How Much Can I Tow?
If you don’t know the exact answer to this question then you need to wait before hitting the road.
Every car has a designated ‘braked towing capacity’ and this is not to be exceeded. On the weekend my daughter bought a second hand Mitsubishi Outlander 2007 model and asked if she can now tow something.
Yes she can – anything up to a total of 1600kgs so long as she is using electric brakes. In reality that means more likely finding a camper-trailer around 1100kg Tare weight and then allowing for 300kgs of weight to take her up to 1500kg ATM and allowing for 100 kg of buffer.
So even with a reasonable sized car like the Outlander there isn’t an enormous towing capacity at all.
The simple rule is ‘know before you tow’!
And just because you have a 3.5T Colorado or DMax it doesn’t mean you can tow 3.5T of caravan… You see when you realise that the GCM (Gross Combined Mass) of Car and caravan cannot exceed 6T then you quickly see that unless it’s a bare bones car with one passenger and no luggage then you are simply not going to get under that weight limit.
So – the question – ‘how much can I tow?’ depends on many factors and your car’s ‘rated towing ability’ is only one of those. Make sure you understand ‘gross combined mass’ (GCM) before you hit the road as it is very easy to exceed.