Good/bad experiences with Tow Vehicle Syndicates?

On Wednesday, October 3, 2012 6:33:29 PM UTC-7, Papa3 wrote:
Absolutely. The US towing limits for identical cars are invariably lower for no good technical reason. I have a Sportwagen TDI that's good for 3,000 lbs in Germany and 1,000 lbs in the US (if you can actually get VW to put it in writing - it's in a "supplemental" manual that I had to request seperately).





On Wednesday, October 3, 2012 8:41:31 PM UTC-4, Andreas Maurer wrote:

On Tue, 2 Oct 2012 20:14:11 -0700 (PDT), son_of_flubber



wrote:











I actually have a VW TDI with DSG. VW USA says the Golf will only tow 1000 lbs gross weight, (though the same car can tow 3000 lbs in Great Britain!)



Glider in trailer is 1800+ lbs..







Hmmmm.... I had a Golf IV Variant in Germany, and it also had that



1.000 lbs limitation - but only if the trailer did not have brakes.







The limit for a trailer with brakes was the mentioned 3.000 lbs limit.











Could you check again if you are reading your car's manual correctly,



please? I find it hard to believe that VW is limiting its cars in such



a drastic way.







On the other hand:



Reading the criteria that seem to make a good tow vehicle in the US



(heavy and a biiiiiiiig engine) I wouldn't be surprised if the 1.000



lbs limitation only is VW's way to get out oif the way of some



over-enthusiastic US lawyers...











Cheers from Germany



Andreas







whose current VW Passat Diesel tows a loaded Duo Discus trailer with



43 mpg at 55 mph, unfortunately for the price of $5.70 per gallon...

Would you have the same disregard for your gliders POH? I would certainly hope not! Tow ratings are set for some VERY good reasons - don't ignore them! Furthermore, they are set with MUCH shorter trailers in mind than glider trailers. I suggest that you Google "trailer towing accidents" before you decide to disregard these limitations.