Hi all ,
Newbie question.
I’ve had bigger caravans in the past,but towed with big vehicles,
My current situation,I’ve got my berlingo van with a max tow weight of 1250 kg.( I’m reluctant to swap to a bigger van/car)
My choice of ERIBA would be a 420.
However I’ve seen a troll 550gt within budget,the max gross weight of these seems to be different wherever I look,
some websites suggest 1200kg,
others as much as 1400kg.
Too big or ok if loaded lightly.
My brain is a bit fried with the hunt .
Any advice is very welcome.
Mike

The berlingo has the 1.6 hdi blue 100 ps

Another question,
I took a look around a sold van at a dealer at the weekend,
The mastic around the waist strip looked a bit poor,is this normal or a good indicator to walk away?

Thanks for that,

Be careful with Citroen weight limits Mike, they can sometimes catch you out.

Usually, in most cars, the Gross Train Weight is the Towing Limit plus the car's Gross Vehicle Weight, logical, understandable. But with some Citroens, Renault and Vauxhalls the Gross Train Weight is less than the two added together. So for instance you'd normally expect a car with a GVW of 2500kg and a towing limit of 1500kg to have a GTW of 4000kg. Some, however have a GTW of, say, 3500kg instead. What that means is if you tow at 1500kg then the car can only be loaded to 2000kg, not 2500kg. And vice versa, if you load the car to 2500kg, you can only tow a van weighing 1000kg, not 1500kg. We had one guy on CT who had a big WWB which he towed with a C4 Picasso and it ended up that he couldn't legally travel with his wife in the car because she weighed too much.

Another guideline is to try and ensure that the ratio between the weight of the rig you want and the car's engine power is greater than 40PS per tonne. Under that ratio and you'll struggle on inclines, so it's best to be substantially over for a comfortable drive. With 100PS the complete rig needs to weigh less than 2.5 tonne on the road to match that ratio. With a 1200kg 550 the loaded Berlingo needs to weigh less than 1300kg. According to the web the 100PS Berlingo has an empty weight of 1307kg so any load is going to take it over and reduce performance.

I’ll take a closer look at the vin plate today ,
I was thinking of have the van remapped for more torque ,will do more research.
Thanks for the responses chaps.
Mike

Try the outfit match calculator.

https://towcar.info/

I’ve taken a better look at gross train weight etc,
I’m ok with that,in theory I could tow the bigger van,
I’ve no idea on torque figures,but I do know the berlingo lacks a bit in low/ midrange.
My ideal van is still the 420,I towed prob a 500kg load yesterday ,last week maybe 750kg and power wise all was fine.
Given the rarity of the vans this year I may have to compromise,the bigger vans are more readily available.
We shall see.

I think I've found the spec. of something very similar to your van on HJ. They list a 2015 Berlingo Blue HDI 100 S&S 625 LX (not sure what the stuff after '100' means but hey ho).

It has a 1250kg towing limit and a Gross Weight Limit of 1970kg, so, theoretically the Gross Train Weight would normally be 3220kg, though they don't list. As it's a Citroen it may be less.

The spec. also says the Kerbweight is 1317kg, so if you applied the industry recommendation for new towers of an 85% ratio then that would mean the maximum MTPLM it should tow is 1120kg. If an experienced tower then up to 85% is recommended so up to the towing limit of 1250kg.

The problem comes with the power output. The spec says it's 98bhp and if you were pulling a 1300kg caravan and the Berlingo was at, say, 1600kg, well below its max then your train would be 2.9 tonnes. So 98/2.9=34 bhp/tonne, when a comfortable tow requires at least 40 bhp/tonne. A 1200kg caravan improves that ratio to 98/2.8=35 bhp/tonne. A 1000kg caravan means 98/2.6= 38 bhp/tonne. So really a 1000kg caravan is the better bet for that tow vehicle.

As a matter of interest, if you loaded both vehicles to the max with, say, a 1300kg Eriba you'd be talking 98/3.27= 30bhp/tonne.

On the torque side it doesn't fare so badly with a reported 254Nm when the industry recommendation is at least 60Nm/tonne. In the case of a 1000kg caravan and a 1600kg tow vehicle you're talking 254/2.6= 98Nm/tonne so a good ratio and even at a heavy Eriba of 1300kg and a fully loaded Berlingo at 1970kg 254/3.27= 78 Nm/tonne.

So it has the torque but it doesn't have the bhp for a Troll or heavy Triton.

And beware early Trolls with low MTPLM's because that usually means tiny payloads that have you overweight before you've loaded anything at all.

New van day yesterday yay!
Picked up a 2006 triton 420gt from LFin Poole.
The berlingo towed it very well on the 200 mile return journey.
Quick question though.
Is it normal for the alko tow hitch to creak when negotiating traffic islands etc?
It seemed to be worse when articulating side to side .
I’ll check the tow bar fixings etc as it was newly fitted recently.
Mike

creaking can be a sign of the need for appropriate greasing of towing assembly - note the word "appropriate" : this depends on what hitch you have.

if the hitch is fitted with anti-sway fittings then the friction pads need to be clean (use brake cleaner to clean them) and the towball needs to be clean of paint, rust and gouges (again, clean with brake cleaner to make sure all dust and grease is gone).

Anti-sway devices work by pads gripping the towball so any contamination of their mating surfaces can cause a squeak: there should never be any grease on these surfaces either:)