Trailers in Europe

[Gkri]

Just home from 12 days in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Saw literally hundreds of Class C's, perhaps closer to a thousand, very popular. Saw maybe 100-200 TT's, all but one were single axle. But the kicker was every one being pulled by a car. The TT's looked to be 20' max. and I was surprised to see the tow vehicles were not riding low in the back. Even saw something the size of a Mini Cooper pulling a TT around 15' or more. Could not tell if the hitches were weight distribution or not, but they did look very much different from what we use in the "States". Saw only 6 pick-up trucks at the most, not popular at all in the countries we visited. Many tourist locations had special parking for the Class C campers.

Just sharing some tidbits about our fellow campers across the pond.

PS - they drove their Class C's and pulled their TT's over some serious mountains - The Alps!

[fjr vfr]

Never saw a wdh in Europe. Most trailers you will see there are very light weight. They usually have cassette toilets so no holding tanks and a small fresh water tank. They also normally have plastic windows so again no heavy metal frames and glass.
The distances they travel is shorter, so no need for bigger units to haul half their house with them lol Most campgrounds have smaller spaces so you'd have problems with something big. Of course there are exceptions.
Oh, and most of the class C units are small diesels around 3l.

[fjr vfr]

About 10 years ago I had one of my bikes in Europe for a couple of 3 month trips around. We stayed in several campgrounds, near Florence, Sorento, and Cologne. The one in Cologne had room and most of the campers had big tents with extended screen rooms. You will see a lot more tent camping like we did near Mesa, Italy. My Father-in law, (long passed) and brother-in law both had travel trailers in Germany. I could have almost towed them with my bike, they were very light, but very practical. Also due to traffic and small local roads most people have smaller cars and a pick-up pulling a trailer would not be practical.

[ProRoad]

Interesting for sure! I am an avid cyclist and follower of European bike racing. Every year during the major tours such as the Tour de France, the RV rentals apparently sell out a year in advance from several nearby countries as people rent them and follow the tour thru the Alps and Pyrenees. Another tidbit is that Jayco, is a major sponsor of cycling for the past 30 years, the founder is Gerry Ryan, he puts a lot of money in top end cycling. It's the only reason I know what Jayco is, an Australian RV brand, which we now see everywhere here in the USA. Narrow streets note; I remember a story of a very top American Cyclist, he bought a 7 series BMW, but living in Girona Spain, he quickly realized he could not fit it down many of the streets, so he returned it the next day for a mini cooper.

Love Europe and its different perspectives!

[fjr vfr]

You would love cycling �� in Europe They are very bike friendly There are biking paths everywhere
My youngest son is also very much into cycling ��*♀️ Every time we visit we have to watch European bike races when the �� is on ��
He gets me to go out with him but I have no hope of keeping up lol
It also reminds me of the difficulty I had at times in places like Rome with a packed sport touring bike following the scooters though the tight crowded streets I also had trouble trying to fit into the motorcycle parking spots They were sized for scooters

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by Gkri

Just home from 12 days in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Saw literally hundreds of Class C's, perhaps closer to a thousand, very popular. Saw maybe 100-200 TT's, all but one were single axle. But the kicker was every one being pulled by a car. The TT's looked to be 20' max. and I was surprised to see the tow vehicles were not riding low in the back. Even saw something the size of a Mini Cooper pulling a TT around 15' or more. Could not tell if the hitches were weight distribution or not, but they did look very much different from what we use in the "States". Saw only 6 pick-up trucks at the most, not popular at all in the countries we visited. Many tourist locations had special parking for the Class C campers.

Just sharing some tidbits about our fellow campers across the pond.

PS - they drove their Class C's and pulled their TT's over some serious mountains - The Alps!

We do that here also

[Gkri]

How on earth can they steer? And I suspect the headlights would be searching for low flying aircraft...

[Hblick48]

We stayed at Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City, NJ. in 2017 The guy next door was from Europe (don't remember country). He shipped his RV to the US, and was touring for a few months. When he was done, he'd ship the RV back. He had a motorcycle parked behind the door in the back .

[JRTJH]

European trailers, for the most part, are very different from their US cousins...

When we were in Europe in the Air Force, we tent camped throughout the continent. Their travel trailers weren't much more than "upgraded tents with hardwall sides and plastic windows".

Looking at the current specs, most advertise 31mm (1.2") wall thickness with 38mm (1.5") floor thickness. Lexan windows, a Truma hot water furnace system and 55 liters of fresh water capacity to provide water to a wet bath (toilet inside the shower).

Most have a 1350-1550 Kg GVWR (3000-3500 pounds) and can easily be pulled by most European SUV's with their turbocharged 1.1-1.5L engines. Those with diesel power have the capacity to "race through the Swiss Alps and through the Brenner Pass from Austria to Italy. We did that pass on our way to Venice, Rome and Pisa (Camp Darby) in a 1973 Ford Grand Torino station wagon. I promised myself after that trip that I'd NEVER drive an American station wagon again.... We traded for an Opel GT wagon after that summer. After buying the Opel, we considered a 5.5 meter "sport wagon" but couldn't reach a compromise on price, so we never bought a European travel trailer.

They are very, VERY different in what they offer in the way of "creature comforts" when compared to their US counterparts.... Like a minimum of at least 2000 pounds of "added comfort"....

[jadatis]

European TT's are allowed between 1% !!! and 10 % of totalweight on towbar. In US between 10% and 15% .
In Europe we are already happy with 4 to 5% on towbar.
This is between 50 kg/ 110 lbs and 100 kg/220 lbs.

Most cars towbars are limited to that 50 to 100 kg.

The mostly single axle is placed more to the middle of TT.

The. C class motorhomes is because most here have only B-driverslicence, wich only allowes to drive a vehicle with GVWR of 3500kg/ 7700 lbs and max 8 passengers.

Many motorhomes for that reason are overloaded , sometimes even 500 kg / 1100 lbs.

For trailers , there is a maximum allowed weight the car may pull.

This is determined by that the combination must be able to drive away from standing, 3 times on a 12% slope( helling??).

And did topicstarter also noticed te nosewheel, a pretty small wheel to manouvre the caravan around , mostly by hand, with help of other campinggasts. But more often nowadays we use a mover.

Try that with a US TT, dont have a nosewheel, I think, and can not be lifted by hand.

[Gkri]

Originally Posted by jadatis

European TT's are allowed between 1% !!! and 10 % of totalweight on towbar. In US between 10% and 15% .
In Europe we are already happy with 4 to 5% on towbar.
This is between 50 kg/ 110 lbs and 100 kg/220 lbs.

Most cars towbars are limited to that 50 to 100 kg.

The mostly single axle is placed more to the middle of TT.

The. C class motorhomes is because most here have only B-driverslicence, wich only allowes to drive a vehicle with GVWR of 3500kg/ 7700 lbs and max 8 passengers.

Many motorhomes for that reason are overloaded , sometimes even 500 kg / 1100 lbs.

For trailers , there is a maximum allowed weight the car may pull.

This is determined by that the combination must be able to drive away from standing, 3 times on a 12% slope( helling??).

And did topicstarter also noticed te nosewheel, a pretty small wheel to manouvre the caravan around , mostly by hand, with help of other campinggasts. But more often nowadays we use a mover.

Try that with a US TT, dont have a nosewheel, I think, and can not be lifted by hand.

It has been interesting and informative reading all the comments after my original post. I've learned a lot about what I saw the but didn't fully understand. Unfortunately, as the driver, I was too focused on the winding roads to look too closely for a nose wheel, but I whole-heartedly agree few US type TT's can be moved by hand, except perhaps a pop-up. I must say everywhere we went there were lots of folks hiking, biking and camping. Folks are pretty much the same everywhere. But the food was outstanding!

[jadatis]

Here a picture of the "caravan" we had years ago.
Enlarge it to see the nosewheel

The car a Seat Alhambra , family of Ford Galaxy and VW Charan.
Caravan 1300 kg MTM ( is your GVWR 2860 lbs )
Alhambra was allowed to tow 2000 kg ( Diesel) .

The Skoda Superb ( benzine gasoline? ) we have now only 1200 kg allowed to tow.