Advice on a towing vehicle for a 2.5 ton boat

Gotta agree with all of the Lancruiser comments.

I use an FJ62 landcruiser, Last of the proper 4x4 trucks, 24v electrics etc.. Used all over Africa and Australia.. never breaks down and hugely powerful..

Use it every day to station and will tow @ 60mph all day.. huge fuel tank so does herts-portsmouth and back twice on one tank of gas towing.
 
I needed a 4x4 just to tow my boat. I looked around at all the expensive 4x4's, but was not willing to spend big money on what would be a second car.

Last year, unbelievably the Kia Sorento was voted 4x4 of the year so I went and had a look.

In the end I got a ex demo 2.5 CRDi XT Auto with sat mav, cruise, climate and leather for nineteen grand.

It tows up to 2.8 tons and I have no trouble with it on slipways and it cruises very well at 60 all day.

By the way, the sat nav is rubbish because it requires the CD to be in the slot all the time, because if you go off route by even three feet it throws a wobbler, so you never get to listen to SWMBO's Manilow CD's.

Solved problem by throwing Nav CD's out of window...oh dear, Barry went as well, of dear, and buying a Navman.

Good car, cheap price.
 
I had rangies and disco diesels both a bit asthmatic.

I tow regularly on motorways .

If you want a great tow vehicle get a toyota amazon disel 4.2 80mph towing if you need it and bullet proof.
 
If it was a second vehicle, I'd agree, but he says it will be day car too. In which case Landcruiser, though great off road in rough conditions, is not really a contender for road use. Sometimes you have to put emotions aside, and look at what the practical use is.
 
I have just bought a new Defender 90 for exactly that job, had the ECU upgraded to increase torque and power by 30%, fitted a K&N filter and Hiclones in the Turbo hoses, this is now a very, very powerful beast which will give most cars a run for their money.

Top speed is over 110mph where permitted, but as it is like a brick flying through the air and not built as a sportscar I would suggest that it is driven with respect, it can certainly scare you with all that power.

I have towed with it and it acts as a tractor unit as it is nice and short, great for reversing and moving around tight spots. The resale value is very good but you would need to be able to live without some modern creature comforts if using it daily, I will only use it for the odd bit of towing so perfect for the job IMHO.

As for value for money it was a lot cheaper than the Landcruiser, and the best overall from what I could see that could tow 3,500kg in its class.
 
If it's anything like Giles the farmer's (honest, that is his name) you would be well advised not to get wet in the trailer socket as it shut down his engine management chip. He was not best pleased.
 
I am looking to change the towcar at the mo from the Rangie... (Too old and too unreliable).

In my (humble opinion) DON'T buy the diesel 4x4 - it's far to expensive to run..

yes really.....

Buy a Petrol 4x4 for about £3000 less than it's diesel counterpart and fit an LPG conversion (£1800-2200) - (or if you can, buy one already converted).

If you do the Maths....

1) Diesel 4x4 doing 28mpg (optimistic but I have to be fair) at 95ppl for diesel = £4.30 per gallon divided by 28 (miles for each gallon) = £0.1535 per mile (or £153.50 per 1000 miles)

2) Petrol 4x4 doing 18mpg on LPG = 1.40 per gallon (about 31p per litre at supermarkets / 18 miles per gallon = £0.07777 per mile (or £77.77 per 1000 miles (about half the cost of the diesel).


This means you can afford to run a 4x4 that others would run in fear from - I quite fancy a Jeep Grand Cherokee (3500 tow limit) available for about £12k with low mileage and all the toys. 4.7 litre Overlander does about 18-25mpg which on LPG will cost you less to run than most family saloons.

In the family we have 3 cars on LPG - a Vectra, a Merc and the Range Rover. Getting LPG is easy anywhere in UK and it's better for the engine. I used to love diesels... no more - total convert.

If you go for a petrol Landcruiser then they are soooo much cheaper than the diesels, and if you go to eBay there are a load of already converted 4x4's - go to Cars then just type "LPG" into the search.
 
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