My first Land Rover - tow car!

Daze said:

Awesome, thank you for the kind words. I always aim to take as many decent photos as possible and keep the thread as updated as I can - perhaps it will help people in the future when doing Google searching!

That's some amazing info right there, unbelievable! 46mpg!!

There's no point in me swapping out all the oil again since I've only done the complete fluid change in the last couple weeks, but perhaps 6-8 months time I will look into this! For the cost in oil, if I can get near 40mpg, that would be worth it! Plus, the idea to put the drivetrain through less drag constantly sounds good.

My tyre pressures are at 30psi/38si at the moment, I think. I will have to double check this. I've also read that I should perhaps increase rear tyre pressures once I'm towing, so perhaps 33/40 would be a good choice?

Bear in mind I will also have 600kg+ of spares/tools in the back of the Discovery as well, along with the 1900kg which is trailer + load approx.

It will certainly be a slow crawl on my trip up to Scotland, but I'll be more than happy if I can haul away at 50mph

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Hi mate, if you increase the fronts to 32-33 you'll find the steering feels nicer and is less strain on the pas system.

With that much weight on the hook and in the boot you really need 42psi in the back tyres tbh.

Re cruising speed, you probably know that the autobox has a feature called Torque Converter (TC) lock-up. This is when the TC 'locks up' to give you direct drive. This occurs at 52MPH on a light thottle.

This is important because until the TC lock-up it is working hard and generating heat. As soon as it locks up it starts to cool down, plus you get better fuel economy. So if I may suggest, aim for a cruising speed between 55 and 65mph. Assuming the trailer is loaded so there is approx 75kgs of nose weight those speeds are perfectly possible and safe.

Bear in mind the Disco is rated to tow 3500kgs on a braked trailer, so you would be well within in specs at 1900kgs.

Forgot to say, congrats on the trailer test - well done.


Dave

Excellent info, thanks very much! I will aim to do 55mph+ then, indeed!

Regarding nose weight, that is a good point and I'm glad you brought that to my attention. Since I saw your reply, I did a bunch of reading & searching to understand nose weight more, but there is a question outstanding to me on that. I've created a new thread so I don't clutter this one up too much!

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f16/general-towing-question-car-trailer-nose-weight-259702.html

Thanks again for the advice & tips, really appreciated. I can't wait to get going now!

The other day I noticed another small (or potentially large) oil leak that appeared to be coming from the engine cyclone breather, or at least one of the pipes to & from it. I popped on eBay and searched for the relevant parts, found them to be so cheap that I may as well replace all of them. I had my thoughts that perhaps the breather was blocked, or very very old, hence leaking maybe.

Anyway, on my lunch break today I swapped out the parts, here's how it looked before I started



Few minutes later and the oil drain hose & breather itself was out. I could now compare the new & old - certainly a difference! The old oil drain pipe was split in a few places, especially at the bottom.



Also you can see here that the old cyclone breather has chunks missing/broken, and the O-ring is completely gone as well. This couldn't have helped, so I'm glad I decided to swap out this part.



A few minutes later it was all done. I also replaced the crank case breather pipe as well, as I bought it from the same shop on eBay and it was only £4. Luckily I did, as that was split too!



1 less thing that leaks oil now at least. I have a pretty good feeling that this was one of the main culprits of my oil leaks, as it all seemed to stem from that oil drain pipe. I've cleaned up the surrounding area & engine mount of old oil, so time will tell

I have just done the same about a week ago, and now I haven't seen my engine so dry from leaks in a long time....I think my bottom pipe was in a worse state tho.....

The disco is looking nice daze I often have a look on driftworks so I've seen the build of your s14 over there

henseyseries3 said:

The disco is looking nice daze I often have a look on driftworks so I've seen the build of your s14 over there

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Ah awesome, thanks!

For anyone else interested, by the way, build thread for my Nissan Silvia s14 here s14 Navan street car

Well, the weekend has been and gone! It was this weekend with all the hype and anticipation that I had with towing to Scotland and back, and I'm really happy to say that it went 100% perfectly!

Just under 1200 miles of towing down, and the Discovery did not miss a beat!

A few days before I left however, I decided to get something more comfortable to drive with. The standard steering wheel on the Disco 1 I find massively too big. Searched around for ages to find something more suitable, as I wanted something smaller but not too "racey". I settled with this Momo "Typ D36" for £10 off eBay!

It had a carbon centre. And if anyone knows me at all, I hate carbon!



Primed and painted that straight away





Then bought a Rover 214/200 boss kit (again after much searching, and finding my early 300tdi Disco 1 has 29 splines / 14mm dia). It fitted perfectly, and feels so so much nicer to drive with



I'm quite a short-ass, so I can now see properly over the steering wheel

On with the towing, got the hire trailer back home, loaded my Nissan up on it and set off 8pm Thursday night.



Stopped a bunch of times on the way up for coffee/drinks/food





She was very happy at 55-60mph. Being the first time I've ever towed (apart from trailer licence) I didn't want to go any faster at all, but felt like I could have done if needs be.

Pulling up most hills wasn't an issue at all, barely ever dropping out of 4th gear (auto box). I notice the magical 52mph kick-down which I was always trying to avoid. Its fun to guess when its going to do it though, lol

Pulled through the night and stopped in a services in Scotland somewhere. Rain was bad and I was tired, so we stopped for a few hours



Didn't take any photos on the way back, but basically the same thing! Managed to achieve around 24-26mpg throughout the whole trip, which I'm really pleased about! Couldn't be happier with how the Land Rover handled the trip.

And, incase you guys were wondering what I was doing up in Scotland, here's some photos of the fun I had





Great fun, perfect weekend all round!

Got a few things that I think I'm going to look into with the Discovery.

- Firstly, better sound system. I'm actually not a loud-music bass-loving guy, but even with my Pioneer speaker upgrade, there is zero bass. So I've ordered an under-seat subwoofer,looking forward to seeing how that improves things. Pics when it arrives!

- I need some kind of arm rest! My right elbow was killing me. Perhaps look into some kind of DIY job which will make life a little more comfortable

- Ambient cabin down lighting. At night, with no motorway street lighting, I can barely see anything (ie, drinks holder, etc). Some kind of very subtle illumination like modern cars have would be amazing. Something to think about

Glad things went will. Photographs are amazing; living the good life side ways!

iwantone said:

Glad things went will. Photographs are amazing; living the good life side ways!

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Indeed indeed! Thank you

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Ordered an under-seat subwoofer like I said about, in a bid to help improve the audio in the Discovery. As I said, I'm not a huge loud-music bass kinda guy, but those 4-inch Pioneer's just don't cut it!

After reading a ton of reviews, I bought a Beat Enhance EHSW8ACT from Car Audio Direct for £89 (Beat Enhance EHSW8ACT Compact Under Seat 180W Active Sub | Car Audio Direct)

It arrived next day and I set about installing it. It didn't come with any RCA (phono) cables, so I had to order those separately. My Pioneer headunit has RCA output specially for subwoofers, along with headunit subwoofer control.

Its a pretty heavy thing, seems well made



Connections & controls on the front. Seem obvious enough



About an hour later, it was all installed and done. I've done the cabling as neatly as I can, I'm pretty happy with it. I had to modify the Discovery's under-seat plastic trim area a little to fit it in, but not too badly. The plastic trim was broken on my car anyway!



The subwoofer comes with clips & brackets to screw it to the floor, but it doesn't seem necessary. Its wedged in there pretty tight, and I've used a random washer to help prevent the trim cracking any more.

What does it sound like? WOW! For £89, I wasn't expecting a big punch, but this thing is incredible, I can't believe how much of a difference this has made to the audio quality in my car. Sounds like a high-end modern car now, in terms of audio, really impressed.

My factory Discovery rear door subwoofer doesn't work, but I think even if it did, it wouldn't be as good as what this is, simply because of its location if nothing else.

Anyway - highly recommended!! Real happy.

Haven't updated this in a little while, what's been going on?

Well, over the past 7 days I've done just under 1200 miles of towing in the Discovery again, and yet again, she's been absolutely faultless. I love it.

A few days before this hectic week, I decided to make a temporary false floor to help with carrying my drifting spares, tyres, wheels & tools. Before I was loading it like this



But the problem was at the event itself, to get to any tyres & wheels I had to also remove all of my tools, which wasn't ideal. I made a false floor which is easily removal. Its not fixed to the Discovery in any way, it just sits there. Now the loading looks like this



Much nicer I can take all wheels & tyres out without removing any tools. Perfect!

Went up to Snetterton circuit for 2 nights of "camping" and 2 days of drifting. The Disco was perfect on the way up & back, and we setup in the pits



I didn't fancy camping in a tent (that's a mate who slept on the trailer). I, however, slept in the Discovery on my false floor. Was very comfy, at least compared to a tent, and I slept pretty well both nights!



Got back home and had 1 day of rest. I've been hunting for some TD5 pre-facelift headlights for ages and a local scrapayard had some for sale. I popped over and bought them.

Within 2 minutes (literally), both were fitted



A huge improvement to the styling on the front end with the black surrounds, and a MASSIVE improvement to lighting at night! I can actually see in the the dark now! I also popped in some Osram Nightbreakers too, a huge improvement!

I did yet another day of drifting on Wednesday up in Northampton, then back home in the same day. Yet again, the Discovery was faultless. I unloaded my car and still had trailer hire for 2 more days.

A mate of mine said he'd pay for fuel & food if I could go collect a car with him (in Northampton again funny enough). So we set out at 6pm on Friday with the empty trailer



Driving all the way to Northampton with an empty trailer was different - very bumpy! But she was a lot smoother on the way back with this big lump loaded!



Yes, a Lada Riva of all things!!

Anyway, that sums up the last week & half of activities!

The Discovery was getting around 26mpg throughout this week just gone all towing. I even managed to do 390 miles on 1 tank, and it wasn't completely empty when I filled either. Very impressed

Hi Daze, it's really great to see a Disco being used for what it's good at !

Well done and keep it well serviced. 26mpg whilst towing - not too shabby !!


Dave

The first car I bought was a Lada Riva estate! Bought it 2 years old for £1800, sold it a year later for £2600! Not nearly as bad as made out, I went on to have 3 Lada Niva's (4wd). Loved them.

thebiglad said:

Hi Daze, it's really great to see a Disco being used for what it's good at !

Well done and keep it well serviced. 26mpg whilst towing - not too shabby !!

Dave

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Thanks Yeah, exactly! I was very impressed when I did the math to work out the mpg!

iwantone said:

The first car I bought was a Lada Riva estate! Bought it 2 years old for £1800, sold it a year later for £2600! Not nearly as bad as made out, I went on to have 3 Lada Niva's (4wd). Loved them.

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Oh cool! I have literally no clue about Lada's at all. My mate bought this one for £200, can't be too bad? Complete with engine, box, etc. It runs, just

Freelaner said:

Missed that

Welcome and yer tratter looks ok

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you got told lol

Something that I've been thinking about making for a while now I've finally got round to doing, with some success I think. Ambient interior downlighting. Like in those nice new modern cars!

I bought a few red 12v pre-wired LED's from eBay, then easily removed the overhead trim panel in the Discovery for fitment. The LED's I bought are 5mm, so I used a 5mm drill bit and cut the hole, then added a very slight countersink in order for the LED to sit further away from the edge of the panel.



On my first attempt I used a hot glue gun to stick the LED in place, but I quickly found the alignment of the LED was way off, illuminating the drivers seat more than where I wanted it. Getting the alignment correct was near impossible using the glue gun method, so I cut the hole slightly larger and simply used blue-tac to hold it in place.

The blue-tac provided enough "hold" so it didn't go anywhere, but enough movement that I could align it with a sewing needle once in position from inside the car.

Wiring it up wasn't an issue at all either. I found a random plug in the headlining which I presume is for an electric sunroof maybe? I found that 12v's was being supplied to 1 of the wires with ignition-on, so I used that along with an earth.



And, what does it look like at night?





Very difficult to get photos of it as its quite dim, but that's exactly what I was hoping for. Just enough to illuminate the centre console at night, but not enough to be too distracting. Really happy with it

How did you get the electric window switches illuminated? Your interior led upgrade is a great idea..