Hello, I live near sunny Rhyl in N Wales, it been raining for ages.
I am looking for a small car that can tow a small caravan(750kgm Eriba). Presumably there are engineers at Fiat who can advise on tow bars,nose weights,gearbox transmission and stability. Unfortunately I can't find them. Has anyone towing experience with the Panda4x4 or know who to contact a Fiat for information?

IanR2 said:

Hello, I live near sunny Rhyl in N Wales, it been raining for ages.
I am looking for a small car that can tow a small caravan(750kgm Eriba). Presumably there are engineers at Fiat who can advise on tow bars,nose weights,gearbox transmission and stability. Unfortunately I can't find them. Has anyone towing experience with the Panda4x4 or know who to contact a Fiat for information?

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Hi, and welcome,

the TA is a great engine, and pretty gutsy when the engine's spinning,
BUT the old adage about "cubes" is true - the 875CC will struggle low-down , and that may not do the DMF ( if fitted) much good either.

the 1242cc petrol is a good overall choice,

FIAT customer Services are worth a call in the New Year,
did a pretty fair job of my Pre-purchase enquiry with my Punto TA,

Charlie

Here are the weights for trailers in general. I hope this is relevant. This table shows the 4x4 ONLY. I can find the standard 2x4 Panda weights if this is of any use to you

SB1500 said:

Here are the weights for trailers in general. I hope this is relevant. This table shows the 4x4 ONLY. I can find the standard 2x4 Panda weights if this is of any use to you

Click to expand...

ta,
where is this info from,

those weights are LOW..!!

varesecrazy said:

ta,
where is this info from,

those weights are LOW..!!

Click to expand...

The definitive gold standard for towing weights is the vehicle's V5C. Look down the first data page; the maximum braked & unbraked towing mass is listed in items O.1 & O.2 respectively.

The figures for my 2WD 1.2 500 are also 400kg & 800kg, so in line with those given in the previously posted table.

If your caravan is 750kg empty, that doesn't leave you much scope for packing to go away.

Perhaps someone with a 4x4 TA Panda could check their V5C & post what it says.

varesecrazy said:

ta,
where is this info from,

those weights are LOW..!!

Click to expand...

This info is from eLearn, the tool used by Fiat dealers to find official instruction, specification and resolutions to any mechanical, electrical or even physical fault.

It should be spot on.

Thanks BOTH for that info.

towing is pretty complex,

you've got the Unladen Weight of the "trailer",

and you've got to try and match it's "vital statistics" in a towing vehicle..

you've got to find ;

a vehicle HEAVY enough that the fully laden Trailer is no more than 85% of the towing vehicles weight,

a vehicle designed to cope with towing the same loaded Trailer weight

the vehicle floor-pan / chassis deigned to cope with the required trailer nose-weight ( can be a major stumbling block - but the Eriba should be relatively LOW)

Charlie

Those same figures appear in the 2013 instruction manual too, on page 218:

For TwinAir, (2wd or 4wd*)
Max trailer weight (braked) 800kg
Max trailer weight (unbraked) 400kg
Max load on towball 60kg
(I believe the values were the same for the 2005-12 models, with the 1.2 petrol having same limits as the newer 0.9 TwinAir)

For the MultiJet version (again, both 2wd and 4x4*) the braked trailer limit is 900kg but the other values are shown as the same.

(*4x4 values contained in the supplement to the main instruction book - although this shows that the 4x4 models are over 100kgs heavier than the 2wd versions, the towing limits are the same)

Thanks,
pretty much confirmed my suspicions..,

the diesel is heavier , so can cope with a heavier trailer

the towball load is critical ( for trailer noseweight) a figure between 50 and 100 is pretty normal in Caravans, so 60 WILL limit their options,

Hopefully IanR2 will get back to us

Charlie

thanks to everyone for the information, I have found it hard to get facts from the motor trade generally.
It would appear that a Twin Air Panda 4x4 is (just) heavy enough to pull my Eriba van and with loading care, stay below the nose weight limit of 60Kgm. Would there be any info. about driveline strength (clutch/drive shafts/transferbox etc) and brakes? Would the diesel driveline be stronger ?

I think the diesel has larger brakes than the TA...
Have you seen this:http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/news-and-events/awards/towcar-of-the-year-2015/vehicles-under-16,500 , Fiat's take on that: http://www.fiat.co.uk/news/panda4x4-class-honours and this too: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/fiat/panda/88936/under-15000-fiat-panda-4x4-13-multijet

This one was less positive though: http://www.thetowcarawards.com/tow-car/fiat-panda-4x4/

A very later response. I have absolutely no doubt that the twin air would tow a light caravan with the greatest of ease. I have used mine to pull the van around off road and it doesn't seem to notice it a great deal at 1200kgs. Power to tow up hill from a standing start is ample. I have also towed a decently heavy trailer and economy aside the car ignores it completely. As a tow car award winner towing a Bailey Discovery 973kg unladen it is clear it can handle more than its rating so anything less than its 900 MTPLW would not be a problem. I am tempted to try it with my existing van but its just not worth the insurance implications. Anyone thinking of it should not hesitate as the Panda 4x4 is clearly going to be a great tow car. Look up tow car of the year 2015 results.

This is an old thread but good points are made about the car's ability to pull heavy loads, but the real issue is stability. A heavy enough car is needed so the caravan will be less likely to swing the car and cause a crash.

It more about the weight of the car when trying to stop a laden trailer.

A braked trailer will stop no worries but a heavy trailer that starts swinging can flip the car over. The Panda has a short rear overhang but it's light weight wont handle a trailer that's gone wobbly. There's also the 60Kg nose weight which is pretty low. Too little nose-weight = more unstable trailer.

Is it my imagination or can we no longer "thank" a post?