Anyone Towed With a TSi DSG?

[Minimilo]

Hi, Do any of you TSI owners tow with your van? I would be interested in performance and towability (is that even a word). Obviously a TDI will be much better. But I am attracted by the simplicity of the petrol engine (in 150 guise) and the future value of the van. Cheers.

 

[Scruffy]

Hmmmmmm....the sound of silence. I think that may answer your question. To be fair, there aren't all that many TSI owners in the country, so not a huge pool to draw upon. My own experience of a petrol Shuttle in Germany earlier this year, wasn't favourable. It struggled to haul 5 of us and our gear up some fairly average autobahn hills. I think though, unfortunately our next vehicle purchases will be petrol or hybrid, including the van.

 

[Minimilo]

I think you are right. I have bit the bullet and bought a TDI as I believe it will suit our needs better.

 

[Chrisfraser05]

I don't think any have been delivered yet in the UK

 

[Minimilo]

There was a TSI PV at the dealership I bought my TDI from.

 

[bullock]

Mine arrived in UK port on 12th, collect next week... shalln't be towing with it though so no advice in that regard

 

[Roadrunner]

My take is that the 150 I have tows our caravan ok, not sure it is as good as the Outlander I had. There does not seem to be as much torque as I hoped it would have so I feel if you had a TSi you would really suffer. Manufacturer's do not seem to take towing into consideration.

 

[BognorMotors]

We have TSi's arriving any day, will report back, but I would imagine they like a drink when towing!!

 

[Minimilo]

We have TSi's arriving any day, will report back, but I would imagine they like a drink when towing!!

This was one of my main concerns. That's why I went TDI.

 

[Stigofthedub]

I had a t5.1 102 until I started towing a caravan, its a fairly heavy caravan and towing was awful especially on any inclines. Swapped for a t6 150 and it is better but I am in 5th gear a lot. Both did 40 plus mpg as i usually drive, and about 25 mpg towing.

 

[Roadrunner]

I had a t5.1 102 until I started towing a caravan, its a fairly heavy caravan and towing was awful especially on any inclines. Swapped for a t6 150 and it is better but I am in 5th gear a lot. Both did 40 plus mpg as i usually drive, and about 25 mpg towing.

I found it similar to you, also like dinking blue when towing I noticed

 

[Montecha]

We have TSi's arriving any day, will report back, but I would imagine they like a drink when towing!!

Sounds a bit like my old Audi S4, it would pass everything apart from a petrol station.

 

[Tommy tucker]

Hi, Do any of you TSI owners tow with your van? I would be interested in performance and towability (is that even a word). Obviously a TDI will be much better. But I am attracted by the simplicity of the petrol engine (in 150 guise) and the future value of the van. Cheers.

Pick up my TSI caravelle up this weekend,we tow a trailer tent so pretty light don`t think that will upset it!

 

[Olly T6]

I had a t5.1 102 until I started towing a caravan, its a fairly heavy caravan and towing was awful especially on any inclines. Swapped for a t6 150 and it is better but I am in 5th gear a lot. Both did 40 plus mpg as i usually drive, and about 25 mpg towing.

Have no problems with my 204dsg, the main reason I got the dsg was because of towing, chaining gear loads is very annoying especially in traffic

 

[tim allsop]

Changed our 2008 t5 2.5tdi caravelle for a new TSI 204 dsg caravelle, had tha tow hitch fitted today but not looking forward to towing with it ! DSG box is dreadful on pull off, can’t feather it to pull off nicely. So I can’t see trying to tow with it will be nice. The old torque converter and 400nm of torque was great in the tdi, now we are petrol , 350nm and DSG! Anyone tried towing a caravan with theirs? Was going to ask the dealer if they can re map the box to give more slip when pulling away as all mine does is spin the wheels and bounce. Really hard to pull away from a junction with out upsetting it. Once going the box is great, quick and sharp, but bad in pull off. Won’t get into mpg! Done 6000 miles so far and not yet seen 30mpg,sitting at 24mpg still!

 

[Dave F]

Changed our 2008 t5 2.5tdi caravelle for a new TSI 204 dsg caravelle, had tha tow hitch fitted today but not looking forward to towing with it ! DSG box is dreadful on pull off, can’t feather it to pull off nicely. So I can’t see trying to tow with it will be nice. The old torque converter and 400nm of torque was great in the tdi, now we are petrol , 350nm and DSG! Anyone tried towing a caravan with theirs? Was going to ask the dealer if they can re map the box to give more slip when pulling away as all mine does is spin the wheels and bounce. Really hard to pull away from a junction with out upsetting it. Once going the box is great, quick and sharp, but bad in pull off. Won’t get into mpg! Done 6000 miles so far and not yet seen 30mpg,sitting at 24mpg still!

I have a 140 DSG T6 with a DTUK tuning box that you obviously wouldn’t won’t but I also have the pedal box. This has 4 settings from off to super sport Also in each mode setting you have go +4 and -4 to fine tune each setting
And this is all done from a controller you fit to the dash or wherever you won’t.
I have never towed before so don’t have much to compare it to but I use city-1 mode around the doors and sport -2 for towing and I can definitely feel the difference as it removes the delay in when accelerating . You would have to contact DTUK and then make your own mind up I think it’s £199 and simple to fit you just disconnect the throttle wire from the pedal and fit this as a loop in and out.
Hope this helps you and is a option but like I say I haven’t towed before but this definitely makes a difference in my opinion even on day to day driving to motorway driving.

 

[$immo]

I have a 140 DSG T6 with a DTUK tuning box that you obviously wouldn’t won’t but I also have the pedal box. This has 4 settings from off to super sport Also in each mode setting you have go +4 and -4 to fine tune each setting
And this is all done from a controller you fit to the dash or wherever you won’t.
I have never towed before so don’t have much to compare it to but I use city-1 mode around the doors and sport -2 for towing and I can definitely feel the difference as it removes the delay in when accelerating . You would have to contact DTUK and then make your own mind up I think it’s £199 and simple to fit you just disconnect the throttle wire from the pedal and fit this as a loop in and out.
Hope this helps you and is a option but like I say I haven’t towed before but this definitely makes a difference in my opinion even on day to day driving to motorway driving.

View attachment 36254

View attachment 36255

Well everyday is a school day.... What a great and cost-effective little gadget. Not sure there is such a simple fix to the fuel consumption of towing with a TSI

 

[Tourershine]

Changed our 2008 t5 2.5tdi caravelle for a new TSI 204 dsg caravelle, had tha tow hitch fitted today but not looking forward to towing with it ! DSG box is dreadful on pull off, can’t feather it to pull off nicely. So I can’t see trying to tow with it will be nice. The old torque converter and 400nm of torque was great in the tdi, now we are petrol , 350nm and DSG! Anyone tried towing a caravan with theirs? Was going to ask the dealer if they can re map the box to give more slip when pulling away as all mine does is spin the wheels and bounce. Really hard to pull away from a junction with out upsetting it. Once going the box is great, quick and sharp, but bad in pull off. Won’t get into mpg! Done 6000 miles so far and not yet seen 30mpg,sitting at 24mpg still!

Although i'm not TSI, and I don't tow with mine, I did speak to this company a while ago DMS Automotive - The Ultimate in Performance Upgrades
I had my 204 DSG booked in for a re-map and the DSG gearing altered. My initial enquiry was more about the box, and if the shifts could be moved or tailored to what I wanted. I personally think the DSG box doesn't take advantage of the power on full throttle, and they claimed they could have the shifts change at peak power, taking advantage of all the torque, rather than loosing momentum during the top end of the revs. Work got in the way and I never ended up having it done, but I did overcome my issue by fitting a flappy paddle steering wheel.
Might be worth speaking to them if you want to adjust the way the box changes gear, or even fit a flappy wheel which I think gives far more control in certain situations.

Also, consider the tyres you are running. If you are getting a lot of spin, and bounce, some of this might be the fact it's winter and the roads of slippy anyway, but I found running the factory fit tyres are not the best in all situations. I'm currently on full winter tyres and I get no spin, against the summer tyres that are awful in this weather.

Lastly, the poor fuel consumption on a TSI is well reported on here, and it's just the obvious drawback of having a petrol engine in a big commercial. I read the other day that another TSI owner on here has the 150 and he's thinking of converting to LPG, so yours must be even worse. The upshot of a TSI is you can now map them over 300hp, and they sound like a snarling beast with a full exhaust system

 

[andys]

Whatever the current trend/epidemic of demonising it, you can’t get away from the fact that currently towing torque and economy = diesel and will be for some time.

 

[Dellmassive]

Heavy load or towing = diesel

Peddle boxes are snake oil imho. Technically All the peddle does is give the ECU 2x 0-100% signals (2 for redunancy, and they are opposites too 0-100 and 100-0) which represents your requested power demand.

All the peddle box does is add-too or remove-from a percentage of travel from the peddle as it sits in between the peddle and the ECU.

So just pressing the peddle more or less has the same effect.

But its the perceived effect that people like, so good on them..... but its not for me..... and it wont help a petrol van tow a large load.

Before @Pauly tells me off, the above is totally my personal opinions and not those of T6F or it's admin team. =]