Volvo XC60 bumpy ride when towing

You will not go far wrong with a Kia Sorento or Sportage go and have a look

You reply made me smile at myself for our experience was similar. We brought a VW Passat to tow our first caravan. After a few months we exchanged the caravan because it proved to be not quite so suitable for our needs as we first thought. Our current van is a bit heavier and we started to find the short comings in our choice of tug so ended up having to change that as well.

Such is the price of experience.

We are, of course, now completely satisfied with our choice of van and tug; for the moment. 

Just as a final note to this saga, after selling the Volvo we debated for a long time and came to the conclusion that we would revert to one of our favourite vehicles a VW Transporter. I know it doesn't have all the refinements of the Volvo but we have had several over the years starting with a split screen in 1971 (I wish I had kept it ) and moving through all the variations finishing with a beautiful Caravelle. Anyway the new one is a T32 Highline LWB with 180 bhp with 5 seats and I had it fully lined so its less van like.

Up to now its great and the dog loves it !! Just had a Westfalia tow bar fitted but not towed with it yet (did notice that Davan Caravans in Somerset tow with a LWB) so fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone for all the advice I have learnt a lot in a short space of time.

Happy caravanning. 

I tow with a Mercedes GLC which at first after a VW seemed to pitch more than ideal but we soon adjusted to it and no longer even notice it.  The big advantage is the comfort when solo, whilst the VW transmitted every bump, this current car is far more forgiving.  

Even if the nose weight is satisfactory after loading the van, if there is any appreciable load under the rear bed this can induce 'bounce' on a bumpy road.  If you can keep the under-bed area fairly free from significant load, and put any heavy items on the floor (over the axle and slightly to the front of it) whilst keeping the nose weight at 90kg., this should give you a more stable outfit.

I had an XC60 for three years, D4 AWD auto, towed a bailey Valencia mk1, then Affinity 540. Tyres were Michelin latitude 3, run at 36psi.

we had no issues with stability or ride quality

I had a Bailey champagne and now a lunar Lexon 570 and have found the XC60 to be a great towing car. I’ve certainly not experienced the bounce you describe! 

Current XC60 recommends 39psi with Latitude Tyres

Hi I must agree with the original post. We have an XC60 D4 SE LUX NAV auto 2014 model with just front wheel drive. Our first van was a Sterling Elite 480 2 berth and the towing performance over anything less than a smooth road was just appalling! The van seemed to fight the car and created a bouncy jittery ride that could at times be enough to pitch you off your seat. Our particular car only has a 75kg nose weight limit which we now believe is the real cause of these issues. We checked tyre pressures, loaded weights of both van and car all to no avail. 

We recently swapped to a fixed bed 4 berth and on towing our new van home noticed a vast improvement. Checking the nose weight revealed it to be at least 100kg however so whilst the increased load on the tow bar improved the ride it was unfortunately over the prescribed limit and had to be adjusted asap. The only way we can get anywhere near 75kg (80kg is our best yet!) was by moving everything apart from the gas cylinder from the front locker to under the transverse bed! The middle wardrobe is over the axle so all clothing went in there but other than foodstuff in the fridge everything else also has to go under the bed or the nose weight just rises again. We have a Safefill gas cylinder incidentally which is just 12kg when full! The ride is better than with the shorter van but still not as good as when running at a higher nose weight!

We took car and new van to a weigh bridge and now know that the car is just 2005kg against a maximum permissible 2500kg so we wonder if this gives us some freedom to operate at a higher nose weight as the limit is presumably based on the capacity of the rear suspension? Does anyone have any advice on this please? The van is under its permissible maximum when fully loaded so we are happy this is within legal limits.

We have also considered changing the car too! Does anyone have experience of towing with a late model XC60 BD5 4x4 fitter with air suspension? Was wondering if the AS makes a noticeable difference?

Thanks in anticipation 

Michael

If my schoolboy physics is remembered correctly from 60 years ago, even though the static nose weight may be correct, any heavy load towards the rea of the caravan would potentially create a pendulum effect, the static weight becoming a could then increase. Centred around the axle it would create a negative effect on the towball.