Towing vehicle advice

I need a vehicle to tow a 2-2.5 tonne trailer and am hoping the mighty org can help me.

I am purchasing the vehicle on behalf of a charity for their school life centre caravan/trailer which I would add isn't loaded particularly well, with no scope at present to rearrange the load.

It can't be a LWB van as the trailer is quite long and it occasionally needs to go through some tight entrances. I've been looking at Disco 3's, Range Rovers, Defenders, X5's, Hi-Lux's, Patrols, Land Cruisers etc but with so many to choose from I'm starting to loose the plot!

Fuel economy isn't too much of a concern, reliability is (especially as we will be maintaining the vehicle gratis). It needs to be capable of towing the caravan whilst maintaining stability. From what I can gather, the higher the vehicle weight the better, but it also need reasonably firm suspension (or adjustable/upgradeable) so that it isn't to bouncy with the trailer on. A decent amount of power would be a bonus and diesel is preffered but Petrol or LPG will be considered.

At present we are using a modified Defender but this is well past it's sell-by-date and is probably a little light due to the weight distribution in the trailer.

Budget is £7000 private or £8400 from a VAT registered dealer/company.

Please help...it's for charity!!!

Regards

[LewSpeight]

Im probably so useless at this. But something with a lot a of torque and apparently the best for pulling something is the vw touareg.

Im afraid thats all i know haha. But it certainly, from what i know about it, fits everything you mentioned above.

Have a look into it maybe?

Ideally you want something heavier than that trailer, ideally by a bit of a margin, to make towing it moderately pleasant. However, unless you can move up to a 7.5t tow vehicle you are out of luck given how heavy the trailer is.

I can't help but feel the Defender is as good as you are going to get. People have been towing heavy things with these for years with reasonable results. They are slow, ugly, and noisy but they get the job done.

If you are determined to get something heavier to pull it with I'd check out the Iveco Daily, these have some of the highest towing capacities of 3.5t vans, but even the short ones are pretty big. You said you can't rearrange the weight of the trailer, but putting some of the heavy stuff in the back of the van would make it much safer to drive.

A random one that is worth checking out it the VW T5. Looks nice and have surprisingly high gross train weights, but I'm not sure I'd be happy driving a 2t van with a heavier trailer.

Sorry to be this person, and I'm not sure how being a charity may impact this, but you realise you need a taco and an operators licence for that outfit right?

No tacho needed as we supply a driver and it's not their usual job, nor is it for hire or reward. It is simply towing a trailer to various schools a few times a month. We're a commercial vehicle repairer and tacho centre so know the score regarding tacho's,

Ah yeah, charities are exempt. Thought I'd point it out on the off chance, easy to not realise that towing a heavy trailer with a discovery could put you into tacho territory!

https://www.gov.uk/drivers-hours/exemptions-from-eu-law

[Kenzie]

Most common tow vehicles we see at work are L200s, Shoguns, Navaras and the Discovery.

[Ch00]

Shoguns at work are the longer wheelbases one with a plated weight of 3000 and a train weight of 6000.

Fairly hardy auto boxes.

[_Stretchie_]

The Land Rover should be no problems towing wise, just double check but I think things like the Ford Maverick (which is a rebadged Nissan Terrano) has a low tow rating at about 2,700kg but apart from the Freelander I think all the Land Rovers are plated for 3,500 or more?

The problem with any of the Land Rovers is reliability, (I am a Land Rover fan but have to concede this), you could get a decent bit of kit for that money, how about a Range Rover, comfy, will tow the world and you can get a TDV8 in that price range, if you allow about £300 - £400 within your budget you can get a diagnostic tool that will read any fault codes to tell you any issues and the right ones will also reset faults which negates the bending over from a dealership to reset something stupid like a blown bulb warning on the dash at about £80 (the robbing barstewards).

Apart from that, anything BIG and Japanese should sort you out, some may have a rear axle diff locker as standard, a very useful bit of kit

We already have a fair few diagnostic tools so that's not an issue. Would love a Range Rover but I think it may be a little flashy and better vehicle could be had for the same money, albeit with less bling.

Land Rover wise I'm only really interested in the Disco 3 or a Defender 110...but reliability issues put me off. Whilst they pull like trains, they aren't really designed as towing vehicles, more off road work horses. This vehicle will rarely get used as anything other than a towing vehicle!

Heard good things about the Navara...but after a short bit of research have uncovered durability issues!!!

My god this is a minefield! If it was my money this would be a lot easier but it is the charity's money (well council money but it is from the charity's pot!) so I don't want to get it wrong.

[Pete7]

I towed this for 8 years including trips down to South Brittainy for summer hols. she weighed 2.6T with the trailer and camping kit. Tow vehicle was a 300TDI Auto Disco which was superb and never had any problems. However, the 300 TDI are now getting long in the tooth and the Series 3 Disco is a completely different vehicle with lots of engine electronics, whilst the 300 series were mechnical.

With this weight do make sure the brakes on the trailer are tip top as they do help with keeping it all in a straight line when braking at speed. Also make sure the tow vehicle hitch is adjusted to the right height because you will be towing a 4 wheel caravan.

Appreciate it's difficult to move wieghts inside, but anything heavy like water should be over the axles and deffinately out of the ends, it really makes a difference. Towing a rib with a heavy outboard on the back is probably the worst example and leads to fish tailing etc.

Pete