The 85% towing guideline for caravans

The 85% guideline says a loaded caravan should weigh no more than 85% of the kerbweight of the car towing it. It is a recommendation from the two caravanning clubs, not a law. What the law does set is the weight the car's maker says it can tow, the gross train weight on the car's plate, and what your driving licence allows.

What the clubs recommend

• The Camping and Caravanning Club recommends you only tow a caravan that weighs 85 per cent or less of your car's kerbweight. It says those experienced at towing may go up to 100 per cent, and that nobody should tow a caravan heavier than the towing limit of the car.
• The Caravan and Motorhome Club recommends a towed load of no more than 85% of the car's kerbweight for beginners and perhaps up to 90% for experienced towers, and says never to exceed 100%.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club is plain that this is advice. It says car makers typically state a towing capacity above its recommended ratios, and that towing to that higher figure would not be illegal, though it would not recommend towing anything heavier than the car's kerbweight.

Working it out

Multiply the car's kerbweight by 0.85. The result is the heaviest caravan the guideline allows, measured by the caravan's MTPLM, its maximum weight fully loaded. The Caravan and Motorhome Club's example is a car of 1,750kg, which gives a caravan of up to 1,487.5kg. It matches on the worst case: the car at its lightest and the caravan at its heaviest.

The caravan towing calculator does this sum with your own figures and checks the MTPLM against the towing limit and the gross train weight.

The club says the kerbweight is normally in the car's handbook, and that on modern caravans built by National Caravan Council members the MTPLM should be on a plate, usually near the door or on the A-frame.

What the law does set

• The car's towing limit. GOV.UK says most cars have a maximum weight they can tow, usually listed in the handbook or specification sheet.
• The gross train weight. This is the weight of the fully loaded car plus the fully loaded trailer, and GOV.UK says it must not be exceeded. It may be on the car's VIN plate. GOV.UK adds that if the VIN plate lists no train weight, you should not use the vehicle for towing. The Camping and Caravanning Club's check is that the car's MAM plus the caravan's MTPLM must not come to more than the gross train weight.
• Width and length. The maximum trailer width is 2.55 metres. Behind a vehicle with a MAM of 3,500kg or less, the trailer cannot be longer than 7 metres, not counting the A-frame.
• Your licence. GOV.UK says that if you got your licence from 1 January 1997 you can tow a trailer up to 3,500kg MAM, and if you got it before then you can usually drive a vehicle and trailer with a combined weight up to 8,250kg MAM. The Camping and Caravanning Club notes that the 2021 change which gave later drivers that allowance applies in Great Britain and not in Northern Ireland.

Licence categories for the towing vehicle itself are in the licence guide.

Noseweight

The ratio is not the only figure. The Camping and Caravanning Club says the caravan's noseweight, the downward load on the towball, should not exceed the car's towball limit or the caravan's own noseweight limit, and that both are normally between 50kg and 100kg.

If you are selling a caravan

Put the MTPLM from the plate in the advert. It is the figure a buyer needs to match the caravan to their car, by the guideline and by the limits above. The caravan page covers the rest of the advert.

For your own car, the limits that bind are the ones in its handbook and on its plate. This page reports the clubs' guidance and GOV.UK's rules; it cannot tell you whether a particular car and caravan are safe together.