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Thread: Towing

  1. #1
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    Towing

    Hi all after finally getting away with new van the first attempt failed along with my cooling system a lazy grand and all fixed only to be a little disapointed with the way she tows going south along forrest hwy i couldnt maintain a steady speed there was a head wind though not strong 100 ks out of the question if i could keep it above 80 was good to keep it from coming out of torque converter lock other wise it was back to third to get up to speed only to eventully lose it again ,i came home along the south west hwy into a desent headwind high 30s temp air on and could only manage 80 in and out of third all the way must of changed gears a few hundred times is that the norm i thought it might of had something to do with the vc unit that's why i asked the other day about swapping for a LT.
    Van weighs 1.2 and the car has a couple of mods performance chip extractors big exhaust but does run 265 75r16 wheels.
    i thought these were good for three ton towing not even close.

  2. #2
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    I haven't driven a range Rover but it sounds similar to my 3.9 Disco. I spent most of the time in 3rd when I towed my 109" home.

    How fast do you want to go though? Without knowing how heavy your van is, I suspect that it is only legal to tow it at a maximum of 90km/h,

    Cheers Charlie

  3. #3
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    Yep something doesn't sound right.

    My old soft dash Classic would pull my 1.8t van comfortably at 90 kph average, but on hills it did quickly drop back to third. Very thirsty though at 25-26l/100km!

    Though the engine has been chipped it may be down on power so worth starting there and then working down the driveline.

    Cheers

    Steve

  4. #4
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    Not surprising... with the larger tyres you have a significantly increased your "top gear" final drive i.e. lower revs for same speed ... which may be a bonus unloaded for fuel consumption, but you then have a lot less torque because you're down possibly around 300 rpm between 90-100 kph which is why the auto is finding it difficult to maintain lockup trying to pull an additional 1 tonne plus of caravan.

    I suggest that for towing you get a set of wheels with smaller diameter tyres... it's a lot cheaper than trying to replace the F/R diffs with lower (numerically higher) final drives...
    MY99 RR P38 HSE 4.6 (Thor) gone (to Tasmania)
    2020 Subaru Impreza S ('SWMBO's Express' )
    2023 Ineos Grenadier Trialmaster (diesel)

  5. #5
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    HI again yeh was thinking it might lead to the tyres all else in pretty good nic and boy was it thirsty 75 lt for 230 ks thought i was going to run out there for a while how embarrassing for such a short journey.
    My brother brought an old disco the other day and on gas it would run rings round mine with the smaller tyres thanks again to all will have to do some thinking as what to do, diesel sounds good trying hard not to go jap though.

  6. #6
    Homestar's Avatar
    Homestar is offline Super Moderator & CA manager Gold Subscriber
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    Mine has spent most of its life towing and it does a bloody good job. Until recently, it had a standard carby 3.5L, 5 speed and standard road tyres, not the 3.9 EFI, auto and 31's it has now, so there will be some difference there, but before the change it would tow a 2 tonne boat at 95 all day - a bit slower up hills. Biggest load I had was a 2.2 tonne genset on a 1 tonne trailer, and towed it easily on the freeway at between 90 and 95 - would have done 100 on the flat if I wanted, but kept it under that.

    Fuel 'economy' or should I say usage was up near 30 LP100 with that, but with the boat, around the 25 mark.

    Great vehicle to tow with, if you don't mind keeping the fuel up to it.
    If you need to contact me please email homestarrunnerau@gmail.com - thanks - Gav.

  7. #7
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    Managed to keep up with a friend of mine today, but only just. Lots of pedalling and 2nd/3rd gear. - Good thing it was'nt his wife driving or it would have been embarrasing.

    Mine is a '95 3.9 Classic, his a loaded Nissan Navarra dual cab 2.5 diesel. - Towing a THREE tonne trailer/sweeper.

    Your experience is similar to mine, when using a 3.5 Classic to tow a 2.5 tonne plant trailer. - The wind resistance kept it hunting between gears when pushed near 95/100. Would sit happily at 80 - That one had a re-built engine with a cam suited for towing.

  8. #8
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    We towed our HSE back from the other side of Melbourne to Bendigo. Very heavy!

    Could have done 100km on the flat if I wanted to, but on the hills it would just die; however, on a couple of hills I really pushed it, 2nd gear would hold 80kph up even the steepest hills.

    Maybe we're expecting too much out of what really is a smallish motor allready pushing 2 tonnes. Just because it's a v8 doesn't mean it's powerfull.

    One answer REV IT BABY REV IT!!!

  9. #9
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    Hi,

    I used to use my 3.9 to tow a very similar sized van (1.25 ish tonne) and my first outing was very disappointing, improved a lot after I did the timing, try 9 or 10 degrees of advance and run on 98 octane, but do remember that classics are not that heavy so you are adding a big percentage to what you are asking the motor to move, and the fuel consumption was terrible, get over it (30 liters/100kms).

    they can tow a lot, in my manual it said Land rover would honor the warranty up to 7 tonnes at less than 30kph on smooth ground, and the UK police used to tow broken down trucks off the motorways with them, BUT they are not speed machines.

    enjoy the journey.

  10. #10
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    When dad had his business he used to tow a fordson major on occassion. I believe it was about 8 tonne, though he never did more than 60. He also towed a dual axle hay roller which would have been way more than 3.5 tonne through the streets of geelong. Though ive had the back of mine creaking when towing the hse up out of bellgrave (terrys avenue).
    I did read somewhere that LR approved the classics to tow up to 6tonne if you kept below 40mph.

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