Tow vehicle

[Gary Pearce]

Interesting topic and one that people make mistakes on regulaly whether it be towing a race car or a caravan for the family holiday.
It seems to me that the key to the descission here is the daily drive v/s towing percentage.
If you are talking towing maybe 6 or 12 days per year against daily drive of say 240 days per year I know which way I would be leaning.
Some slight inconvienience going up a hill in a head wind 6 days a year v/s driving most of the 4x4 heaps mentioned above every day of the week does not seem like fun to me.
Since this is a Alfa Forum and concidering a lot of us tow our race cars, a 2 litre Japanese car or Evan's diesel Alfa 159 would be perfectly adequate to tow occassionally and a lot more fun to drive during the week. My race car and trailer combination weighs in at less than 1300 kg and provided I carefully load the tow car and have working brakes on the trailer the combo is a dream to drive, safe on the road and still returns better fuel economy than a '4bi'.
Or out of left field......if you have the parking space, buy a classic tow vehicle and stick it on club plates.

[alfa duk]

 As it was said in the earlier posts, i was going to get 1001 differing opinions and while all suggestions are plausible and could work some of the towing capacities are borderline and for that reason i wouldnt go there. All cars will pull but will they stop, especially in the wet. Another point that people overlook is the amount of additional weight they throw in like spare wheels, tools, jacks, stands and if you are like me, marquees and our clubshop. So when we have our 1000kg car, 600kg trailer and 200kgs of gear, throw in and extra person and their gear and it adds up.
A good point was made about packing car and trailer for balance as this has a huge effect on performance and safety and checkout the tow bar rating, a vehicle may have a 2 t rating but the tow bar is only 200kgs.
BTW, i took the ranger out today, I'm impressed.

[Rigi]

To come from another angle .. FBT .. if the vehicle is going to be through the business then a 'dual cab utility' will by my understanding, avoid the FBT whereas a 'station wagon' - including 4wd's such as Land Rover, Ranger, BMW, Prado, Kia, Landcruiser etc etc will be subject to same - guess the other consideration, other than space at home, is do you really want/need a 'tank' as an every day drive ... now that leaves the door open for another 'Effie' on Club plates and a GTA/GT to amble around town in