TOWING

Hello - We are taking delivery of our new PC2350 (Mercedes Sprinter) on Oct 15, 2014. 

Can we tow our 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe?  How do we determine what we can tow?

Newbie - Cindy Gentry

Welcome Dale and Cindy!!!

As far as checking to see if you can tow your 2005 Hyundia Santa Fe, look first in you owners manual.  They usually will tell you if you can flat tow (4 down) a vehicle.

Next search online for the dinghy towing guide.  I looked at www.lichtsinn.com/PDFs/Dinghy-Guide-2005.pdf. It does not list your vehicle as one that can be flat towed.  Every year motorhome magazine publishes the dinghy towing guide and these can be found online.

But most important is to check the towing capacity of your RV as well as what your hitch is rated to tow.  Phoenix gives you the details about what the GVWR and GCWR for Sprinter.  Then you need to look at the CCC which is on the yellow sticker of the doorframe.  You cannot exceed any of these ratings.   A Hyundai Santa Fe weighs in at 3549 so that has to be calculated into your weights and since you would need a tow dolly that would be another approximately 1000 pounds.

Remco also does a very good job at identifying what vehicles can be towed and how.

Sue

 Hi,
Take a look on the Good Sam open road forum:  Towing capacity of Sprinter motor homes.
A good amount of healthy discussion on the pros and cons.
Bob

Phoenix should be able to provide your towing limitations.  The hitch is typically rated at 5000 pounds, but the total weight of a 2350 Sprinter with a slide out, occupants & possessions "Might" dictate a lower towing limit.  But don't get uneasy from my theoretical data.  I hope other 2350 Sprinter owners will reply with favorable factual data.

Having owned a Sprinter (not a PC) I would be very hesitant about pulling a vehicle that weighs 3500 lbs. I realize you see Sprinters going up the road pulling  vehicles but I just never felt comfortable enough to hook anything but perhaps a Smart car to the vehicle. IMO Sprinters are great for the designed GVW but to start hooking things up behind I think you are asking for mechanical problems and safety issues.   best of luck.

Bought a Chevy Tracker specifically to tow behind a sprinter (3500) and just made a 1800m roundtrip, no problems.  60mph was tracker limit so that's what we drove and the tracker being selectable 4wd it will go just about anywhere. ~2700lbs made it a perfect fit. Used a Ready Brake setup, simple, easy to install and worked as well as, and better than the other two brake systems I have used, I used both of there systems Ready Brake and their break-away setup Ready Stop.