Towing with a sigma

[2Lgalant]

What's the most you guys would tow with a sigma wagon ?

[jvflash]

I've towed this caravan with an automatic Scorpion, towed quite comfortably at 100kph. It's about 600kg loaded and has no braking system on it.

[2Lgalant]

Hmmm interesting all I want to tow is a car trailer with a car it's a 2L 5 speed sigma so does help being manual

[camB]

I did just that with mine a few years ago. Had a GH Siggie on a tandem car trailer (unbraked) and mine's a 2litre 5 speed as well. Towed it from Gippsland to Eltham.
Was ok.... Not too slick off the line of course but maintained a steady 95km/h in 4th. Able to push for 5th only on the downhill sections.

The bugger was Springvale Rd. They love putting traffic lights on the tops of hills! After it took me a full change to get across one of them I started looking further ahead and ensuring I had a run-up at the hills.

[jvflash]

Pulling power is not going to be your problem (unless you have a hill to get up), BUT the tow bar is probably only rated to 750kg which would be the weight of the trailer itself. More danger of losing the entire load, or not being able to stop when you need too. I wouldn't try it myself.

Even this caravan tested the Scorpion's four wheel disc brakes on the run down the freeway into Adelaide.

[jvflash]

BTW towing capacity in NSW is 1.5 times the weight of the tow vehicle. You may be over that if the trailer exceeds 550KG.

You can read more here - http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/ ... ailers.pdf

[Cottees]

My EFI 2.6L Sigma GN Sedan was able to tow 2,400kg behind it, going up hill, but it is not recommended. I'd probably go with another car for towing other cars.

I should also mention that my tow bar is the type that mounts to the chassis rails, and rated up to 1,100kg. Still not recommended for towing anything larger than a Kei Car.

[2Lgalant]

I'm only towing max of 100 km and I wasn't planning on getting there in 10 mins lol ;) but all in all will it handle it as I don't have anything else to tow it

[Superscan811]

When towing a heavy load, go a LOT slower. At 70kph, if you have an accident, you will do 1/2 the damage of traveling at 100kph.
E=MV^2

ie: damage = total weight * speed * speed.

Even traveling 10% faster, you will do 20% more damage.

Like Cottees, I've towed over 2,400kg, but between Melbourne and Sydney. Nearly didn't live to tell the tail.
Usually when you are going up hill, the trailer won't tailwhip. My GN wagon, towing a complete GN wagon, an engine and 3 gearboxes in the back of my vehicle, traveling at 100kph uphill.
A strong gust of wind started the trailer swaying badly.
It threw me across 3 lanes 5 times between the cheese grater on the inside, to the guard rail on the outside, and the trailer hit my rear bumper each time. The only saving graces were I used a lot of tiedowns on the trailered car so it didn't move, and it was late at night so there was no traffic.

All the ingredients were there for a fatality and to be honest, I didn't think I was going to get out if it alive, but I did.

So the moral to this story is:

If you can, get a heavy vehicle to tow with, if not, GO VERY SLOW.



Cheers.

[2Lgalant]

Thanks guys
P.s when are you heading down my way to grab this grill ?

[ddt]

I recently towed 520kg plus trailer with my stock (probably less than stock) 2L 5spd GE wagon and it was fine. Wouldn't go too much more though, brakes come issue.
Towed 1.2T once in my old tired 2L auto wagon and slow was the only way to go due to brakes just not being up to it.

[C_Fernance]

I once towed a 2000kg, fully enclosed car trailer, behind the Galant. It didn't like it at all, but I only had to go about 20k's so i just pottered along till I got there.

The Lantra on a hire trailer was much easier in comparison.

[75wagon]

I'm not saying it's a good idea or legal, but when I demolished my old garage, I took a load to the dump on the back of my wagon. My trailer weighs approx 270kgs, and when I left the dump, my exiting weight was 800kgs lighter then when I went in. I was surprised, because my wagon has the No.5 cam and a lower ratio diff and it towed it pretty easily. Even the unboosted brakes coped pretty well.

[Cottees]

I towed 84GKSIG's GJ GSR around 36kms, most of that was on the Southern Expressway which is a 100km zone. Went up and down the hills on there no problems. Going down the hill caused it to back fire a little. Car + trailer weighed a little over 2,000kg. Including the tow vehicle, it was around 3,220kg.


Then that same day, since we had the trailer, I took 84GKSIG's van down to scrap around 26km away. That went up hill ok, but did it better than a Magna towing a lighter car. Putting the van onto the trailer was difficult since it almost lifted the back end of the Sigma off the ground. Going down hill on a 5 degree gradient road caused the front brakes to lock up, but stopped ok. The brakes got very hot on that occasion, but worked. Van + trailer was 2,500kg, and including the tow vehicle was around 3,660kg.

[Shifta2]

Towing a car on a car trailer with a Sigma is madness. I regularly tow Sigmas/Galants etc and recent tow cars are a Mitsi Challenger with tow rating of 2.4T and before that my VS commo wagon with HD tow kit rated at 2100kg. Even with these legal options it's easy to get into trouble and often have been lucky on the freeway. A well built, well balanced trailer will go a long way to keeping you alive if you try it but I would be getting my affairs in order if I was about to attempt it.

Out of interest, as far as I know the highest rated Sigma is an SE GJ-GN Auto rated at 1100kg with a braked trailer. The standard tow bar will have that complianced on the towbar tongue.

[Superscan811]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know if you can use a Gypsy Trailer, the type that just hitch the front or rear wheels, are legal to tow an unregistered vehicle with?

Cheers.

[Shifta2]

Not in SA - wheels on the ground = bad news! It's seen as being the same as flat towing with a rope in regards to the car being unregistered.

[C_Fernance]

I once towed a complete GJ Sigma on a hire trailer, from Mittagong, through the middle of Sydney, all the way to Maitland. Around 260km, not including getting there in the first place. Towcar was a manual GK Scorp. A few months later i ended up parting it out, finding out in the process that the towbar was slightly curved rather then straight.

[Cottees]

The un-braked towing capacity of the GJ-GN Sigma is 600kg, braked is 1,100kg. The plate on my tow bar is 1,100kg. I have towed over 2x that, but wouldn't do it again. There looks to be no negative effects on the car from doing so, but it was pretty nerve racking when holding the car at some lights on a hill, with smoke coming out of the front brakes. Before doing it again, I'd be looking at getting a Pajero, or something with at least 2.5 ton towing capacity.

[scorpioncollector]

And you will find that most towbars/tongue will flat out being rated over 750 kilo's unless it is a hamon reece type. Check the compliance plate if it has one.
Try this one use to tow my fibreglass boat with at Ge sigma and by chance had to take the back seat out to find an item that slipped down and noticed that the spot welds
chassis to floor near the wheel tubs where pulling apart and searched around and found the some up the side pillars and rear door to rear guards gap was wider .worked a panel shop for some years and found this problem was more common
than people think. ie; to a horse float with two horse in it " how much does a average horse weigh?
Stopped towing it with sigma and thus sold Boat and Later the car.
So it doesnt really matter about ratings it has a lot to do with structure of the vehicle.

[Shifta]

Towing Capacity is something I find interesting and I had to research it a fair bit when I bought my car trailer as it needed to be complianced. My trailer is fairly small but still weighs 680kg ( the ramps alone weigh 32KG each! ). The weight limit on your average Car Trailer including all your hire trailers is 2 tonne and that includes the weight of the trailer and what you put on it combined. The way to increase this is to install bigger axles – the weight rating is dependent on how many axles and the axle diameter. Every time I see a 4WD on the back of a Servo Hire trailer I cringe as pretty much all 4WDs weigh too much to be legally towed. Your car might have a higher rating but the trailer itself can only be 2 tonne total!

In regards to the Tow car, I recently found out that there is fine print in regards to the Manufacturers advertised Tow Ratings. I’m pretty sure the new Territory has a claimed Tow Rating of 2.7 tonne or something quite sufficient, however that is only at a max speed of 80kph. The Manual shows the rating drops off dramatically the faster you go. It seems the AWD/2WD cars are more volatile for this than actual 4wds but each car is different.

[MRSIGMATURBO]

I had my GJ SE sedan grossing 3.74t, still have weighbridge docket, was doing scrap run. Ooops!