Towing Vehicle

fits

Well the time has almost come for me to finally buy myself something capable of towing a horsebox and I'm beginning to do some research.

I want to comply with the laws and guidelines nobody generally bothers with, so really at the moment I'm looking at landcruisers, pajeros, and possibly, a series II or III landrover defender which would qualify for classic tax and insurance. I want a long wheel base.

So really the points i want to consider are, will I be able to get commercial insurance or should I get a passenger vehicle? (I hope to keep my small car for commuting etc). What are the implications of getting a commercial?

Which vehicle would people recommend in terms of maintenance and expense of parts (and longevity). As well as general capability of course.

Can older landcruisers and pajeros (mid 90s probably) be run on biodiesel without conversion kits? (just an option at the moment)

Any other thoughts?

Hope the message isnt too garbled, I havent posted in months.

Slig

I have always bought a LWB commercial 4x4 for towing my boat trailer, I have a Nissan Terrano Long wheel base at the minute and its grand for the job. 2.7 turbo intercooled engine is plenty powerful (but still fairly easy at the pumps at 32MPG). It has lowrange gears for pulling up a slope and there is plenty of weight to keep the trailer in check. Another advantage to its soft roader heritage is that there isnt a lot of travel in the rear suspension (With my old pajero it took about 5mins to wheel up or down the jockeywheel:D)
If you intend to keep your car, then try for a commercial jeep & insurance policy, that way youll be able to keep the two on the road and tax will be a lot cheaper. I have never missed the back seats in mine and find the extra luggage space much handier.
There is a lot of discussion on Soft roader vs landrover on this forum so I'm not getting into it but there are deffinate disadvantages and advantages to each, the most prominent are maintenance, capability, price, driving comfort and running costs.

fits

Slig wrote: »

There is a lot of discussion on Soft roader vs landrover on this forum so I'm not getting into it but there are deffinate disadvantages and advantages to each, the most prominent are maintenance, capability, price, driving comfort and running costs.

Can anyone expand on this? (or provide a link). Running costs, reliability and fuel economy are going to be a big factor in my decision. And in an ideal world I'd prefer not to go for the spartan comfort of a landy either.

peasant

I'd say he best way to approach this question is to find out what you actually need:

- how heavy is your horse box, including horse and tackle?
- how far do need to pull it ...just around the block or across the country?
- where do you need to pull it into or out off ...roads, gravel tracks, wet grass or good old ankle deep muck?

Assuming a light-ish trailer and none too challenging terrain you could possibly get away with a normal car or van as a towing vehicle, throw in regular excursion down a wet field and you definetly need 4WD and if your trailer and horse are heavy on top of it all, the fully fledged 4x4 is a must.

Your options are somewhere from a heavy 2 litre RWD car (like an Opel Omega for example) via the soft-roader option (Forester/ Rav 4 etc) to the full Defender/Trooper etc.

fits

peasant wrote: »

I'd say he best way to approach this question is to find out what you actually need:

Yp

- how heavy is your horse box, including horse and tackle?

Horsebox about a ton, including horse and tack, another 600kg probably. However, you should consider the maximum trailer capacity when buying your towing vehicle by law seemingly (its really confusing). And sometimes I could be carrying two animals.

- how far do need to pull it ...just around the block or across the country?

Probably at most 40 mile round trips, on country roads.

- where do you need to pull it into or out off ...roads, gravel tracks, wet grass or good old ankle deep muck?

All of the above.

Assuming a light-ish trailer and none too challenging terrain you could possibly get away with a normal car or van as a towing vehicle, throw in regular excursion down a wet field and you definetly need 4WD and if your trailer and horse are heavy on top of it all, the fully fledged 4x4 is a must.

Legally speaking I dont believe most cars would qualify to carry a double horsebox like mine anymore. The laws are not really enforced in this country (they are in the UK), but I'd prefer to err on the side of caution anyway, and have power and stability in reserve.

Your options are somewhere from a heavy 2 litre RWD car (like an Opel Omega for example) via the soft-roader option (Forester/ Rav 4 etc) to the full Defender/Trooper etc.

Again Forresters and Rav4s dont cut it imo. Im going to be looking at the Pajero/landcruiser/trooper kind of category (and terranos, definitely no discoverys ). Realistically speaking, the vehicle will probably be recruited for light farmwork also. Budget is no more than 8 grand.

Slig

Hilux or landcruiser:D?
Other options are the patrol, Hilux surf, Isuzu trooper

There are lots of crewcabs or pick-ups asswell but I dont see the point, you get extra seats but your luggage gets wet and most have compramised handling

peasant

Yepp ..double horse box and possibly two horses, that settles it. (Just theoretically ...with a dinky little trailer and a shetland pony, the big car option could have been legal).

macshadow

Sorry to stray a bit here but can any of you tell me what is involved in towing a braked trailer. Does the vehicle have to be specifically set up for this. Are the brakes hydraulic?

MrFoxman360

Brakes on a trailer behind a jeep or car are inertia brakes. When you brake, the force of the trailer moving forward, operates a linkage in the hitch itself, by pushing against a spring, which activates the brakes on the trailer. The braking system is contained on the trailer, no cables or hoses need to connect to your car or 4x4. When reversing the brakes have a tendency to come on as the force is similar to the force under braking, but there is a brake lock which you flip down which prevents them from being activated.

Inertia brakes can be used on a trailer up to 3500kg

Slig

MrFoxman360 wrote: »

Brakes on a trailer behind a jeep or car are inertia brakes. When you brake, the force of the trailer moving forward, operates a linkage in the hitch itself, by pushing against a spring, which activates the brakes on the trailer. The braking system is contained on the trailer, no cables or hoses need to connect to your car or 4x4. When reversing the brakes have a tendency to come on as the force is similar to the force under braking, but there is a brake lock which you flip down which prevents them from being activated.

Inertia brakes can be used on a trailer up to 3500kg

and are absolutely crap on a boat trailer:mad:

Ferris

Friend of mine uses a Patrol to tow her horses. She regularly has two up and can't fault the patrol. It'll tow in and out of fields too. Its also a very comfortable jeep to drive.

Mahatma coat

I had one of those hydraulic brake things in the diesel trailer but we changed over to different system controled by a balancer in the cab of the ute, made a huge difference on the gravel and stuff.

Slig

Ferris wrote: »

Friend of mine uses a Patrol to tow her horses. She regularly has two up and can't fault the patrol. It'll tow in and out of fields too. Its also a very comfortable jeep to drive.

The patrol is Huge, very wide and long, not an easy machine to manouver. Perfect for what it does but just think about trying to park it:D

fits

Slig wrote: »

The patrol is Huge, very wide and long, not an easy machine to manouver. Perfect for what it does but just think about trying to park it:D

Easy parking is not my primary concern funnily enough

Ok, I spent 5 days in an old landcruiser (the square one) off road in Bolivia two weeks ago, and I'm rather fond of them really... not least because if we broke down we could have got stuck in the desert in sub zero temperatures.

Are they very thirsty? and can they be run off biodiesel easily enough?
Are they expensive to maintain? (I know Toyota parts are expensive anyway but I have a theory that parts prices are inversely proportional to the frequency with which you need to buy them).

Any other issues with them? (it doesnt have to be that old square model necessarily)

Ferris

Slig wrote: »

The patrol is Huge, very wide and long, not an easy machine to manouver. Perfect for what it does but just think about trying to park it:D

My friend is a girl and she can park it.......with a horse box:cool:!

Only messing, she is a particularly good driver though.:)

Slig

fits wrote: »

Easy parking is not my primary concern funnily enough

Ok, I spent 5 days in an old landcruiser (the square one) off road in Bolivia two weeks ago, and I'm rather fond of them really... not least because if we broke down we could have got stuck in the desert in sub zero temperatures.

Are they very thirsty? and can they be run off biodiesel easily enough?
Are they expensive to maintain? (I know Toyota parts are expensive anyway but I have a theory that parts prices are inversely proportional to the frequency with which you need to buy them).

Any other issues with them? (it doesnt have to be that old square model necessarily)

Landcruisers seem the way to go, to me they are overpriced and over rated and just look and drive bland and boring.
Fuel economy is one of the best seemingly
and according to some people they will never break down ever... even if you drop it into the sea:D and so therefor never need to be serviced
parts should be easy to come by

fits

Slig wrote: »

Landcruisers seem the way to go, to me they are overpriced and over rated and just look and drive bland and boring.
Fuel economy is one of the best seemingly
and according to some people they will never break down ever... even if you drop it into the sea:D and so therefor never need to be serviced
parts should be easy to come by

Sounds perfect for me

If I were looking for an exciting drive I wouldnt be buying a 4x4 for that purpose anyway.

landydef

If I were looking for an exciting drive I wouldnt be buying a 4x4 for that purpose anyway.[/quote]

saying something like that could be deemed as blasphemy in the 4x4 forum

Slig

depends what you define as an exciting drive,
I like driving windy country roads in the car but equally enjoy narrow bumpy, muddy, lanes and bog roads in the jeep

fits

Slig wrote: »

depends what you define as an exciting drive,
I like driving windy country roads in the car but equally enjoy narrow bumpy, muddy, lanes and bog roads in the jeep

I should know better

Does this fit the bill?





the little speck on the bottom left here was our landcruiser.




That was where I was two weeks ago. We didnt see an asphalt road for a long time. 6 punctures in five days and there arent any tyre shops in that area (theres nothing there for hundreds of miles) so the driver had to be quite inventive. It was all landcruisers in the desert too. Nothing else. Some of the driving was incredibly rough.

So landcruiser or pajero then?:D

Slig

that looks absolutely amazing

Builderfromhell

Looks like one hell of an adventure. Trip of a lifetime I'll bet. But where is it? Did you ship Landcruisers or hire them locally?
Sorry if this is off topic.

fits

Builderfromhell wrote: »

Looks like one hell of an adventure. Trip of a lifetime I'll bet. But where is it?

It was really great. It was in southwest Bolivia. It was all at very high altitude, so cold, thin air and really high radiation. It went down to around minus 20 at night and we were sleeping in hovels basically. Another thing that amazed me was the ease with which the vehicles started at 5 am in those temperatures although the drivers covered the engines in cardboard.

Did you ship Landcruisers or hire them locally?
Sorry if this is off topic.

I was on a back packers budget. It cost 125 dollars for a four day tour including all food and accomodation (and we had to hire a jeep to get out of there into Chile too as there were bus strikes, petrol shortages, a flight to catch and its really remote). All the food, gas for cooking, water and fuel for the trip was brought along in the jeep. The food was great in fairness, considering the conditions.