Can you recommend a pickup/4x4?

[delabodge]

I'd say landrover. I find that rangers struggle a fair bit when towing anything apart from an empty trailer. hilux's are nice, like driving a massive car, but just aren't as ridiculously hardcore as a landie.

 

my friends wife borrows my ranger every other sunday to pull her horse box and she says it does it easy,,,,ive a whopping big gravely chipper and it has no probs?

[APC]

Thanks APC, the towing is important as I need to be able to move 2 horses with it.

 

 

I'm not the most clued up on techy details on them all, but I've been (un?)lucky enough to drive all three over the last year after our Landie got chorred last summer.

 

The Landie Defender had the pulling power to tow anything we wanted without breaking a sweat. It was second to none with mud tyres in the snow and didn't slide about unless I told it to. It did though have no heating, no blowers and was noisy as hell. It was sturdy as it was heavy. It drained fuel but it took punishment being driven at speed over massively uneven ground. The occasional knock in the yard would result in merely a dent and no damage to anything more than cosmetics. If you have difficulty getting in or out high vehicles, this could be a falling point as it is fairly high up. More so than the others by miles. The ranger is just like getting into my focus however.

 

The Toyota Hilux would be what I would have if I had loadsamoney. Like I said earlier, it drives like a car. It wasn't too bad on fuel actually, better than the Landie but not as good as the Ranger. It had decent pull behind it and wasn't too bad at towing although with a full log load in the trailer, you noticed the difference quite considerably. It was a proper quiet and smooth drive. All the posh bits worked, e.g. heaters and electric windows. In the snow, with all-terrain tyres, it was pretty good. It slid around a bit more than the landie. I actually fully lost control for the first and only time when driving overconfidently at the beginning of the snow in December or November or whenever it bothered snowing. I turned off a main road onto a narrow lane with the sole intention of testing out its limits in snow. I wasn't aware I was "ragging it" and to be honest, I'm completely surprised the back end slid out on a gentle bend at quite a low speed, very nearly sending myself into a ditch. From that moment I realised it wasn't anything like the landie so treated it as such. I grew used to it though, driving it the 60mile round trip to and fro work, across solid ice and snow. I found myself overtaken by other people quite regularly but I'd been shown how easy it is to lose control, despite being in such a beast, in 4wd. Oh yeah, and a colleague drove it fairly fast over an uneven field and the front bumper came off, reminding him that it is very low to the ground compared to the Landie.

 

Driven the ranger with road tyres for a few weeks now. It is pretty nice. Heater is good, stereo has decent speakers for a work vehicle (I can blare out techno at a reasonable level with hardly any distortion). Driven 90 miles with trailer on back today, even empty I could feel the weight behind me. Driven on fairly crap roads and on tracks around site. Obviously having road tyres you lose an element of grip but driven sensibly it is fine. I wouldn't take it into the fields though. This could be a problem when we come to feeding our animals.

 

Hope that helps!

[tommer9]

Ok- i have a landy, as most of you have seen, and have had hiluxes which were mickey mouse. The reason i said hilux was that the poster only wanted to tow 2200 kg.

IMO there is NOTHING that will come close to a defender other than the commercial landcruiser that isnt available over here.

 

Kat1e...get a defender, they are the best out there. The detractors are generally those who cant afford a landrover, or dont understand what it means to really work a vehicle.....if you do to a ranger/ hilux/ l200 etc etc what a landrover takes day in day out they WILL fail very quickly, and NONE of them are as capable off road, as they are designed primarily for on road, where as the defender is designed primarily for off road. You will pay more for a defender than anything else of the same age and condition, and thats for the reasons I have stated, but parts for land rover are VERY cheap.

 

Good luck, as this will repidly descend into yet another thread of land rover versus all the others, as all these threads seem to nowadays.

[RobRainford]

My hilux is for sale. 1999/2000 v reg. Done 125000 miles and we've owned it since new. It's been a workhorse and shows the scars!

[gensetsteve]

I kinda in the same situation.

 

Obviously for chip trucks we got the new transits with ally hi sided bodies but i also got a ranger double cab.mainly for site work and quoting etc.

the ranger has been a great work horse and tows really well. it comfortably tows the green mechs inc 1928 both local and motorway journeys. we do put the bobcat 7 series on a plant trailer and tow that with it too but its on its limits towing wise both legally and in my opion its own capabilities.

 

I thinking of the tax year ending etc so looking at my options.

 

all i can find is older 110 van types with 600ish milage for about 9000 ish and lots of the navaras etc.

any one use the new shape range rovers- they come down alot and are in budget at about 10-12 throgh private sale.

what would every one suggest.

happy new year all.

 

 

The 7 series with a bucket on a trailer and full tank of fuelwill be pushing

4000kg too much for a defender let alone a little pick up

[Kev Stephenson]

Land rover if you want it to work and tow effortlessly, Jap pickup if you want it to work (but struggle sometimes) but be a nicer place to sit (usually better seats, dash, heaters, leak free).

 

You will get newer jap for your money but it will lose a lot more than a landie.

 

When you say move stuff in the woods, do you mean tools etc or big loads, in the woods properly or on easy tracks. Do you need a pickup or would a 90 or 110 van work, if so you could also look at shoguns or other jap 4x4 SUVs.

[butler]

Discovery, all the power, and and toughtness of and landy....and a bit of refinment to

[tommer9]

The 7 series with a bucket on a trailer and full tank of fuelwill be pushing

4000kg too much for a defender let alone a little pick up

 

Although 4000kg is 500kg over weight, a defender will pi ss that. I reckon i am barely ever under 6.5-7 ton with chip box full and towing the vermeer, and I have been on the weighbridge at the quarry at over 8 ton many an occasion. No bother. Touch sluggish up the steeper hills, but you dont buy a defender for speed lol!

[tommer9]

Discovery, all the power, and and toughtness of and landy....and a bit of refinment to

 

Spoken like a true disco owner:lol:

To a degree yes, but you dont have a salisbury rear axle, and the gearing is slightly taller for running on road....so you do seem to lose a bit of power, although the top end is better for on road cruising.

[Kev Stephenson]

Spoken like a true disco ownerTo a degree yes, but you dont have a salisbury rear axle, and the gearing is slightly taller for running on road....so you do seem to lose a bit of power, although the top end is better for on road cruising.

 

Spoken like a true disco owner who really wants a proper land rover you mean!!!:001_tt2: