Opinions on forestry tow vehicles

[donnk]

you need to be looking at canal boats mate you lanky sod!

[CDMR]

If the Grand Cherokee doesn't work height wise have a go at the Commander. They are getting quite cheap now. Used to tow a big race trailer with one and you'd forget it was there. Same engine range but bigger inside and lower floor. 

 

On a side note re cruise control, you could perhaps get a hand throttle fitted instead? Relatively cheap if the vehicle is otherwise right for you.

[Big J]

5 hours ago, CDMR said:

If the Grand Cherokee doesn't work height wise have a go at the Commander. They are getting quite cheap now. Used to tow a big race trailer with one and you'd forget it was there. Same engine range but bigger inside and lower floor. 

 

On a side note re cruise control, you could perhaps get a hand throttle fitted instead? Relatively cheap if the vehicle is otherwise right for you.

The Jeep Commander isn't a vehicle I've ever come across - I shall research it now! Thanks for the heads up. 

 

Hand throttle isn't necessary as it is getting better. More cars have cruise than not these days, so it's not such a limitation.

 

I asked a VW specialist friend about the Touareg V10 TDI and he really rated them. Hard to ignore the appeal of 10 cylinders, over 300bhp and a 5 litre displacement!

 

[Big J]

Looked at the Commander and I don't think it's my cup of tea. 

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Landcruiser Prado?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Land_Cruiser_Prado

 

These are the Landcruisers that are most common in the UK. I had a lift (off road) in one a few years back and quite liked it. They are reasonably priced too.

 

* Edit. The Prado only tows 2.5 tonnes which is not enough for me as the machine I'm getting weighs 2000kg with all the extras I've put on it.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Big J

[LeeGray]

Go Range Rover l322 4.4. I bought one last year as a tow vehicle for moving steelwork, timber, aggregates around on 16’ trailer and 2.8t digger and it’s been amazing. I wouldn’t have anything different now. Last tow vehicle did 10,000/Year but I’ve done twice that in this as it’s so smooth, comfy, generally just a lovely place to be that I rarely use the car. Get odd looks when you put the shopping in the back on top of compressor, welder, etc though. Yes it chugs through juice at a serious rate of knots. I could kid myself it’s doing 25mpg because I get that on a long run with no gear in, no trailer on, and tickling along but in real life for me is fully loaded car and trailer, rural roads or off road or yard, heated seats on, etc driving for best traction not mpg it gets about 15mpg. This might sound horrendous but it’s not much worse than the 90 and only a bit worse than the Isuzu it replaced. With being bomb proof, cheap parts, easy home mechanics, and cheap purchase price it makes the mpg loads easier to swallow. If you do the maths with depreciation of a modern vehicle it certainly works out. You have to use cruise or set the speed limiter though or before you could be towing quite happily at excessive speed.

 

[Big J]

2 minutes ago, LeeGray said:

Go Range Rover l322 4.4. I bought one last year as a tow vehicle for moving steelwork, timber, aggregates around on 16’ trailer and 2.8t digger and it’s been amazing. I wouldn’t have anything different now. Last tow vehicle did 10,000/Year but I’ve done twice that in this as it’s so smooth, comfy, generally just a lovely place to be that I rarely use the car. Get odd looks when you put the shopping in the back on top of compressor, welder, etc though. Yes it chugs through juice at a serious rate of knots. I could kid myself it’s doing 25mpg because I get that on a long run with no gear in, no trailer on, and tickling along but in real life for me is fully loaded car and trailer, rural roads or off road or yard, heated seats on, etc driving for best traction not mpg it gets about 15mpg. This might sound horrendous but it’s not much worse than the 90 and only a bit worse than the Isuzu it replaced. With being bomb proof, cheap parts, easy home mechanics, and cheap purchase price it makes the mpg loads easier to swallow. If you do the maths with depreciation of a modern vehicle it certainly works out. You have to use cruise or set the speed limiter though or before you could be towing quite happily at excessive speed.

 

They are lovely cars but I'm wary of anything Land Rover. 

 

A friend who runs a pub up in the Highlands said that he absolutely loves his, but in almost 50 years of driving, it's the first vehicle he's ever had that has had to be recovered on the back of a lorry. And his was quite new and very low mileage at that time! I'll have at them online though

[LeeGray]

2 minutes ago, Big J said:

They are lovely cars but I'm wary of anything Land Rover. 

 

A friend who runs a pub up in the Highlands said that he absolutely loves his, but in almost 50 years of driving, it's the first vehicle he's ever had that has had to be recovered on the back of a lorry. And his was quite new and very low mileage at that time! I'll have at them online though

Like all things, you’ve got to be lucky and buy the right one too. When I was looking it seemed to be gearboxes go at about 100,000 so just get one that’s had a refurb box put it. The prop shaft on early ones, airbags or compressor go too apparently but they’re all easy fix and a couple of hundred quid then your good to go. We had a new double cab td5 ages ago which was unreliable, yes it was under warranty but still had to be recovered or back and forth to dealer and all the hassle/time that takes, same with nissans we’ve had and your losing at least £3000 year in depreciation and then the ridiculous service charge of dealers. Stopped buying new and prefer to buy when someone’s had all the crap sorted out. For 3-5k you’ll get one you can put 50,000 on probably without too much trouble, then rinse and repeat without losing much even if you scrap it or sell to a breaker. That’s my plan anyway, fingers crossed!

I did look at land cruiser though, awesome vehicles,  just too dear and not cheap and easy for bits

[Big J]

I'm still not convinced with the reliability of Land Rovers. I think if I were to go with an older luxury vehicle for towing I'd take the V10 TDI Touareg. Similar price, similar mpg, similarly expensive to repair, hopefully better reliability with it being VW and the allure of 10 cylinders and 300+ bhp

[Big J]

On reflection, the Jeep Commander is looking like a very good choice:

 

* strong Mercedes engine, ample power (215bhp)

* cheap to buy

* well equipped

* strong off road

* square boxy shape and surprisingly compact dimensions make placement on and off road easy. You can see the corners - I like that. 

* £6k seems to get a low mileage, full history model 10 years old. 

* tows 3.5t

 

Anyone any thoughts?

[benedmonds]

8 hours ago, Big J said:

Looked at the Commander and I don't think it's my cup of tea. 

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Landcruiser Prado?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Land_Cruiser_Prado

 

These are the Landcruisers that are most common in the UK. I had a lift (off road) in one a few years back and quite liked it. They are reasonably priced too.

 

* Edit. The Prado only tows 2.5 tonnes which is not enough for me as the machine I'm getting weighs 2000kg with all the extras I've put on it.

I might be wrong but I think the 3 door has a 3 ton limit.  I took the seats out wrapped the windows and registered it as a van, the 4x4 never worked and never got round to getting it fixed it as we got a LR 130 for the off road stuff. I am pretty sure the previous owner had used it pretty hard, but we never had any mechanical issues.  It ended up mainly used for quoting and it was so thirsty I had to get rid.  I did like driving it. and if I could justify it would get a land cruiser in an instant..

Edited March 9, 2018 by benedmonds