Thread: Towing

Originally Posted by mick88

What is the legal tow weight for a 101?
We are considering a boat and it weighs up around the 4 tonne mark.
Have been pondering on a 101 as an appropriate tow vehicle as it also has good height/clearance for local boat ramps and river access?

Cheers, Mick.

Athough it would tow 4 tonnes (slowly) I think it only has a rating of 2000 or 2500Kg.

Originally Posted by bacicat

Athough it would tow 4 tonnes (slowly) I think it only has a rating of 2000 or 2500Kg.

It is 2 ton (not tonnes) (2 032.0938176 kilograms) but that is both on and offroad. It is listed on the nomenclature plate.

It will certainly tow more but as Ron has indicated there are some issues with how the rear end behaves when unloaded and towing heavy weights but may not be an issue with a correctly braked trailer as the original tests that showed these issues would have been done with unbraked trailers.

Garry

Towing 4 tonnes........go get a powerful light modern truck or a Ford F250 etc.
3.5 litre... 110 bhp on a old tech motor and drum brakes.....short wheel base is not a good combination for 4 tonnes unless you are just moving it around a paddock.

legal towing capacity as Garry stated is 2 tons and is what the vehicle is designed to do best on and off road as a gun tractor.

My Old GS was the best tow motor I've had.
It had the original engine swooped out for a 9.35:1 fuel injected 3.5 quite early on, followed by a 3.9 auto combo, so available power was never really an issue, there were odd occasions you needed to stir the gears with the manual, but in general it pulled plenty well.

In terms of what it was used for, it had a variety of Land Rovers behind it on a 16ft flatbed trailer, including a 101 Ambi, various defenders, an L322 Rangie and a 3 tonne 360 tracked digger, all of which were quite happy behind it at 60 mph.
The L322 on the same trailer behind a p38 was somewhat more of a buttock clenching experience.

It also ran quite happily with a Skankey trailer loaded level with 2ftx4ft flagstones which must be been approaching 2 tonnes aswell.

From what I remember the chassis plate states the 'recommended maximum' as 1.5 tons -at least it did on mine- with the operators manual stating similarly, but adding something along the lines of 'for anything heavier please consult your senior NCO'.
I'd take that to mean so long as the Warrant Officer doesn't thing it looks overloaded/dangerous then it's fine?

Anyways, experience suggests that so long as it's got the power to pull the weight it'll tow it fine, and 3500kg certainly doesn't worry them.

By that logic Simons should be good for 6 tonnes on the hook?