Well boys, towed my caravan on my first fishing trip of the year, and what a difference!!
Caravan is a 2006 Coachman (known to be heavy) VIP 520/4.
Although the Galaxy (1.9ltr 115bhp) towed it ok when it was moving along, it was a bit of a pain at junctions and Islands etc. You really had to have a big gap in the traffic to get it moving along. I also noticed it was wearing the front discs out very quickly!
With the Freelander 2 (2.2ltr 160bph) you could hardly tell it was on the back. Missus well chuffed!
Just one observation, and it relates to my first post on here about the steering being unexpectedly light - I did have a bit of drift on the front end. Maybe Ive just got to live with that?
Just one shout-out to the very considerate Class 1 driver that came belting past me at Warp 6 - BARSTEWARD!!!!!!!
Oh yes, had a couple of 16lbs and a 17lb carp

Merlin100 wrote:

Just one shout-out to the very considerate Class 1 driver that came belting past me at Warp 6 - BARSTEWARD!!!!!!!

part of the class one training manual used at CG hgv training plc At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Had a similar experience to Merlin 100, regarding towing. My wife used to tow the caravan with a 1.9 125hp Zafira.
She goes to various dog shows and events all over the place, and this year, upgraded the van from a Swift 480 to a 520. This was also motor mover equipped, and just too heavy for the Vauxhall. The Freelander was, on paper, well able to cope, and so towed the new van on it's first outing. She was very pleased, as it coped much better than she thought it might. Only needing to shift from 6th gear a couple of times, when traffic slowed down on rises on the M5. The mpg was reading a reasonable 27 when towing, and the feeling of having a car that was well on top of the job made for relaxed towing.

I also tow a 520/4 (amara) initially with FL1 TD4 and for that struggled mostly with the throttle lag, had to aim at the last car in the passing queue in order to be out when needed. Tuning box helped a bit.

So when we had to go to an auto stretched to an FL2 and was pleasantly surprised at the difference. The increase in performance coupled with the ease of auto made everything so much more relaxed especially when towing.

Now looking forward to the slight upgrade in engine performance with the SD4 next time out with the van(CG, you need to avoid Mersea next week for your blood pressure). Prog rock is cool!
2012 XS SD4 Indus Silver