unclebill1 Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Am going to be towing a trailor on a regular basis probably with a three door Disco, trailor weight will be about one and half to two tonne. Options are either to go for a 3.9 V8 running on LPG or a 200 or 300 Tdi. Anyone out there got any experiences. Cheers Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nas90 Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Am going to be towing a trailor on a regular basis probably with a three door Disco, trailor weight will be about one and half to two tonne.Options are either to go for a 3.9 V8 running on LPG or a 200 or 300 Tdi. Anyone out there got any experiences. Cheers Bill The NAS with 3.9 V8 and auto box gets a bit hot and sweaty with a heavy Ifor Williams trailer, about 600kg empty with 1500kg payload. Have to say a diesel manual would be my favourite for towing. Da*n said Die*el Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheeppimp Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 the old tdi disco i had was a great tow vehicle, even with horse box and 2 fairly large horses (all in around 2-2.5T) it just kept on going. temp ran a touch hotter than normal but never over half. currently got a 200tdi in a rangey and last year we pulled about 3.5T's of hay bales for 50odd miles of roundabouts and hills without breaking sweat, unlike me unloading them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 200Tdi manual box will pull all day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 V8 auto makes a great tow car - never had problems with mine getting too hot - but while the V8 will be nicer to drive the diesel will still do a perfectly acceptable job, you'll have much better range and can get fuel anywhere. I'd have to say diesel is the sensible option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 300 Tdi diesel, I towed some silly weights with my old 110, including a 16' Ifor loaded with MDF, which we later established weight 5.5 tonnes!! (yes, daft I know, and totally illegal.. I wouldn't do it thesedays) I'd go for a diesel, you could always tweak the fueling for a bit more omph... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 forgot to say, I've always towed with a manual, so can't comment on Tdi auto's... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8RRC Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 We tow 16ft trailers loaded to 3.5t (inc trailer weight) on a daily basis & use 300tdi discos! The only problem we have is when pulling out of any junctions with any sort of incline (when loaded) 1st gear always seems to be to high & almost kills the engine! ( a wee bit of clutch slipping needed to pull off) Apart from that & uprateing the suspension to stop it pulling the Disco about they seem upto the job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 300Tdi RRC with Autobox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raumer Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 I used to tow with a RR 300tdi auto. Was superb most of the time, especially for manoeuvring and even better at hillstarts! Only problem we found was on the hills, it had a set speed it liked to go up hills at and that was it! Although to be fair as it's gearbox has now given up it could have been the box at fault the whole time. Having never driven an auto before I didn't know exactly how it should behave! Everybody else I know with Landie's has manuals. Personal choice would be a 300tdi auto for long distance work or if you are going to have lots of hillstarts. Otherwise it'd be a 300tdi manual. I've replaced the RR with a 200tdi 110, lot more low down grunt just not as civilized! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark90 Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Have towed heavy loads mainly with tdi defenders and discos, both manual and auto. My disco 200 tdi auto was about the best, if a little underpowered. I think a tweeked 300 tdi auto would be a good choice. Can't comment on V8 as I can't recall having towed heavy load with one, the V8's are usually play rather than work horse tow truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggylad Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 To go against the flow of pro-Tdi replies, I use an '83 110 3.5 V8 , running on LPG through Strombergs, to tow a boat trailer (max weight just over 1 ton). Very happy with the setup - much better than our previous (2.5 TD Jeep - shhhhh wash my mouth out !). Mind you, the LT95 box gives a nice low first for hill starts - not sure about later boxes. Otherwise, she pulls like a train at all legal speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Depends on the towing. Lots of stops and starts around town, I'd go for a V8 auto its soooo much nicer and will go when you press the go pedal. Stop start towing with a Tdi is a bit of an exercise in needing either good anticipation, a lot of patience or a lot of clutch abuse to get going briskly. I've never tried towing with a Tdi auto but they are slow enough without tying 2 ton on the back <duck to escape hail of bricks from Tdi auto fans> For longer journeys I think I prefer a Tdi manual, once you get under way and the turbo is blowing it is just as good and uses half the fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark90 Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 I've never tried towing with a Tdi auto but they are slow enough without tying 2 ton on the back <duck to escape hail of bricks from Tdi auto fans> Well you are entitled to an opinion. Opinions are like............erm...........well.........everyone has one The thing with the tdi auto, is it has the plus points you mentioned about using a V8 auto and the plus points you mentioned about using a tdi manual, without the drawbacks of either setup. Also the difference in performance between towing a load and not is much less marked than with a manual tdi and when towing a heavy load there's probably not much between them. I liked towing with my tdi auto, yes it was slow but then so was my manual tdi 110 with 2.5-3T trailer on the back, and with that kind of load I don't want to be racing about anyway. In fact I think the auto often held speed better as the slip in the TC allowed the turbo to be kept on song better on this hills that are just between gears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 My old 300Tdi Auto was tweaked a bit. The new owner towed a 101 on a Bateson to WSM form Wrexham the other day with nary a problem nor a hiccup. 60mp up hill and down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 Well you are entitled to an opinion. Opinions are like............erm...........well.........everyone has one Quite right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJG Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 Am going to be towing a trailor on a regular basis probably with a three door Disco, trailor weight will be about one and half to two tonne.Options are either to go for a 3.9 V8 running on LPG or a 200 or 300 Tdi. Anyone out there got any experiences. Cheers Bill Years ago - towed a big twin wheel caravan all over the UK and into France too using a 300tdi Discovery and it was just great. As comments above you did need to adapt your driving style a bit and be more 'anticapatory' (is that real word???) as it was better once 'on the boil' but it was a great tow car. It was also rock steady - I used to love blasting past fellow caravanners with their twitchy outfits (Usually Vectras/Mondeos with over laden caravans and bikes on the back) - you could see them thinking "I wish my outfit was that stable at that speed" - in reality I would only be doing 60mph (and a little ....ahem...more if road and wind conditions allowed). But they would wobble at the first sign of a bit of wind or a passing National Express Coach - meanwhile I would be rock steady - totally recommended as a tow car. Even better was my non air sprung td5 Discovery but you didn't ask about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davie Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 I loved my 200 tdi disco for towing, even if it was a lil knackered with 157 000 miles on it, slowed down a bit going up hills until a tweak on the fuel pump sorted that out. Seemed to tow pretty well regardless of what unsympathetic load weight i gave it.................pity the wheel bearings and suspension units on my trailer didnt do the same! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithjh Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Am going to be towing a trailor on a regular basis probably with a three door Disco, trailor weight will be about one and half to two tonne.Options are either to go for a 3.9 V8 running on LPG or a 200 or 300 Tdi. Anyone out there got any experiences. Cheers Bill Having towed a 14ft ifor williams box trailer fully loaded (3.5 ton twin axle) across europe to Bosnia several times, with a 300tdi disco, 200 tdi 110 and a 3.9 RR on LPG. they were all up to the job though the RR was better, more comfortable to drive in the Alps and the long long hills of Germany and Austria, the 300 and 200 were much cheaper to run, even taking into account that LPG was available at nearly all fuel stops, the RR just had a lot more torque on the long drags making driving more pleasant. but as i said they all managed to do it, the 300 and the RR were auto. regards Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.