On 9/9/2012 12:37 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:

Snip...
I'd expect that a Golf towing a 1800 lb trailer at 60 mph would be no
problem, until I had a wreck and the insurance company tried to deny my
claim.

1) Read your policy closely and anally; that's what your insurance company
will do when it comes to applying it, if you file a claim.

2) You might (should) seriously consider writing (not calling) and posing to
them whatever specific question(s) such a reading may leave with you. Your
claim will be your claim, and all the anecdotal claims experience I'm sure you
can get from RAS (including me, though none towing-related) will at best only
(very) indirectly apply to your situation/company.
- - - - - -

Golf - Curb Weight - 3,074 lbs - Towing Capacity 1000 lbs

Tiguan - Curb Weight 3,404 lbs - Towing Capacity (max braked trailer) 2,200
lbs The maximum legal towing speed in Europe is 60 mph.

Insurance aside, I towed gliders from 1973 through 2009 exclusively behind a
manual transmission, V8-engined, 2,600 lb Ford Maverick, that wasn't rated for
towing by Ford. (Whether lack of a tow rating was due to there being no
presumed market call for Ford to do so, or whether it reflected genuine
engineering conclusions, I've no idea.)

Had to adapt/weld a Sears (remember them?) 'universal hitch' onto the car.

Never towed a trailer with brakes. Heaviest rigs were a double-axled 2-32
hauler and a wooden homebuilt, the latter hauling an HP-14 and weighing (an
estimated) 3,500 pounds with ship inside. Both heavyweights (and most all of
the glider trailers) towed in the intermountain west. Over the decades, there
were multiple trips across the continental divide and into/throughout
central/mountainous Colorado, as well as the (generally lower) states of Utah,
Nevada and northern California.

Never had a towing-related vehicle issue.

When I sold the vehicle (~40k miles on the 2nd engine), it remained on its
original transmission (which had only once ever been topped off), was on only
its 2nd radiator & clutch, and still had the (dismal) factory original brakes
with the only braking system components ever to be replaced being the master
cylinder (once) and the brake shoes (~every 60,000 miles). I estimated the
running gear had roughly 240,000 miles on it (odo quit around 200,000 miles).
I'd semi-retired it in 1990 exclusively to trailer towing, after which 5,000
(all towing) miles were annually driven.


YMMV,
Bob W.