Why tow a car? (1 Viewer)

[HymerB544]

This is not a dig at anyone who tows a car behind their motorhome, but a genuine question. We chose to buy a motorhome because we didn't want to tow a caravan. We always take our road bikes with us on the back of the van and either use them, walk, or sometimes catch a bus to get around the area we are visiting. Ok, you might say that not everyone is lucky enough to be still riding a bike at 65, and I accept that.
But why tow a car behind a motorhome when you could opt for buying a much cheaper caravan and tow that behind your car? Quite apart from the added length of your unit and the added cost on ferries, it must surely be even more awkward when you get into the sort of situations in narrow roads and/or heavy traffic which all motorhomers encounter from time to time.
So come on, and forgive the pathetic pun, what's the pull?

Gary

 

[Doctor Dave]

I tow a car because it is not possible to tow a caravan with such a small car: due to disability my wife can't walk to a bus: for the same reason she can't ride a bike: it makes very little difference to the fuel consumption of the van and it enables us to visit parts of the area we may be in which we couldn't / wouldn't want to take the van to.

We don't go on ferries and if the van will go along a narrow road then towing the car doesn't make any difference as the car is narrower than the van.


Dave

 

[Jaws]

We did try towing a car for our winter sojourns but soon realised it cost us more in various fees and diesel than we could hire one for..
Having said that, we have now reverted more to character and carry a 125 scoot. instead.
Saying you can use a bus is fine IF there are buses .. We both cycle but Woman is terrified of traffic so will only ride if there is a proper cycle path..

The scooter is a good all round compromise, offering us considerable mobility while not costing us any significant extra to get the motorhome to any particular destination

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[sallylillian]

We have pretty much given up towing a car. We have 2 good electric bikes with 2 panniers each. We can cycle to supermarkets and bring back a huge shop including wine etc without hassle, they give us a bit of freedom with exercise thrown in. Easy to store in the garage. We have a smart with an A frame but have yet to tow it over the last 2 years of owning the Flair.

 

[Kingham]

I don't tow a car, but when I (we) had a large tag axle motorhome, I would use it mostly as intended, yet every now and then, I considered being able to make use of my wife's Aygo.

You are well aware of the advantages that motorhomes have over caravans, which I suppose is why we chose to buy them in the first place, but I can also see the advantage of having a small car with you. Depending on your intended destination, you would always have the flexibility of not taking it at all, taking it along 'just in case' or taking it along and using it.

If you tow a caravan, you don't have the same flexibility, the van gets left on site every day.

 

[emjaiuk]

Our first 20 yrs of MHing was with an RV. Although we didn't take the car every time we used it, we took it most times since local touring wasn't practical. As far as we were concerned it was a major upgrade from out caravan. We had the 7th Car-a-Tow Alan Bee made to enable us to continue to get out and about with young kids and dogs. Towing a car is IMHO a hundred times easier than towing a van. It's a lot easier to unhook a car and move it independently when required than maneuvering a car/caravan in difficult situations. Even now with European vans, our favorite place to stay is the New Forest, and our favorite place to walk the dogs is Hengisbury Head, not possible without a car. The main car park is height limited and on street parking is limited in both space and time.

With the profusion of town/village based aires in France/Germany we no longer take the car abroad, but since health restricts my mobility now, even with an electric bike, we are thinking of taking the car on some trips in the future.


Malcolm

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[sdc77]

We tow a car sometimes.
We have the van because we like the freedom it gives us to go anywhere we fancy and be completely self contained. It drives well.. we have lots of room and the dogs enjoy it. In Europe it's the only option we would consider.
We own 2 cars .. a volvo estate and a skoda citigo.
The citigo weighs hardly anything .. costs hardly anything to run and is fully loaded.
We have a small Bryan james trailer and if we intend to go somewhere for a period of time then we will take the car.
If we're aire hopping around France then we don't need it.. but if we're ..f.ex going to the d day celebrations over there then we would take it for sure and use the van as a base.
Dragging the car around behind the van is easy.. it's very stable... compact ... usefull.. easy to manoeuvre ... no drawbacks for us.. oh yes and it allows us choice to do what we want.
We have bikes ... we can catch busses ... Sometimes we do both .. but we also have access to a car if we want it.
Why not tow a car .. if it suits.

 

[Alistair33]

I tow a car because it is not possible to tow a caravan with such a small car:

LOL ... brilliant

Of course the best of both worlds would perhaps be to get a larger Motorhome where a Ferrari is stored under it, then that comes indignity of an old man trying to get out of such a low car !

 

[Larby]

On a similar but different note ??? Sometimes I would have a holiday in France driving my car and staying on a package site. There was no way I would tow a caravan with the additional costs, ferry, tolls, site fees, MPG. Yet I still tugged a caravan down to Cornwall for the obigatory 2 weeks.
Sometimes I miss a car but love the fact in a MH everything is in one unit.
Each to there own....................

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[funflair]

We changed from a car and caravan to motorhome because when we were away with the caravan we never used the car for driving around as we cycled, the only thing was we wanted to cycle different areas so after a few days we wanted to move and this we argued would be easier with a motorhome, and it is, and we don't want to go back but I can understand it for people with less mobility.

Martin

 

[Shrimp]

We sold up and moved into our van, we bought a box trailer and put everything into it we thought we needed, including a scoot.
After a winter of being wet & cold on the scoot-sightseeing etc.-we sold the scoot, got rid of all the stuff in the trailer-some of it hadn't seen light of day for months-got rid of the trailer and bought a Peugeot 107, £20. Road tax & cheap to insure.
We then acquired a dog! So now, after an upgrade on the car-a newer 107 £zero road tax & still cheap ins. we trundle off everywhere.
We tow the car in UK, but usually don't take it to France, unless we do our house sit in the winter!
For us it works well it's cheap and we love the MH freedom. A car & caravan would not work for us as we like the Aires abroad and would cost us more as we would have to use sites abroad!

 

[suavecarve]

We sold up and moved into our van, we bought a box trailer and put everything into it we thought we needed, including a scoot.
After a winter of being wet & cold on the scoot-sightseeing etc.-we sold the scoot, got rid of all the stuff in the trailer-some of it hadn't seen light of day for months-got rid of the trailer and bought a Peugeot 107, £20. Road tax & cheap to insure.
We then acquired a dog! So now, after an upgrade on the car-a newer 107 £zero road tax & still cheap ins. we trundle off everywhere.
We tow the car in UK, but usually don't take it to France, unless we do our house sit in the winter!
For us it works well it's cheap and we love the MH freedom. A car & caravan would not work for us as we like the Aires abroad and would cost us more as we would have to use sites abroad!

Like the OP I have always wondered (without verbalising it) why tow a car. With the dog it makes perfect sense and to me now and for the Wintering. Cheers

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[bigtwin]

I've always wondered why some motorhomers dont, occasionally, tow a car. The extra flexibility it provides is obvious so why don't more do it?

Ian

 

[DigglyDog]

We tow our Fiat 500 most of the time, UK and Europe. Having a lazy basset means walking is quite challenging and public transport even worse. Yes, it's a faff at times and more expensive, but having the trailer with car also allows us to even out overall loading of the inevitable stuff that everyone tries hard not to take, usually without success.

 

[Cat53]

We don't tow a car.....but a part of me thinks it would benefit us greatly to tow in the UK. As for why choose a MH instead of a caravan....because they are so much easier to set up. And it's lovely to just pull over, swing round and head for the loo when travelling, especially in the cold and wet.

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[Langtoftlad]

As I understand the 'physics' of towing...
Dragging a relatively large caravan behind a relatively small family car can be problematic... and often not a stress free experience.
Plus there is the oft quoted hassles of maneuvering & setting up the caravan...

With a motorhome towing a relatively small car the weight ratio is far better making for a much more pleasant driving experience.
Plus you have all of the convenience of pitching a motorhome.

 

[Reallyretired]

We tow a car in the UK. We did take it to France once but found it an encumbrance so left it with friends and picked it up on the way back

 

[Huwmari]

We would never tow a car as our motorhome is just under 6m and takes us pretty well everywhere we want to go. We tend to move on every day or so anyway so the need just isn't there (Shanks's pony suffices in spots where the van just can't go.) If we were going to stay put we would have a caravan as it makes more sense to us to do so but each to his own.

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[vwalan]

why not get a mini artic . shorter than most car caravan setups put m,bikes in the back . i use my truck as my car. total length only 10mtrs . cheap for ferry. cheap road tax if you pay for it . plus i have a seven seater run around when i drop the trailer . the truck fits in a car space . together they fit in two car spaces . fits in supermarket places easy. takes up far less room than c/caravan set ups and more conveniant than a big m,hoime /rv. and can be driven if disabled .

 

[Charlie]

I tow a car because it is not possible to tow a caravan with such a small car: due to disability my wife can't walk to a bus: for the same reason she can't ride a bike: it makes very little difference to the fuel consumption of the van and it enables us to visit parts of the area we may be in which we couldn't / wouldn't want to take the van to.

We don't go on ferries and if the van will go along a narrow road then towing the car doesn't make any difference as the car is narrower than the van.


Dave

Ditto.

 

[2657]

why not get a mini artic . shorter than most car caravan setups put m,bikes in the back . i use my truck as my car. total length only 10mtrs . cheap for ferry. cheap road tax if you pay for it . plus i have a seven seater run around when i drop the trailer . the truck fits in a car space . together they fit in two car spaces . fits in supermarket places easy. takes up far less room than c/caravan set ups and more conveniant than a big m,hoime /rv. and can be driven if disabled .

Lots of them on the market?

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[vwalan]

Lots of them on the market?

plus i forgot with the right setup your mot exempt . another saving . plus dont have to come back to uk once a year if you dont want to.
but even fifth wheelers many can be driven on b+e and have large trainweights up to 11/12 ton with the right set up.

 

[Charlie]

As I understand the 'physics' of towing...
Dragging a relatively large caravan behind a relatively small family car can be problematic... and often not a stress free experience.
Plus there is the oft quoted hassles of maneuvering & setting up the caravan...

With a motorhome towing a relatively small car the weight ratio is far better making for a much more pleasant driving experience.
Plus you have all of the convenience of pitching a motorhome.

I can barely feel the Toyota IQ when it's being towed. There is virtually zero nose weight on the towbar and as the car is on its own rolling wheels the pull resistance felt is nil. I can easily pull the car around by grasping the A frame it's so easy.

The old why not tow a caravan with a car argument is utter cobblers. I would not have a caravan for free I loath the damn things

 

[Spriddler]

it's lovely to just pull over, swing round and head for the loo when travelling, especially in the cold and wet.

You shouldn't leave it so late to pull over.

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[The Nomad]

125cc scooter on rear rack instead.
100% improvement.
Much easier, much cheaper, much more fun, far better for exploring, much better in cities, can park anywhere.

 

[2657]

plus i forgot with the right setup your mot exempt . another saving . plus dont have to come back to uk once a year if you dont want to.
but even fifth wheelers many can be driven on b+e and have large trainweights up to 11/12 ton with the right set up.

Yes that may be the case but how many suitable vehicles are there available and how many have the knowledge and resources to adapt them as you have done, it is a very niche market.

How many other rigs such as yours do you know of?

 

[Teuchter]

We were caravanners for 35 years and loved it! - for the first 20 (whilst I was working) we used it some weekends and for the main holidays when we usually stayed on one site for 2 weeks. After I retired we found that when we were away for longish periods (say 3 weeks or more) we tended to move on every 4 or 5 days so Mrs T had the bright idea of getting a MoHo which we duly did 3 years ago.

We don't tow a car and do rent one for a few days on occasions when in Spain for 2 months in the winter. I have nothing against towing a car with a MoHo - it's just not for me (each to his own) What does surprise me though is the number of average size or smaller MoHos which stay on one site for months at a time with big awnings extra tent (used as a shed) so never moving! In this instance I would definitely have a car & caravan!!

As for towing & setting up, with the right matched outfit towing a caravan is a breeze and with the advent of motor-movers setting up is now very easy too so given that usually length for length there is more living space in a caravan it seems to me that if wintering on one site or even if moving say every month then a car and a caravan is a better bet

Just my opinion of course - as I said earlier - "each to his (or her) own"

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[vwalan]

Yes that may be the case but how many suitable vehicles are there available and how many have the knowledge and resources to adapt them as you have done, it is a very niche market.

How many other rigs such as yours do you know of?

quite a few . theres a vw lt and trailer lives near tavira in portugal. theres a transit on ebay at moment . in fact there as been loads over the years .lynton have made many there was another firm doing them but they seem to have changed their name recently think it used to be something like vulcan or something .
but there are loads out there.
there are always mini artics on ebay . kitting them out is really easy . nice and square . b&q units work a treat.

 

[vwalan]

you could google mini artic ..
then look at the pics and see how many that are on there.
also remember my trailer was built in 1987 its thirty years old now .
there is a few manufacturers of them out there .

 

[2657]

quite a few . theres a vw lt and trailer lives near tavira in portugal. theres a transit on ebay at moment . in fact there as been loads over the years .lynton have made many there was another firm doing them but they seem to have changed their name recently think it used to be something like vulcan or something .
but there are loads out there.
there are always mini artics on ebay . kitting them out is really easy . nice and square . b&q units work a treat.

Compared to the market for motorhomes and caravans you are talking about a tiny percentage, and even less the number of people that have the practical skills, facilities and desire to convert one when the easy option of buying something off the shelf is so much easier.

Mini artics such as yours, and even 5'ers, are and will remain a niche market.

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