What Are The Best Vehicles To Tow Caravans?

Buying a new caravan can be a really exciting experience, but before you throw in your bags and speed off on your first holiday adventure it is important to make sure that your car is up to the task of towing.

There are actually regulations in place that limit the amount of weight a car can tow, so it is crucial to find out what the limit is on your vehicle. You can generally find this specified in the manufacturers handbook, but if you can’t, your vehicle is able to tow a caravan (including all its contents) that is one and a half times the vehicle’s mass when empty.

So what kind of car do you need to tow a caravan? The general rule of thumb is that bigger is usually better when buying a tow car, but this is mainly because then you can tow pretty much anything, from a caravan to a horse float. If you don’t care much for a large car, however, the size of the vehicle you need will be dependant on the size of your caravan.

You can’t go wrong with a 4WD when it comes to heavy caravans. They also offer the bonus of being able to take your caravanning adventure off-road, which many other tow vehicles cannot. Mid-size 4WDs and ‘family’ vehicles (such as the Ford Falcon or the Holden Commodore) are also very good at towing caravans. Wagons and utes are also preferable, as they have leaf-spring suspension. Smaller 4WDs (the kind you see speeding around the city) are really only suited to towing relatively light caravans, which aren’t overly common, especially once loaded up with all your provisions.

Once you have decided on the size of the vehicle that you require for towing your caravan, you may want to consider the fuel that it will run on, as towing is known for draining the tank.

Cars running on diesel are the preferred vehicles of many towers, especially if they use their caravans often. This is because these cars offer lots of torque without using as much fuel as a petrol engine does. Don’t let this put you off buying a petrol-fuelled car, however. 6- and 8-cylinder vehicles are great for towing caravans because they offer maximum torque. A 4-cylinder car, on the other hand, is only suitable for towing lighter loads and very small caravans. Gas cars do not seem to have the power to tow anything, let alone a caravan, making them the least favourable fuel choice in a towing vehicle. A duel-fuel car, however, is fine as long as the caravan towing is done using petrol.