is more than man enough to tow it.
Kev
There would be no need to reduce the payload by 30kg because the maximum allowable towload (1600kg) is NOT the total weight of the caravan, but only its axle load and that, in the case of a 1630kg MTPLM, will definitely be less than 1600kg.
Hi Julie,
we have had a 2008 sorrento from new its a brilliant tow car we have a twin axle,we have towed in france for month then 5weeks later towed to barcelona for another month no problems what so ever.i keep it forever the newer ones are a lot lighter so i dont think they heavy enough for my van.services can be expensive so shop around,bare in mind if you bought a sorrento and you wanted to change your caravan in the future would never have to worry about weight as sorennto will tow anything of normal size.
ALL THE BEST Alan p/t
ABBEY GTS 2009 KIA SORRENTO 2008
Lutz, if the max tow is 1600 and the van is 1630, why would you not need to reduce the caravan weight to 1600???
Kev
Lutz, if the max tow is 1600 and the van is 1630, why would you not need to reduce the caravan weight to 1600???
Kev
Because the noseweight has to be included in the car's load so is excluded from the towing weight.
I have owned all three models of the Kia Sorento and I can honestly say that they have been very reliable over all
and apart from the standard service cost, I have not spent a penny on any of them. The current model is very economical for a vehicle of its class, cheap to tax and has a 7 year warranty.
Steve W