Coming up: The easiest way to choose the right tow vehicle. Let’s try a rational, numbers-based approach, shall we?

I get a lot of enquiry. Much of it is vague - ‘wanna tow a medium-sized van’ (whatever that is). This one from Steve was a cut above - but he’s still digging a hole for himself. Check it out.

“Currently I am looking at a Kia Sportage Si 2.0L Diesel Automatic, as I have the following “toys”: Fishing boat, approx. 1.5t, and camper trailer approx. 1.2t. I also occasionally do a bit of beach driving and light 4-wheel driving (nothing radical) as well as an occasional trip interstate. So, based on that I reckon the Kia will fit my requirements. My only concern is the towing capacity of the Kia @ 1.9 tonnes. Your comments would be appreciated.” - Steve

SCENARIO #1: Buying the vehicle; owning the trailer (or trailers)
Two critical weights - loaded all-up trailer weight (ATM or GVM of the trailer) and the static towball download. Plus you need to know the allowed limit on both of these loads from the vehicle manufacturer. Keyword: ‘limits’, and there are consequences if you exceed them.

Proportionality: Towball download (5% Europe / 10% Shitsville - leads to a lot of frustration) 1900kg / 100kg for Sportage. 2000kg / 100kg (Santa Fe) - genuine load assist kit. Stepping up past that means moving to something like a Pajero Sport - much more agricultural

Measure - don’t guess (or read off the spec sheet) - find a public weighbridge and use it, with the trailer in its most heavily-loaded configuration.

Don’t tow too close to the limit (+ the madness of 3500kg utes) - especially if you plan on doing a lot of towing. GCM limitations (Ranger Wildtrak = 3500kg tow, GCM 6000kg, kerb weight 2290kg. 2290 + 3500 = 5790, leaving you only 210 kilos of payload - that’s not very much for passengers, luggage, bullbar, second spare tyre, jerry cans of diesel - so you can see how this is impractical, right. Hypothetically, two excessively fed western carnivores and a 3500 kilo trailer, and your vehicle will blow the GCM limit.

DCTs and CVTs - conventional autos are best for heavy towing (not talking about a light box trailer and occasional runs to the tip or Bunnings)

SCENARIO #2: Buying the trailer afterwards
Basically you apply this process in reverse - you have to choose a trailer that will not blow the vehicle manufacturer’s towing limits - fully loaded. And here I urge you to shop around, to find a trailer designed closer to 5% on the towball download, rather than the long-standing 10%, because that’s going to really open up your vehicle options. This process is, in a sense, more challenging

In my view, the last thing you want is to have to buy a vehicle like a Pajero Sport (3100-kilo tow capacity) to tow your 1800-kilo trailer, simply because all the 2000-kilo tow vehicles you’ve looked at can’t handle more than 100 kilos on the towball. (There’s nothing wrong with a Pajero Sport - but it is fairly unrefined compared with a CX-8, Santa Fe or Sorento.)

CONCLUSION
I urge you to strive for the lightest trailer you can get away with - less stress on the vehicle, and you’ll probably get away with a more refined vehicle for the times when you’re not towing. (Because the heavy tow vehicles are all somewhat agricultural.)

Fundamental point of compromise for occasional towing (4 weeks of holiday towing - probably six days of towing and 22 days of staring at the ocean, half tanked). Six days versus 359 days of not towing. Of course this is a different story if you plan on becoming van-toting grey nomads.

Finally I’d suggest that the missing component in the discussion so far is you - the driver. Heavy towing is specialised and demanding - so it’s unreasonable to expect of yourself that you will jump out of mum’s Camry and into a Ford Ranger Wildtrak hitched up to a 3.5-tonne rolling bordello and seamlessly adapt to those demands. At the very least, adapting to heavy towing means driving ultra-conservatively, leaving big safety margins (in cornering speed and stopping distance). And finally, use your damn rear-view mirror: if you’re holding up the world, you’re doing it wrong. Pull over, diplomatically, and let the world drive past you at its default highway pace. There’s no need to be an inconsiderate bastard. Humanity is already all stocked up in this respect.