Can a Jimny tow a small caravan?

Towing with a Jimny sounds pretty normal but what if you tow a 750kg caravan? Would it actually be able to do it? And how would it affect fuel consumption? Well, we decided to find out for ourselves.

Overlanding with a Jimny is fairly doable but space always seems to be a problem – where do you pack everything? The Jimny has a maximum load capacity of around 350kg. That’s not much if you consider that you have to subtract the weight of the occupants.

So, for our recent trip to Botswana, we decided to get a teardrop camper from Vagabond Campers to help with the space and weight challenge. This little caravan sleeps two comfortably and even boasts a little kitchenette and a 50-litre fridge hooked up to a decent battery system. With a tare weigh of 560kg and a GVM of 750kg, that allowed us an extra 190kg of load capacity, but the big plus is the space.

Inside the caravan the mattress folds up, which left loads of packing space for our camping gear and the bulky stuff like bedding, clothes and a couple of luxuries such as my icemaker and little Weber Q gas braai. This meant that we were able to keep the weight in the Jimny below the 350kg load capacity.

We actually had three Suzuki Jimny’s on our trip through Botswana, all five-door models:

  • Jimny GLX 4AT
  • Jimny GLX 5MT
  • Jimny GL 5MT

The GLX 4AT towed the Vagabond Rogue, while the GL 5MT towed two Suzuki adventure bikes on a trailer, the total weight of which came to about 750kg. The GLX 5MT would be our control to see how fuel consumption would differ. Hitching the little camper and the bike trailer onto the Jimny’s did place a bit more weight on the rear wheels and this meant that the vehicles settled a bit lower than the normal ride height.

Now take into consideration that the Jimny’s KB15B 1.5-litre engine only produces 75kW at 6 000r/min and 130Nm of torque at 4 00r/min. It’s a small engine in a very capable little off roader.

We travelled over 3 500km with these three vehicles and the conditions ranged from great tar roads to gravel, thick sand and very rocky terrain. Our average speed on the black stuff was around 100km/h on the clock and around 94km/h on our GPS. In the sand and rocky sections, we mostly drove at around 20-30km/h and most of the time in 4H, with occasionally going into 4L.

We had to deflate tyres for better traction on the sand, but we never really had any problems, expect once when a sand road was blocked by a vehicle and in my infinite wisdom I decided to try and bypass it and got stuck in the sand next to the road. We couldn’t reverse out of the problem because as soon as I started reversing the little camper’s run in brakes would engage. This prevented me from going any further back and effectively made the Jimny dig itself deeper into the sand. We finally got out by clearing a section of brush and turning around in the bush.

But how did the Jimny tow?

All things considered, the Jimny did pretty well as a towing vehicle. It had enough power to easily tow the little teardrop at 110km/h but in the auto that affected my fuel consumption drastically, pushing it up to over 13 litres/100km. That’s not too bad actually.

The problem wasn’t necessarily the consumption but rather the small fuel tank on the Jimny. With only a 40-litre tank this meant that I could get a maximum of 300km out of the tank. This meant that I had to manage my speed very carefully.

The auto box struggled slightly to manage the power and torque to the wheel. Frequently it would shift down to third and the revs would climb to 5 000r/min, pushing the fuel consumption over 13 litres/100km.

When it was in fourth it would go down to between 3 000r/min and 3 200r/min and average fuel consumption would fall to between 11.8 litres and 12.5 litres/100km. This meant that I drove from fuel station to fuel station the entire trip to ensure I didn’t get caught without a drop in the tank.

The five-speed manual however really impressed me and managed an average fuel consumption of around 9.6 litres/100km while towing the adventure bikes. I think the reason for that was the fifth gear, which allowed the little KB15B to work at much lower rpms for longer periods. That was a game changer. Towing still had an effect on the range, but it gave the manual an extra 70km before we needed to fill up.

I was immensely impressed with the little GLX 5MT. It completed the entire trip through Botswana with an average fuel consumption around 6.8 litres/100km and it was pretty much loaded close to the 350kg mark with two people and a bunch of luggage.

This consumption is pretty close to the claimed 6.4 litres/100km from Suzuki and I believe that if there was only one person the vehicle, it would have achieved a better figure than that. But take into consideration that we weren’t travelling fast and with the GLX 5MT driving behind the two towing Jimny’s for the entire trip there were no crazy accelerations. This meant that the range was close to 600 km on the little 40-litre fuel tank.

One thing that I believe also hampered the fuel consumption in the auto was the fact that I had a big OzTent strapped to the roof rack, along with a big bag with three ammo boxes in it. The caravan is also not as aerodynamic as two adventure bikes on a trailer, but the GL 5MT also had a thin clamshell rooftop tent. So, there could have been some influence on the fuel consumption due to the extra wind resistance.

The verdict

So, can you tow with a Jimny? I would say definitely but be sure to take some extra fuel in a 25-litre jerry can. Alternatively, you could consider upgrading to a long-range tank for the Jimny. These, however, don’t come cheap. The 80-litre upgrade can set you back between R25 000 to R31 000, but it would help when towing.

Both the manual and auto had no problem towing 750kg behind them but the bike trailer did tend to fishtail every now and then. However, I believe that was more to do with load distribution that anything else.

For me, towing with the Jimny for me was great. The vehicle actually felt much more planted on the road and was handling the road condition much better. It really enhanced the handling of the little 4×4 on the black stuff too. But it is a small vehicle and at times we had to go a little slower to ensure that the camper and bike trailer did not get damaged over rougher surfaces. But as far as being an option to overland with a small camper, I would say go for it – just remember the extra fuel or plan your route carefully!

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