Towing with a Subaru Forrester X

Doer
I towed with a 2.5 Outback with ease. The Subaru Forester or Outback are good tow cars but keep in mind the 70kg draw bar weight, meaning you need to be sure the trailer is well balanced.
They were mentioned by NRMA as an exellent tow vehicle for Trailers & Caravans up to 1.5tonne. And the all wheel drive is perfect in the dust.
Go for it.
Cheers Colin.

Depends on your tow bar for one thing.

The 50 mm unit can take a ball weight of around 130 kg and will tow 720 kg unbraked and 1400 kg braked.

I'm towing a CT of about 750 kg loaded and the car runs pretty well. Fuel consumption goes up by about 12% and for modest uphill slopes at 100 kph she needs changing down from 5th to 4th and revs a little noisily at just under 4000.

For 2 people allow 200 - 300 kg for food, water and gear to get an idea of gross mass. I wouldn't like to be towing that much; the Foz would be straining.

Thanks Colin,
This is our problem. The Subaru manual says that the Forrester has a limit of 75kgs of static vertical load on the coupling. The Jayco dealer says that the Eagle has a load of 110kgs on the coupling and the Coromal Magnum is similar. I would have thought they are relatively small caravans, leaving us not much more room to down size for our family of four. Is there some way to compensate or engineer it so it could with stand the extra vertical load.

Does anyone know?

Cheers
Dan

I know some one with a forester that tows an allterrain on road camper. To ensure easy towing they upgraded the springs etc and use the weight distribution bars.

HI. I dont think it should be a problem as I had a 1989 "L" model Subaru wagon with the 1.8 motor and I used to tow my 1994 12ft Jayco Eagle with it , had to be patient when overtaking but as far as handling it was good, it had electric brakes fitted.
It weighs 735kgs empty, have since upgraded to Pajero.
Always wanted a forrester but they were still holding their price to well.
Cheers Des.

G'day Doer I have been off air for a week and just came across this one. Fiona and I (members) have a Forester X and tow a magnum Rally XC 340 - full off-roader (see picture in members) - weight unladen 980kg - we have a toolbox added to the rear end with chain saw & tools, probably 80kgs. Electric brakes.

So when on the road with water and extra petrol we would be close to 1300kg - got Haymen Reese tow bar fitted to give a towball weight of 180kg with weight distribution hitch.

The Subaru does fine and I've done practical petrol consumption tests at various speeds, traffic and weather conditions. Worst mpg was 5.7km per litre when pushing to do extra kms (120+km) on good open road, lots of stop starts and heavy traffic are no good at all. The best I've got on good road, tailwind and non-stop stuff is about 8.4km per litre.

If I stop on an uphill slope I struggle to get away, I do have the manual with the Hi-Low range option which is OK for us and does a good job.

Hope this helps as we did lots and lots of looking before we bought. Had a lighter off-road camper trailer in the beginning (700kg unladen), we are just about to do the 100,000 service and so far have same plugs, same brake pads but have replaced the rear nearside wheel bearings twice (under warranty), they now have the problem fixed though, ours is a 2005 model.

Hope this helps and we are always around somewhere.