Car/Truck to pull glider trailer

Subaru Forester fine for single seaters.
But I wrote off my 2004 with a trailer
jackknife pulling a Puch.

Hadn't yet read "If the combination starts
to sway, hold the wheel straight and
brake..."

I've seen a DG-1000 giving a pickup a
hard time. Traffic was scared to pass it
as the trailer was weaving.

My 2008 gets better mileage pulling a
fibreglass top trailer than an metal top.

If you go for a car instead of a truck,
consider a manual.

A CVT might be an expensive experiment.

North American tow ratings can be much
more restrictive for the same vehicle
compared to Australia or Europe where I
wouldn't be surprised to see a Smart Car
pulling a glider.

On Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 7:00:06 PM UTC+13, George Haeh wrote:
Subaru Forester fine for single seaters.
But I wrote off my 2004 with a trailer
jackknife pulling a Puch.

Hadn't yet read "If the combination starts
to sway, hold the wheel straight and
brake..."

I've seen a DG-1000 giving a pickup a
hard time. Traffic was scared to pass it
as the trailer was weaving.

With a relatively light tow vehicle you do have to do things right. Maximum permitted pressures all round in car and trailer tyres. Make sure the trailer weight balance is good.

The only combination that has given the Subaru any trouble at all was a Grob twin in a massively heavy and un-aerodynamic rectangular steel and corrugated iron trailer. It was too unstable to tow at more than 85 - 90 km/h, and I got pretty good at stopping the weaving -- watch the mirror and when you see the trailer go right (for example) give a little quick jerk of the steering wheel to the left and then straight again, to get the car lined up straight with the trailer. Then *gently* turn back the other way before you go out of your lane. Extremely effective once you practice a bit.

I towed that Grob to another club for them to borrow/evaluate for a couple of weeks. One of their members towed it back with a large SUV (Bighorn?) and complained that it was diabolical.

Towing glider trailers can be readily split into two areas. retrieves where
you might have to drive down farm tracks and accross fields and road
towing.
For retrieves nothing beats a 4x4 with plenty of ground clearance. The
limiting factor is usually the trailer.
For road towing a car is usually better as they are much more economical to
run.
Size and weight are important but not at the expense of decent suspension.
For example I had a very interesting 30 seconds with a Nissan Navara towing
a K21 in a cobra tailer. The same trailer behind my VW Passatt was much
more stable. I put this down to the Navara having leaf springs on the rear
with poor lateral location of the axel. The Passatt with modern suspension
was much more precise.
So far this year I have driven 3500 miles across europe towing a variety of
trailers in the passat averaging 43mpg (36 us mpg) The navara was in the
mid 20s.