Towbar advice please

[Hypermiler]

Hi

I've never had a tow bar before and would appreciate some very basic advice (most of which is not PHEV-specific). I don't have anything to tow at the moment but am thinking I will get one or more of the following:
simple small trailer
caravan
sheep trailer
horse trailer
tow bar mounted cycle carrier (and I understand that these can sometimes be used whilst towing depending on tow bar and trailer)

Given the uncertainty, I want the most flexible towing set up - am I right in thinking this would be a "twin" electrics set? I gather the 7 pin set would be the most limited and would only cope with basic trailers. Is there anything about the PHEV's electric's (e.g the small 12V battery) that restricts what can be used on trailers (internal light on a horse box for instance) that I should be aware of?

How sturdy are the removable tow bars? I imagine this is a daft question but I don't want anything that has any chance of detaching when towing!...

Does anyone have a tow bar and cycle carrier combo that enables you to tow and carry cycles - any that you recommend?

At the moment, I am looking at the Witter tow bars through PFJones that someone else has recommended but wanted a little more info before I call them and sound (correctly) completely clueless!

Thanks in advance
H

 

[anko]

I have a 13 pin detatcheable tow bar. Works fine. Use it for my 1500 kg caravan (3000 km so far without loosing it once :lol: ) as well as for my two bike carrier. For the latter, I use a 13 to 7 pin adapter. Works just fine.

In my caravan, I have a fridge that runs on 12 volt while underway. No issue, so a light in a horse trailer should be fine as well.

Bike carriers exist that can be mounted on the beam of the trailer. But this is independent of the tow bar itself. I have never heard of tow bars that will carrie a trailer and a bike carrier at the same time.

 

[Hypermiler]

Thanks anko.
So the tow-and-carry cycle option relies on you towing does it, rather than being able to carry or tow-and-carry?
Want to buy the fewest items of kit and buy once and buy right!
cheers
H

 

[anko]

I guess this must exist in the uk as well?

 

[kano]

I don't have an Outlander yet but I do have the Witter removable towbar and I did buy it from PF Jones, if you want a bike rack make sure you buy a flange type bolt on tow ball and not the swan neck style, there is a fitting that gets bolted I between the towbar and the towball and the bikers I fits over it, the whole setup from clean back bumper to fitting the towbar to fitting the bike rack takes less than 1 minute, I picked up the bike rack from towsure.

 

[anko]

I wonder. Doesn't this lower the maximum nose weight of the trailer with 20 - 40 kg's, Because the full weight of the carrier + bikes is added to it? Compensating for it by moving stuff in your trailer makes your trailer unstable.

 

[kano]

It does eat into the noseweight on the towball, mine is 100Kg the same as the Max weight allowed on the caravan hitch, i weighed the caravan downforce at roughly 50kg so i have 50kg left for the bikes.

 

[anko]

Reminder to self: do not get into car with Kano when he is towing his caravan :mrgreen:

Kano, you are aware of the fact that sufficent nose weight is very important for stability of your caravan? There is a good reason for the general advise to have as much as possible of it, within the technical limits set by car and caravan? Driving around with just 50 kg nose weight on a caravan that is rated for 100 kg is .... IMHO at least questionable.

 

[kano]

You might have picked me up wrong, the maximum nose weight allowed for my caravan is 100Kg the ideal is about 55Kg and the maximum i can put on the towball is also 100Kg, 50Kg nose weight for my Caravan is fine and as the car can handle the other 50Kg i can safely load a couple of mountain bikes without worry.

 

[anko]

A bit off topic, but why do you think 55 kg is the optimum? In my opinion, when it comes to stability of your combination, more is always better.

Kind'a depends on the weight of your caravan as well, but as your caravan is rated for 100 kg, I assume it is not a very small one.

 

[kano]

The Caravan Club claim 6% of total weight is the best place to start. 900Kg van at 6% is 54Kg it has always worked for me, I'm towing just now with an E class Merc so that big long boot would sink a fair bit if I over load it, I guess I'm getting on for 100kg with two adult bikes and the bike rack though. If it was a problem I could always take the gas bottles out and fit the caravan chassis carrier from your post Anko.

 

[anko]

Your caravan is just 900 kg total weight? In that case, I've said nothing . Based on the max nose weight of 100 kg I was expecting much more.

 

[Hypermiler]

The phev has a max nose weight of 75kg - not too sure at this stage of my research what impact that is going to have, but suspect it might stop me carrying 2 adult and 2 kid bikes plus any sort of decent sized trailer (space may of course also be an issue). The bike rack I've been looking at is MaxxRaxx which fixes behind the tow ball to leave it free - the bracket looks a bit untidy though...

Have also been looking at caravans and pleased to see there are loads of mid range options (4-light 6 berth) well within the 1500 kg max towing weight, but not sure what the nose weight of those would be vs our max of 75kg.

If a rule of thumb for max towing weight is 85% of kerb weight, why do other 4x4s have max towing weight far in excess of the kerb weight? Presume to do with power to weight ratio or something (which our car is presumably not so great at). Just wondered.
Cheers
H

 

[anko]

I think the 85% typically applies to single axle / large body trailers, such as caravans. If you are pulling a double axle trailer with sand, or even a trailer with real front and rear axles, it would be quite different.

 

[Hypermiler]

Ok, so have looked at nose weight and found this very useful:

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media/6678669/noseweights-mo.pdf

It looks like the phev has quite a low nose weight limit which means you can get to 5% of a 1500kg caravan (75kg) - i.e. the lower end of the recommended 5-7% range, but there is no nose weight capacity for anything else.

Also, the bike rack I was looking at plus 4 adult bikes would weigh about 68kg. If I want to tow and carry bikes I would have to put a couple of bikes in the trailer instead!
Thanks for your input guys.
Cheers
H

 

[kano]

I have seen a fair few box trailers with roof rack style cycle carriers attached over the top of the box, really good looking and still lets you get access to the boot.