• Home
  • Help Guides
    • Storage Sites
    • Equipment Reviews
  • Document Library
    • Electrical Drawings
  • Photo Gallery
    • Caravan Log
    • MPG
  • Trip Map
  • Shop
  • About
  • Contact
  • Links

Caravan Chronicles

~ not just another caravan blog

Caravan Chronicles

Tag Archives: Project Wolf

Choosing A New Tow Vehicle Pt 2…

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Blog updates, General, Projects, tow vehicle, Towing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, Project Wolf, Touring, tow vehicle, Towing

If you haven’t read “Choosing A New Tow Vehicle Pt 1…” you might want to start there first.

So what happened to scupper all my spreadsheet deliberations in the early hours of the morning while driving to work?

I was on the M60 heading towards the airport thinking about what aircraft were due out… as you do, when a large pickup passed me. Not with one of these truck tops on the rear but a hard cover over the pickup bed and 4 bikes mounted on a rack above the bed. I hadn’t a clue as to what make it was as I wasn’t into pickup’s really but it did look really neat and by the time my brain got into gear to see if I could identify the make, it was gone.

All that morning I was thinking about pickup’s…. maybe I was missing a trick here and a SUV type vehicle wasn’t the way forward, but a pickup was. They seem to be one of the vehicles of choice in the USA for people towing travel trailers, but that’s a whole different market. There are a lot of caravaners in the UK using them too. What was I missing?

A couple of days later I saw what I thought was the same vehicle again on the M60, this time with no bikes on the back. It had a VW badge on the tailgate. I thought VW didn’t make pickup’s. But this got me thinking again, was a pickup the way to go… lots of people use 4 x 4 pickups to tow with, they seem to have plenty of room, be practical, have seating for five and are generally built tough as they are usually designed for commercial use.

A chance conversation about caravans at work with someone who had recently changed his Discovery for a pickup… a VW pickup.

A few days later I started searching on the internet for information about pickups… there is more out there than I thought. My original spreadsheet got a bit of a re-write over the course of a weekend.

A day or so later we were staying down at Plough Lane Caravan Site and we saw another Amarok on the road which was the first time Sue had seen one and it renewed our interest again, and as luck would have it we were near to a VW Commercial Dealership (have a read here https://caravanchronicles.com/2015/09/20/wiltshire-wanderings/) so we dropped in. It was ticking all the boxes, but more research was still required about 4 x 4 pickup’s. My spreadsheet grew.

Now, I’m not going to give you a long list of the ones we looked at and the reasons for dismissing them in our particular case, some people might have chosen them and for them, they tick all the boxes which is great. The others didn’t tick enough of our (well my) boxes and the Amarok did. So “Project Wolf” was born.

“Project Wolf”

I did not know what to call this series of blog posts when I was making my notes, I read that an amarok, or amaroq, is a gigantic gray wolf in Inuit mythology, said to stalk and devour any person foolish enough to hunt alone at night. Unlike real wolves who hunt in packs, amaroks hunt alone. This kind of stuck in my brain and I started scribbling “Project Wolf” at the top of the pages I had in my note-book where I’d written about stuff for the Amarok.

After my first conversation with the dealer in Swindon, I needed lots of questions answering and fired off an email to VW UK. And got a quick reply telling me nothing of what I really wanted to know. So I tried again, this time to VW in Germany. Not telling me much more… but in lots of detail of course. Thankfully the Australians came to the rescue, although the specs are a little different, it helped fill in the blanks.

Screen Grab

The start of my growing spread sheet about pick-up’s-v-SUV’s

Searching on the internet it seems that the Amarok is going down a storm down under in Australia and there are lots of videos and information on Australian 4 x 4 forums about the Amarok… as well as quite a bit of stuff from southern Africa and south America. I spent the next couple of months gathering information and adding even more columns to my spread sheet, then going back visiting other manufacturers web sites filling in blank bits for their particular 4 x 4 pickup’s to keep things on a level playing field.

overview-amarok

Image (c) VW GMBH

OK… So why choose a pickup?

Glad you asked. Well these are OUR reasons and thoughts. They may not coincide with your particular circumstances, but here’s why… for us.

rearThe loading and storage capacity are huge when compared to most SUV 4 x 4’s. The weight capacity is around 1000 Kg’s and most can take a standard Euro-pallet footprint. That’s a lot of caravanning extras. A lot of pickups can be fitted with a van style top that will allow wet dogs, bikes and other stuff that you wouldn’t put inside a vehicle. Although we don’t particularly want a cab style top but would prefer a flat lid with a bike rack on top. And we don’t have a wet dog. We may have a wet awning though. The tailgate can apparently support 250 Kgs… handy for tailgate BBQ’s! It also makes it easy for me to throw in a big snap-on tool chest and use it as a work bench when tinkering with aircraft electrics.

A lot of pickups are still built on a ladder chassis (like the old Land Rovers) for strength and generally have a longer wheelbase which for towing increases stability. The hitch nose weight limit is generally higher – 150 Kg upwards and generally they are heavier so a lower towing weight ratio can be achieved.

Comparing our Freelander to the Amarok I got:-

Freelander Mass In Service=1723 Kgs, Caravan MTPLM=1490 Kgs, giving a towing ratio of 86.5%

Amarok Mass In Service=2093 Kgs, Caravan MTPLM=1490 Kgs, giving a towing ratio of 71.1%

The Amarok 85% figure is a caravan with a MTPLM of 1779 Kgs and 90% comes in at 1884 Kg’s. The maximum rated towing capacity for a braked trailer is 3200 Kgs.

The other factor for me is the build. Most pick-up’s are built for commercial use and things tend to be a bit beefier. The seats are a bit tougher, the springs, brakes, switches…. everything is designed and made with heavy use in mind. OK this can make them a bit more utilitarian in their design and look inside, but I wanted something that would still look good after 100,000 miles.

The mechanics too tend to be a bit more industrial. The vehicles are not built to a minimum weight just to get good MPG or performance. They are designed for a working life with minimal down time and servicing costs. With all this In mind and much more we (well I) settled on the VW Amarok as the main contender.

OK… so what’s hot about the Amarok?

Here’s a few things I like… mainly taken from the VW literature and I guess is similar to other offerings.

ABS and EBD – Anti-lock Brakes and Electronic Brake Distribution. ABS is pretty standard now but the Amarok ABS also has Off Road ABS as well and is linked to  something called EBD which essentially helps prevent lockup of the rear wheels when under less load (i.e. lightly loaded in the back) or when the vehicle’s weight is transferred to the front wheels when braking. Handy for those wet grass campsites.

Hill Hold Assist – handy for hill starts when towing and Hill Descent Control – Available on a lot of 4 x 4’s but the big one for me was unlike the Land Rover version (which is great by the way!) it operates in off-road mode at any speed below 18 MPH when the vehicles ABS is being used. It controls the braking automatically to prevent unintentional acceleration going down hill even in slippery conditions.

Brake Assist – senses how fast you apply the brakes and if it senses you are doing an emergency stop automatically applies the maximum braking effort available.

The 2.0 Litre BiTDI Engine produces 180 PS (132Kw) or 180 Hp in old money which is similar to some larger engines in other makes. The two turbos help the engine give a huge 420 Nm of torque when mated to the 8 speed automatic gearbox, which has first gear optimised for off-road and pulling away when towing heavy trailers. 8th gear is designed as an overdrive to reduce revs and maximise fuel efficiency.

Here’s one from the F1 world…. regenerative braking. When you brake the energy recuperation system uses momentum to turn the alternator and charge the battery, making the most of the energy when you brake.

Permanent “4 motion” four-wheel drive. All wheel drive is permanent on the automatic no matter if you are in on or off-road mode. The Torsen differential splits the power 40:60 between front and rear wheels, but when off-road the system automatically distributes power to the wheels with most grip… and works with hill start and hill descent control.

There were a few other things that I liked… for example you can put a 32Gb SD card in the radio with all your music from your iPod on and the hands free system seemed quite easy to use too. There were more 12 volt power points than you could shake a stick at, including one in the pickup bed, handy for your cool box!

It has all the usual stuff too, leather interior, cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, cup holders  everywhere, storage draws under the front seats, inbuilt sat-nav.

It’s not small – 5254 mm long (excluding tow bar) and 2228 wide at the mirrors. With our caravan hitched it will be a total length of around 12.54 metres or about 41′ 2″ in real money.

The MPG figures were OK too…. but that with VW has to be seen in perspective of course.

So with all my geeky and techie boxes ticked…. all we had to do was go and prod one in real life and take it for a wiz round the block!

Now I think VW have missed a trick here, VW Car Dealerships don’t sell Amarok’s, you have to go to a VW Commercial Dealer, and after talking to a few people, this seems to be a bit daunting as a lot have people have never stepped into a commercial dealership before. Our nearest VW Commercial Dealership is Manchester Van Centre VW in Trafford Park where we met the lovely Jessica… but more about that in Part 3.

Here is a sneaky preview of an Amarok from Down Under….

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...
Buy Me A Coffee

Blog Stats

  • 44,985,642 hits
Follow Caravan Chronicles on WordPress.com

Follow Caravan Chronicles and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Some previous posts you may like...

A Bit Of A Review…

We or more probably me don’t normally do site reviews. That said we recently came back from a few days away at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, and we liked it that much I had to put pen to paper…. or in more modern parlance lay fingers on keys. The site is located on Naze…

Flushed With Success…

We have just been for a short stay at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, near Warton…. just up the road from Lytham…. that’s near Blackpool. OK you get the idea. We can’t recommend this site highly enough, in fact in a break of usualness I’m going to write a little review. OK back to the…

Lighting Up The Scene…

A while ago I upgraded the lights on our caravan by changing the functions round and added two new LED reversing lights which I can’t understand why I hadn’t done this years ago. In daylight they are bright… and at night they are really bright… retina burning bright according to reports. Reversing into a dark…

Keeping Electrons Contained…

One thing about being retired… you have way too much time to think about things. One thing that has been wandering round my grey cells for the last few months relates to an email I had September last year and it was from someone who was fitting out a van and had a few electrical…

Something for BMW X3 owners…

A while ago I had an email from a chap called Roy. I thought it was going to be an easy one to sort out but never expected what the eventual issue was. Rather than try to explain all the steps, which is difficult sometimes trying to diagnose without actually being hands on, Roy did…

Is This A Growing Trend..?

First things first… Happy New Year to you all. Ok so I’m a bit late but there you go, that’s what retirement does for you… no sense of time. Right, I seem to be receiving a LOT and by a lot I mean 3 or 4 emails a week offering to provide content for my…

Adapting Our Bike Rack for e-Bikes

Getting to that certain age brings on some restrictions…. My left knee is a bit suspect and Sue’s hip is not as ‘hop’ as it was anymore, This meant of we haven’t been using our bikes as much and as Sue has now officially retired and Henry has settled in to caravanning we are getting…

Has Bailey Built Our Perfect Caravan?…

You know by now I don’t do caravan reviews. I leave it to people far better at it than myself. I have however over the years written a few articles about caravan design ( Never admit to being a caravan designer ) and waffled on as we looked around pondering the merits of changing our…

Just a quick one…

Lithium Upgrade for a caravan I’ve had quite a few people email me asking for more information about the Victron system for a caravan that I was planning mentioned in the previous post. As this seems to have generated a number of questions, rather than give detailed answers to each one I thought I’d post…

A Few Mods and Updates…

After our recent trip to Meathop Fell it was time to say goodbye to an old friend. We have had our leisure battery since 2011 and for 11 years it has given us great service. For the last year or so I have thought hard about converting over to Lithium and drew up plans for…

Loading...

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

  1. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Excellent advice. I would never have thought about having three cables. Now I can buy the correct size and not…

  2. Simon Barlow on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Spot on.... if you draw it out on a bit of paper, you will see that you actually need three…

  3. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Sorry to be a pain but, what is the best way to connect the batteries to the inverter. Normally I'd…

  4. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Thanks for the information. Now I can order the cable without worrying if I've got it wrong. Regards Nigel.

  5. Simon Barlow on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    The rule is size the cable for the furthest battery... so do the volt drop calculation as thought BOTH batteries…

  6. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Hi. I'm really hoping that you can help me. I need advice on cable mm2. A quick summary of my…

  7. A Bit Of A Review… | Mon site officiel / My official website on A Bit Of A Review…May 21, 2023

    […] A Bit Of A Review… — Caravan Chronicles […]

  8. Graham C (Cupie) on A Bit Of A Review…May 21, 2023

    A very interesting and well written account. It seems that there are lots of similarities in caravanning there and in…

  9. Graham C on Flushed With Success…May 20, 2023

    One of the greater joys of Caravanning is all of the DIY jobs that it brings your way.

  10. Simon Barlow on Lighting Up The Scene…May 15, 2023

    Hi Tami Probably the best place you;d be to search for travel locations for caravans an motorhomes.... or you could…

  11. Tami on Lighting Up The Scene…May 15, 2023

    Hi where can I find nice idea for trips with the 🚙? In France ? Thanks 🙏 Tami

  12. Simon Barlow on Has Bailey Built Our Perfect Caravan?…May 13, 2023

    Having received various communications from people like yourself, I think I can say the build quality has generally dropped with…

CaravanChronicles.com Tag’s…

13 Pin Plug Accessories AL-KO Avtex Bear Extender Bike Rack Blackpool Blackpool Illuminations blogging Cadac Camping & Caravanning Club Canterbury Caravan Caravan Blog Caravan Club Caravan Electrical Caravan Electrics Caravanning Caravans Caravan Show Caravan Talk Caravan Tyres Cheltenham Chirk Christmas Market Christmas markets Cleaning design Event City Factory Visit Fiamma France Freelander Glastonbury Glossop Caravans Humor Insync Jonic Bedding Lady Heyes La Tournerie Ferme Leisure Battery Leisure Battery Charging LPG Refilling Maintenance Manchester Caravan & Motorhome Modifications NEC North Western Caravans Ltd OLPRO One Hairy Caravanner Oswestry Oxford Product Review Project Safefill Sat Nav Sterling Caravans Sterling Power Wildside Swift Factory Swift Group Swift Talk Technical The Old Oaks Touring Towing tow vehicle TPMS Trafford Centre travel Travel Trailer Travel Trailers vacation VW Amarok Warwick Racecourse WiFI

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Caravan Chronicles
    • Join 667 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Caravan Chronicles
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: