The updated Mitsubishi Outlander has been a popular addition to the medium-sized SUV segment in recent years, offering excellent value to buyers, providing seven seats for larger families, and plenty of features and pleasantries for everyday life.
While it's not in the league of traditional 4x4s that you picture when talking about caravanning or travel trailers, the Outlander is a popular vehicle that we often get asked about by people trying to understand what they may be able to tow to maximise their ability to escape the city and enjoy all the wonderful places Australia has to offer.
In this article, we’ll dive into a detailed analysis of the Mitsubishi Outlander, providing advice for a broad audience. For those seeking more personalised insights into their vehicle, travel trailer or caravan, and specific situation, consider using LoadMate. This platform simplifies towing and trailer weights, offering a custom guide that makes understanding towing and weight limits clear and tailored to your needs. LoadMate ensures your safety and compliance, all the while eliminating stress with tools for measuring weight, maintaining stability, and alerting you to potential issues.
Now onto the article
The Headliners - Braked Towing Capacity
The Mitsubishi Outlander comes in a number of model variants, offering a two-wheel drive and all-wheel drive option for the driveline, and the choice between a 2.5L 4-cylinder petrol engine or a 2.4L plug-in hybrid 4 cylinder petrol engine.
Consistent across all models is a 1,600kg braked towing capacity, with a maximum limit of 160kg on the tow hitch.
There is often a lot of confusion when a manufacturer advertises a brake towing capacity that, in reality, is often impractical or impossible to utilise safely and legally. This is mainly due to the payload limits of the vehicle, and particularly the gross axle weight limits, stopping many people from getting anywhere near the marketed towing capacity. But what about our Outlander, how does the 1,600kg limit play out in the real world?
The more critical but lessor known limits - Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM), Gross Combination Mass (GCM) and Gross Axle Weight Limits (GAWL)
The Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) limit of the Outlander is set at 2,355kg for the 2.5L variant and 2,650kg for the PHEV. For those unfamiliar, the Gross Vehicle Mass is the total allowable weight the vehicle can be, including passengers, luggage, accessories, and the weight on the tow hitch.
Similarly, the Gross Combination Mass, which starts at 3,955kg for the 2.5L models and 4,250kg for the PHEV. Where the GVM focuses on the vehicle itself, the Gross Combination Mass is the total weight limit of both the vehicle and trailer combined. Before you run out and buy the PHEV based on the noticeable increases in the limits, it's important to note this is actually a contradiction that trips up many people.
The fundamental difference here is the Kerb weight of the vehicles. Think of the kerb weight as the completely bare vehicle coming off the showroom floor with a full tank of fuel, no added floor mats, no tow ball, no added accessories, or options.
The kerb weight of the 2.5L variants sits at between 1,665kg to 1,720kg, whereas the PHEV is 2,050kg, a solid 300kg+ difference! So, while the GVM and GCM ratings are higher for the PHEV models, in reality, they actually have a lower permissible payload than the standard 2.5L variants.
The final piece of the puzzle before we start getting some clarity is the Gross Axle Weight Limits. The 2.5L engines have a Front limit of 1,210kg and a Rear limit of 1,365kg. Understandably, the PHEV models have a higher rating, sitting at 1,385kg for the Front and 1,495kg for the Rear.
You may be lost with all these numbers, thinking, why are these guys going on about all this? The reason is axle limits are one of the most important yet overlooked limits. The weight applied to your tow hitch by the trailer is amplified up to 140% on the rear axles due to the fulcrum and lever effect.
It is best practice for safety and stability to have approximately 10% of your total trailer weight resting on the tow hitch of the car. This is achieved by adhering to correct load distribution and placement, and most of all, understanding the dynamics at play, which LoadMate can significantly help with.
So, wrapping up this little tangent, if we’re towing a 1,600kg trailer, we need to assume a load of 160kg will be applied to the tow hitch (not exceeding this in the case of our Outlander!) and make sure our Gross Vehicle Mass, and Gross Axle Loads will all be okay, providing plenty of room for payload for a normal trip. You see, many vehicles when towing at their maximum have no capacity for more than two occupants, and let alone any luggage in the vehicle before they start exceeding everything. That’s why we need to cover a broad range of limits before we can give the green light to drive off into the sunset, trailer in tow.
For those needing a refresher on all these terms and how everything interconnects, consider visiting our high-level guide to Caravan Weights here.
Where does it all sit?
Where does it all sit? With a 1,600kg trailer hooked up to the Outlander, we actually have plenty of headroom on all our limits. For our 2WD variants, you will have the highest available payload of approximately 530kg, with the rear axles capable of handling 370kg. This means you realistically can't overload the boot and rear cabin of the Outlander too excessively, but there is certainly plenty of payload capacity catering to many different types of journeys.
Our AWD models offer slightly less payload, at around 475kg, with 344kg capacity at the rear axles. Finally, our PHEVs, which boast the highest GVM and GCM ratings, actually have the least payload of all the variants at 440kg and 322kg respectively. This is a fair bit less than the 2WD models, but certainly not limiting for most scenarios.
Wrap up
Pleasingly, the Mitsubishi Outlander is fully capable of its advertised towing capacity, while still offering ample payload for most families. Although 1,600kg may not enable the towing of a full-blown caravan, there are numerous travel trailers suitable for this capacity, including pop-up styles like the Jayco Swan.
One cautionary note we advise is that single axle travel trailers often have comparatively heavier tow ball masses relative to their weight. This means that, while many travel trailers remain under the 1,600kg limit, special attention must be paid to the actual weight being applied to the tow hitch of the Outlander. Remember, this limit is only 160kg and can be easily exceeded if the trailer isn’t loaded correctly, or if the manufacturer hasn't taken weight distribution into their designs. Overloading the rear of the Outlander can lead to lighter steering, compromising vehicle control, including braking, due to the excessive weight on your tow hitch.
To avoid such situations, and if you're not entirely familiar with what we're discussing, don't worry. LoadMate simplifies the process, helping to effortlessly compile everything and actively monitor your weight distribution and compliance, all conveniently from your hand.
