John Sootheran has driven almost 200 tow car/caravan combinations over the years. Here, he shares his tips for bagging a bargain, and recommends a few of our favourite vehicles
IF YOU’RE LUCKY enough to be able to afford a new vehicle, you should check out Practical Caravan’s annual Awards, which list the best new tow cars in a range of weight and price brackets.
However, if you don’t want to splurge all of your hard-earned on a new motor, you’ll be researching the pre-owned market.
As someone definitely in the latter camp, I’ve pulled together a list of tow cars from the past decade that really impressed me. Anecdotally, I’ve chosen models and brands with a good reputation for reliability and resilience. I’ve also drawn up a list of points to consider when you choose your next car.
CRITERIA FOR BUYING USED Tow match
Can the car you fancy tow your caravan? The main question is likely to be weights, specifically your car’s kerbweight versus the caravan’s MTPLM (the maximum weight your van can be when fully loaded for towing). You’re likely to find the kerbweight in the car’s manual; it will also be in the V5C vehicle handbook, listed as the mass in service. The caravan’s MTPLM is on the weightplate, usually by the van door.
Sensible guidelines state that novice caravanners shouldn’t tow a van weighing more than 85% of their car’s kerbweight. For example, a 1500kg MTPLM tourer will require a tow car weighing 1765kg – if you’re a novice.
For the seasoned tow car driver, the allowance is 100%, so you’d technically only need a 1500kg tow car to pull the same caravan.
I’m not sure anyone states what makes you an ‘experienced’ tow car driver, but when I started out, I worked on the basis of doing a brilliant Club towing course, plus 2000 towing miles (on all road types and abroad), after which I felt, rightly or wrongly, that I was aware of most of the foibles of caravan towing.
There are several online tow-matching tools. Both of the major touring clubs offer them to members, while non-members can pay per match.
There are independent tow-matching tools, but the ones I tried were out of date for my car. It’s probably easier to calculate it yourself, using this simple formula.
Caravan MTPLM in kg ÷ tow car kerbweight in kg = ??%
For example: 1500kg ÷ 1765kg = 85%
According to the guidelines mentioned above, the result should be 85% or less for novices and 100% or less for experienced tow car drivers. Alternatively, you could take a look at webuyanycar.com/guides/car-ownership/towing-capacity-calculator. This doesn’t list specific caravans, bu
