Trailer load: You must pay attention to this! 🎥
IT'S ABOUT SAFETY In summer, vehicles with a house on the hook are not uncommon. Whether towing boats, horses, caravans or building materials, one thing is certain: the trailer load must be right. Transporting with a small trailer can quickly become dangerous for inexperienced drivers. Towing loads vary from a few hundred kilograms for very small cars and go [...]
Transportation with a small trailer can quickly become dangerous for inexperienced drivers.
Towing loads vary from a few hundred kilograms for subcompact cars and go up to 3.5 tons for large-displacement SUVs. Jato Dynamics has compiled the towing capacities of passenger cars and SUVs.
Large off-road vehicles for heavy loads
The highest braked towing capacity in each case was listed; engine, drive and equipment variants are not taken into account. From the compact class upwards, for example, there are passenger cars such as the Seat Leon, VW Golf and Touran with a towing capacity of up to two tons. The Audi A6, A7 and BMW's 5-series can't tow more than that either. It is almost curious that there is also a purely electric vehicle among the models: The Tesla Model X.
Vehicles with a braked towing capacity of less than 2.5 tons range from sedans, coupes and convertibles to compact SUVs. The selection of vehicles with 2.5 to 3.5 tons towing capacity is less busy. If, on the other hand, you want to tow a trailer with up to 3.5 tons, you have to go for SUVs like the BMW X6 or X7, Land Rover Discovery or Range Rover, Mercedes G-, GLE- or GLS-Class, Porsche Cayenne or VW Touareg.
Correct loading is a basic requirement
Safe towing requires practice and some basic rules should be observed. On the one hand, there is a perfect technical condition of the towing vehicle and also the trailer. On the other hand, correct loading is a basic requirement. The load in the trailer should be placed as low as possible and above the axle.
A factor that is often neglected is the correct drawbar load, which ensures the stability of the vehicle combination. The tongue load is the weight with which the drawbar of a trailer presses from above onto the trailer coupling. This value can be found on the type plate of the coupling and that of the trailer can be found on the drawbar. Both values must not be exceeded in any case.
