>Date:    Thu, 9 Jul 1998 22:54:45 -0700
>From:    Lund <wlund@CCIS.COM>
>Subject: Towing with 88 autotranny

>now I would appreciate people's
>opinon and experience with towing a light weight tent trailer with 88
>vanagon auto tranny(non-westy).  How much load can a van take?  I don't
>have a trailer(or hitch) yet, so I want to find out how practical it would
>be to consider this.

Hey Bill,
 we had this point before.
All three Vanagons the I've had (or still have) are equipped with a towing bar (factory installed).
The 95 hp 2.1 and the 112 hp 2.1 (both 2wd) are allowed to tow a 600 kg (ca. 1200 lbs) UNBREAKED trailer or 1500 kg (ca. 3000 lbs) BREAKED trailer. VW and german
TUV (MOT) give their ok for up to 2000 kg breaked up to 12 % slope. Manual and Auto.

2.1 l Syncro 4WD have normally 2000 kg breaked and up to 2500 kg up to 12% slope.

My both 2wds were autos, this makes the bus a wonderful car for towing trailers.
I've been 2000 mls to England with a little (ca. 600 kg) breaked caravan, you could not realise it. I towed a big breaked trailer loaded with scrap (nearly 2000kg) without problem.
The Syncros here are very often used to tow trailer loaded with two horses.
It's definitly more stress for the car than unloaded, but no real problem.

Best wishes
Michael Meier
58 split, 34 hp - trailer not recommended
77 westy (allowed to tow 1800 kg)
90 caravelle auto (2000 kg allowed)