I am swapping my car, currently have a 2006 Landrover Freelander, road tax is £460 per year Its an auto and is horrendous on fuel, need to save a bit of cash. I use it to tow an Ifor williams horse trailer which it does quite well. I have seen a Ford Focus 1.8 TDCI, will this be able to do the same job? Not sure what the rules are when it comes to towing?
You don’t say whether you’ll have a horse in the trailer but I’ll presume you will. This will be too heavy for the Focus to pull. Don’t know what the actual weight it will pull but it won’t have enough power or braking force.
Years ago, I had a Ssangyong Korando. Very underrated car which made it cheap. Mercedes engine and 'box so it went on forever and very good on the juice. The Musso is the LWB version. Looks are marmite but I loved my little buggy. Very good at pulling Land Rovers out of the mud!
My girlf, who is a horsey type, says that as well as considering what the plated towing weight of the vehicle is, you also have to bear in mind that a horse will move in the trailer which would cause a 1200kg horsebox c/w horse to be considerably more unstable than a 1200kg caravan.
Indeed Harry. I’d suggest a Focus as a medium sized car isn’t up to the job. If it must be pulled by car I’d suggest it would need to be a bigger Audi, Volvo, Merc, etc.
You don’t see many cars pulling horse boxes these days, mostly 4x4’s.
Also of course you’d need to look into licensing category required.
Need to know more about the box really, they vary in quality/weight. Single/double, etc?
cieranc:
So if your donkey box has a plate on with over 1500kgs on it, the vosa will jump on you.
Isnt that ment to be in the mmtm thread?
It should be, we did this in another thread a few weeks back and assuming you have B+E (or C+E) on your licence it is the ACTUAL weight of the trailer that matters not the PLATED weight.
cieranc:
Just had a look in me AA Recovery Guidebook, says the manufacturers max. towing weight for a 1.8TDCi Focus is 1500kgs.
So if your donkey box has a plate on with over 1500kgs on it, the vosa will jump on you.
That’s at variance with the info. given in my link above that says 1200 or 1300 depending how many horses there are under the bonnet. I wonder which source is correct?
Think the OP needs to showing us a photo of the plate.
Well we have horses, a trailer and we also have a Focus. Would I consider towing them with it ■■? Not on your life. To small IMO regardless of the numbers
A bit of research gives the unladen weights for IFOR trailers as;
HB 403 767kg
506 920
511 1000
105 1290
610 1450
The max towing weights for a Focus (assuming a new model) are;
1.6 with 90PS 1200kg
1.6 with 109PS 1300
2.0 with 163PS 1500
The maximum permitted ‘nose weight’ of the trailer is 75kg.
In reality, unless the horse is a Shetland or Exmoor pony the chance of getting horse + unladen weight of the trailer to be no more than the 1200kg allowed for the 1.6 with the 90PS motor is zero. It may be possible with the bigger motors but in reality the chance is probably ‘next to zero.’ If you want to tow horses around then your fuel consumption is going to be pants, sorry, just one of those things that you’ll have to live with.
Don’t worry about ‘plated weights’ when looking at a cars (4x4s) towing capacity, it goes on what the trailer + load ACTUALLY weighs. In the UK there is no relationship between maximum towable trailer weight (for a car/4x4) and the ‘plated weight’ of the trailer. Dearly Beloveds Shogun has a maximum towing capacity of 3200kg for a braked trailer. I can legally tow a trailer with a ‘plated weight’ of 3500kg provided it actually weighs no more than 3200kg. Just as well really as our two hayburners come to 1590kg then there’s 1400kg for the unladen trailer.
Fileep:
I am swapping my car, currently have a 2006 Landrover Freelander, road tax is £460 per year Its an auto and is horrendous on fuel, need to save a bit of cash. I use it to tow an Ifor williams horse trailer which it does quite well. I have seen a Ford Focus 1.8 TDCI, will this be able to do the same job? Not sure what the rules are when it comes to towing?
Any help appreciated.
the max plated towing weight on a older shape freelander is iro 1800 kg so a freelander is only just up to the job in the first place never mind owt any smaller!!
the best ting to do is dont buy an auto for economy next time!
An empty horse box is around 1100kg, add a nag at around 500kg, plus the additional “stuff” needed, need to have a towing capacity of 1750kg.
Licence required is B+E, if you passed your car test after 1997 then another test is needed.
Ever thought about a Landy Defender? My 300tdi did around 18 mpg towing, 26-28 on a solo run.
Best option is a 3.5t purpose built van, nicer to drive, better for the nag, but a bit more outlay and cheaper to run?
Just my experience…
Cheers
Paul
A horse trailer will shake a small car to pieces, not gentle on the towing vehicle, about the only car i’d attempt this with would be a Volvo or MB or similar with proper auto box.
Apart from anything else the DMF will suffer in short term on a modern Diesel manual, the price for replacement will be an eye opener.
Old mate of mine had one of the last Feelander 1, HSE auto with the BMW Diesel lump, i thought there was some mistake when i saw a £450 VED licence in the window, looked it up and sure enough it really is that price.
The gross weight of what ever you tow should never be more than 100% of the weight of the tow vehicle, irrespective of size make or gear box… And ideally around the 70-80% mark, or you will have the tail wagging the dog and it WILL tip over…