Many of those European cars pulling trailers are pretty hefty Mercedes Diesels or similar. And most Europeans do not travel very far with their campers.
We used our VW Passat diesel wagon to pull a 2500# popup + gear all over N. America, and it worked very well. But I wouldn't haul anything larger. It used to be that you could get a big, non-unibody N.American car with a strong V8 to haul your heavy Airstream all over. But no longer.
The bottom line for me is that as long as you do not exceed your vehicle's gvwr, gawr, tow capacity and gcwr, you are good to go. How far under these numbers you go is all personal preference.
Also, the European trailers are designed very different, with the wheels set much closer to the hitch. This must make the tongue weight very low compared to the trailer's weight, way under 10% I imagine. This is probably to reduce rear end sag, as Europeans don't use/understand Weight Distribution Hitches and are using cars, not trucks for towing. Not sure how they deal with the resulting trailer sway though. Perhaps that's why they are always travelling so slow?
Personally I prefer the N.A. standard of 10-15% hitch weight and the ability to use a WDH.
|