Advice on a towing vehicle for a 2.5 ton boat

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ChrisE

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www.simpleisgood.com
Hi petrolheads,
As well as being a raggie, I also wander over to the dark side every now and then, the latest venture being an Orney Orcadian 23 fishing boat. Now said smack weighs 2.5 ton all up with trailer and outboard. Managed to blow the Landies gearbox on the way back from Fleetwood bringing it home. So thoughts move onto what to replace the Landie with. I'm reckoning that I might be moving the boat around and about the motorway network so I'm looking for something that won't wilt under the weight and will safely tow at 60 mph. The Landie has a habit of snaking when it gets stuck in lorry ruts in the road so I guess I'm looking for something with a wider wheel base.

Any thoughts?

TIA

Chris
 
Only a big 4WD as far as I know. To tow at 60 mph you'd want a bit of safety margin in their rated weight. Disco and Range Rover both tow 3500 kg, and I guess land cruisers, patrols, mitsubishis are similar.
 
I bought a Toyota HiLux Surf (3.0 TD) has all the toys, LWB, switchable overdrive and hard suspension setting for towing.
Looks funky and is fun to drive. Bags of room for tenders/junk.
Jap import cost me 7 grand.
Pajero ? Chain drive TD very reliable.

Had Landie and Range Rover before, they cost so much in fuel and breakdown so often it just ceases to be amusing. Number of lost boating days due to sick Rangie? Don't ask me.
 
What sort of budget, and will it be your main car? eg You could get an old 4litre petrol Cherokee that will tow happily, but quite thirsty, for under £3k.
The latest Touareg V10's will tow that with no problem, and have towing stability software built in if you order the towbar as manufacturer build, but will cost you the better part of £60k
 
older cherokee gets my vote too, but bear in mind all the clobber on top of the boat and trailer. Not sure the tow max of the newer cherokee, but there are very few cars even 4*4 that are ok over 3 tonnes- make sure you check which version the specs apply too-often the petrols are lower than the diesels. As regards snaking, i expect thats more to do with the nose weight than the tow weight. Cant say i noticed much fuel consumption change towing with the Jeeps, unless you want to drive like a boy racer with the boat behind you!
 
wandering in wheel ruts (rather than snaking) is associated with trailer axle widths being close to, but not exactly, the same as lorries. traveling a foot off centre of the lane will help!

I have a 3.0td landcruiser colarado that I got to handle 5 kids and tow a boat. such a great utility vehicle that I still have the damm thing despite doing less that 1500 miles a year and using it about once a month - and I don't even have a trailer for my current boat! I can certainly recomend it as it's never faultered and towed all over between Spain and Loch Lomond, Plymouth and Brittany.
 
I use a Toyota Landcruiser Amazon (4.2 turbo diesel auto) and it's excellent at pulling my Bayliner - about 3,000kg all up, I reckon. Max towing weight is 3,500kg. Bought it s/h with 81,000 miles on it for less than £20k and it pulls like a train. It's also got quite a few toys and full leather etc so it's quite comfy as a main car if you don't want to drive round corners like Alonzo. >120,000 miles now and no problems at all to date. Only downside is it needs an oil change every 4,500m and a pukka service every 9,000. I think that's where they get their reputation for reliability from - there's about a zillion points on the service list so the service guys are supposed to catch anything before it actually breaks or falls off. Oh, and the cd player is crap. Later ones don't need the 4,500 intermediate oil and filter change, but I can't get any sense out of Toyota as to what makes them different.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the way it performs - no connection with Toyota otherwise etc.
 
IIRC Cherokee is max towing limit of 2250kg so a bit lightweight for 2500kg.

I used to tow 7.5m RIB on a heavy duty trailer, all up weight 2250kgish depending on fuel load, with an Isuzu Trooper 3.0 TD. Fantasic machine, powerful engine and rock solid on the motorway. Make sure you go for the LWB version though. Also a darn sight more comfortable than a LR. Mine was a W Reg 2000 model and I suspect you could pick one up now for 8k or less.
 
The original shape Cherokee 4.0L petrol has a towing weight of 3300kg for a braked trailer. Straight from the user manual. So plenty of grunt, and more than enought capacity to allow for additional weight of fuel, and other kit.
 
No contest, Land cruiser Amazon oil burner, will tow the side out of a house!.

Bomb proof, comfortable, super reliable and will go three times round the clock before anything falls off. Know of recovery company that has one that goes and fetches breakdowns from all over Europe, now has 500,000 miles on it and still going (bit ropey round the edges mind).

Forget landrovers and Range Rovers, cost a fortune in juice and unreliable, every single one that does any real work leaks oil everywhere.
 
Had three of the things and as you say, bombproof, comfy and better still - easy to offload when youre finished with the thing.
 
I had a Cherokee 4L and found that I got better than 25mpg towing a car on a car trailer, but only 15mpg when driving it alone.
It's all down to going more slowly and more gently. And probably that when towing the journey tends to be more top gear straight road stuff.
 
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