Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Martin_1962]

I have always used a stabliser - not worth the risk.

[Darth Loo-knee]

yes they can,

 I tow a 1.2 kg (empty) van with my omega - keeps to legal max speed very well. I am wary of a length of pipe in the radiator to act as  gearbox fluid cooler ( I know Vall say its all thats required) so have always had an air cooled oil rad fitted.
pre updatable  autoboxes tend to hunt for gears and can become a bit of pain. You may find it smoother to stick the lever into 3 if this happens

Even 3.9 Range Rovers can't make up there mind in which gear they want to be in at times whilst towing, so I should expect most autos to do the same. But a guy at work tows with his Omega which eats his 19 foot van

[Darth Loo-knee]

.......
 get a decent stabiliser bar or Alko combined hitch...  

A properly loaded 'van shouldn't need a stabiliser of any kind. Although I haven't yet towed anything more than a trailer to the tip with my Omega - yet! - I've towed a large-ish 'van behind my Senator for miles & miles, both here & in France, and have never had some much as a twitch from the caravan.

You are braver than me not using a stabiliser

[Andy B]

.......
 get a decent stabiliser bar or Alko combined hitch...  

A properly loaded 'van shouldn't need a stabiliser of any kind. Although I haven't yet towed anything more than a trailer to the tip with my Omega - yet! - I've towed a large-ish 'van behind my Senator for miles & miles, both here & in France, and have never had some much as a twitch from the caravan.

You are braver than me not using a stabiliser

When the Senator was tow car of the year it was tested at Milbrook doing 103mph       without any kind of stabilising aids.
Stablisers will only aid a stable outfit. It won't correct a badly loaded one.

[Phil]

The Omega won the caravan club tow car of the year a number of years in a row.

So from that i would guess its a good towcar.

Ive towed boats and my trailer with my windsurfing kit in it without a single problem, and not always at speeds people may expect  

A properly loaded trailer shouldnt need a stabiliser, never had a problem towing 1 3/4t mini digger on a 600kg trailer with spare buckets and the like, behind vans and a Discovery

Did once fill the trailer with 3t of sand so it was at the max gross weight behind the Disco, went down the road and did and emergency stop at 40 to see what would happen. Stopped dead staight with no drama, proving good trailer brakes help alot

[Dean]

I am sure many on here have towed caravans, if only to clog up the roads and upset me
[/quote]

However!  If you have towed before you can legally tow a van, when fully laden does NOT exceed the mass weight of the Omega fully laden.. i.e. 1:1 ratio... I suggest only for experienced towers!!!!!  Realistically! the ideal ratio is 85% of the weight of the Omega, get a decent stabiliser bar or Alko combined hitch...  My 3.0l auto has bags of torque at around 3k revs when towing my 1000kg van..  It'll pull half as much again, NO PROBLEM....  

Just keep out of the way of bikers and travel at night, it's far easier.....  

Also as TB says, the Omega has a cooler as standard...  Have you got an auto too??

DC
[/quote]


I need to clarify what Dave C has said here, Kerbside wieght is the UNLADEN weight (not laden) a Class B+E licence holder can drive a vehicle upto 3.5 tonnes and a trailer exceeding 750kg. PROVIDING the Maximum authorised mass (or gross vehicle weight) of the trailer (irrelvent whether it is laden to its maximum or not) does not exceed the UNLADEN weight of the towing vehicle. Upto a max wieght of 8.25 tonnes.

I have to know these things...its sad i know!