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[Ant - Petrol Blue Thirty Two]

Hi to all.  Can someone help thicko me with the minefield that is 'towing limits'.  I have a standard (but beautiful) 3.2 Elite saloon which is fitted underneath with a Vauxhall dealer tow bar fixing minus the detachable tow ball?  The fixing was there when I bought the car in 2007 but never needed to utilise the towing facility. I can't decipher the owner's manual about table 1 kerb weights (page 222), heavy accessories, or the 'table 3 kerb weight' and what the difference is with table 1 and table 3 anyway?  The drivers door pillar has two kg weights 2200 with 4075 just below it.  So, practically, what weight can I tow and does the fact that the car would have two persons and luggage etc in it make a difference?  Just thinking ahead if we decide to buy a caravan and if the car would tow a twin wheel van which tend to be the heaviest.   Is it just me that sees all this weights info in the fog and mist?  Thanks very much in advance.  Ant.     

[Kevin Wood]

Simple answer:

The 4075 is the maximum train weight, so your towing combination must weigh less than this. 2200 is the Max. laden weight of the Omega, so worst case, you can subtract 2200 from 4075 and you end up at roughly 1875

An empty Omega weighs about 1750 - 1850 kg, so if lightly loaded you might get away with a little more, but it would generally be unwise to tow more than the car itself weighs. Not sure about caravans but most twin axle trailers are plated for more load than the Omega can tow, so if a caravan has to be twin axle, it's probably marginal or overweight.

I'm not sure if an official max towing weight was published in the Omega's specifications, but the above will keep you legal at least.

There are also license limits as to what you can tow. These would be significant if you have passed your test since around the mid-90's and don't have the B+E entitlement on your license.

Anything above 750 kg needs to be braked.

[tunnie]

What do you intend to tow? Few people here tow some quite big caravans off their 3.2

[Andy B]

What Kevin says. The cut off for the B+E is either Jan 97 or Jan 98 .... can't remember which.

[STEMO]

What Kevin says. The cut off for the B+E is either Jan 97 or Jan 98 .... can't remember which.

Yeah. A daft old codger with failing eyesight is ok to tow, but young ‘uns aren’t.

[Andy B]

What Kevin says. The cut off for the B+E is either Jan 97 or Jan 98 .... can't remember which.

Yeah. A daft old codger with failing eyesight is ok to tow, but young ‘uns aren’t.

The daft thing about these rules is that you can tow weight for weight up to 3500kg (within the weights for the car) but you can't tow a modest 1300kg caravan with a big 4x4 as the total train weight would likely be over 3500kg 

[Ant - Petrol Blue Thirty Two]

thanks to you four guys above here - so from what Kevin says it seems a 1500-1600 caravan weight would seem to be the ideal figure?   The thing about a twin wheel is: stability and size and if we were to go to France for example say for a few weeks, the thinking is that the larger caravan might be more comfortable if you were 'living' in it as opposed to spending a shorter time.  What vans are other 3.2 guys towing?

Am retiring in the spring so hence the future thoughts about touring for a wee while but I can still see despite passing my test in 1973 and being a daft old codger!
Thanks for all the steer from you guys - appreciate the knowledge you have.  One last thing, I would probably take a spare new GM crank sensor in the boot if going abroad, do you have any other tips given the Omega's reliability reputation and being in a foreign land? - although have to say teh car has been a diamond to us so far.  Thanks again for the help, I should use the site more than I do in communicating with the group.  Ant.       

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Always a good idea to have a spare heater bypass valve in the boot too.

[Kevin Wood]

A 3.2 tows 1500-1600 Kg quite happily. No problems there.

Probably worth changing the auto gearbox fluid and filter if it hasn't been done recently. You'll be working the gearbox quite hard and they are all getting on a bit now.

[STEMO]

If I owned an omega  ....sorry, if I owned an omega, and was going to tow throughout the summer months, I would consider getting an additional gearbox fluid cooler fitted.

[Andy B]

.......  I would consider getting an additional gearbox fluid cooler fitted.

I've towed a caravan with my Omega in France in the low 30 deg C with no over heating  problems ..... though additional cooling would do no harm.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

If I owned an omega  ....sorry, if I owned an omega, and was going to tow throughout the summer months, I would consider getting an additional gearbox fluid cooler fitted.

3.2 and 2.6 have one. It hangs over the front of the coolant rad.

[Andy B]

If I owned an omega  ....sorry, if I owned an omega, and was going to tow throughout the summer months, I would consider getting an additional gearbox fluid cooler fitted.

3.2 and 2.6 have one. It hangs over the front of the coolant rad.

 

Even the older cars have a water/ATF cooler fitted to side of the main rad

[Kevin Wood]

Yep, and the coolers as standard are a decent size. The gearbox will be in TC lockup for most cruising, even when towing, so heat into the fluid is still pretty minimal. It's negotiating climbs with extra load that will tend to heat it up.

One of my regular towing assignments is to tow a 100' trailer tower weighing about 1600 kg to the top of a hill in Ashford for a radio contest. The roads up are all little lanes so no chance of reaching lockup speed. I just tend to leave it idling for a few minutes once I reach the top to let the fluid cool down. I must take the tech 2 next time and see how hot the fluid gets.

I believe the gearbox ECU enables lockup in the lower gears, where it wouldn't normally, if the fluid temperature gets too high. I've never noticed mine doing this, however.

[robson]

I often use the caravan club site at Brighton and the climb out of the site on a long hill always worries me .It did give me a problem one time when my alternator failed half way up.