Tiguan towing haines signature 542f

[fishfeeder]

Other option is to get the little lady a new small car to hoon around in....
Then get an old Toyota or Nissan to tow the boat to the ramp... if your not doing a lot of KM in the tow vehicle then you wouldn't need something to do both, and you would have an extra vehicle if needed..

Sure you have an extra Rego and insurance but you will save heaps on Fuel and the benefits are there also..

Cheers
Brett

[Kero]

Santa Fe would be worth a look, great German designed diesel, very economical, rated to 2 tones. The VW are great until you need to buy parts or service them then they are costly.

Cheers

ML

We've got a 2011 Santa Fe & couldn't be happier with it.
7 seats, 145kW/436Nm diesel, 6 speed auto, AWD, 2 tonne tow rating, air bags for all 3 rows of seating & 5 star ANCAP.
The bloody thing flies and pulls like a train!
The best fuel economy we've had is 6.2l/100km on the highway.
Never thought I'd own a Hyundai, now I'd happily buy another.
Good luck with the search!

[Andy56]

its an interesting topic. I just had a good look at the Xtrail towing specs.
1350kg for deisel auto
2000kg for deisel manual
2000kg for australian conditions - without exceptions ( straight from the manual)
For tow ball limit it says "observe the limits of the nissan supplied tow equipment"
The tow hitch says " observe the limits in specifications of car"
"never exceed 10% of trailers load on towball"
I know my boat is around 1350kg all up and I have no problems towing, the weight on the ball is more than I can lift.
My best guess is that the auto is derated purely for the transmission and if the max towing ability is 2000kg, then 200kg is the limit on the ball WHEN EMPTY. If you start to load up the car, you need to derate the weight on the tow ball.
Any clearer? The moral is look at the fine print

[NTMID8]

Yeah there was an article i read on one of the VW sites asking the very question (can you have more than 100kg on the ball if you are under the vehicle GVM) but apparently not. Ill continue to look at other options i think, as much as the wife likes the tiguan i think it might be more practical to give her my car (2006 Liberty GT) and then buy something like a 2007 SR hilux 4x4, or D40 nav etc. I was reading on the SA reg site before and they list a "touring utility" which is only slightly more to reg than a normal 4cyl. A standard ute is over $1000 per year to reg which is stupid, now i just need to find out what a "touring utility" is lol.

During my search i have found an amazing amount of info on ball weights and how many big name "tough trucks" actually have quite low ball weights, Mazda BT50 list 75kg, however will take 250kg with "mazda load distribution device", Almost all european models max 100kg.

[gofishin]

I’m a lazy typer, so I have just modified an old post of mine on a 4wd forum thread which discussed towing (mostly vans) with the NT Pajero and tow-ball weights. The thread had some very good links to articles and reports detailing extensive towing testing - ATM I can’t find it but will edit & add the links later when I track it down.

My $0.02 opinion…

The safety (read stability) of a trailer (van, boat whatever) at speed is much more to do with the type of trailer/load, its static & dynamic design characteristics (including the effects of poor loading practice), the characteristics of the tow vehicle - and the goof driving it(!) than what tow ball mass is present!

Sorry to say, but as an Engineer I don’t agree with a flat 10% rule at all, especially for larger/heavier boat trailers – it is very ‘old school’, and as has been written, most likely came about when manufacturers were building a lot smaller vans/boats. And, it was/is a nice easy calculation…!

Do you think, to back up their claims, any van manufacturer has commissioned dynamic simulation modelling, let alone testing to the level reported in one of the previous links? No!

Before I bought my current boat, I did a lot of research re towing, towing design and vehicle related restrictions, whether tow ball or towed mass reductions. My previous vehicle was rated to tow 3t, but also had restrictions – in this case (from memory) limiting the allowable towed mass when the tow ball mass was above a certain limit.

I don’t/haven’t towed a big van with my NT Paj, but regularly tow a big boat which would sometimes go very close to 3t when fully loaded, for both local and long distance/highway trips. It has a 300kg outboard motor hanging off the back, several meters behind the rear trailer axle, along with ~80kg of batteries just in front of the outboard. Depending on loading/intended destination, it has between 135 – 175kg (measured) of tow ball mass! (max of 6% @ 3t). On long distance/highway trips it would mostly be up the high end, local day (social) trips down the low end – which also involves a stretch of 80kmh road.

It is a dream to tow, and behaves much much better than my previous~1800kg alloy boat & (Aussie) trailer – which had about 10 – 12% tow ball mass. It does, however, have an imported alloy trailer with a low CoG, and torsion bar suspension – hence the trailer has‘damping’ as well as suspension.

Three times I have done 1000km round trips in it, on 100 – 110kmh freeways and rough back country roads, and have never once have I felt any instability in the rig. On one of these 500km legs I had blustery westerlies to over 90kmh, which I indeed felt, but never once created concern.

Boats are quite streamlined to vans in comparison, hence vans would suffer a lot more from windage, but then a van doesn’t have 300 odd kilos hanging off the back either! Properlydesigned and set-up, I see no reason why a larger van or boat would need 10%, or more – except maybe to accommodate/compensate for very poor loading practice!

And yes, I have towed a wide full height van around 2500kg for some longdistances. Great fun, but they get a bitwet inside when you try and go fishing in them… J.
Cheers
Brendon

Some excerpts from local boat trailer websites

Dunbier
How much weight should beon my towball/drawbar?
Typically ona boat/ trailer the overall weight of the boat/motor trailer should not exceedbewteen 5-7% of the total weight on the towball. Eg Boat/Motor/Trailer weights800kg the towball weight should not exceed 56kg as a general rule.

MacKay
Q How much weight should there be on my towball?
A The correct weight should be between 5% to 10% of the overall GVMcapacity. Example - Trailer with 1999kg GVM. Towball weight 99kg to 199kg.Having the wrong towball weight will effect the performance when being towed at>60 kph

[NTMID8]

Thank you GOFISHN, and thanks to everyone else for there input. Im pretty confident after reading various forums and speaking with a few knowledgeable trailer makers and VW Australia that the Tiguan is more than capable of towing the 542f. The general consensus is that the European designed vehicles have actually had extensive testing regarding there towing capabilities but require more thought when loading the tow (boat/caravan). According to Mackay trailers a boat of 1200kg loaded (extreme end of the 542f) on a 400kg dual axle (again heavier end of the scale) correctly balanced should see no more than 80 - 90kg on the tow ball. This would still be safe and according to them probably tow better than having 160 kg on the tow ball as the weight is more evenly spread across the whole package (vehicle and trailer)

[NTMID8]

Thanks everyone for your help, i ended up spending a little more and buying a brand new Subaru Forester Turbo Diesel with a 1600 kg tow capacity. In the end the money it was going to cost me for a second hand Tiguan got me into a brand new Forester! I pick the car up tomorrow and im looking forward to racking up some kays, ill post what the towing is like but i imagine it will be more than adequate!