Does anyone tow with a petrol powered motor? When I first started with caravans I had a pickup truck which happily towed up to 2 tons.
Since then I have moved up from a puck to a triton and changed the car to a vauxhall insignia.
When I got the insignia I was advised to get the 2L diesel as they are supposed to be better for towing but now I need a petrol car for health reasons (diesel fumes upset my lungs)
I remember a survey where 35 out of 39 members towed with diesel cars and only 4 with petrol

Petrol v Diesel car ownership

So I suppose the question is do petrol cars tow differently to diesel? I'm guessing I will have to rev it a bit more pulling away and maybe change gear a bit more often?

Specs

2L diesel H\power 140 torque 350nm
1.8L petrol H\power 138 torque 175nm

so similar H\p but 1\2 the torque

Getting the new car Monday but probably not towing with it until next year.

Forgot to say its another Insignia

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I tow a troll 550 (laden to 1200k) with a 1200 petrol automatic skoda yeti! It won't go up hills very quick but on a recent trip we did go up a 1 in 10 hill without too much grunting. Best fuel consumption with the outfit has been 29.5 mpg but expect more like 25mpg under normal conditions or less than 20 in a bad headwind (and don't use the air con at the same time). Spec: 2013 Skoda Yeti 1200 turbo, 175Nm, 105 bhp. Outfit tows fine at 60mph on motorways with no snake or shake.

Hi Hob - I've towed our Puck L with both a 2 ltr. (pre DPF !) diesel Citroen Belingo and recently with a 1.6 ltr. petrol C3 Picasso. There is a noticeable difference, even with this light Eriba !

From a performance point of view there is no competition in my view - show the petrol a hill and it's change gear time, and then probably again if you loose too many revs ! The diesel just kept going , even if you needed to ease off the throttle.

Economy, again no contest - very little difference towing with the diesel, especially if you drive sensibly! The petrol returns a noticeable increase in consumption.

The diesel (my wife's)l was not replaced with a diesel as the strict pollution controls, dpf's , smaller cc engines have IMHO negated any of the advantages of the older 'simple' diesels, so for everyday use I think car diesels have had their day

To sum up , I think you will be 'stirring' the gears and need to keep those revs up and anticipate inclines and hills more than you've been used to ! So your economy will suffer. Not all bad news though. if it improves your health

It's the torque that makes all the difference, Aarons Audi with 280Nm sounds like just the ticket. I had a 1300cc petrol dragging my Familia and it was painfull, steep hills were slow and waiting to pull out of a junction required a calendar....

An interesting bit of info, I was told the number plates on the car must be changed as they now have to have the postcode on them not something I was aware of before. (not sure if thats my postcode or the dealer one?)

Top tip get the dealer to save the old rear one so you can use it on the caravan.

This is a wind up surely. Husband, Wife, Son and Daughter all living at home so they'll have the same registration plate eh?

Quote: Deeps wrote in post #9

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This is a wind up surely. Husband, Wife, Son and Daughter all living at home so they'll have the same registration plate eh?

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Ah, silly me.

We used to have a Toyota Avensis Petrol 2.0 L which was a lovely car to drive but towing was a bit of a nightmare. Living in Cornwall we have a lot of hills over Bodmin Moor (A30) and I would almost run out of gears on some hills (2nd gear) and foot hard down to stop being overtaken by Fiat Pandas.
Moved to Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2L diesel what a difference. Can now drive almost everywhere towing in 6th gear have to change down to 5th on some big hills but mostly hit the cruise control and just steer. Fuel wise the Toyota would drop down to 20mpg towing whereas the Santa Fe will return 32mph towing, 40mpg When solo.
Bearing in mind the number of diesel vehicles on the roads these days then changing to a petrol vehicle is not going to improve your health Nev unless you buy a VW Diesel of course
I would not consider a petrol vehicle for towing IMHO again unless a car with a lot of grunt

Quote: Eribanut wrote in post #12

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Bearing in mind the number of diesel vehicles on the roads these days then changing to a petrol vehicle is not going to improve your health Nev....

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I've never had a diesel car. When we bought the 430 last year we towed it with a 2 litre Toyota RAV4 petrol automatic, and found it easy to forget the Eriba was behind. Since then we've changed to a Honda CRV with exactly the same spec, and with the same results. I think the autobox makes towing a whole lot easier. I can't comment on mpg because I'm not brave enough to check the figures!

Quote: Wordspace wrote in post #14

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I've never had a diesel car. When we bought the 430 last year we towed it with a 2 litre Toyota RAV4 petrol automatic, and found it easy to forget the Eriba was behind. Since then we've changed to a Honda CRV with exactly the same spec, and with the same results. I think the autobox makes towing a whole lot easier. I can't comment on mpg because I'm not brave enough to check the figures!

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