Machinery Photo/Discussion Thread II

It depends as I said virtually everything towing a cattle box is illegal now depending on size. I said the LC would be border line illegal with a 10X8. @Mooooo wanted a small Jeep capable of doing some towing but was fairly fuel efficient as well as back in the years. However he is worried about ground clearance. I take my one and out of fields. It's grand in my own farm any place else I am ultra careful.

Anything like that is a compromise. A LC is grand if you have the work for it. But if you have high mileage outside limited towing it is a very expensive option.

The other factor is whether you need a seated or van option while there are some seated LC out there with commercial tax they are only within certain years. Crew cabs are rough driving for long distances with rear seating very confined and limited. Another factor is CVRT versus NCT. Generally from anecdotal evidence the CVRT is much harder to pass

If 50+% of the time there is going to be a trailer behind it then the LC is probably the answer. However if you have to compromise and towing is limited then I would pick the 2.2L RAV up until they put the BMW engines in them. Most 2L diesel RAV's have a 2T towing capacity as well with or without 4wd option.

I have seen 14X6 tracker boxes with 6X700kg finished cattle in them add the weight of the box and you are probably not far off 6T.

I have driven many different types of SUV's. The Toyota RAV is about the only workhorse in them. Similarly with the LC its away ahead of the rest of the competition. In between the Santa Fe is fairly capable I think from years 2013-2015 from what I hear. It's fuel efficiency improved significantly with that model.

Finish wise inside the RAV back 2010-2014 is poor enough however you have to factor in by that stage that model was around ten years with only minor face lifts. I was in Donegal at the football match last weekend with it. Needed to overtake once or twice and 2.2L engine has rakes of power. You can plod away at 60mph at a little under 2k revs.

The LC is rated the best 4WD world wide. If you go on a jungle, outback or other excursions on holidays it invariably a LC you will be put in 9 times out of 10 and some of them will be heading for thirsty years old. We travelled Fraiser Island in Australia four years ago in one. The only small SUV I saw there was the RAV.

It was interesting because you would see the camper Vans going up.the motorway towing a RAV on a fixed towing bar with the bikes on the back of the camper.

From about 2015 on they are not as reliable due to Toyota not making some of there own engine's.

I’d be with you Albert, better to be looking at it than looking for it. €8 a day is small money for the comfort of the LC over any of the smaller SUV’s but in real world terms it would be far less than that.

The day you do buy 4 or 5 reasonable stores you’ll bring them all in the one run behind the LC with a 12x6 whereas with the SUV and 10x5 you’ve to make 2 trips, your €8 is well gone then for that day and plenty more along with it. If you’re regularly pulling full 2 ton loads with the SUV’s there’ll be a significant drop in the 40 mpg figure, I’d safely say it’ll be closer to 30 than 40, and your maintenance bills will see a rise too as shocks, bushings, drop links etc will all need to be far more regularly changed as they wouldn’t be designed for constant towing. I’d imagine for someone like yourself doing daily mart trips with trailers a rav or suv would have you broke by now as they wouldn’t stick the pace.

It’s horses for courses, if you’re doing only a limited amount of towing, or when you are at the mart you’re only buying weanlings, calves or maybe stores 2 or 3 at a time the suv type and 10x5 will be fine.

If you’re fattening stock and do your own factory runs or are regularly buying forward stores at marts then the LC or any of the bigger type jeeps is the only option to go for.

8/ day may seem small but to put it in context running costs go from probably 120/ week to 180/ week. 3 k is the cost of an average family holiday.

For normal driving into and out of work you are probably putting 120 instead of 80 per week into the jeep. When it comes to servicing, CVRT v NCT, tyres repairs etc it probably another 50-150 depending on the circumstances.

When you buy it you need to find the price of another holiday. There is a huge difference between 20k miles and 8-10 k miles that some lads do messing around with a jeep.

Some Civils companies that do the big road jobs used to always allow there workers that were travelling fill the vehicle they had out of a diesel tank on site. Before the last recession a lot of these lads had large jeeps LC, Hiluxes, Mitsubishi's Izuzu's etc. On a Friday there was always a que to the diesel tank as lads filled up for the weekend and monday was similar when lads arrived back

When the recession hit on a new contract the rules changed staff were given a fuel allowance and a card. The Jeeps disappeared within six months I am told replaced by small vans and lads even met and shared journeys.

You will put 4X500 kg stores, 5X400 or 7 300 kgs in a 10X5 box or 3X700 kg finished cattle and you will not be beating **** out of them at that

As was already pointed out the €8 per day won’t be that every day. The days you are actually pulling full trailers the smaller jeeps will be costing you more as you’ll be doing extra runs and you certainly won’t be getting the 40mpg you get when they’re not towing.

The servicing, tyres, repairs etc will also be at least the same and probably a lot more on the smaller jeeps as they’re not designed for that constant towing that the bigger jeeps are.

Also depreciation will be far less on an LC than a RAV. A RAV, or any of the SUV’s are basically cars just rose up a bit higher! One that’s used for towing all the time will be wore out and worth nothing when you want to sell it on, the bigger jeeps don’t depreciate as much at all as they are doing what they are designed to do and not being over worked. In the current times land cruisers are increasing in value as the years go by, never mind decreasing.

When all is said and done your running costs will be very similar with both outfits as the positives on one system cancel out the negatives on the other, the only difference being you’ve far more comfort with the bigger jeeps.

Obviously if a lad is doing 20k miles a year and only 1k miles of that is towing a trailer then yes he doesn’t need a jeep at all, be it a rav or an LC, but if you’re doing any reasonable amount of towing then there’s no competition really.

Edit to add; I see Fintan got there before me with the same point, just in a much shorter description of it 😂

Whats Austria like this time of year?

Where did you fly into?

Been around a good number of years now.

i always fancied the idea of it. For the amount of tractor work I do versus the loader it would be grand for me