Cheapish tow car?
Turbo Mini Forums

Hey chaps

Ideas for a cheap tow car? Needs to tow my E30 and a small trailer. - I guess around 1400-1500kgs?

-al

Any volvo

13.95 1/4 mile on a 2.95 fd. Carnt be that hard to beat!

Discovery

i had a v70 t5, cracking tow car, cracking at everything tbh, heavy on fuel though
if mine was anything to go by £600 would get you a minter, if i could have kept it i would have, feel like i gave it away

Edited by Brett on 3rd Feb, 2014.

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Nah, gimpy 'post 1997' licence so a Disco is probably too heavy. A shame as I enjoyed my last one..

Trouble is that the weight you need to tow is seriously borderline with your license and so massively restricts tow car choice.
If I were you I'd take the B+E test, you can then buy whatever tow car suits your circumstances. I view my B+E as a good investment, cost me £350 but I might use it for the next 30 years.

Does it not depend how old you are?

Licences held before 1 January 1997
If you passed your car test before 1 January 1997 you are generally entitled to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8.25 tonnes MAM.

This is the weight of a vehicle or trailer including the maximum load that can be carried safely when it’s being used on the road.

You also have entitlement to drive a minibus with a trailer over 750kg MAM.

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

A4?

I passed my test in 2001, so don't have B&E, Graham.

A4 isn't a bad shout. My shortlist is currently:

BMW 5-Series (E39 - 530d)
Audi A4/A6
LR Freelander (urgh)
Nissan Terrano (urgh)
Volvos

BMW is wining as it's not the worst thing in the world to drive.

From experience about the only one in that list that will be legal is an A4.
5 series is likely too heavy and the same goes for Volvos and all the 4wd stuff.

something turbo diesel ?

The trouble is, those are likely kerb weight, what the towing rules take into account is MAM (Max authorised mass) which can be up to 5-600kg more.
For example my old A4 kerb weight 1450kg MAM 2050kg so with my trailer which is plated 1400kg I was legal (JUST) at 3450kg train.
My E61 5 series, kerb weight is 1750kg, MAM is something like 2300kg, so add 1400kg trailer and the total is 3700kg which means I needed B+E, hence I did the test.
I don't necessarily agree with the rules, pre doing my B+E meant that towing with my A4 was legal and "OK", but towing with my Shogun, which was by far the more capable towing vehicle, was not legal. This is arse about face really.
Like I said above, bite the bullet do the test. As long as you are not a chimp its 1 day done and dusted for the rest of your driving career. As much as anything else in the event of something going wrong, I would rather be sat in the back of plods car with B+E on my license, as opposed to arguing the toss about this weight and that weight.

Alex, don't you have a Subaru already? Surely that will tow, or am I behind the times with your car swaps.

http://www.twin-turbo.co.uk
http://www.hillclimbandsprint.co.uk/default.asp

A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

How much and where for the test Tom out of interest?

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Take the test.

Don't buy a Volvo, they're shit.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

www.twin-turbo.co.uk

TAL training in Sheffield, I think it was £330 for the day including the test fee. I wouldn't want to have to pay it twice but its done now and thats it.
To be honest the trailer part is easy enough, its the general road driving that is more likely to catch you out, as you are tested as per your car driving test so your standard of road driving has to be to that level. Loads of stuff I had forgotten in the 17 years since I did my test, for example at a "STOP" sign you have to stop and apply your handbrake, feeding the wheel, speed limits I found hard, you have to drive up to the limit not too slow not too fast, 1mph over is fail, but they will also fail you for doing 50mph when you should be doing 60mph, spend more time watching the speedo in 30 limits than the road etc etc.

That .gov website is awful and does not clearly explain what is and is not legal.

Believe who you like, but I have spent a lot of time finding out the correct interpretation of the law, and the crux is that unless you choose your tow vehicle, and trailer, very carefully, you can't tow a 1 ton car on a car trailer on a post-97 car license.

Another cut and paste here;

Category B vehicles with larger trailers i.e. > 750kg, provided that the combined MAM does not exceed 3.5 tonnes and the gross MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the towing vehicle. To be able to tow combinations outside this ruling requires the passing of an additional test.

Key bit there is that is is combined MAM ("train weight") less than 3500kg.

Where is that cut and paste from?

My Mondeo ST TDCI is a great tow car

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

2001-2005 passat will be legal

That's a good shout, Neil. Any idea what the MAM is on the Passat? I can't find those figures anywhere.

I got pulled over at the weekend so that the weight of my empty trailer could be checked...

So ot slightly, am I still correct in thinking that a 600kg mini, 350kg trailer will still be ok with a 1800kg car.
So 2759kg all in not including any other weight that happens to be on biard

Depends on the MAM of the trailer surely?