Towing

Hey,

I'm new to the forum. I did some searching for the forums and this one looked to be the best so here is my question for all of you.

My girlfriend wants to get a land rover freelander (2002) - We own horses and my lincoln ls wont quite do the job lol. I read on a few sites that the towing capacity is around 2500lbs.

Can anyone confirm this? We would tow one horse at any given time with it and he is about 1,000lb himself, and a trailer roughly ranging from 2,000lb - 2,500lb (or less) for a single horse trailer.

If anyone has any input on real towing and torque figures they could share, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

im no expert but with them figures it sounds like you will be towing over your kerb weight which is not such a good idea, i tow a caravan with a mtplm ie total weight of 1250kg with a 51 td4 and it plays with it hope this helps

have a look here tells you alot about every manufacturers cars/4x4.

http://www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/kerbweights.htm

didjital1 said:

Hey,

I'm new to the forum. I did some searching for the forums and this one looked to be the best so here is my question for all of you.

My girlfriend wants to get a land rover freelander (2002) - We own horses and my lincoln ls wont quite do the job lol. I read on a few sites that the towing capacity is around 2500lbs.

Can anyone confirm this? We would tow one horse at any given time with it and he is about 1,000lb himself, and a trailer roughly ranging from 2,000lb - 2,500lb (or less) for a single horse trailer.

If anyone has any input on real towing and torque figures they could share, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi,

The Td4 is able to pull 2.000 kgs, converted into lbs it comes to 4.409 lbs.


If one should be interested, here a fine site to do all kinds of conversions, ciao.

http://www.tdiclub.com/misc/conversions.html

There is more to towing than the rating of your vehicle. That plays a small part in the total combination. The max tow rating or combined vehicle rating is the manufactures specs of what the vehicle can handle, drive line componets, suspension, and most important breaking. If you are going to drag around any given weight (lbs or kgs) if your tow vehicle has a weak breaking system you are looking for trouble. If your suspension is not up for the job, that can be just as bad.... If your driveline can't handle the load or strains the load it will cause premature failure and that can be expensive.

The type of trailer is equally important. Axel placement is key, and the goal is to have 10 percent of the trailer weight as your hitch weight. So if you max your 4400 lbs trailer your hitch should exert 440 lbs on the vehicle hitch. With out this hitch weight (too light) your trailer will swing left and right and going down hill with this tail heavy condition can cause your trailer to come around (Jack knife).

Two axels are better but still must have the appropriate hitch weight. Traile brakes often are required, depends on the loaction and rules. Two axels would hopefully require breaks and this would mean an electric break controller installed in the tow vehicle. In the states anything over 3,000 lbs requires electric breaks, some states require it over 2,000 lbs. My setup is just under 3,000 lbs gross normally has 2,000 or less when loaded.

Also keep in mind that the load of the trailer is better to keep low to the ground. As in a horse trailer, the floor is not that high off the ground and the trailer tires stick out the sides of the box. If only hauling one horse in a two stall trailer 2 axel then your horse will either be on one side or the other, it's important to keep him from moving around too much in a smaller trailer, you'll feel his every movement in the wheel.

They also make a friction sway control, personally I try to make sure the rig is set up properly, but they do help if you have an off balance trailer.

Last, you must realize your towing habits with the trailer are different than without the trailer. Advanced breaking and basically looking ahead more for potential problems. Avoidence goes a long way.

Get a good tow vehicle and it will make your trips with your horse to places you would not go otherwise. I enjoyed my equistrian years and have traded stead for iron (ATV) The horse care has gotten to expensive and time consuming.

Good luck.

sorry for my blindness i did not see your figures were in lbs i work on kgs so things are looking favourable for you,verry interesting web page with all the kerb weighs on it, shame it does not list the max. nose wight i.e. the max weight you can put on your tow hitch in the case of the freelander it is 140kg or aprox 308lbs which is a very respectable figure for a relitivly small 4x4.