Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

√Dear Drive… Can I tow a caravan with a medium-size SUV?

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a double-cab ute or a large 4×4 to tow!

Dear Drive… Where we answer reader, viewer, and listener questions. Something on your mind? Call us on the radio show or email us at contactus@drive.com.au.


Jennifer called us on 3AW to ask:

I have a 2014 Range Rover Evoque with a tow bar and want to buy a caravan. I don’t need a big one – can my car tow it?

This is a brilliant question as we are as guilty as anyone for perpetuating the myth that you need a big four-wheel drive ute or a large 4×4 SUV in order to tow.

Bottom line, you can tow with almost any car, van, ute or SUV as long as you manage your weights.

At the lower end of the scale, are unbraked trailers, like the little hire units you borrow from Bunnings to move a washing machine. Anything without brakes is limited (with load) to a maximum of 750kg.

If your car can support a towbar, then it can support a 750kg trailer. Easy. Check your owner’s manual though, as this rating (as a maximum) may be lower on some vehicles.

Moving up in sizes, specifically to caravans, you have a number of options. Something like a Jayco Swift pop top camper trailer weighs 904kg empty and can handle 385kg of weight. That’s 1289kg behind your car.

In Jennifer’s example, a 2014 Range Rover Evoque (regardless of being petrol or diesel) has an 1800kg braked tow rating. This means the little Jayco Swift, filled to the gunnels, is more than fine behind the Range Rover. You can even go bigger, but not much.

Moving up to the smallest Jayco Journey 16-foot caravan, things start to get a bit heavy for the Range Rover. The Journey has a tare weight of 1763kg which puts it close to the Evoque’s maximum before you take the 375kg loading weight into account.

This means that if you’re looking for something along the size of a pop-top or camper trailer, you will be OK. If your Range Rover is the 2.2-litre turbo diesel, you have a maximum torque of 400Nm available at 1750rpm which is perfect for towing.

Following is a list of all medium-sized SUVs (2022 spec) and their maximum tow rating for a braked trailer.

Car Tow (max kg) Car Tow (max kg) Car Tow (max kg)
Alfa Romeo Stelvio
(except QV)
2300kg – Veloce
2000kg – other
Jeep Cherokee 2200kg Peugeot 3008 1250kg – hybrid
1550kg – petrol
2000kg – diesel
Audi Q5 2000kg Kia Sportage 1650kg – petrol
1900kg – diesel
Peugeot 5008 1300kg – petrol
1800kg – diesel
BMW X3 2000kg Land Rover Discovery Sport 2000kg – petrol
2200kg – diesel
Porsche Macan 2000kg
BMW X4 2000kg Lexus NX 1500kg – 350
1000kg – 250/450
Range Rover Evoque 1600kg – hybrid
1800kg – petrol
2000kg – diesel
Citroen C5 1200kg Mazda CX-5 1800kg – 2.0/2.5
2000kg – 2.5T/2.2TD
Renault Koleos 2000kg
Ford Escape
(except hybrid)
1800kg Mercedes-Benz EQC N/A Skoda Karoq 1500kg – 1.4T
1900kg – 2.0T
Genesis GV70 2200kg Mercedes-Benz GLB 1800kg – 200/35
2000kg – 250
Ssangyong Korando 1500kg – petrol
2000kg – diesel
Haval H6 2000kg – petrol
1500kg – hybrid
Mercedes-Benz GLC 2000kg – 200/300e
2400kg – 300/43
2200kg – 63
Subaru Forester 1200kg – hybrid
1800kg – petrol
Honda CR-V 1500kg MG HS 750kg – 1.5T
1500kg – 2.0T
1750kg – hybrid
Toyota RAV4 1500kg – hybrid AWD
800kg – petrol
480kg – hybrid FWD
Hyundai Ioniq 5 1600kg Mitsubishi Outlander 1600kg Volkswagen Tiguan 1800kg – 1.4T petrol
2200kg – R
2500kg – 2.0T petrol
2500kg – diesel
Hyundai Tucson 1650kg – petrol
1900kg – diesel
Nissan X-Trail 1500kg Volvo XC60 2250kg – PHEV
2400kg

Note too, that all of this is null and void if your tow hitch isn’t up to the rating weight of the van.

While the Evoque is rated to pull 1800kg, some aftermarket tow hitches may not be rated to this. As Jennifer’s is a factory (genuine) tow hitch, we’ll assume it is rated to the correct 1800kg maximum. Note that we did a quick look around at key aftermarket suppliers and found they all matched the 1800kg rating, but this is just for the Evoque in the example.


Have a question about your next set of wheels or just need some car advice? No query is too big, small or obscure! Call in to the radio show (Trent on 2GB Sydney 1:30pm Monday and 9:00pm Wednesday, 5AA South Australia 1:30pm Tuesday, and James on 3AW Melbourne 9:00pm each Thursday), or contact us by email here: contactus@drive.com.au.

The post Dear Drive… Can I tow a caravan with a medium-size SUV? appeared first on Drive.

Post a Comment for "√Dear Drive… Can I tow a caravan with a medium-size SUV?"