Check Towing Weights

When towing, great care should be taken and additional responsibility accepted; accidents involving trailers or caravans can have far greater consequences. Your vehicle becomes longer and heavier, and your entire load is anchored to the vehicle at a single towing point. It is essential to regularly check the condition of your caravan and its linkages to ensure that you arrive safely and with everything you set off with.

Safely loading your caravan is critical. Carefully check your vehicle’s towing weights and capacities, as getting this wrong can be costly. It is essential to ensure that the load is evenly distributed inside the caravan.

One of the biggest challenges in the UK is traffic density, particularly on motorways, where caravans often travel in close proximity to both cars and large goods vehicles at speed. The air vortices created can cause caravans to become unstable if they are not correctly loaded and properly matched to the towing vehicle.

An excellent resource for checking towing weights is TowCar.info. It offers an extensive database of vehicles and caravans, allowing you to match combinations and check whether they are safe to tow. If your vehicle or caravan is not listed, you can select a similar model and adjust the weights and specifications to suit your setup.

The following was submitted to CLIC by Ian Willis in response to an enquiry about the 85% beginner towing guideline. Within CLIC, his explanation was widely regarded as helpful in clarifying the situation regarding towing in Great Britain. The 85% (or even 100%) figures are not “rules” but guidelines and have no legal standing. They are intended to help ensure stability, all other factors being equal. Exceeding these figures, while not illegal in itself, could lead to prosecution if a driver were stopped due to instability or following an accident, as drivers are required under the Construction and Use Regulations to ensure their vehicle is safe.

Manufacturers typically quote a maximum towing weight that may be higher than the vehicle’s own mass. This is generally based on the total train weight (car and caravan combined), which must be capable of starting on a 12% gradient. Where a manufacturer specifies a lower limit, such as for towing weight or nose weight, this should not be ignored. Doing so could invalidate insurance following an accident, and, more seriously, an illegal or unsuitable combination could contribute to an accident if the vehicle is unable to handle the load.