Mk5 SWB towing

[cbfb]

The towbar on my mk5 transit (SWB minibus) is rated at 1200/1800kg un/braked.

20181107_184447.jpg

Is this all a transit can pull? Seems a bit light to me. Am thinking of using it to pull a car transporter for a lightweight race car; the overall weight would still be under 1800kg but I don't feel comfortable getting too close to the limit.

I spoke to the fabricators I use about strengthening the bar - they said it's no problem, but I'm trying to find out what the max towing capacity of the vehicle (not the towbar) is?

[Altransit]

You'll need to check the weight plate on the door pillar, but my 115 SWB minibus only had a GTW of 3500kg. The bus itself weighed around 1900kg (you'll need to check yours on a weighbridge), so that only leaves 1600kg for your loaded trailer and any other load you're carrying in the bus.

You're probably going to need something higher weight rated to tow your combination I think

[vanfox]

My 1999 SWB banana happily towed a two axle trailer carrying a scrap 1999 SWB van. This includes being pulled for no lights after the trailer wire rubbed thru and blew the light fuses. The cop made no mention about the overall weight. I never thought about it until recently when I weighed my van loaded at 2200kgs.

Conclusion: A banana will pull the weight but you may come up to the gross train weight, head for a weighbridge to check.

[cbfb]

Thanks for the replies.

The GVM is 2770kg, so assuming GTW is 3500kg (I remember seeing this on the weight plate), that gives me 3500 - 2770 = 730kg to play with.

I put it on a weighbridge recently and it came out at 1900kg with me + 2 kids and a full tank of diesel, which gives me 3500 - 1900 = 1600kg.

Problem is I'm building a campervan so I will be eating into that quite a bit.

The trailer I'm looking at pulling is a car trailer with a light race car on it, all up it should be around 1300 - 1400kg so it's pretty tight.

Here in New Zealand I've only heard people talking about the GVM (which includes the trailer nose weight) and the towbar rating, never heard of GTW being an issue. So if I'm careful with the campervan conversion I should just about be alright.

[Hondekop]

My LWB may tow 2000 kg, I asked Ford (factory) if the towing mass could be raised and the answer was no.
Towed these 2000 kg several times without any stability problems (car trailer). Speed around 90-100 km/h (56-62 MPH). SWB should be a tad less stable, dunno if it's significant.

That said, about what's technically possible: the max load I once towed was about 4 tons. Local quarry overfilled the trailer with gravel, it's a quarry oriented at the big boys (commercial users with 40 ton lorries) and they don't really care about a ton more or less. Crept home via backroads with 50 km/h. Transit coped surprisingly well though. Still, I get my building stuff from a less ham fisted supplier now.

Ciao, Kai