Can Mitsubishi Pajero Sport tow a heavy caravan?
QUESTION
Hi John,
I’m interested in the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport for personal use. Can you please tell me how this car will perform towing a 2.5-tonne full-size caravan? Thanks - Chris
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ANSWER
Thank you for your Pajero Sport tow enquiry to AutoExpert.com.au - I think it’ll be fine, but you need to realise the following:
It’s technically fine, and you’ll be 600kg under the manufacturer’s limit towing a van with a 2.5-tonne loaded mass. This is still a big job. You are more than doubling the weight the powertrain has to cope with.
Therefore you are more than halving the power-to-weight. Aerodynamic drag will increase. These two points above will have a direct, proportional impact on fuel consumption.
Make sure you get the tow setup right - trailers are intrinsically unstable in pitch and yaw, and the heavier they are the more capable they are of pushing the vehicle off the road or into the oncoming traffic. Drive conservatively.
Taking the MY22 Pajero Sport Exceed as an example:
Gross vehicle mass (GVM): 2775kg. (This is the maximum loaded weight of the vehicle.)
Kerb Weight: 2210kg. (This is the unladen weight, but it includes fuel.)
Gross combination mass (GCM): 5565kg. (This is the maximum fully loaded combined weight of the trailer and the vehicle.)
Towing capacity (braked): 3100kg. (This is the heaviest trailer you can tow.)
These are operational limits imposed by the manufacturer. You must not exceed them. If we assume that your van does not exceed 2500kg and imposes 250kg of static download on the towball when it is loaded to 2500kg, we can check they you’re not exceeding any of the limits, and see how much payload capacity you have left.
Payload of the vehicle is the GVM minus the kerb weight = 2775 - 2210 = 565kg. Payload includes people, equipment, accessories and towball download.
Towball download is part of the payload because the vehicle is carrying it, via the towball.
Therefore, once the trailer is connected and is imposing 250kg on the towball, you have 565 - 250 = 315 kilos of payload left. Technically, the towbar is an accessory, and it probably weighs 40kg, so you’re down to 275kg. So, two adults and some light equipment in the vehicle shoulf be fine, but a family of five and a bunch of gear in the cargo bay will be overloaded. Also, there is no end to the 4X4 aftermarket accessories you can fit to a vehicle, and these all detract from the payload. So you have to be careful about this.
From a GCM perspective, the kerb weight plus the fully loaded van is 2210 + 2500 = 4710kg, which is 855kg under the GCM limit of 5565kg. Since you can only add 275kg of payload without breaching the GVM limit, the GCM limit is quite safe. (You don’t need to add towball download to GCM calculations.)
It goes without saying that you should - REALLY SHOULD - load up and trot down to the nearest weighbridge to confirm the loaded mass of the van, the GVM of the vehicle, the towball download and the GCM of the combined trailer and vehicle.
This is not a cakewalk, but it is do-able (provided you’re not also going to be transporting half a footy team and a dozen bags of concrete mix in the cargo bay). It’s actually not that easy to tow more than this with a Pajero Sport, but if you take it easy, the platform should cope. It’s less about powertrain performance and more about dynamic stability. (To that end, I’d try to keep 10 per cent of the trailer’s loaded weight on the ball - it helps keep the trailer from swaying.)
Pajero Sport is a pretty good tow platform. With the above in mind, you should be okay. Make sure you don’t overload the vehicle. Bear in mind the Super Select II transfer case can be operated in AWD mode (4H, centre diff unlocked) on high-traction surfaces. This might improve stability of the platform across a broad range of conditions (but especially in the wet or on unsealed roads). Reduced speeds (of 80 or 90km/h) even in good conditions will also help tremendously.
If you’d like a discount on a Pajero Sport (in Australia) click the red link below and we’ll do our best to help you out.
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