Hyundai Santa Fe Review: 7 Seater SUV Towing Capacity

This Hyundai Santa Fe review is really the answer to a question from Brendan about the towing capacity of this diesel 7 seater SUV. The review deals with the relationship between the caravan weights and towball download, and also the tow bar itself - both genuine and aftermarket tow bars are considered, as well as Hyundai's genuine load assist kit. You can use a weighbridge to measure both the caravan weights and the towball downoad. And, while there is no 'best towing vehicle, it's pretty obvious the Santa Fe is a damn good all-rounder. The Hyundai Santa Fe 7 seater SUV has a 2.5-tonne towing capacity (manual) and 2-tonne tow capacity (manual). The Santa Fe is a very good medium-to-heavy tow vehicle. But if you already own a van, that’s where you need to start. You need the facts on the van - before you buy the Santa Fe. So load the van up exactly as you would if you were driving off right now . Take it to the local weighbridge, un-hitch and measure the total weight. Then, hitch it back up and drive just the van onto the weighbridge - subtract that weight from the total weight and that’ll give you the towball download. The Santa Fe has a standard towball download limit of 100kg, and if you fit their Genuine Load Assist Kit (basically a new set of rear springs,) that ups the capacity to 150 kilograms. Maybe, while you’re there getting the download measured, it might be possible to re-position some movable items inside the van to tweak the download to 150 kilos or less. That’s what you want. But you’ll never know if you don’t measure it, and guessing is crazy... Load limits for towing are set by the carmaker. I’d be steering clear of any crackpot aftermarket claims that you can increase the download to 200kg with a towbar from Hayman-Reese or whoever. Anyone who says you can do that is simply bullshitting you. And they’re setting you up for a fall if anything goes wrong. These load limits are ‘static’ loads. They’re used for specifications because they’re easy to measure. In reality they relate to ‘dynamic’ loads imposed while you’re actually driving. To put this in perspective, you might go over a dip and the van rotates, and at the same time the Santa Fe decelerates because you hit the brakes, or something. You’ve got loads moving, accelerating, rotating. The dynamic movement of all that mass might impose, momentarily, several hundred kilos of vertical download on the towball. That’s going to pitch the nose up, reducing the grip of the front wheels, which is bad, if you’re also trying to steer. Conservative static load limits are imposed on vehicles so that things don’t get unglued in the dynamic domain. It’s not much fun if the wrong combination of bumps and curves jams you into the path on an oncoming B-double. More on this at the website: www.autoexpert.com.au