couple of questions bmw on ice and a trailer hire

Hi I had been following the red and ice posts with interest.

Months ago, i asked as i was about to buy my first beemer, and my first auto car that i was worrying about chaning gear by itself around fast county lanes, ok you was all correct and its not a problem.

Tonight i had to take some many very unused icy roads, so i thought with my

525 auto touring i would see what throttle respose was like on the ice, it was not problem, i felt it and turned no problem with nice oversteer, not a prob. i then put it into * mode (as you will find out why i need to know further down)

Now as i had never owned a auto, or a car not from the 70's or v early 80's (this is a 96 i think) i was not sure what to expect when i put it into winter mode....i thought maybe the computer picks up lack of traction and stops wheel spin, or more power or less power....well i could still get the same over steer on corners wether in D in E mode or * mode.

Am i missing something?

Also...my friend is here from E Germany, to buy a old beetle, around 71, she loves em, anyway i guessed i would have to drive it to Berlin, man i drove one once, i hate em, so slow and noisy, tiring to drive...then i had a brain wave...why not hire a car trailer and pull it with the 525!!! Can i, and roughly how much is it to hire one and take it to Germany for a few days....and who does em.

I looked at the dvla website, seems easy to get it as perm exported.

I would be wanting to take it with a 3 day clear window of no snow in Germany, no having been in Germany with masses of snow, they all keep going, but i think with a car trailer i would get stuck or be to dangerous, risk of snaking too much...

any good advice would be appriciated ta!!

Reply to
Jules
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I wouldn't worry too much about snaking. Car trailers tend to be fairly stable; I would expect a hire trailer to be twin axle, and they're fairly wide too which helps. I have a small single-axle car trailer, and the only time it's ever swayed was when it was carrying too much rear-end weight. Correct loading is the key, you want to have enough weight towards the front to get sufficient noseweight on the towball, so a Beetle might be best placed on the trailer "backwards", ie engin in front of the trailer axles.

I suspect your biggest problem might be finding one for hire with European insurance - Kevin Poole (Autolycus) might know more about that situation.

Reply to
Chris Bolus

thanks, i tried to google him but got nowhere

Reply to
Jules

Selecting D in the * mode, only selects gears from 2-5 automatically.. Also, according to the Owners Handbook, whilst in * mode, if 2nd 3rd or 4th is selected, the gear is held. You can pull away in any of those gears, and the g/box doesn't change down after acceleration.

I expect the reason you didn't notice any difference, between the * mode and the E mode in D, was because both modes were using the same gears. IOW, you were going fast enough for the E mode, or maybe even the S mode come to that, to be using 2nd gear and upwards, in the same way as the * mode had been doing. Not easy to explain, but I know what I mean. :-) Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

Trailers are about =A350 a day, you need to be licenced to tow a trailer something which used to be standard but now isn't so it all depends on when you took your test. To cross the channel will cost you more and you're not allowed to drive as fast so it's not looking good financially if you're trying to do it on a budget.

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probably isn't near you but neither is the channel tunnel.

What about motorail?

Reply to
adder1969

Winter mode makes little difference in Drive - except that the car starts off in second rather than first. However, if you select a gear manually, it will stay in that gear regardless. 3rd gear starts can be handy on ice, and of course stops the box changing gear unexpectedly on very slippery conditions.

Traction control isn't much of a help on very slippery conditions.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yes. It's all marketing bullshit.

Reply to
Conor

Never had snaking with an artic trailer so I suspect you'd be OK with a car one.

Reply to
Conor

You know better than that Conor. There's no comparison between towing an artic trailer and a car trailer. An artic trailer towing point is over the rear axles of the towing unit, meaning the front of the trailer has very little influence on the tractor unit as far as sideways movement is concerned. Whereas the towing point on a car maybe up to 3ft behind the rear axle. This, coupled with the less rigid nature of a cars suspension, allows a relatively heavy trailer to move the rear of the car sideways on it's suspension and tyres which affects the cars steering. Countering this effect can swing the trailer in the opposite direction, affecting the steering even more, which can build up to a difficult to control snaking situation. The same dynamics simply don't apply to an artic trailer. In general, the nearer the towing hitch is to the rear axle the better, and there'll be less chance of a trailer snaking. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

Look him up in uk.rec.cars.classic.

Reply to
Chris Bolus

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