Towing a trailer

[Nkosana92]

Good day is it safe to tow a trailer with a polo vivo 1.6 2017 model

[PapaJo]

Good day is it safe to tow a trailer with a polo vivo 1.6 2017 model

You don’t state the size of the trailer. If you refer to a Venter trailer of 5 or 6 foot, it should be fine.

Check your cars owners manual as it will state what is the maximum weight you can tow with your car.

[Jetta2]

I have a buddy with a 1.6 Polo who regularly tows a 2 bike Lazy Lowder trailer with two superbikes on it to track days at Zwartkops, Kyalami, Redstar and Midvaal.
No issues apart from steepish uphills when the 1.6 struggles a bit.

The bikes are 400kg and the trailer is about 250, then add on his gear, spares and stuff loaded in the car as well.

[Reegz]

Welcome to the forum!

[ICE King]

1.General rule about towing is that the trailer weight with the load cannot exceed the weight of the towing vehicle - Unstable.
2. Towball/nose maximum weight , Usually 100kg on the smaller cars and 300kg+ on the bigger vans.
3. Towball height should be 350 mm to 465 mm from the ground for loaded vehicles

Your load in the trailer should be more on the trailer wheels then on the nose of the trailer for single axle's , double axle trailers are different since most of the load is on the wheel - you simply just pulling the trailer provided the load is not on the nose of the trailer.

To answer your question , Yes it's safe to tow a small sized trailer with the Polo and the 1.6 will struggle as Jetta2 and Papajo advised.

[Neuk]

Mod Edit - Neuk - Moved to Technical section.

[Howie-WP]

Loading the trailer is vitally important. I learnt this almost the hard way. Pulling a double axel trailer with my Mk3 GTi. Trailer had my race car loaded (as I would normally load it) but I failed to account for the Race car being filled with spares, tyres and tools (as I was towing the car from an away race we'd just done in PE) I had loaded the car from the transporter at Killarney. All went well until I got on the M5...... the trailer started fish tailing and I could hear the rubber of it's wheels screeching as it swayed.
This was the most terrifying thing ever.........did not know to speed up or slow down. I somehow got the whole thing under control, but almost rolled both roadcar, trailer and race car.
Since then I am much more careful when loading trailer......also still don't like towing for extended distances. Some of the race drivers drive at speed with trailers no problem. I prefer car transporters for race car transit.

[panic-mechanic]

Three or 4 things to consider.
A) manufacturer recommended maximum towing weight not to be exceeded
B) south african law says if trailer over 750kg loaded then it must have run-in brakes.
C) car and trailer combo not to exceed the car's combined max weight as per the disc and the trailer cannot weigh more than the car even with run-in brakes.
D) your license needs to be B1 tomtow up to 750kg's and EC to tow more.

[Unobeat]

I have a buddy with a 1.6 Polo who regularly tows a 2 bike Lazy Lowder trailer with two superbikes on it to track days at Zwartkops, Kyalami, Redstar and Midvaal.
No issues apart from steepish uphills when the 1.6 struggles a bit.

The bikes are 400kg and the trailer is about 250, then add on his gear, spares and stuff loaded in the car as well.

Wow
Your Friend is testing that Polo Vivo motor properly and the overall cars strength.