Considering buying a caravan and wondering if anyone has towed one with a TL.
I know TL's are limited to 1500 kg which means it can't be a big van.
Wondering how they tow and if there is anything special I should know about.
Roughly how many L/100k can I expect and what sort of things go wrong with the car.
Will I need to have the radiator modified? Any brand or type of tow bar better than the others?

Although i have only towed about 700kg, i have found the transmission struggles and so do the brakes. If you have a look at the size of the front disks, you can see why.

I also have heavy duty springs ("pedders lowered") which makes towing a lot more comfortable also, so you may want to think about that for towing a caravan.

It will tow as well if not better than a Commodore or a Falcon. Make sure you get the heavy duty tow package.
You will need a Transmission cooler installed and as TL-R said, might be worth upgrading the brake pads as the standard ones dont like stopping big loads. Something like Bendix Ultimates which will cope with the heat. Wont set you back much. You will have electric brakes on your caravan which will help out in a huge way. Sometimes you dont know anything is there because they work so well.

Everything else should be fine. Magna's/Verada's arnt like Falcons or Commy's where if you want to tow heavy loads, you have to install and upgrade just about everything in your car. That makes me laugh so hard that they put shonky stuff on to start with and if you stress your car then you have to upgrade to tuffer stuff where as magna's are all ready to go if you decide to tow or not.

Only use a Hayman reece heavy duty tow kit. Will set you back round $500 installed. Radiators are fine. Never had an issue at all and boy have i given the car many chances to give up in the heat but never has budged from Normal.

Fuel consumption will obviously go up a fair bit but you will be no worse off than any other car doing the same thing.

Have a read of this link which will give you more of an idea.

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30819&highlight=towing

It will tow as well if not better than a Commodore or a Falcon. Make sure you get the heavy duty tow package.

How do you figure that?

TL's are rated to 1500kgs MAX, whereas a Commodore is rated to 2100kgs with the right kit.

Rear wheel drive is (argueably) much better for towing also.

Falcon has a 3000+kg tow rating, a BA Falcon would be better than a Magna or Commodore real easy. I would really recomending that you find out what needs to be done to you car and then work out what size caravan u can tow but keep in mind a boot full of lugguge and a caravan full of holiday stuff whould put stress on any car. fully loaded car + half or loaded up van can weigh over 3 tonnes.

i'd check it out a bit more cause you could be paying More in the long run and money doesnt grow on trees and gearboxes arent cheap and life is moe inportant aswel,

Good luck:cool:

Falcon has a 3000+kg tow rating,
Not quite, 2300 in auto only, 1200 in manual.

Thanks guys, all useful information. I am hoping to eventually tow a van around Oz but am going to try shorter trips first with the TL to see how it goes. I guess I would be better off with a 4wd, probably a turbo diesel, but thought I would see what other people's experience was with the TL. I imagine the van would need to weigh not much more than 1000kg for it to be under 1500kg when loaded.

Yeah, RWD are better for towing, 4wds better still.

Yeah, RWD are better for towing, 4wds better still.

How would a TL VR AWD cope?

Probably better than a fwd Magna handling wise, plus you have bigger brakes.

Never exceed the manufacturers load limits though, could spell a disaster for the poor automatic transmission.

In all seriousness, for towing look towards a v8 ford or commodore (especially the fords seeing they are running what is essentially a US Pickup v8), or any med/large 4wd.

In theroy and on paper the Falcon looks the better option but nothing beats experience towing heavy loads.

The thing that kills the commodore's towing ability is its shoddy IRS setup. Does it absolutely no favoures.
I have had quite a few issues with fords when towing heavy loads usually heat issues in both engines and transmissions and have split quite a few heater hoses in falcons as well.
Yes, RWD ultimately is better for towing but the only real problem FWD's have is when amatures dont load their trailers/vans properly, they can have some traction issues in the wet but if you have the right setup then this isn't really an issue.

I have extensively towed with the combonation of sedans and wagons in all 3 majors being mitsub, falcon and commy and my pick of the bunch assuming they are all auto and V6/6 cyl would be the magna/verada wagon. Just feels the most confident on the road out of the 3.

AWD would be the pick of the bunch but they would use a hell of a lot of fuel compared to the others.

A turbo diesel would be the pick of the bunch. If i was going on a long trip towing a van i would seriously be looking at something like a new diesel Hilux.

This would be my tow vehicle of choice, can tow 4500 kg's and 684nm torque. Wouldnt want to do the maths on filling a 132 litre tank with diesel.

Also on a side note, a family friend has a stock TL ES Auto and has towed a caravan all around AUS, has had no problems at all

Yeah I towed 1.2 tonne down to Mount Gambier and back last weekend on the TL - only recommendation I can make is make sure you get a pop top caravan. The only problem I found was as I was towing a fully enclosed trailer which was higher than the car, I had problems when travelling into a head wind in regards to fuel consumption. But once you got up to the speed you wanted to travel at, fuel consumption was quite resonable.

For the record, I had trailer brakes - YOU NEED IT!

As far as fuel economy goes... it will be better than towing with a land cruiser or hummer.

But anything you tow a caravan with will have poor fuel economy.

You will have to worry about the down force weight of the trailer on the tow ball too.. what is the magna rated at for a down force weight..?? Anyone know..??

Alot of people forget about this and just worry about towing weight..:)

Tow a 1300 kg boat with a KL GTVi.

Previusly towed it with a KE Verada.

Never tow less than 180Kms to get to water these days

Once a year tow it to Airlie Beach from Toowoomba (1200Klms)

No probs with Gtvi or KE towing.

Brakes cope as does auto without any mods.

Consumption between 16 and 20Litres/100klms at 105 Kph depending on hills amount of overtaking and headwinds.

Cheers

You will have to worry about the down force weight of the trailer on the tow ball too.. what is the magna rated at for a down force weight..?? Anyone know..??

Alot of people forget about this and just worry about towing weight..:)


down force is roughly 10% of towing capacity(most cases) i.e. tow capacity 1500kg...downforce weight 150kg

This would be my tow vehicle of choice, can tow 4500 kg's and 684nm torque. Wouldnt want to do the maths on filling a 132 litre tank with diesel.

Also on a side note, a family friend has a stock TL ES Auto and has towed a caravan all around AUS, has had no problems at all

They're apparently really good on fuel, my boss has one for towing horse floats and gets about 11/12l / 100k.

But for towing a caravan if your using a rear wheel drive you really want a live axle rear end as the independant rear ends when they sag change camber and you go through tyres really really quickly, so a falcon wagon or ute would be your best bet.

Matthius

I towed a 1200kg car on a tandem trailer with ym VX S Commodore, no worries at all.

I am doing a fair bit of landscaping at the moment and i went to the tip today with a tandem 8 x 5 trailer with a basket on it today. I had one third full of clay i had dug up and the rest full of rocks and garden junk.
The weighbridge at the tip said the combined weight of the car/trailer was 4.3 tonn which i guess mewans the trailer would have been roughly 2.8 tonn.

The car towed it fine but it was definately noticable on the wagon mainly being when stopping. The trailer has hydraulic brakes on it but they arnt anywhere near as effective as electric.
Also she didnt like labouring low in the revs so i just held the gears out under light throttle upto round 4 grand in each gear when taking off and then it was fine.

I drove it from Berwick to the Lysterfield tip the back way which i'm sure people know as a twisty windy hilly road and it sat comftorbly and stable on 90k's round the bends. Have to admit though she was working hard up that steep hill from the roundabout back towards Rowville towards the tip on Wellington road. I just left it in 1st gear all the way up and at one stage i had the foot to the floor at round 5 grand and the revs were not climbing anymore. Talk about a clean out.

As long as the trailer is balanced right and doesnt put too much weight on the back of the car and you have electric brakes then towing a caravan would be fine.

I towed a car on a car trailer (which means there is no real way of managing loads on the trailer) with a 3.5L wagon a couple of weeks ago. I was definitely towing a lot more than the rated capacity (1.5 tonnes). On a flat road cruising it's not too bad, its when I get to a hill (in our case we were loitered with hills for 20km's) that really knocks the Magna down, the engine was really straining, I having to downgear excessively (and burn my clutch in the process).

What was worse, upon launching off, normally going up a hill there was a high tendency of wheelspin from the front (and i've got heavy duty springs and shocks too) . Really you gotta admit, a Falcon or a Commodore would do better than this!

Sorry, I will not ever see a FWD Magna (or a FWD of any sorts) towing heavy loads. The AWD Magna might be a different story however.

Add: Highway fuel consumption rose to an additional ~2L/100km

It all depends on how the trailer/caravan is balanced. If balanced incorrectly yes it can cause a lot of wheel spin in a FWD or on the other extreme can cause the car and trailer to fish tale as speeds get higher. Its all about getting the right balance. You need some down force weight on the rear of the car but not to much to cause the front to rise.
I did not have any issues at all with wheel spin and had to start from on a hill a few times. The auto would also tow a lot better than a manual would.
As i said, the only thing she didnt really like was to be left in D and slow down nearly to a stop and go again when she was in second gear. Too much strain on the torque converter so best just to pull it back to 1st and slowely rev it out to say 4 grand and then the revs are fine for the next gear.

How do you reckon I'd go towing a 500kg boat, unbraked trailer, with a TL ES??? Would be keen to travel interstate with the boat.

we used to tow muzza's 6m bayliner with his car, till the auto transmission went( we think the towing was part of the reason it went.) now we use ford fellas falcon, much easier and RWD.

magnas just werent made for towing i rekon, if ya gonna tow regular heavy loads get a car specifically for that job that can handle it easier

How do you reckon I'd go towing a 500kg boat, unbraked trailer, with a TL ES??? Would be keen to travel interstate with the boat.

See my earlier response to this thread.

No problems so long as your load is set up correctly

Cheers

I drove it from Berwick to the Lysterfield tip the back way which i'm sure people know as a twisty windy hilly road and it sat comftorbly and stable on 90k's round the bends. Have to admit though she was working hard up that steep hill from the roundabout back towards Rowville towards the tip on Wellington road. I just left it in 1st gear all the way up and at one stage i had the foot to the floor at round 5 grand and the revs were not climbing anymore. Talk about a clean out.
You wouldn't happen to live in berwick would you? further to that you wouldn't happen to live on wood road? I've seen a verada wagon the same colour as yours with custom plates parked outside a house there on many occasions.

Hey there M4DDOG. Yeah i have just moved to Berwick a few months ago and no, its not wood road but i think you have seen my car.
We live opposate the big park. Is it the one you are thinking of?

Oh and yeah, 500kg with un assisted brakes is fine with a magna. It should have brakes of some discription but it will do it fine without.

Hey there M4DDOG. Yeah i have just moved to Berwick a few months ago and no, its not wood road but i think you have seen my car.
We live opposate the big park. Is it the one you are thinking of?

Oh and yeah, 500kg with un assisted brakes is fine with a magna. It should have brakes of some discription but it will do it fine without.
lol which big park? There'd be heaps in berwick.