Many families planning a camping trip worry about where they’re going, not the legalities around what they’re allowed to tow. This shouldn’t be the case, as the difference between a manufacturer’s maximum towing capacity and the actual weight you can legally and safely tow with a vehicle is often substantial. This isn’t just a question of staying on the right side of the law, it’s a question of making sure your outfit is safe while cruising at 100km/h with a crosswind blowing.
The real-world towing capacity calculation
The braked towing capacity of your vehicle is just a number to start with. What you really need is the Gross Combination Mass (GCM) figure; the maximum combined weight of your vehicle and trailer. Subtract your vehicle’s weight (with all occupants, roof rack, bull bar, recovery gear, and water) and that’s what you have to play with. It’s always a lower figure than most people realize.
Because two kids, two adults, full fuel and camping water in the back are 400-600kg of the payload gone, before you’ve even hitched up the van.
Matching your trailer to how you actually travel
Comfort is provided by a large traditional motorhome but you have less flexibility. Smaller, lighter trailers are easier to tow, easier to manoeuvre on-site, and put less strain on your vehicle. A compact caravan or hybrid model sits in a practical middle ground – enough living space for a family, but light enough that a mid-size SUV or 4WD can handle it without being pushed to its limits. Hybrid models with fold-out canvas sections are popular because they reduce ATM while still providing sleeping capacity for four.
The Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM) is the maximum your fully loaded trailer can weigh. This includes water, gas bottles, bikes on the back, food, and anything stored in the drawers. People routinely underestimate this.
Choosing the right tow vehicle
Towing stability is determined more by the wheel base and kerb weight of a vehicle, than its engine output. A heavy, long-wheelbase vehicle gives the trailer less opportunity to push the rear around during sway events or emergency maneuvers. Torque is more important than horsepower for towing – it’s what gets a loaded combination moving and maintains speed on hills without over-working the transmission.
A transmission cooler makes sense for longer trips. Sustained towing, particularly in hot weather or over hilly terrain, produces heat that can shorten the life of a transmission faster than most owners would guess. It’s a fairly cheap insurance upgrade.
If your idea of a family holiday is a run up some corrugated outback tracks or bumpy trails in the blistering heat, then suspension travel and ground clearance on the vehicle and trailer become more important.
Pre-trip checks that actually prevent accidents
Before you set off, make one visit to the weighbridge. Many public weighbridges are cheap to use, and they’ll tell you precisely the loaded weight of your trailer versus its ATM limit. Having a poorly balanced load can lead to an accident with one poorly handled turn in the road. One short pitstop before you head off and you’ve eliminated that from the equation.
Tow ball weight is handled separately. Ideally, it’ll hover around 10% of the trailer’s loaded mass. Too light, and the trailer will wander – often at the first hint of side wind. Too heavy and you lose front-end steering feel at the front wheels of your tow vehicle. A weight distribution hitch solves the problem, redistributing some of the load back over the front wheels of the tow vehicle, while in some cases, it can also act as an anti-sway device.
Towing mirrors and a brake controller are often overlooked. If the trailer’s wider than your vehicle, the mirrors are a legal requirement in most places. A brake controller allows you to manage the trailer’s brakes separately, and potentially effectively in an emergency stop or down a long descent. Your trailer may already be fitted with Electronic Stability Control, which automatically applies individual wheel brakes if swaying is detected.
Power to the campsite
One thing that will surprise you on a long camping trip is arriving with a flat trailer battery. Running a fridge off a battery for eight hours while driving will simply use more power than an alternator can reasonably replenish, particularly with some of the older wiring setups out there.
A DC-DC charger (also known as a DCDC charger) takes care of this, but they only work to optimal performance off an input of around 13.5V, so ideally, you also want a proper dual battery setup in the tow vehicle to ensure redundancy.
This is not a nice-to-have for people who take camping seriously, it’s the difference between cold food and a warm fridge when you pull into camp late. But most importantly, get everything sorted before the trip, not during it.
The setup that works is the one sized correctly
Proper planning is key for a successful camping trip. Make sure to calculate the weight, ensure that your trailer does not exceed the actual capacity of your car, and verify the loaded weight before you finalize your decision on the trip you wanna take. It’s rare for mishaps to happen to the families who were overly cautious with all of that.