_Stingrey_
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I have a Defender 110 300TDI. What size caravan is the 300TDI capable of towing comfortably?
Your advice would be welcome.
Many thanks
Rob.
Your advice would be welcome.
Many thanks
Rob.
Towing advice (Caravan)........
- Thread starter _Stingrey_
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Turboman
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Def 110 would be well up to towing any caravan legal to tow in UK.
Level of experience of the driver might be more of a factor than the vehicle. And you would need a trailer test unless you are a grumpy old man!
_Stingrey_
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I simply wish to tow a 4 berth caravan. I might need to have the landy seen to, to make sure that it is running how it should be in terms of power/torque and maybe tweaked to get it to where it needs to be, as the mrs wishes to get a caravan for some cheap weekends away with our little girl.
Turboman
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Good matched tyres, blow up the rears harder for towing, get the noseweight about right, you shouldn't have many issues. 110 is a great tow vehicle, as is a Disco.
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+1Def 110 would be well up to towing any caravan legal to tow in UK.
Level of experience of the driver might be more of a factor than the vehicle. And you would need a trailer test unless you are a grumpy old man!
Twin axle ones are easier to manoeuvre
Turboman
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+1
Twin axle ones are easier to manoeuvre
I much prefer twin axle, in every way, open road stability, reversing, the lot.
Cattle trailers are always twin axle, many triple now. Always surprised so many caravans are single axle, guess it is simply a cost thing.
+1 for the twin axle. I wouldn't have a single axle caravan - too much side area, and too hard a ride for the contents too.
IME, and we have been caravanning for donkeys years, a good 4 berth twin axle caravan needn't weight more than 16-1800 Kg - which, despite the large frontal area, a 300 TDi 110 should tow with consumate ease. It might be slow up steep hills, but on the roughly level, it'll cruise happily.
Worth making sure the A frame bushes ( all of them ) are up to scratch, and the rest of the rear suspension too. The better the standard of general servicing, the better the experience will be - but that really goes without saying....Whilst not necessary, you could also consider a boost pin, and if you can be bothered a full width intercooler... and an auto conversion or a clutch servo... and.... and
we tow a 1600Kg Abbey vogue2 610 twin axle with either D1 300Tdi - one is a tweaked (de-electroniced and higher power ) auto, the other a relatively standard manual. makes a nice stable rig, and with your longer wheelbase, it will only be betterer
IME, and we have been caravanning for donkeys years, a good 4 berth twin axle caravan needn't weight more than 16-1800 Kg - which, despite the large frontal area, a 300 TDi 110 should tow with consumate ease. It might be slow up steep hills, but on the roughly level, it'll cruise happily.
Worth making sure the A frame bushes ( all of them ) are up to scratch, and the rest of the rear suspension too. The better the standard of general servicing, the better the experience will be - but that really goes without saying....Whilst not necessary, you could also consider a boost pin, and if you can be bothered a full width intercooler... and an auto conversion or a clutch servo... and.... and
we tow a 1600Kg Abbey vogue2 610 twin axle with either D1 300Tdi - one is a tweaked (de-electroniced and higher power ) auto, the other a relatively standard manual. makes a nice stable rig, and with your longer wheelbase, it will only be betterer
_Stingrey_
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+1 for the twin axle. I wouldn't have a single axle caravan - too much side area, and too hard a ride for the contents too.
IME, and we have been caravanning for donkeys years, a good 4 berth twin axle caravan needn't weight more than 16-1800 Kg - which, despite the large frontal area, a 300 TDi 110 should tow with consumate ease. It might be slow up steep hills, but on the roughly level, it'll cruise happily.
Worth making sure the A frame bushes ( all of them ) are up to scratch, and the rest of the rear suspension too. The better the standard of general servicing, the better the experience will be - but that really goes without saying....Whilst not necessary, you could also consider a boost pin, and if you can be bothered a full width intercooler... and an auto conversion or a clutch servo... and.... and
we tow a 1600Kg Abbey vogue2 610 twin axle with either D1 300Tdi - one is a tweaked (de-electroniced and higher power ) auto, the other a relatively standard manual. makes a nice stable rig, and with your longer wheelbase, it will only be betterer
I may well look at a boost pin then. Whilst my Landy drives well I have noticed on long steep inclines I need to drop down through the box. Thats with a new turbo and intercooler, so with a caravan that will be exaggerated further. The pump has been tweaked as the cap has been removed from the pump but I don't know by how much. I'm going to fit an EGT gauge to check that everything is as it should be and enable me to tweak further if readings allow.
Good Call - in fact essential in my book - I have one - tis only a cheapo off flea bay - but does what it says on the tin.... quite a bit of info on here is you do a search.
Worth adding a gearbox cooler too if you can. I quadrupled the area of my auto cooler with excellent results.
Turboman
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Towing over 2 tonnes you are always going to be going up and down the box on hills. One of the reasons I much prefer Auto for towing.
If you like fitting boost pins etc., go right ahead. But you will never get much performance when towing. Better just get used to going slow. It isn't legal to tow above 60mph anyway. And a few people behind have to go slow on hills. So what? You pay as much road tax as they do!
Towing over 2 tonnes you are always going to be going up and down the box on hills. One of the reasons I much prefer Auto for towing.
If you like fitting boost pins etc., go right ahead. But you will never get much performance when towing. Better just get used to going slow. It isn't legal to tow above 60mph anyway. And a few people behind have to go slow on hills. So what? You pay as much road tax as they do!
+1 for auto - and not just for towing either... we have 2 D1's - one auto, one manual. the manual won't be for much longer - have a pal breaking an auto, and the box is coming here....
With the extra performance of a boost pin / full width IC, or whatever else you CBA to do
D), you won't be going as slow as some !! - but Turbo is right (again!), don't worry about it - very few vehicles are as good at towing as a 110 - if you go twin axle, you'll have super stable train that will put the majority of other outfits to shame! ( Ha Ha - that even rhymes )When towing our van - we just take our time - and this pays off in reduced fuel consumption, and presumably reduced wear and tear on tyres etc. ....
Turboman
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When I am towing cattle, I sometimes drive in convoy with cattle trucks. And I drive just like them, they are limited to 56mph on the main roads, and on the little lanes go barely above 20, so as not to throw the beasts around in the back.
As you say, excellent for fuel economy, and less strain on the vehicle and trailer. Everyones worst nightmare is to break down on the road with animals on board.
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Don't so much have issues over cattle or sheep, but we do get a fair number of horse boxes/trailers to deal with. Ok, so we are not livestock qualified, but I don't get why we are not allowed to tow a horse trailer, with horse, when the owner is sitting upfront beside us!! Surely they should count as qualified handlers? But no...seems not!
Turboman
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Don't so much have issues over cattle or sheep, but we do get a fair number of horse boxes/trailers to deal with. Ok, so we are not livestock qualified, but I don't get why we are not allowed to tow a horse trailer, with horse, when the owner is sitting upfront beside us!! Surely they should count as qualified handlers? But no...seems not!
We normally help each other out if we can, except on the motorway one trailer can back up on the other to transfer the beasts, then the trailer and vehicle can be recovered as normal.
The hauliers can often send another truck out, one of my friends has 12 livestock trucks.
I have never understood why recovery cant take live animals either. I think it is probably to do with liability and insurance, some show stock and equines are very high value. Not sure.
John Alexander
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Hi Rob
We toured our twin axel Delta 610 around Europe for 4 years no problems the main thing to watch out for is overloading ,the longer you spend caravanning the more toot you acquire (keep an eye on it ).
Good Luck
When I am towing cattle, I sometimes drive in convoy with cattle trucks. And I drive just like them, they are limited to 56mph on the main roads, and on the little lanes go barely above 20, so as not to throw the beasts around in the back.
As you say, excellent for fuel economy, and less strain on the vehicle and trailer. Everyones worst nightmare is to break down on the road with animals on board.
Yes, if caravans seem occasionally tricky to tow, at least the contents don't try to tap-dance like the contents of horse or cattle trailers!
I recently had a tearful young ( low 20s) young lady arrive at the house asking for help, her horse box truck had a flat battery and the horse was getting upset. She had parked the truck on a farmer's concrete pan normally used for loading sugar beet. I ended up giving the truck a towed bump start behind the 110
