Opinions on Alto Safari Condo and Vehicle
I decided to put our summer tenting to the side, buy a small modified tear drop and tour the US for several months as a retirement present. It'll just be 2 of us and because we live in NYC this will ...
Forum Discussion
NYCgrrl wrote:westend wrote:
You need to do some research on the aspects of towing, it sounds like you may be new to it. The tow vehicle must be capable of handling the trailer in different situations. If the towing vehicle isn't up to the task, there can be severe consequences.
Choosing a small car to tow 3000 lbs. would be a terrible decision. You will be fighting the weight of the trailer continually and there may be failure of the car's drive train components. The other sad truth is that you can tow most TT's with a pickup truck or a minivan and your gas mileage will be the same. The Alto, since it has less frontal wind drag, will give you some economy but you will still have the towed weight to consider.
You got me pegged; I know lil of nothing about the criteria needed to tow. Which is part of why I'm sitting at your VL feet:). I lived in Europe for a time and noticed that many TTs were towed by smaller cars but am clueless as to why the same cars cannot tow in this country. Probably different market specifications.
If you look at the European cars that are doing the towing, I think you'll find many of them are AWD and diesel powered. With the exception of a few major routes, roads on the continent are smaller and our Euro brothers travel shorter distances. The Euro TT's are also built lighter, to keep to the weight ratings of the cars there.
If you try to get on the Interstate with that Alto and a small car, you will be in for a shock the first time a truck passes. Also, climbing or descending any sizable grade will a terrible experience.
As others have posted, an SUV or small pickup is what you will want for towing. Look at the VW Toureg or Mercedes ML350, they are both good towing vehicles.
