Hi guys,

after following this forum for a while, I'm up for my first question .

I am the owner of a Skoda Fabia 1.9TDI with 100bhp. I found in my instruction manual that I can tow a max of 1200kg with this engine.

We came across a caravan this weekend, which has a weight of 1030kg. With equipment and such I can add the weight to 1300kg.

Now my question: if I can chip my car to 130bhp, should towing that caravan go better? Or do you just advice me to buy an Octavia with more bhp?

Kind Regards

The Engine power is not your concern, if you fully loaded the caravan you would be over the MAUW, and the 1200kg limit is with one person in the car not a family and all their luggage.

The Caravan Club recommend a max caravan to car ratio of 85%. ( This is more realistic with a loaded car.

Also above MAUW you wouldn't be insured.

Get a bigger car with a larger towing weight as said above.

Chipping should help a little bit, but you really should go with a bigger car like an Octy TDI, which is better suited to towing. VW Touareg would be the ultimate.

Thx for the reply's guys .

That Touareg is a little bit out of my budget .

Octavia tows like a deam......any tdi from 110 bhp up will be brilliant, pd130 is very good (if you can find one) remapped they are even better

Yep the towing weight is more related to the weight of the car pulling than just the power. So pulling a tonne in a car that weighs a tonne and a short wheelbase isn't ideal.

A TDI 90 will be fine, as my 71BHP BX used to tow just fine.

Well , I am currently convincing my girl to take a look at the Octy Combi 4x4 .

Octy Combi 4x4 would be better assuming you are talking about the new Diesel model rather than the older 1.8T.

My reason for this is that the 1.8T will probably drink the fuel when towing. Nice car though If you are after a MK I Octy then I would go for a derv if it is a tow car.

Well, I saw the 2.0 TDI in the car configurator.

A fuel engine is rather expensive here in Belgium....:(