LandRover Disco as a towing car...

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WelshRareBit

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I am considering one:

Please could anyone tell me the weight of a disco and towing capacity, I rang up and asked one guy who was selling one - he thought I was nuts!!!
 
Fab towing vehicles!! We have one and when i used it for towing it would tow two big boys without knowing they were on the back. I have a lorry now but we have kept the disco cos we like it so much.
 
The weight of a disco on average about 2 tons, the max towing capacity of any landrover is 3½ tons(landrover defender, disco, and range rover, however the freelander is 2 tons
 
Pull the side of a house down m8........ you'll be fine, we've had 3
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Just don't get a Mk1. They were built out of old parts from the Rover catalogue. E.g. the door handles were off the Austin Allegro!
 
Hey I've got a mk1!!

I personally prefer defenders as i find the discos have a habit of wandering all over the place with heavy loads, and i don't think they handle as well, but due to an ever expanding family I'm selling my defender and have just bought a discovery which so far is towing pretty well.
Only major difference apart from comfort is the price i'd say a decent defender will cost twice as much as a decent discovery!
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We've had 5 and loved them all as towing vehicles except the latest one - a Td5 - which has ridiculously fat tyres that couldn't pull the car out of a puddle let alone a car plus trailer out of a muddy field! I know a couple of people who've bought the Td5 and immediately replaced all the wheels but that's an expensive option...
 
There are certain other models from Land Rover that have know problems. Freelander Mk1 - transmission. Previous Range Rover - electrics (dog's breakfast of a hybrid between BMW and Ford electrics). All of them - panel gaps.

Old joke is that there are only 2 mad-made structures visible from outer space with the naked eye. 1) the Great Wall of China. 2) The shut lines on a Range Rover!

I work with several ex-LR quality/Man Eng people and most drive 4WDs. None of them drive LRs though...
 
Only one I would trust to tow horses ( apart from defender which I really wanted but as am just about the shortest person in the world and the steering column doesn't adjust had a bit of trouble seeing where I was going which I figured was probably a bad thing for my horse!)

We bought a TD5 as dealer advised they can tow up to 3.5t safely. Most of these other 4x4's look nice but I am not convinced they can cope safely with the type of towing you need. Saying that my horse was diagnosed with bad back and needed major surgery so never towed with it in the end as he couldn't go anywhere and have just bought a small lorry as more steady than a trailer for him - there you go another costly horse exercise but the disco's are great for fitting in all of the shopping from Sainsburys!
 
The towing capacity of a vehicle in the UK is the gross train weight which is the vehicle, its contents and passengers as well as the trailer and its contents - Exceed this, and you are in the cocoa.

85% is the guideline offered by the caravan club which is taken as the (sensible) rule of thumb (I use 100% with 4x4s), which means if you stick to it, and drive a 2500kg car like a disco, you will not hitch more than 2500kg all up to the back of it which is a IW510 and a pair of 650kg horses.

Its a bit unfair to tar all the other 4x4s on the road as being unsafe to tow with though and many of the japanese 4x4s are an equal or higher than what range rover has to offer (would love a Landcruiser Amazon VX). I would never entertain towing a horsebox with a freelander as they are just too light.

I have towed with a LWB Pajero for about 4 years now as well as a fair bit of green laning/offroading, and the only area where it is a bit weak is pulling the trailer up the big hills we have around here as its the 2.5TD model (still does it, just at a sedate pace).

I'd steer clear of the mk1 discos as they rust, and the reliability of the V8s is suspect. TD5 engines are a a good strong engine though as it is a BMW design !
 
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I'd not judge the car by its door handles - unless they had Lada stamped on them
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My parents had Ladas for years, as did half the farmers in Hertfordshire at one point. They were legendarily basic cars, but actually exceptionally reliable. My mother's 1983 Lada estate had a starting handle for emergencies, we nearly died of shame the time she had to use it to start the car in Waitrose's car park...but that was the only time i remember the old heap not starting. The great thing about Ladas was that they were so basic under the bonnet that you could actually mend them yourself with a few reels of wire and plenty of baler twine.
 
My friend bought a Riva estate from Cinderford years ago (as an investment). He asked me to go halves on it to sell on for a profit, and so we went over and he asked me to drive it back to Cheltenham. By the time we got back, I was convinced by the general build and ride quality,that it wasn't such a good opportunity - and that was that !

They used to say that old British motorcycles were the best in the world etc etc, and you could repair them with bits of string and all, unfortunately, this was too often the case, and the reliability if them was shocking
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Love my Disco.

My mark 1 is still going strong. Never misses a beat and my mark 2 is up around 180,000 miles had been worked VERY hard and still drives like new.

When I found mine was wandering around the roads a bit it was purely down to the tyre pressures being wrong on both the trailer and the vehicle. Once they are right you can tow anything. (Believe me, ours has towed some monster loads around the country).

Everyone has their preferences. You will hear good and bad about most vehicles. But yes, you will be fine towing.
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Love my Discovery on my erm third one I think. Nothing tows like them and I've even towed 7.5 tonne lorries of soggy car parks with mine.

Fantastic bits of kit. Comfy to. I just wish mine had air con.
 
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