OT..How not to tow a trailer

When will people learn: caveat emptor. He believed an ad on t.v.? He believed a car salesman who said it would tow his trailer? Is he mentally retarded? Common sense says that little Toureg couldn't safely tow something that big. This is why Chevy makes Suburbans.

heh heh... The Holiday Inn "dinner rate" is even funnier. :-)

"Little" Touareg is rated to tow 3.5 metric tonnes (3,500 kg, some 7,700 lbs) in Germany, just like the Chevy Suburban is.

However, the Chevy can be modified with air brakes and then legally two up to 6 metric tonnes, according to my quick and dirty Google research; I couldn't find such an option for the Touareg. Still, 3.5 tonnes seems plenty to me; what does your average Airstream weigh? (This information should have been in that CBS article, BTW, not just whining. IMHO.)

The problem seems to be one of incompatibility rather than lack of performance, anyway. (How can trailer hitches be incompatible? Europe has two of them: one for cars and small trucks, and another for big rigs. You got more of 'em over there?)

Airhowlingly yours, Erik.

Not sure what an airstream weighs but I saw the ad and it was a big one. I'd say more than 7700lbs. A half ton Suburban can tow more than that and a

3/4 ton even more. The toureg looks too small to be towing something that big (that's the point of the ad even though it was false). Turns out that is right: it is too small. A toureg is good for stylishly getting groceries at the supermarket and fantasizing about one day actually driving over a rock or a log. A suburban is good for towing big things and taking up a whole parking space at the supermarket and banging up touregs that park next to it.

..................I owned a 29 foot long Airstream more than twenty years ago. It's empty weight was a little over 6000 lbs I think. I lived in it for several months in a trailer park in Collingswood, NJ while I was working in Philadelphia. I bought it because the first wife and her lawyer in Houston had taken EVERYTHING that I owned except for the clothes on my back.......lol. My Olds Delta 88 was fitted with a 'load leveling' hitch by the Airstream dealer in south Jersey. That car handled it OK but after towing it across the Allegheney Mountains to Pittsburgh, the engine was shot. The Airstream dealer told me that I didn't have enough engine & automatic tranny cooling capacity to stand up to more than local use but like always, I didn't listen. I kept it in the driveway of our new house in Pittsburgh for a few years and then finally sold it for about $2k because wife no. 2 didn't like 'that trailer ruining our image in the neighborhood'..........can't remember for sure what I got for that Olds but I got my money's worth out of it for sure.

Big mistake. Wheel base length is very important in a tow vehicle. An ideal is a long-base like a Suburban or similarly sized vehicle for something like a midsized Airstream. People who tow with vehicles like, for example, a Jeep CJ* are just goofy.

With respect, Erik, some Suburbans are rated at 1/2 ton which is, oddly, exactly what the Ford Taurus wagon is rated at. :) However, the 'Burban is certainly better because it is longer.

Nooooo. Wrong metric! Tongue weight and wheelbase length is important. So is the drivetrain - tranny cooler, electric brake box, etc.

maybe a little OT... but still funny

Length doesn't seem to matter much for the German TÜV, who, being as anal as they are, I consider an authority in these things. If a car is rated to tow whatever, load however much, climb however steeply *even* by German TÜV, *I* am convinced it'll do it -- without any problem at all.

So if they say a Touareg will tow 7,700 lbs, it will tow it, period.

Tongue weight, yes. (140 kg for the Touareg.) Wheelbase, not really. I've towed over nine metric tonnes with a vehicle that has a wheelbase of 2,38 metres -- 93 inches, less than a VW Bug. No problem whatsoever. (It was a Unimog 406.)

That's what rated towing capacity is there for to account for. And I can only repeat: TÜV says that the Suburban is just fine towing 3.5 metric tonnes, and so is the Touareg.

Yours, Erik.

Ah, been in Europe? Look at the roads. They don't tow the MONSTERS the Americans do. Besides, YMMV. So let's just each do our thing. You tow a 33' Airstream with some toy-tug and I won't.

Like I said, live at your own risk. You might want to consult with experts, by the way, not VW who was speaking out of it's advertising ass.

..............You can safely tow almost anything with a short wheelbased vehicle IF you equip that vehicle with a 'load leveling' hitch and electric brakes on the trailer that are coupled with the tow car's brakes. This type of hitch system will transfer the tongue weight to a point that is ahead of the rear wheels of the towing vehicle. Those gooseneck trailers hitched to a pickup truck are accomplishing the same thing in a more obvious manner. Long before the current popularity of SUVs and pickup trucks, the largest travel trailers were being towed safely by Chevy & Ford sedans without any difficulty except for the engine & drivetrain problems that can result from prolonged excessive loads. Those cars had a tremendous amount of overhang behind the rear wheels that would make them uncontrollable when towing something that had maybe a thousand pounds(?) of tongue weight. The load leveling hitch was the only answer and they're still available today at any Airstream dealer.

hahahaha! I towed my pig-roaster with my ultra-short-wheelbased CJ5 before. I can get the front tires to come up off of the ground without anything attached to the hitch to help out. Oh, and you'll love this one. I just installed a class-1 receiver hitch thingie on my Civic. :-D (Don't worry, it's not to tow an Airstream. Just for my pig-roaster and a small motorcycle trailer.)

I lived in a trailer about 5 years ago. See, we're more alike than you'd care to admit, Tim. heh heh

Tim, you are going to have to give me your definition of "safely" on this point.

I will agree it's safer with the load leveling hitch. They are also known as weight distribution hitches. Same thing.

The big problem with a short wheel based tow vehicle is when the trailer gets to bouncing up and down, that motion still gets to the hitch on the vehicle. When that bouncing motion gets to that short wheel based vehicle, that front end gets to bouncing also. That bouncing motion is more magnified on a short wheel base then a long wheel based tow vehicle. Or if you have a good cross wind blowing and that trailer starts to sway with a short wheel based tow vehicle that motion is also more pronounced then in a long wheel based. Very easy to lose control.

Now, I may or may not be an expert on towing but I do have several hundred thousand miles of towing experience in all sorts of vehicles and towing all sorts of "stuff". And I learned from the best, Dad.

Give me an overpowered heavy pickup any time. We currently tow with an 86 1 ton Chevy dually pickup. Slightly built up 454 in it. It's known as the big butt thunder truck.

Over the years, I have seen some really stupid things done.

Probably the worst was a couple we met in florida while on our travels. They had towed a 31 ft airstream from Canada with a little chevy astro van. And yes, they did have some troubles. Especially going up and down hills, around curves, accelerating, overheating and hard to believe but stopping the damned thing. I'm still amazed they survived that trip.

Randy

I was talking 33' Airstreams... man, you Southern gentlemen sure know how to build a pig-roaster.

...............I'll agree with you that a heavier, longer tow vehicle will be more stable and easier to control than a lighter, shorter one.

.................You don't really need a 454 to tow a 30+ foot long Airstream. I'd say that a five liter V8 is adequate but more power is fine if that's what you feel comfortable with.

.............Same here. I've even seen myself doing them.

................I've always hated those Astro vans but I've seen them tow things like a friend's 28 foot sailboat without any problems. That 4.3 liter V6 that most of them had is a little low on power for pulling an extra 6000 pounds, in my opinion. Without stiff shocks, class C tires, electric brakes on the trailer and a properly adjusted 'weight distribution hitch', I can well imagine that a 31 foot long travel trailer could cause some problems. With a short coupled van like that, everything needs to be set-up properly and the driver needs to use caution on those curves and downhill areas. I know that most people aren't used to thinking about these problems until it's almost too late sometimes. When I'm towing something big, I keep a much longer distance back behind whatever's up ahead and I take those '45 mph' curves at maybe 30 mph.