Finding a car is a balance between your essential needs and your nice to have desires. It is a personal thing, where everyone goes and finds their own balance.
Every new car presently on the market will have a towing capacity. One of the factors is vehicle mass. You certainly should not be towing anything that is heavier than your cars own weight. However, you can safely tow a trailer that is only marginally lighter than your car - providing the trailer has brakes (that work). One of the preconceived notions is that you need a big car to tow a big trailer. Trust me on this. I get it a lot. J and I have a Suby 2.5 litre Outback (yep a normally aspirated 4 cylinder engine). It has a max tow capacity of 1500 kg. J and I also own a Bergfalke 4 and it has a huge trailer to go with it. The trailer with glider weighs in at (you guessed it) 1500 kg. So we regularly get the goggle eyed stare of "You tow that with that!" because it fails to meet the preconceived notion. A fair bit of work has gone into the trailer in recent years and it now tows comfortably at 100 km/hr in a screaming cross wind - despite the size of the trailer. J and I have previously (and quite safely) towed single seat gliders with a 2 litre Camry. Where a "big" car comes in usefull is to make up for the poorly designed, poorly built and even more poorly maintained glider trailers that you see regularly on Australian roads. I think I will side with Mark N. You don't need a big car to tow glider trailers. A bit of time and effort invested in the trailer would probably safe a lot of grief and save the expense of owning a "big" car. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
