Towing

[Dan Ward]

Hi all I'm looking at getting a berlingo XTR 90 to tow a 4 to 6 berth caravan.  Anybody got any hints and tips in what I'm looking for as I have never towed before.

[malgpz900]

Make sure you get the right weight match between car and caravan.
http://www.towcar.info/mobile/index.php

http://www.towsure.com/caravan-car-outfit-matcher

[ntm1275]

The main point to remember is that the Berlingo Multispace has a trailer tow limit of 1300 kg, this will most likely rule out a six berth unless you can find one that is very light.
4 berths are possible, but again you want one that is a light as possible.

In the end I ended up with a 2 berth with an unladen weight of just under 1000kg.
Add to that the payload which I could go as high as 300kg, but as my car is a 2010 model, the noseweight is restricted to 55kg and I found that there was no way I could fit 300kg in the caravan without most of the weight going towards that back making it unstable.
In the end I settled for a payload of 92kg and have to put everything else in to the car itself, which adds another 334kg to the car

This then brings up another issue
Max trailer weight = 1300 kg
Maximum weight allowed for car only = £2065kg
This may seem to indicate that you can have a total weight of 1300kg plus 2065kg which equals 3365kg, but this is wrong as the specified overall car weight and trailer weight has a maximum of 3065kg

Using those figures, I now have 18kg spare by the time I have my payload added to either the caravan and/or car

Also because of the noseweight being low, I cannot travel with the gas bottles and spare wheel in the front gas locker as it makes the noseweight too high, so they have to go in the car.

My payload is nothing special just the normal things, but my advice is weigh everything you want to carry and then look for a caravan that fits in with that.

My Berlingo is a 110HP model and is fine on motorways, but on A and B roads, I spend most of my time in 3rd or 4th.
My average fuel consumption when towing drops to about 30mpg