Towing a caravan with the MKIII?

[YvesD]

Is anyone towing with their new Superb yet? If so which model/engine combo etc?

Cheers Yves

[eurotraveller]

Well, not a caravan, but a closed race vehicle trailer – for all the difference that does or doesn't make. Model/engine stated on left of your screen.

 

Why do you ask?

[YvesD]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying the 280tsi version and also towing a decent sized van with it.

New to towing and not sure what to make of the much talked about 85% of kerb weight guidelines.

[Devonshiredave]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying the 280tsi version and also towing a decent sized van with it.

New to towing and not sure what to make of the much talked about 85% of kerb weight guidelines.

From what I can see, the 280 Hatch weighs in at 1540 kg and the Combi at 1560kg.  Assuming this includes driver and car in running trim (fuel etc) your caravan should weigh no more than 1326kg loaded (TPLM) if following the caravan club advice of 85% ratio. You can however tow an unladen van of up to 1326kg and put everything in the car but care needs to be taken not to overload the car's max laden weight (don't forget the caravan nose weight will add to the rear axle loading). Plus an unladen van may bounce quite a bit. I'd err on the side of caution, load the van and the car sensibly and stay within the club guide lines whilst finding you feet so to speak.The 85% rule is good advice for novice towers.

[YvesD]

Thanks for your thoughts on this. The 280 combi is 1560kg excluding driver so in my case add another 75kg to give the minimum actual running weight of the car.

Add Mrs Yves in, the two children plus luggage and we are up at 1850kg ish for the car giving more flexibility on what can be towed.

I would tend to load the car more than the van and stay well within the latter's MPTLM for safety.

[Inoffski]

Hi

 

We tow a Bailey Unicorn 3 Cadiz, with the upgraded MTPLM of 1550kg with our Superb 3, which is a 2.0 TDi SEL Exec 190 4x4 DSG Combi. Its a great tow car, solid, surefooted, and plenty of torque. Best tow car we have had.

[YvesD]

Nice outfit inofski. Have you played around with the loading of both units? what works best for you?

The impression I'm getting from the forum and other reviews is that these cars are more than capable of pulling a decent sized van safely. Encouraged by that.

[Devonshiredave]

Thanks for your thoughts on this. The 280 combi is 1560kg excluding driver so in my case add another 75kg to give the minimum actual running weight of the car.

Add Mrs Yves in, the two children plus luggage and we are up at 1850kg ish for the car giving more flexibility on what can be towed.

I would tend to load the car more than the van and stay well within the latter's MPTLM for safety.

You've got the idea. At around 1850kg kerb weight, most single axle vans should be fine. Just don't exceed the user payload on the van or the car's axle weights. The car has the grunt, it just needs the weight to be safe.

[Paul R T]

Hi,

We have been caravanning for 15+ years, both around the UK and in France and Spain. We currently tow with a 16 plate Superb SLE Estate 190 manual. For the previous 5 years I had a Superb II estate 170. They have both been excellent tow-cars, but the 190 is the best. There is plenty of power and torque when you need it and it is extremely stable even in some vigorous side winds. I tend to tow fairly briskly, but I get 27-30 mpg when towing, which is an improvement on the old 170.

 

There can be some confusion about ‘kerbweights’ with Skodas. The brochure quotes a kerbweight without a driver, whereas the owners manual quotes an ‘operating weight’, which includes 75 kg for the driver. (The two do tally.). The latter ‘operating weight including a driver should be used as the ‘kerbweight’ for matching purposes.

 

Thus the TSI 280 4X4 DSG Estate has a kerbweight of 1635kg, giving an 85% figure of 1389kg. The 190 SLE manual Estate has a kerbweight of 1525kg, giving an 85% figure of 1296kg. However, we tow a Coachman Pastiche 460/2, which has a MPTLM of 1420kg, which is a 92% match, and I have never had any indication of instability. I suspect that the Superbs are particularly stable towcars, which has contributed to them winning towcar awards on several occasions. Thus it is probably  safe to exceed the 85% recommendation by a margin.

 

My final thought is that you mention you are considering the 280TSI. Most caravanners tow with diesels as the engine characteristics are much more suited to towing with bags of torque low down the rev range. The 190 CR is particularly good in this respect.

 

Best of luck and welcome to the joys of caravanning.

 

Cheers

 

Paul R T                                    

[LakesPuma]

Hi Paul, did you have the factory fit tow bar installed or an after market one?

[YvesD]

This is all great info guys, putting my mind at ease about towing with a Superb.

Interestingly, although the 280tsi peak torque figure is 50nm down on the diesel (still matches the old 170 CR engine though at 350nm peak) it is delivered slightly earlier than the diesel and remains at that peak past 5000rpm!. That's pretty handy too I think.

I've been running diesels for the past few years and just fancy a powerful petrol motor again. Also the petrol motor can be safely remapped to both higher power and torque if needed.

Win win?

[Paul R T]

Hi LakesPuma,

The car was a very low mileage ex Skoda management or ex demo. Thus there was not the option of a factory fitted towbar. I had an aftermarket one fitted by my local towing specialists, GT Towing at Hatfield, Herts, whom I have used several times before. Not cheap, but it is fine. I was initally concerned as the factory fitted option is supposed to beef up the cooling, but I don't know what that means in practice. Anyway the car has performed very well towing. When climbing the long gradients on the A75 autoroute across the Massif Central in France in hot weather, the water temperature never shifted from normal; the oil tempreature went up a bit - to 120C max, but immediately came back down when you were able to ease off. So quite happy with it.

Cheers

Paul R T

[YvesD]

For comparison, we've been long haul camping in France for the last few years and I've seen 115c on the oil in our Skoda without towing up those hills! Car fully loaded with equipment though.

130c on the oil is when to take notice, no reason it should get there on correct fluid levels and fresh ish oil though I think.

Edited 26 October, 2016 by YvesD

[unclerichy]

280 hatchback here and almost 50% of the miles since new have been towing our 4 berth 2014 Sprite. The van has an MTPLM of 1350kg and I average 22mpg when towing. Estimated 300 mile range from the tank.

Apart from high fuel consumption (to be expected) I can't fault it. For purely scientific purposes *ahem* I timed a 0-60 run at 10 seconds using a GPS enabled dashcam. I don't dawdle when towing.

Previous car was a 170 DSG combi and though that was a great towcar the 280 is even better. Of particular note is how little the rear sinks even with an 85kg noseweight (90kg max) and heavy mobility scooter in the boot.

[personpaul]

I have a Superb 150 bhp diesel DSG estate with factory fit towbar. I tow a Bailey Pageant coming in at 1420kg MPTLM. Unfortunately I have only managed just over 100 miles ordinance getting the car 5 weeks ago but initial impressions look good.

We had a weekend away in deepest darkest Lincolnshire so no hills were involved, but we covered a full mix of roads from motorways to single track lanes and the car handled them all well.

My previous tow car was a 130 bhp diesel DSG Octavia. The caravan was up to the towing limit of that car, but it still towed very well.

The 150 didn't feel underpowered at all, but all the reviews I read said that the 150 was well suited to towing. Can't compare to 190 though.

One final note, the factory fit towbar is fab, and reversing camera makes hitching up a doddle.

[unclerichy]

I agree about the factory fit towball - much less faff than fitting a dirty removable towball.

I find the reversing camera a bit fiddly as the Alko stabiliser doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room as it's close to the bumper. It also needs a good light source to see clearly.

[YvesD]

Previous car was a 170 DSG combi and though that was a great towcar the 280 is even better. Of particular note is how little the rear sinks even with an 85kg noseweight (90kg max) and heavy mobility scooter in the boot.

 

Can you expand upon what's better about the MKIII for towing please? I guess the wider track front and rear plus wider tyres help? The petrol engines slightly lower torque figure obviously isn't an issue!

Cheers

Yves 

 

10 secs to 60 with the van on the back? that motor has got some grunt 

[YvesD]

One final note, the factory fit towbar is fab, and reversing camera makes hitching up a doddle.

 

Definitely speccing these if I buy one. 

[unclerichy]

Can you expand upon what's better about the MKIII for towing please? I guess the wider track front and rear plus wider tyres help? The petrol engines slightly lower torque figure obviously isn't an issue!

 

In no particular order (and possibly 280 specific):

• 4x4 means no more axle tramp when trying to pull away rapidly in damp conditions or where the road surface is poor (ie. most of the roads around where I live)
• DSG seems to suit the petrol engine better than the diesel (though they're the same 6 speed 'box)
• Wider power band when accelerating to overtake - though the 170CR drove in a petrol-like manner (compared to the non-CR 140 I had in my old Octavia) it still produced more noise than acceleration higher up the rev band.  The 280 just keeps pulling and pulling
• Seems to be affected less by sidewinds and passing trucks and I find that setting the steering mode to Sport helps too
• Higher noseweight gives more leeway when loading the caravan
• Rear end sags less on the Mk III for the same towball load and boot contents (might be down to DCC on this car).
• ACC makes motorway dawdling much simpler.  If I'm not in a hurry I set the cruise speed to 60 then sit behind a row of trucks.  If I get bored I press the loud pedal and off we go.

 

The only negative is that my old Superb was white so matched my caravan whereas this one stands out a bit 

[skippy41]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying the 280tsi version and also towing a decent sized van with it.

New to towing and not sure what to make of the much talked about 85% of kerb weight guidelines.

Buy a diesel version for towing

[skippy41]

280 hatchback here and almost 50% of the miles since new have been towing our 4 berth 2014 Sprite. The van has an MTPLM of 1350kg and I average 22mpg when towing. Estimated 300 mile range from the tank.

Apart from high fuel consumption (to be expected) I can't fault it. For purely scientific purposes *ahem* I timed a 0-60 run at 10 seconds using a GPS enabled dashcam. I don't dawdle when towing.

Previous car was a 170 DSG combi and though that was a great towcar the 280 is even better. Of particular note is how little the rear sinks even with an 85kg noseweight (90kg max) and heavy mobility scooter in the boot.

 

You would get 35/36 towing with a diesel, with the previous fl version, 140 tdi , from Scotland to Plymouth 480 miles with 150 miles left to run about Bailey ranger 540/6

[sherlocks VRS]

Just come back from a long weekend away with our new superb sportline combi 190 dsg 4x4 towing a swift challenger sport with a max mtplm of 1400kg, come from a 64 plate superb 170 dsg 4x4 and i must admit it seems a better tow car than the 170. not sure if its the wider track lower suspension height or what but first impressions look very good. defo go for a factory towbar as they are impressive and tuck up out the way without you having to get dirty when installing the swan neck

[YvesD]

Hang on....

Edited 27 October, 2016 by YvesD

[YvesD]

Just my preference of course but I'm not at all concerned about fuel economy when towing, only whether the car excites me for the 95% of the time when it's not towing and it's capabilities/safety

when it is.

Acceptable trade off methinks

[unclerichy]

Just my preference of course but I'm not at all concerned about fuel economy when towing, only whether the car excites me for the 95% of the time when it's not towing and it's capabilities/safety

when it is.

Acceptable trade off methinks

 

 

You would get 35/36 towing with a diesel, with the previous fl version, 140 tdi , from Scotland to Plymouth 480 miles with 150 miles left to run about Bailey ranger 540/6

 

Nowt wrong with a diesel but if I wanted to save money I'd have stuck with my previous Superb.  At the time I made the decision my job security had been uncertain for over 6 months but I decided to say 'bugger it' and spend the money on a brand new L&K anyway.

 

Sometime you've just got to live a little and when I went back to the showroom to take another look at the new Superb they'd swapped the previous mid-spec showroom model with a bright red 220 with the 19" alloys.  At which point I grabbed the nearest salesman and said "I want one of those, but faster".  The rest was just haggling.  I am, after all, still a Yorkshireman