Woodmaster

Go for one with as much free space as possible so that you can all spread out. Consider leaving the kids with a friend.

Well, after long and hard deliberation, I gave in and forced myself to buy a new car with a bigger towing capacity! Gives me even more room for a bigger van next time methinks. ..........

The base MIRO of the van is 1425kg and the MTPLM was 1605. But due to it needing an awd motor mover I had it replated to 1800kg to allow me a bit of leeway.

ACTUAL weight of van on weigh-bridge 1650 (MTPLM is 1800) Towed weight is axle weight of van which is total weight less nose-weight as noseweight is taken by car (1650-75) = 1575

Actual weight of van 1650kg Nose weight 75kg Towed weight 1575kg Car tow capacity 1600kg All other weights GVW, GTW are well under.

Whoa! I didn't really ask for advice, more opinion regards the weight anomalies. It is more of a technical issue as I see it. But, it obviously irks you somewhat so I will politely withdraw from this thread. You are right however, I will tow this outfit as it is both legal and within spec. As a moderator, I would hope that you monitored the site for unfair and over critical opinion. Obviously you feel exempt from this.

Lutz, do you agree that is ok?

So, to finalise my van, a twin axle Sprite Quattro with an updated plate of 1800kg and an actual weight of 1650 will be towed by a car with a stated tow capacity of 1600. However the 75kg noseeeight will be borne by the car making the towable weight of the van 1575. So all in order?

The XC60 doesn't have a third row option. Spoke to Volvo again today but can still only connect to customer services. They do not know why but also suggested that the engineers may have wanted to increase the payload on the car.

I intend to speak to Volvo technical tomorrow. This evening I have compared everything about the 2014/15 cars. They have identical spec in every way- engine, transmission, gear ratios, brake sizes, etc etc. Prob compared over 200 sets of data and can find nothing different apart from the GTW and the resultant towing capacity. Hopefully technical will help. As Lutz said, the only remaining thing can be structural, although I would expect to see some difference in weights or dimensions if this was the case. I honestly believe this to be the case.

Just the customer service contact. Don't know how to get in touch with technical yet.

Volvo say 1600kg. But it is the identical engine, gearbox and running gear, and towbar. 2014 2014. 5 2015 2016 2017 HP 163 181 181 190 190 Payload 743 554 631 631 631 Max tow 1600 1800 1600 1800 1800 Min Kerbweight 1762 1746 1702 1702 1702 Running order 1854 1854 1854 Gross vehicle weight 2505 2300 2485 2485 2485 Max GTW 4105 4100 4085 4285 4285 These are extracted from the relevant year handbook.

I have a My15 D4 181 fwd. The tow capacity fell 200kg from the previous year model despite the gross vehicle and gross train weight increasing by 200kg. It looks to me as if they have allocated more of the available train weight to the car instead of the trailer. Having spoken to a Vosa inspector it is legal to tow a caravan that weighs less than the difference between gross train weight and the ACTUAL weight of the car, so in that sense I am ok towing above the towing capacity of the car. I asked Volvo uk to explain why the same car suddenly changed but they just quote the figures in the book. For ref my van MTPLM is uprated to 1800 although its actual is 1650. The gross train weight is 4185 and the gross vehicle 2485. Loaded with usual stuff and people car on weighbridge is 2145 leaving a legal towable weight of 1940kg. Licence restrictions don't come into play as I passed in 1975 and have been towing for many years. I guess I really want to know are there any mechanical changes to the car that reduced the tow capacity, or was it just juggling with figures to show the car as capable of having a greater carrying capacity, as I expect this affects more people ( and hence sales). Sorry for all the maths!

Stayed on a great serviced pitch in Herefordshire this year. Waste was on a large bore flexible pipe that you just placed under the van outlet.

Hi, I tried the snooper caravan model and looked at TomToms equivalent. None were any good and didn't seem to avoid known narrow roads so I paid £120 ish for the CoPilot truck sat nav app for the iPhone. Superb program. Never let me down and can be very finely tuned.