Has anyone out there got a 170TDi DSG Superb Estate. I'm trying to find out the GTW so I know what I can tow, when my car arrives. As Skoda customer services don't seem to know what day it is and the GTW isn't published in the owener's manual or the brochure I thought the Briskoda membership might be able to help.

The GTW can be found on the weights plate, usually stuck on to the driver's side B-pillar. It might be just a combination of max vehicle weight and max towable weight, but from experience, I know it's not always that simple.

Can anyone help?

cheers Simon

Im sure I've seen 1800kgs thrown about somewhere

Im sure I've seen 1800kgs thrown about somewhere

That's max towing weight maybe. GTW is normally Max gross weight of car + max towing weight.

That's max towing weight maybe. GTW is normally Max gross weight of car + max towing weight.

Not necessarily...which is why I want someone to look at the actual weights on the sticker on their car.

I might be a little thick but surely just dont tow any trailer over 1800kgs?

All my towing is done with the Defender so it just a case of hooking it up and making sure its a 12 pin trailer, weight is a irrelevant really.

Ordered the tow bar prep on the superb so intregued to see the answer.

Edited 5 September, 201114 yr by Mr Milo

I might be a little thick but surely just dont tow any trailer over 1800kgs?

All my towing is done with the Defender so it just a case of hooking it up and making sure its a 12 pin trailer, weight is a irrelevant really.

Ordered the tow bar prep on the superb so intregued to see the answer.

I didn't order the tow bar prep as was advised it was a waste of time (unless perhaps you're going to shell out for the Skoda tow-bar and that ends up a bit pricey I think).

Weight is never irrelevant when towing. If you have the trailer much heavier than the towcar you can end up in trouble (and I don't mean just with the law) if you're not very careful. That's another subject.

To remain legal you need to stay within the manufacturers limits. With my current car I have the following...

Gross vehicle weight 2140kg

Max brakes trailer 1500kg

Gross train weight 3525kg

...so you can see they don't always just add up. Might want a bigger van than the 1450kg we tow at the moment so even though the 1800kg towable should be fine I want to know how much headroom I've got within the gross train weight, considering everything else that's usually in the car+van when we're away.

Simon

99% of my towing ion the road is with a Ifor Williams plant trailer which is plated to carry 3500kgs.

The Defender is plated to tow 3500kgs can, will & does pull much more than this. (Off road lugging hay, logs other crap i hasten to add)

Where does the Defender sit with the GTW figures? Ive tried goggling but its a little bit after two bottles of Broadside.

99% of my towing ion the road is with a Ifor Williams plant trailer which is plated to carry 3500kgs.

The Defender is plated to tow 3500kgs can, will & does pull much more than this. (Off road lugging hay, logs other crap i hasten to add)

Where does the Defender sit with the GTW figures? Ive tried goggling but its a little bit after two bottles of Broadside.

GTW figure should be on the same plate as the gross vehicle weight.

I had a quick look on Land Rover's webiste, but I'm on my 3rd glass of wine now.

Simon

I didn't order the tow bar prep as was advised it was a waste of time (unless perhaps you're going to shell out for the Skoda tow-bar and that ends up a bit pricey I think).

Weight is never irrelevant when towing. If you have the trailer much heavier than the towcar you can end up in trouble (and I don't mean just with the law) if you're not very careful. That's another subject.

To remain legal you need to stay within the manufacturers limits. With my current car I have the following...

Gross vehicle weight 2140kg

Max brakes trailer 1500kg

Gross train weight 3525kg

...so you can see they don't always just add up. Might want a bigger van than the 1450kg we tow at the moment so even though the 1800kg towable should be fine I want to know how much headroom I've got within the gross train weight, considering everything else that's usually in the car+van when we're away.

Simon

Hi Simon,

It doesn't look like you have an answer yet...

I've a Superb Elegance Est. 2.0TDI 170ps... but a manual.

The plate on the car doesn't actually say what the weights are for but I think I'd say that for our car the GWT is 3940kgs

The cars Max permissible gross weight is 2140kgs + 1800kgs max permissible braked trailer = 3940kgs.

In the manual the Superb with DSG has a max permissible gross weight is 2157 so I think we can quite safely say that the GWT is 3957kgs.

Hope that helps

Regards

Stephan

Hi Simon,

It doesn't look like you have an answer yet...

I've a Superb Elegance Est. 2.0TDI 170ps... but a manual.

The plate on the car doesn't actually say what the weights are for but I think I'd say that for our car the GWT is 3940kgs

The cars Max permissible gross weight is 2140kgs + 1800kgs max permissible braked trailer = 3940kgs.

In the manual the Superb with DSG has a max permissible gross weight is 2157 so I think we can quite safely say that the GWT is 3957kgs.

Hope that helps

Regards

Stephan

Hi Stephen,

The plates never do say what they are...you just have to know. They are the gross vehicle weight followed by the gross train weight, then followed by the individual max axle weights.

You've just confirmed what I found at a local dealer this morning...when I managed to locate the plate right at the bottom of the B-pillar. That was on a 140PS DSG hatch but the difference between the 2 figures was exactly the max tow weight of 1800kg...which is great and gives me lots of headroom and opens the door for larger, heavier caravans. As you say, I fully expect the GTW of a 170 DSG Est to be 3957kg and gives me another 400kg on top of my current GTW. We will be able to pack the kitchen sink, after all.

Thanks for the info.

cheers Simon

Hi Stephen,

The plates never do say what they are...you just have to know. They are the gross vehicle weight followed by the gross train weight, then followed by the individual max axle weights.

You've just confirmed what I found at a local dealer this morning...when I managed to locate the plate right at the bottom of the B-pillar. That was on a 140PS DSG hatch but the difference between the 2 figures was exactly the max tow weight of 1800kg...which is great and gives me lots of headroom and opens the door for larger, heavier caravans. As you say, I fully expect the GTW of a 170 DSG Est to be 3957kg and gives me another 400kg on top of my current GTW. We will be able to pack the kitchen sink, after all.

Thanks for the info.

cheers Simon

Dare I ask about Caravans... We're just in the throws of thinking do we go for one... seen a few nice new ones, but not seen a really nice 2nd hand one yet. As a novice tower (well so far never towed anything) we're intending to limit ourselves to a MRO of 1350 or a max. or ~1500 for the van (intend to do a tow course immediately if we do take the plunge though). won't say No to a few tips & thoughts etc. but I don't think you can really go 400kgs more... isn't what you can tow max your empty kerb weight ie. 1594kgs?

I don't think vans have cropped up in discussion before here... If I'm wrong a link would be great.

Thanks

Stephan

Dare I ask about Caravans... We're just in the throws of thinking do we go for one... seen a few nice new ones, but not seen a really nice 2nd hand one yet. As a novice tower (well so far never towed anything) we're intending to limit ourselves to a MRO of 1350 or a max. or ~1500 for the van (intend to do a tow course immediately if we do take the plunge though). won't say No to a few tips & thoughts etc. but I don't think you can really go 400kgs more... isn't what you can tow max your empty kerb weight ie. 1594kgs?

I don't think vans have cropped up in discussion before here... If I'm wrong a link would be great.

Thanks

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

Big subject - so my reply might get long winded. Apologies but it is quite complex.

Background - I've always been around caravans. Parents had one and friends have them and I've now been towing for 8 years with no incidents and 65k on original clutch. I've had 2 different towcars and two different vans so 3 different combinations. Currently I have a Vectra diesel Estate (kerbweight 1645kg) towing a 2010 Lunar Quasar 556 6 berth, MTPLM 1499kg, (took out the rear bunks (-45kg) but added motor mover (+37kg)).

Firstly the common misconception...only drivers who passed their test after 1 Jan 1997 are limited to tow up to their car's kerbweight unless they've taken an additional test to give them B+E on their licence. Drivers who passed before that date keep their entitlement to tow heavier vans limited by the van itself or by the car's published weights.

When you consider kerbweight things can get more confusing still as there's 2 different definitions. The old one was for an empty car but a newer version according to EU Directive 95/48/EC (issued in Sep95) includes the car in running order (with all fluids and 90% fuel), including all added optional extras fitted to the car (inc towbar and that can be 30kg) plus driver and luggage. I think kerbweight measured this way should even include the static weight on the tow-ball (say 70kg) but I’m not 100% on this. Read the directive and you’ll know why. Mind you I think the EU legislators are living in cloud-cuckoo dwarf-land as they only allowed 68kg for the driver and 7kg for his/her luggage.

When you're looking at caravans I'd advise considering the van's MTPLM, not the MRO - the MTPLM is its max all-up weight including everything you'll put in it when on the road, as this is important when matching it to your car's capabilities. The MRO is the caravan's empty weight as it left the factory.

Now the legal bits...on your car you’ll find a weight plate, commonly stuck on the B-pillar. It will have 4 different weight figures and maybe the VIN no. The order might vary but you’ll have the following...

Gross Vehicle Weight – the max the car can weigh including driver/all passengers/luggage/fuels etc...basically everything supported by the 4 wheels.

Gross Train Weight – the max that car plus any trailer (caravan/boat/horsebox/etc) can weigh. Sometimes as with the Superb this is simply the gross vehicle weight plus the max braked trailer towing weight but not always.

Max front axle weight

Max rear axle weight.

Usually the axle weights add up to more than the gross vehicle weight so you’ve got a bit of flexibility as to where you put things. The only car I’ve ever seen measured for this was a van at work full of aircraft technical documents so they’d got an idea as how to load it.

The most important thing when towing is that your car is as heavy as possible and your van is as light as possible within the limitation of all the individual weights. You don’t want a case of tail wagging the dog if you have to stand on the brakes ‘cos of some burke in front of you. Nose-weight is important as well. I always weigh mine and hardly ever see others weighing the van before attaching to the car. Of course experience is everything and I just know that if the van nose is too light I’ll be in for a more bouncy ride which is not pleasant if you’re porpoising all the way to the south coast.

I can’t recommend caravanning highly enough. Ok you have to buy the van but it gives you access to low cost holidays and when we changed our van last year I worked out what the first one had cost us over 6 year. Including everything (capital/depreciation/storage/servicing/site fees/insurance/everything) it worked out at £17 per person per night for 2 adults and 2 kids. That’s how we manage to be on holiday for 30+ days per year...can’t beat it!

If you want any more info please send me a message. One piece of advice I’d give is buy various caravan mags and do lots of online research before you buy. Try these links for info...

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_067672.pdf

http://www.nationalcaravan.co.uk/images/resources/Caravan_Towing_Guide_080805.pdf

http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/DG_185057

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/DG_192285

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media/22442/thinking%20of%20buying%20a%20towcar.pdf

Cheers Simon