Towing Caravan

Folding caravans are a good bet, lightweight and quicker/easier to put up than a trailer tent.

Gary

We've been considering getting a camping trailer for when we camp at off road sites, either for a weekend away with our club or to watch a winch challenge too far away to drive to and back in a day. This would stop me having to have weight high up in a lifted vehicle.

Having had the vehicle loaded to the hilt with camping stuff, I wouldn't want to strain the little 1.3 any more than that weight.

So regardless of what the plated weights are, I'd forget trying to tow a caravan with a Jimny. I can't imagine you'd be friends with many truck drivers on a motorway where hills are present!

It's just not made for that stuff.

Kirkynut

Which is why i sold my first jimny and bought a Discovery for towing the family caravan, it might be naff off road but its a great tow car. Thankfully i now have both !

Gary

Copy of my homemade offroad camping trailer. Designed at 500kg with hubs for Jimny wheels. Just used loaded to the gunwhales with camping gear spare wheels trolley jacks etc.Went to TOR Kirton from London plus sightseeing around 650 miles (60mph on motorways no probs).Only downside is the car has the aero dynamics of a brick and fuel was about 30mpg.

pic now attached - see above

It's no bad tractor, the Jimny.
We have a 2005 VVT-model - and a Hymer Touring Triton caravan.
The Hymer brand is sold as Eriba in most other countries.
This is a pop-top caravan - only 2,1 m high when travelling but with the top up we have head-room to stand up
The caravan is 2 m wide and 4,3 m long (body length), has an empty weight og 750 kg and total weight og 1.000 kg.
Here the Jimny has a towing weight of 1.300 kg braked.
We usually cruise around 90 km/h in 5th gear - 4th comming to use for steeper highweay-hills and "fast" overtakings of lorrys and other caravans
We can even do 100-110 km/h on flatter ground !
The caravan is large enough for the 3 of us, with a double- and a single bed, kitchen and toilet.
Now we don't have any mountains here in Denmark, so I can't tell You that this rig will race up any incline, you can think of. But the VVT-engine has surprising amounts of torque for it's size - just keep it revving over 3.500 rpm.
I have been writing with another dane, who had the older, non-VVT, engine in his Jimny and a full-height caravan (2,5 meters) of about same lenght and weight as ours.
He couldn't use 5th gear when towing - and felt that 80 km/h was what suited his rig best.
As you will see from the attatched photo our caravan has a pretty flat profiled front - what is not obvious seen from the side is that the front is also very sharp - whereas the old Streamline for instance is rounded.
This means that the drag is very low - and when cruising at highway speeds this is more inmportant than weight.
The weight - however - will catch up with you when you're driving up a long, steep hill.....
Here in Europe we have another caravan, that you migth know: the Tabbert T@B. I know that it is sold in the US in a locally produced glass-fibre edition - just can't remember the name. But it is very distinct in it's teardrop-shape - much like the Little Guy but high enough to stand up in :woohoo:
This caravan also has a very low drag - and afair it is even lighter than ours - and thus even better for towing with the Jimny.
Clutch holding up ? No problems after 80 tkm. We use our caravan for 3 weeks of summer-holiday, driving 2-3.000 km in Denmark, but last summer we went to nothern Germany and camped in the outskirts of Harzen (the northmost mountain-area of Germany - up to about 1.000 m high). But we didn't pull the caravan up anything much steeper than what we can find on danish highways.
The Jimny isn't any "directional wonder" in stronger winds - but hitch up to a caravan and it runs like a train - no sidewind pushes the rig anywhere ?!

So now when we are in our 3.rd summer with this rig I cannot see much reason why you should not use the Jimny for pulling a (reasonally sized) caravan.
We could consider trading up to a bigger car as our 12-year old daughter outgrew her mother over a year ago and now they are fighting over leg-room in the car. Mother's seat can't travel much futher forward now