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Towing

J

jas

Newbie
Scotland
E51 Owner
Messages
3
Reaction score
2
Points
63
Location
angus
First Name
James
Elgrand
E51
Region
Scotland
Hi everyone I am on a campsite with my Elgrand and gentleman wanted to see it he was asking can you tow caravan with one as he was thinking of getting one any help appreciated as I just use mine as a campervan I could not answer
James
 
You're on 7 posts now, just get 3 more posts in and you'll be able to search the whole forum for 'towing', there are a lot of threads/posts about it.

For sure you can fit a towbar on an Elgrand and some of us (me included) use them for towing large caravans. But some say it isn't legal to tow with an Elgrand.

Can of worms re-opened.. again :laughing:
 
I have a tow bar on mine 2.5ltr 4x4 but not for a caravan. I was told by the guys at vine place that a 3.5ltr was fine for towing.
 
It's ok, the polis are on work to rule, so not got the time for the paper work.
They're to busy trying to catch gangs with balaclava's running a mock.
The lawyer's, we'll they've had enough waiting on the paper work from the polis.
The dreaded judge has fallen off his seat, Cos no room in the Inn, full of remand.
No dought once Liz dazzles them with the figures, we'll all be swimming in it.
Yip I got a caravan also, enjoy
 
Not legal to tow. No gross train weight on VIN plate. This would mean you are not insured to tow. I have looked into this when I owned a Granvia and for the Elgrand. The towing limit quoted by some who do is 1500kg which is low for such a large vehicle.
 
Out of interest could I not tow a tiny camping trailer from Halfords legally then ?
 
E50-Shaun said:
Out of interest could I not tow a tiny camping trailer from Halfords legally then ?
Click to expand...
Probably not, but there are people selling drugs and youngsters in gangs beating up other youngsters. Life’s too short. Sometimes I guess you have to just think WTF. 😀
 
thehoggmeister said:
Not legal to tow. No gross train weight on VIN plate. This would mean you are not insured to tow. I have looked into this when I owned a Granvia and for the Elgrand. The towing limit quoted by some who do is 1500kg which is low for such a large vehicle.
Click to expand...

This is untrue. If you had researched a little harder, rather than stopping when you came across the "No weight on vin plate = can't tow" You would have discovered that this is not applicable to Elgrands, as it does not apply to vehicles made solely for markets outside the EU. i.e. the Elgrand and other imports are exempt from this.
 
Can of worms :laughing:

Despite loads of discussion on various threads on forum about this there's still no consensus of opinion, despite loads of quotes from government websites and input from former traffic police officers.

This is what I do. Just got back from another long distance trip towing my large caravan.

20200807_130500.jpg
 
thehoggmeister said:
Not legal to tow. No gross train weight on VIN plate. This would mean you are not insured to tow. I have looked into this when I owned a Granvia and for the Elgrand. The towing limit quoted by some who do is 1500kg which is low for such a large vehicle.
Click to expand...
Its not how large the vehicle it depends on how the tow bar is fitted I have the e52 and the tow bar is fitted with just 6 small bolt I in tend to up grade with a mod of my own
 
Lpgc said:
Can of worms :laughing:

Despite loads of discussion on various threads on forum about this there's still no consensus of opinion, despite loads of quotes from government websites and input from former traffic police officers.
Click to expand...
I guess the only way we will really find out is if something nasty happens and lawyers get involved.
 
I personally think, it's how it tow's.
How it's loaded.
If loaded proper, not sitting on it's arse I don't think you will get stopped.
For example we have all seen van's and car's pulling a caravan and swinging all over the place, just poorly loaded, looking for trouble.
 
mr james said:
I personally think, it's how it tow's.
How it's loaded.
If loaded proper, not sitting on it's arse I don't think you will get stopped.
For example we have all seen van's and car's pulling a caravan and swinging all over the place, just poorly loaded, looking for trouble.
Click to expand...
And how it's driven..

I attempted to steer away from putting over my full thoughts again on this thread, just wanted to say here that it's a can of worms that's been subject to a lot of debate already on forum... it's a subject that's been done to death on forum. But I'd feel like I'd told the truth but not quite the whole truth saying anything at all unless I said that I tow with my Elgrand.

There's the risk of getting stopped, which may end up with nothing happening or if police think you're doing something illegal that might lead to them trying to prove you've done something illegal in court, which if they proved you were doing something illegal might lead to points on license, a fine, etc.

Then there's Stempy's point which is what happens regards an insurance firm trying to squirm out of paying up if you caused £100k worth of damage to other vehicles.

I feel confident about both, some don't feel confident about one or both of them. Not that I think I have any advantage over others in terms of what's legal or what might happen regards insurance in the event of an accident.... but maybe my insurance policy reads different to most others insurance policies because I have trade insurance.
 
E50-Shaun said:
Out of interest could I not tow a tiny camping trailer from Halfords legally then
Click to expand...
Ian H said:
This is untrue. If you had researched a little harder, rather than stopping when you came across the "No weight on vin plate = can't tow" You would have discovered that this is not applicable to Elgrands, as it does not apply to vehicles made solely for markets outside the EU. i.e. the Elgrand and other imports are exempt from this.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected.
 
Lpgc said:
Can of worms :laughing:

Despite loads of discussion on various threads on forum about this there's still no consensus of opinion, despite loads of quotes from government websites and input from former traffic police officers.

This is what I do. Just got back from another long distance trip towing my large caravan.

View attachment 79650
Click to expand...
Out of interest what mpg do you get towing? I presume this will be on lpg.
 
thehoggmeister said:
Out of interest what mpg do you get towing? I presume this will be on lpg.
Click to expand...
In the past towing the big caravan I have got as low as 11mpg, which would be the petrol mpg equivalent of getting around maybe 12 or 13mpg and the petrol cost equivalent of getting around 23mpg... but that was doing up to 70mph, even 80 at times (and yes I know that's illegal) and maintaining speed going uphills except for on some of the steepest gradients enroute on which it wouldn't have enough power to do 70mph anyway.

Last outing with this same caravan, which has a max laden weight of (iIrc) around 1750kg but which I'm sure we load up to quite a bit more than that so maybe 2000kg, I drove slower doing maybe 60mph and it returned what I expect will be around 14 or 15mpg on LPG.... I have fuel receipts but I've yet to work it out (and it wouldn't be straight forward to work it out anyway because I did around 80miles driving around locally before setting off on holiday). On this occasion (on both the outward and return journeys) I didn't push it as much as usual, especially going uphills. If I got 15mpg that would be the cost equivalent of over 30mpg on petrol (or in other words it would have cost me less per mile with the caravan on the back than it costs those who run Elgrands on petrol per mile without a caravan on the back). I reckon that if I stuck to 55mph it would have done a bit better mpg than that.

Years ago a neighbour was bragging to me that their diesel 4wd could return mid 20's mpg even towing their caravan. At the time I ran a BMW750 with the 5.4 V12 engine (in fact I had two of them). The V12 Beemers couldn't manage mid 20's mpg even without a caravan on the back... but the difference in the cost between petrol and LPG still saw that it was cheaper for me to tow my caravan behind my V12 Beemer than it was for the derv 4x4 owner to tow his (smaller) caravan behind his derv 4x4.

I've converted a lot of American RV's, the big ones have all got big block V8 or V10 engines with sizes ranging from between around 7litres to around 8.1 litres, weighing (more than) around 7500kg and with that massive frontal area they only do around 9mpg. But if they're LPG converted that's like the cost equivalent of 16mpg on petrol. And 16mpg (on normal unleaded) could be cheaper to run than an Elgrand getting 17mpg on super unleaded. I always wonder if the average car (or Elgrand) driver, seeing these big vehicles on the motorway, assumes they must cost a lot to run because of the size, but doesn't realise that it might be LPG converted while their own vehicle might not be LPG converted and if so they probably cost much the same to run. But if the Elgrand is LPG converted and the RV isn't LPG converted the Elgrand will only cost a quarter as much to run as the RV.
 
Lpgc said:
In the past towing the big caravan I have got as low as 11mpg, which would be the petrol mpg equivalent of getting around maybe 12 or 13mpg and the petrol cost equivalent of getting around 23mpg... but that was doing up to 70mph, even 80 at times (and yes I know that's illegal) and maintaining speed going uphills except for on some of the steepest gradients enroute on which it wouldn't have enough power to do 70mph anyway.

Last outing with this same caravan, which has a max laden weight of (iIrc) around 1750kg but which I'm sure we load up to quite a bit more than that so maybe 2000kg, I drove slower doing maybe 60mph and it returned what I expect will be around 14 or 15mpg on LPG.... I have fuel receipts but I've yet to work it out (and it wouldn't be straight forward to work it out anyway because I did around 80miles driving around locally before setting off on holiday). On this occasion (on both the outward and return journeys) I didn't push it as much as usual, especially going uphills. If I got 15mpg that would be the cost equivalent of over 30mpg on petrol (or in other words it would have cost me less per mile with the caravan on the back than it costs those who run Elgrands on petrol per mile without a caravan on the back). I reckon that if I stuck to 55mph it would have done a bit better mpg than that.

Years ago a neighbour was bragging to me that their diesel 4wd could return mid 20's mpg even towing their caravan. At the time I ran a BMW750 with the 5.4 V12 engine (in fact I had two of them). The V12 Beemers couldn't manage mid 20's mpg even without a caravan on the back... but the difference in the cost between petrol and LPG still saw that it was cheaper for me to tow my caravan behind my V12 Beemer than it was for the derv 4x4 owner to tow his (smaller) caravan behind his derv 4x4.

I've converted a lot of American RV's, the big ones have all got big block V8 or V10 engines with sizes ranging from between around 7litres to around 8.1 litres, weighing (more than) around 7500kg and with that massive frontal area they only do around 9mpg. But if they're LPG converted that's like the cost equivalent of 16mpg on petrol. And 16mpg (on normal unleaded) could be cheaper to run than an Elgrand getting 17mpg on super unleaded. I always wonder if the average car (or Elgrand) driver, seeing these big vehicles on the motorway, assumes they must cost a lot to run because of the size, but doesn't realise that it might be LPG converted while their own vehicle might not be LPG converted and if so they probably cost much the same to run. But if the Elgrand is LPG converted and the RV isn't LPG converted the Elgrand will only cost a quarter as much to run as the RV.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Sounds like the Elgrand is very capable of asked to tow something large.
 
Not tried any towing but i have a bar fitted on my 3.5l e51. Fancy getting a small trailer so interested in others experience in this thread. Thanks
 
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