Good/bad experiences with Tow Vehicle Syndicates?

On Sat, 6 Oct 2012 17:15:27 -0700 (PDT), Dave Nadler
wrote:


Amazing, the Germans are switching to lbs rather than kg now...

Sometimes one feels the need to use some kind of pidgin English to
communicate with the uneducated rest of the world.

Andreas

I've been towing for many years trailer between 1 and 1.5 tons across the Alps with max 2 liter engines. Currently, my car (Saab 9-3 1.9l twin turbo diesel automatic drive) gives me 44 mpg with a 1 ton trailer and develops about 400 Nm torque - plenty enough for any situation. It is rated for 1.6 tons. With my 1 ton trailer, I don't exceed 120 kph because I don't trust the trailor tires above that speed. It's got decent brakes, too :-)
BTW, one of the criterions for trailor mass ratings is that the car must be able to start from a full stop on a 12% slope.

Having driven a lot in the US, the main difference between US and Europe cars are how the suspensions are set. A typical US-built mid-size car would be rated "crap" in Europe, and I would never think of attaching my favorite toy to it. In such a situation, I do understand the thinking of US drivers to go for big mass and big engines - what else can you do if there is no engineering?

Not entirely true - I have driven a hire car 1600 Mazda hatch on the
Peak to Peak route in Colorado.
It was underpowered at those kinds of altitude, and I would rather have
had a small turbo diesel. But it did the trip without any problems, in
the early spring with temperatures at -10c and over a metre of snow.

The disbelief from all the behemoth drivers was worth it.

SO - you can find European specification cars, they just appear to be
unpopular. (I had to ask very nicely before they would give me the
"little car")

Bruce

On 2012/10/08 12:31 PM, wrote:
I've been towing for many years trailer between 1 and 1.5 tons across the Alps with max 2 liter engines. Currently, my car (Saab 9-3 1.9l twin turbo diesel automatic drive) gives me 44 mpg with a 1 ton trailer and develops about 400 Nm torque - plenty enough for any situation. It is rated for 1.6 tons. With my 1 ton trailer, I don't exceed 120 kph because I don't trust the trailor tires above that speed. It's got decent brakes, too :-)
BTW, one of the criterions for trailor mass ratings is that the car must be able to start from a full stop on a 12% slope.

Having driven a lot in the US, the main difference between US and Europe cars are how the suspensions are set. A typical US-built mid-size car would be rated "crap" in Europe, and I would never think of attaching my favorite toy to it. In such a situation, I do understand the thinking of US drivers to go for big mass and big engines - what else can you do if there is no engineering?


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771

Having driven a lot in the US, the main difference between US and Europe cars are how the suspensions are set. A typical US-built mid-size car would be rated "crap" in Europe, and I would never think of attaching my favorite toy to it. In such a situation, I do understand the thinking of US drivers to go for big mass and big engines - what else can you do if there is no engineering?

No, the main difference is that US cars have always been bigger and relatively less expensive (read - cheaper). So a lot less sophisticated.

Our driving conditions are probably somewhat different - I would guess that the average American drives a lot more distance than the average European. Our geography is responsible for that.

Also, our roads, frankly, suck. Long boring straight stretches, bad pavement, low speed limits: "you might as well have a comfortable car, cuz you can't have fun with a sporty one" seems to be the mindset.

I remember when most European cars were nasty little things - and American cars were highly desirable. Yours got better. Ours didn't, until recently, and are now starting to catch up.

Kirk
Jeep, Scion, Lexus, Mini in the family fleet. The Jeep (old Cherokee) is my favorite - and properly setup, is a decent tow vehicle that can also pull a loaded glider trailer out of a plowed field...