Hi

Has/does any body use their Marea 1.8 weekend for towing a caravan?. The hand book says you can tow up to 1300kg with a braked trailer.

I am just wondering what they are like for towing a caravan?

If anyone has or does your comments will be very much appreciated, thanks

Gogsown1

Hi, I tow a caravan with my 2.0i 20v hlx weekend.Its ok but the weight ratio between car and van has to be right, as the marea weekend is quite low to start with.That saying , we had a mobility scooter in the rear of the weekend and it still towed well. We have just returned from Minehead, in fairly rough weather, and the only change to my driving was to slow down !!! It will of course make the marea thirsty... hope this helps.

85% of the cars kerb weight is what the caravan club recommends.
NEVER tow anything that weighs more than the car, or the cars max towing weight whichever is the lower. I think the max nose weight is 70kg

Cheers guy`s, the caravan club said it could tow up to 1066kg. However they wouldnt give me a list of caravans within this weight until I joined their club first!. Somthing like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted springs to mind!.:bang:

So there might be a 1997 Fiat Marea 1.8 weekend with only 25thou on the clock for sale soone.

Gogsown1.

My humble advice would be to only tow caravans on the motorway or dual carriageway.

If you need to tow on a single carriageway, you ought to treat the caravan as an abnormal load and arrange with the police to only travel between the hours of midnight and 5am when you are less likely to p*ss off the rest of the motoring world.



Happy holiday.

"LOL" : Thanks for your humble reply Cpt Spalding, yes you do have a point!.

Yes this could also be extended to trucks, may be we should adopt what the Germans do::idea: thumb:

Towed a 8'6"x4'6" 250Kg ish(empty ) trailer a few times with my 1.9JTD. No issues with the dynamics. Would imagine the 1.8 would be fine. Please though - keep off the single carriageways!

I'm a caravaner and have been for years, my car is always insured,taxed and mot'd my caravan is alway insured loaded safely and towed properly, so I will drive it anywhere I want to thank you very much. And if you get stuck behind me tough tittys.

madrat said:

I'm a caravaner and have been for years, my car is always insured,taxed and mot'd my caravan is alway insured loaded safely and towed properly, so I will drive it anywhere I want to thank you very much. And if you get stuck behind me tough tittys.

Click to expand...

Think we're hit a nerve here people.

If you want to go camping properly you need a tent. Not a fiberglass beach hut on wheels.

I don't go camping, I go caravaning, and it not fibreglass its aluminium. The image that caravaner's are bad drivers and just go out to hold people up just drives me up the wall, you will normally find its some idiot in front holding me up or that pulls out in front of me that makes me slow down. The same thing happens when I drove for a living. I was a lorry driver and a bus driver.

No-one's saying you're a bad driver....

But if you could take your hat off while your driving it might improve your vision & perhaps let you go, well, less slow?

I think the part of your driving that bothers me most is when you slow down to a crawl looking for the right lay-by. You know, the one where you stop to give the car a rest, get the deck chairs out, & crack open the flask of stewed tea?

& thank you for correcting us on the fabrication of your caravan. Allows us to select the correct string of expletives when we're looking for your lay-by.

Heeeee

Very funny

I'm only 34 and have never driven in a hat.

or stopped in a lay by and got chairs out.

Never stopped to give the car a rest ether.:bang:

Sorry to hi-jack but since you guys seem what you are talking about...

I have always wondered about using my coupe to tow a trailer with a cinq on the back. Obviously i would need to get a towbar fitted, but is there anything i would need to worry about when towing a trailer/cinq? Will the coupe struggle in anyway?

Ross

OK first you need to check you can get a tow bar for your car. and you will need to fit a socket for the trailer road lights.

then you need to find the kerb weight and maximum towing weight of your car, if the maximum towing weight is lower than the kerb weight do not exceed this if the towing weight is higher than the kerb weight do not exceed the kerb weight. you will also need to know the maximum tow ball weight your car can take.
This should all be in the hand book of if you can find one a good Fiat garage will be able to tell you.

You will need the total weight of the trailer and
cinq. as long as this doesn't exceed the kerb weight or max towing weight of the car you Will be fine. with the trailer loaded you will need to weigh its nose. as long as this doesn't exceed the nose weight for your car you will be OK. You can move the load forward or back to achieve the correct nose weight but try to have most of the weight over the trailer axle. Fitting some sort of stabiliser is also a good idea. Try not to exceed 85% of the cars kerb weight. this is what the caravan club recommend. especially if you have never towed before. however it is legal to tow up to the same weight as your car but never over it.

I've towed my caravan with both 1.8 marea saloon and 1.9td weekend.

No problems towing, you can get towbars for both saloon and estate, but remeber that if the car is later than an 'S' plate the bar has to be verified and have the correst sticker on it.

also, recommended to stick to the 80% rule, i.e the total weight of the van should not exceed 80% of the MPTW (maximum permissible towing weight) of the car. Can't remember what these are offhand (about 1275 and 1300 KG respectively).

Yes, Max towball weight is 70 Kg.