Caravan

[Llew]

I went for a driving trip to france this bank holiday weekend and I saw loads of cars pulling caravans and I wondered how would golfs fare with pulling a caravan _has anyone here used their car for this

[dav1e]

Hi I use my gti to pull an Eriba pan-duo caravan - thats the small ones with the pop top roofs. The UW of the caravan is 850kgs and according to the gti plate I am allowed up to 1400kgs towing weight. I got a towbar rear vallance fitted and also a detachable towbar. I find the caravan is an ideal size for two and we are presently on a four week tour of France which started from Scotland to Hull (about 200 miles) Zeebrugge down to the Alps (600 miles) and we are now making our way back up through Burgundy so we have been on all manner and gradients and I have found that the Gti has done a great job although the mpg has obviously been harder but not excessive. To date we have travelled over 1100 miles and everything working fine. I would thoroughly recommend using the Gti to pull a caravan just be aware of the towing weights etc.

[Frenzy]

Hi I use my gti to pull an Eriba pan-duo caravan - thats the small ones with the pop top roofs. The UW of the caravan is 850kgs and according to the gti plate I am allowed up to 1400kgs towing weight. I got a towbar rear vallance fitted and also a detachable towbar. I find the caravan is an ideal size for two and we are presently on a four week tour of France which started from Scotland to Hull (about 200 miles) Zeebrugge down to the Alps (600 miles) and we are now making our way back up through Burgundy so we have been on all manner and gradients and I have found that the Gti has done a great job although the mpg has obviously been harder but not excessive. To date we have travelled over 1100 miles and everything working fine. I would thoroughly recommend using the Gti to pull a caravan just be aware of the towing weights etc.

Out of interest what MPG typically do you see towing the caravan?

[dav1e]

I would say I can do roughly 300 miles on B class roads before it gets down to the last quarter and I usually refuel at this stage as the gas stations can be some distance apart.

[Llew]

Lol I,m paranoid about the distance of the petrol stations I kept filling up before it got down to half a tank although my paranoia was misguided as I think filling stations are from 20-40 km apart in france

[dav1e]

Yeh same here although ive found that on the autoroute they are not far apart and most towns on the back roads have a station although tje prices vary quite a lot depending where you are, the Alps was the dearest at 1 euro 62 while the cheapest in the back of beyond was 1 euro 54.

[Frenzy]

I would say I can do roughly 300 miles on B class roads before it gets down to the last quarter and I usually refuel at this stage as the gas stations can be some distance apart.

so a very reasonable 32.5mpg - i bet i wouldn't be fairing much better on those roads without the 'van in tow, maybe even worse!