VW Touareg Tow Vehicle

[Jer1428jab]

Is anyone out there using a VW Touareg as your tow vehicle. What make and model trailer are you towing and what do your hitch weights look like?

[Jfkmk]

That’s s pretty light duty tow vehicle.

[Chuck_S]

7716 pounds. Hardly "pretty light duty" as I'm not expecting to tow a 35 foot 5th wheel. (I'd not touch it with a stick because it's VW.)

-- Chuck

[Jfkmk]

Originally Posted by Chuck_S

7716 pounds. Hardly "pretty light duty" as I'm not expecting to tow a 35 foot 5th wheel. (I'd not touch it with a stick because it's VW.)

-- Chuck

With just over 1200# payload with adding a single option. That will get eaten up very quickly.

[Boomerweps]

Like towing with an Equinox or Explorer but less cargo carrying capacity.

[jackconn]

Our loaded weight is about 5000 lbs and towing capacity is 7400 lbs. No problems towing so the Toureg should be fine. Of course towing capacity is not the only criterion to look at, as described in detail in many posts on the forum. One is wheelbase - our JGC is 114.8" which is about as short as I'd prefer to go, and the Toureg is 113.9". Close, so not a show-stopper IMHO.

[Palinduff]

I saw one towing a Sunset Trail 270BH. I thought he was crazy, but he was happy. It looked ok hitched up, but that one was waaaay too heavy for the tv.

[bjoyes]

Towing a Wolf Pup 16FQ with a 2015 Touareg TDI (diesel). The Wolf Pup has an empty weight around 3000. We live in Wisconsin and have taken many short trips within a four hour drive and three long trips, one to Missouri/Kansas, one to Quebec and Maine and one to Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. At no time was the towing experience anything but trouble free! With a 7700 lb capacity (and using a WDH) towing anything under 5000 lbs. should be great, even in the mountains.

[Lins]

Originally Posted by Jfkmk

With just over 1200# payload with adding a single option. That will get eaten up very quickly.

Our Tiguan has over 1300#s. I’ve seen Touaregs towing smaller trailers with no issue.

[JayArras]

Touareg was on my short list of vehicles that had a good towing capacity with good fuel economy. I also looked at Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and BMW diesel SUVs. Besides the list prices, I couldn't convince the DW to consider a diesel. We ended up with a Pathfinder and are very happy with our choice.

[Hersbird]

I have a 2012 TDI and plan on towing a Solaire 190x. The max weight on the Solaire is 7620 but the problem is going to be in the hitch weight. I have been towing with a 2009 Aspen, then a 2003 Cummins, then a 2001 2500 Suburban, so I haven't been concerned about tongue weight. Now I will clean out all the crap, go to one propane tank, and switch to Lifepo4 batteries somewhere inside. I should be able to get the overall weight to about 6000 pounds with about 700 pounds on the tongue and be good. The Touareg is very powerful and only 700 pounds lighter than the 2500 4wd Suburban with more powerful brakes as well. It can control a trailer, it just has nowhere near the 2900 pound payload the Burb has.

I really want to switch trailers to the biggest highwall tandem axle pop up more for fuel economy but that would also get that tongue weight down a bunch as well. The wife doesn't like the bathroom or the inability to use it or anything else for that matter on the side of the road without popping it up. I would trade that in a heartbeat to get over 20 mpg towing which a TDI will do all day towing a pop up.

[Beachbourbon]

We just test drove the VW Atlas to replace DW car. The Atlas is bigger than the toureg, and I would never consider towing a camper with it-even with the turbo v6. IMO these are cars, not TVs. Plus the CVT for towing? The CVT can barely figure out going forward from a dead stop when you push hard on the accelerator, I don’t see how it handles the torque requirements of towing a trailer. I cringe thinking about towing a small Uhaul trailer across town with one of these

[JayArras]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I really want to switch trailers to the biggest highwall tandem axle pop up more for fuel economy but that would also get that tongue weight down a bunch as well. The wife doesn't like the bathroom or the inability to use it or anything else for that matter on the side of the road without popping it up.

Have you considered a hybrid?

Originally Posted by Beachbourbon

We just test drove the VW Atlas to replace DW car. The Atlas is bigger than the toureg, and I would never consider towing a camper with it-even with the turbo v6. IMO these are cars, not TVs. Plus the CVT for towing? The CVT can barely figure out going forward from a dead stop when you push hard on the accelerator, I don’t see how it handles the torque requirements of towing a trailer.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but having a crossover that has the capacity to pull a camping trailer is the best of both worlds for those of us who camp occasionally, but need something economical the rest of the time for everyday driving. And don't knock the CVT for towing unless you've tried it. Is it optimal? No. Does it do the job? Absolutely! Like anything else, you have to be mindful of the limitations and keep within the recommended weight limits.

[RACarvalho]

I towed a Rockwood Roo 23IKSS for 12K miles with my BMW X5 and towing was great.
What we end up finding, though, is that camping requires a lot of "stuff" and you end up running out of cargo space pretty quick.
If you are trying to find a camper to match your current vehicle, our recommendation would be to find a camper that you like and then look for a towing vehicle for it otherwise you will quickly want to change both, like we did.
We loved the Roo (I still miss it) but we got a little burn out having to take 5 bikes in and out of it every time we had to move, as an example....

[RACarvalho]

Originally Posted by JayArras

Have you considered a hybrid?

In our experience, Hybrids are not good in mpg for the front wall, being also a bed, can't be designed to be aerodynamic like other campers...
That being said, our former Roo 23IKSS was 25ft total but 30ft+ when open and I can't imagine a better compromise in terms of space and towing than a Hybrid...
mpg is always what it is...

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Jer1428jab

Is anyone out there using a VW Touareg as your tow vehicle. What make and model trailer are you towing and what do your hitch weights look like?

FRF Member "DDC" towed a Dual axle Surveyor Many Years and Many Miles between Ontario,Canada and Fla,USA with a VW Touareg! Look it up! Youroo!!

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by JayArras

Have you considered a hybrid?

That's what we have now, the Palimino Solaire 190x is a Rockwood Roo 21ss clone.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Beachbourbon

We just test drove the VW Atlas to replace DW car. The Atlas is bigger than the toureg, and I would never consider towing a camper with it-even with the turbo v6. IMO these are cars, not TVs. Plus the CVT for towing? The CVT can barely figure out going forward from a dead stop when you push hard on the accelerator, I don’t see how it handles the torque requirements of towing a trailer. I cringe thinking about towing a small Uhaul trailer across town with one of these

The Touareg is actually a much stronger SUV than a Atlas irregardless of the size. The Touareg has 406 ft-lbs of torque and a 8 speed Aisin transmission which is good enough to go behind the 541hp turbo Porsche version. It weighs 4974 pounds vs 4400 pounds of an Atlas. It was VWs flagship greatly over engineering compared to an Atlas and a good $20k more expensive. They made the Atlas because the US wanted more of a awd minivan like the Highlander or Pilot vs an expensive Jeep Grand Cherokee. Lucky for me they cheated on the emissions and drove the price crazy down on a great car. Low price and a new factory 4 year warranty? Yes please!

[AlaskaErik]

Originally Posted by jackconn

Our loaded weight is about 5000 lbs and towing capacity is 7400 lbs. No problems towing so the Toureg should be fine. Of course towing capacity is not the only criterion to look at, as described in detail in many posts on the forum. One is wheelbase - our JGC is 114.8" which is about as short as I'd prefer to go, and the Toureg is 113.9". Close, so not a show-stopper IMHO.

Towing capacity is the most useless and meaningless number there is. In this TV class you'll run out payload capacity and tongue weight capacity long before you'll ever run out of tow capacity. Max tow capacity is a bragging rights number, nothing more.

[agbowden]

Late to the party, but we tow a #3900 dry weight Wildwood 221RBXL, x-lite, and love it. Hitch good for 610 only has 420lbs, use a Tekonsha aftermarket brake controller, sill getting 15-18 MPG. Lots of people don't know the power of the t-reg diesel. The only add mod was when we bought the trailer, we had to turn the hitch upside down and and get a 2 5/8 ball... probably would have made Wolfsburg grimace as the think ball size is linear with trailer weight. Yikes! NO. REGRETS. And, I don't have to drive a truck