another towing thread

[discowhite]

yep, they have sexy headlights!
and most of the teething problems would be sorted from the older models.

cheers phil

[Blknight.aus]

I like to be able to cruise at 95klm/hr on the open road. That speed makes for comfortable cruising at respectable fuel economy and doesnt create too much of a queue behind you.

As for jigging the 300tdi, do you mean things like exhaust, upgraded intercooler etc as they dont have a 'puter do they. The Td5 would just require an ecu upgrade and exhaust at the min to get any extra power out of it??

thanks and keep the opinions coming.....

well thats about how I drive but Im happy to let it drop to 80ish on the hills and run 4th gear on the climbs primarily cause its good for the fuel numbers.

at the minimum rejigging the tdi is just a case of tweaking the pump, theres scope for improvement without touching the inlet or the exhaust (this is the same deal as an ecu upgrade for the TD5) and then theres the common items between the 2 engines that you can upgrade for further improvements intercooler, inlet tract, waste gate adjustments, exhausts and removing mufflers.

if you PM Tombraider (tombie2) and ask him about what chips you can get... I got a decent one off of him that will let me haul about 2t over the tare weight of a 110 extreme up the toowoomba range in 5th gear at 80kph and then accelerate without changing down... (smokes a bit when you do that tho) and I still havent done my exhaust and intercooler upgrades.

[Chucaro]

Mark, on my last trip to Hobart from Moore Park Beach on my ex Disco Tdi 300 (manual) I towed my trailer all up about 1.200 kg at 100kph without any problem.

I have done this trip twice counting my way back to Qld from Tas and I can telling you that the Tdi 300 is very capable engine. My Disco was standard

In both trips the average comsumtion was 12 lts per 100 km.

Hope that the info helps

[pawl]

Personally I can't comment on the Td5 because I've never owned one, only had a test drive which showed how slow my Tdi was. But I have owned a 96 Auto Tdi Disco for 10yrs and my brother had a 96 Manual Tdi Disco and we used to do direct comparisons between the two and it is my opinion only, but for towing the Auto had it over the manual.On really big hills the manual probably didn't lose as much speed- but his pump was tweaked too.

[2_door]

I had a 98 V8 auto disco a while back and it was pretty ordinary actually when it came to towing. There was a huge gap between top and third when climbing hills. It would take ages to change down automatically and by the time it did, you lost heaps of speed and never got it back again until over the hill and back into top. I drove it like a manual at anything that slightly resembled a hill when towing

I have been told the auto box in the Tdi has slightly different ratios so that might help, but I dont know if the tdi will make enough power in the first place to keep a decent speed up hills.

I had a 3ltr diesel dual cab Rodeo a while back and it wasnt too bad, probably better than the V8 disco at maintaining speed up and over hills

thanks guys

[hook]

If Auto.
A Cooler for the Auto Box

[Disco Mick]

I've got an 03 Disco TD5 Auto. I bought it with towing in mind. I tow a tandem trailer with a race car on it. It sits on 110 on the freeway no trouble. The trailer itself is fairly heavy and carries an 1100KG car and tools. It tows nicely though and you wouldn't know it was there on the flat. On the hills it slows down a bit but not that much, back to 90 or so. Having it reflashed certainly made it better. Hopefully the new turbo will improve things.

It still returns pretty good economy with the trailer on. I get about 600KM out of a tank when towing and 800 to 850 when not.

Cheers

Michael

[justinc]

Shorty,

A manual Td5 '03 onwards, chipped with an exhaust mod will be the bees knees.

Obviously I am biased towards a 4BD1T, but you have a snowballs chance getting one of those into a D2 legally...

JC

[Cap]

What about all the people you know JC who have a tdi tweaked (pump, exhaust, etc) and are rockets.

Personally I like the simplistic Tdi, and I know my brother (also a tdi owner) was quoted around $800 to do a complete pump ovehaul with dyno tune, promising somthing like 50% increases and better fuel economy. So for towing I think the tdi is campable, especially if your only wanting to travel at a cruising speed of 90-100kph (did this to the Douglas remember Shorty - got 12lt/100 with laiden trailer no probs)

[incisor]

never had a td5 so cant include them but had v8 manual, tdi manual, tdi auto and my tdi auto disco was by far the best touring tow vehicle. the tdi defender did pretty good as well and kept in touch with a v8 carrying similar weight on the trip to cooma and back.