Hi there
thinking of buying a merlin, need to know what is the total weight for both boat and trailer, so that I can get a suitable tow bar fitted??

Towbars are all universal are they not?

I've never come across a towbar supplier who's asked what weight you're going to pull. There's usually only one towbar (from each manufacturer) to fit each type of car or model or car...
guessing I would say approx twice the weight of the boat 200Kg at least perhaps even 300kg including all the other gear, mast, boom, 6 suits of sails etc!!!

cheers, bit of a naive question really thanks for tips though

virtually all towbars will haul a large caravan, and a boat plus trailer plus gear gets nowhere near that!

Anna is right, the manufacturer's tow bars are all ok for anything.  If you go cheap, such as Towsure, you may well find there is a weight limit... However the merlin all up will not exceed 250kg, so you will be ok.

GGGGGGG

You probably need to worry more about the car on the front of the towbar than the towbar itself.  Having said that, I did tow a Merlin for a while with a Morris Minor Tourer and though it wasn't easy up the hills and pretty much limited to 55mph on the flat, it was possible.

With Most if not all trailers being unbreaked the isue is not the engine size but the towing weight braked, There are very very few cars that couldnt tow a Merlin Rocket

Has any one towed with a motorbike and sidecar?

Not as far as I know a Merlin but a guy did turn up at Whitstable Week in 1961 towing a National 12 behind a motor bike & sidecar. I'd have thought that the only thing contra indicated to tow with would be a Reliant Robin!

Put the Merlin on top of the Reliant Robin and tow the whole thing (it will save the AA doing it).  Launch directly into the sea, leave the Robin where it is put the Merlin on top of the tow car and go home.  Problem solved Del Boy!!

When I was in the Navy.............

I once saw some one arrive at a Bala Inlands with a merlin on the roof of a metro, he said it so he didn't have to be restricted to the 50mph law for towing trailers. 
well it was in the early 80's

It is little reminiscent of the story about the guy who was up before the magistrate for riding his pushbike without lights.  In mitigation he pleaded that the Lord was with him to guide him and was promptly done for riding two on a bicycle

The one thing the previous posts dont appear to mention & you need to be aware of is the downward loading on the ball hitch.
These do vary, but as long as you dont throw all the kit imaginal plus the crew in the bow of you boat you should be ok,in short spread the weight around each side of the axel. I've recently fitted a Bosel system to a Citreon C2 & found heaps of info on the web, just type in 'Towbars'
best of luck Barry.

Lol, I've just put a towbar on my transit for Merlin towing purposes.

The max nose weight is 250 Kilos!  What a towbar!

One interesting caveat is that if you passed your driving test after nineteen-ninety-something you can't tow anything over 500 kilos and your max GTW is 3500 kilos.

A Honda Goldwing (think armchair on a motorbike) can easily tow a caravan, so why not a Merlin?!

My old dad, Frank, towed an Enterprise from Shoreham to Littlehampton behind a BSA 500 and sidecar. Didnt get home though! Towed him home behind a Bradford Jowett.

The Bradford Jowett towed the bike, sidecar and Enterprise.

those were the days - when oil was oil, and boots didn't leak (because the contents of the gearbox soaked into them!)

Isn't this getting back to the blog of a few months back about Flying Dutchmen on the roofs of Minis and Merlins in the roofs of Austin A 60's, Jaguars and Aston Martins.
Frankly if you tow anything much over 50mph you are insane with scant regard for your towed cargo be it Horse, Dinghy, keelboat or whatever. I saw an eight sided Range Rover and a pile of Wood, Glass Fibre and aluminium that had one been a 4 sided (new.) Range Rover and a Dragon+Trailer on the N1 in France last yearm very lucky eveyone was to escape alive!

You can tow a maximum of 750 Kg (If your licence permits it)with an unbraked trailer but you cannot exceed half the kerb weight of the towing vehicle. Every vehicle manufacturer has to give a maximum towing limit. This can be found in the vehicle handbook and also on the chassis plate, usually found under the bonnet.
PS At least one rear fog light is mandatory on trailers over 1.3 m wide so dont buy the cheap trailer boards without one.

Also drivers who passed a car test on or after 1 January 1997 are required to pass an additional driving test in order to gain entitlement to category B+E

I thought it was 3/4 of the Kerb side wieght unbraked.  Who am i to know i am only a car salesman

Russ,

Got the info from here.

http://www.ntta.co.uk/law/law/identification_plates.htm

also see the bottom of this page.

http://www.towsafe.co.uk/Advice1.asp

Failure to comply is £1000 fine and three points.

Nigel, youre OK to tow without the additional test if your trailer is below 500 kilos and youre GTW is below 3500 kilos.

must be a bummer for GP14 sailors who passed their test after 1997

Jon,

Sorry I was confused all European licences permit up to 750Kg.

Nigel

Some interesting info to expand on....I don't have my towing liscence but something the DVLA have not been advertising is that I am able to tow upto circa 1.7 tonnes.  Europe has final come through with a regulation change that works in our favour!  At last, it had to happen sooner or later!  See the link below (section 2 is the interesting bit)  So for me with my TD5 landrvoer (has an MAM of 3.5 tonnes)  and a kerb weight (plus full tank etc of 1.4 tonnes, so I can tow upto 3.5 tonnes combined (train weight) which means a trailer weight of - 3.5tonnes - 1.4tonnes (kerb weight) = 2 tonnes (knock some off to be safe and remember more people in the car will make a big difference etc etc.  I'd also recomend printing this page off and keeping it with your owners manual/logbook in the car in case PC plod gives you hassel.  I do this and have not had any problems (tow a track day car and other crap quite a lot!)  Hope it helps.....Oli.

Olly any chance you could post or e mail me the link could be worth having especially as dad has a habbit of getting me to tow his Rater to Bourne end.
Cheers

hmmm I'm sure I put the linky bit in the box, I'll e-mail it to you anyway....Oli.

Anna - top tip, don't go to a main dealer to get the towbar done! If you haven't done so already, shop around for a local towbar specialist.  They'll charge half the price and invariably they are the ones to whom the main dealer subcontract the job!

You can also get the tow bar kits very cheap on ebay which is exactly the same thing as the dealers fit only half the price!  If you know anyone who is handy with mechanics its a really easy job to fit one....can cut a £100 investment at least to £50 plus beers for whoever does it for you.....The electrics are simple enough aswell (unless you have a landrover!)  Oli.