Thread: Advice on Disco 2a purchase

I wouldnt buy a D2 to tow that much weight,,

I tow a 1.7T van with the 4L auto and it just manages,,
I would imagine a chipped Td5 would be better but in the end at 2.5-3T the vehicles dynamics are not up to it.

buy something with a longer wheelbase.

oh look! a sticky with your name on it!


http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...02-2004-a.html

I have a 2000, Disco2/V8 auto, we tow a 2.5T Jayco van and are full time travellers around Australia. We have in the past 6 years covered just on 200,000 kms both towing and touring. We have pulled the van over the great dividing range, been around Tassie a couple of times, Far north Queensland, NT, Kimberlys, deserts and many river crossings. The vehicle has been faultless in all conditions in fact remarkable, in our journeys we have seen quite a lot of failed diesel LR's (towing). To say towing this weight is out of the V8 vehicles dynamics is certainly not the case in our experience.
If you would like further information I would be pleased to oblige.

it would appear all V8s are not created equal--

A d2a will tow a large van ok but it will be a slow trip and as it would seam that Pedro has now found out by his comment about buying something with a longer wheelbase that they aren't always that stable, especially if not set up properly for towing.

However I do know a bloke who used to be on here who had a D2, he got rid of the SLS put in coil springs and fitted stiff Bilsteins and used a WDH and it towed stability wise quite well. from memory, he also added the airbags you fit in the coil springs and that also help greatly with towing a large van. He had a 21' Outback that would have been about 2700 kg to 3. ton weight wise.

I have seen a number of D2's towing big vans so obviously you can set them up to do so quite well. I don't mind admitting that I decided myself after towing with our D2a to buy a D3 for towing our 2.5 ton van mind you. But the difference in purchase price is massive which is always a consideration.

Nearly every D2a by now desparately needs new shocks anyway so just build that into the buy price. ACE which HSE's have tends to often hide worn out shocks but not when your towing a heavy van. New good shocks aren't expensive and make a real difference, I even fitted new shocks to the D3 and that greatly improved that as well.

If you drove a HSE with all the excellent gear they come with standard chances are you wouldn't be inclinded to buy a standard or even dressed up run out base model D2a. There weren't that many HSE's sold because of how expensive they were when new and many people who own them tend to keep them because they are such a nice thing to drive and it costs heaps more to buy something newer with similar specs as a D2a HSE.

As I said the V8 will tow the weight but it will be slow and you will need most of the time on hills to use the manual shift option on the auto to get best results.

Good luck and pm me if you would like to take a look at my V8 HSE D2a.

cheers,
Terry

Thanks all for your responses. I suppose I used worse case scenario (weight wise 2.2 gvm) with the van, and at least, we have the option of another tow vehicle. I suppose primarily I would be buying a D2a as a perfect representitive of value for money with amazing 4wd capability.

How about servicing, and general running costs? What is the average price people have paid for servicing and maintenance? I know a vehicle of this age will need regular maitenance however will I be getting myself into an endless money pit of constant repair bills or was the D2a generally sorted by the model run out??

The V8 motor of this series is by todays standards a simple one and it is a very good motor. Remarkably there is a lot of servicing you can do and avoid the "Dealer option"
Things like maintaining the coolant, make sure all the hoses are in good nick, change the oils regularly and use good oils, plugs, sepentine belt. Filters, hoses and serpantine belt are easily accesable online and usually very compeditive in cost. If towing an auto service around 60K is a good idea. One of the best features of this model is the second hand market whereas later models aren't as accesable as Series2.
You can save a heap with doing primary preventive maintenance yourself and there are plenty of after market LandRover repairers around the place. Get it setup right you might be very surprised at how cost efficient this model is with servicing.

Hi Craig I've got a late 03 d2a se v8 auto with coils all round and when we have to put the horse float on and go I can't notice it's even on and it docent struggle up hills either