Towing

Not sure it could tow itself down a slope either......

It's def2000kg. Got handbook lol, needs a wheelchair for wet grass. Although did get up a 45° grass bank last week whilst hunting a suspect who went to ground after suspicious activity at local horse shop and then my empty neighbour's house, police only had astra estate. We should used that for the off road stuff lol,

And wasn't aware of off road limits though. Towed 1600 approx kg loaded with ponies through my paddock fine

61jason61 said:

And wasn't aware of off road limits though. Towed 1600 approx kg loaded with ponies through my paddock fine

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On flattish, dryish ground, it wont be a problem.
But when the ground is soft the loaded trailer sinks in and acts almost like a ground anchor.
And over very rough terrain, you may get enough articulation on the trailer to actually pop it off the ball. Probably best to use a ring trailer if in doubt. Obviously wouldn't be good to tow live animals on that kind of terrain at all.

Current paddock quite rough. Old one lovely and smooth lol. Have to go off road for pony shows etc lol

But never go fast off road or more than 45 50 with my babies on tow. SoZ lol I hate over horse box owners as well lol

61jason61 said:

Current paddock quite rough. Old one lovely and smooth lol. Have to go off road for pony shows etc lol

But never go fast off road or more than 45 50 with my babies on tow. SoZ lol I hate over horse box owners as well lol

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Not the sort of rough I meant, I was thinking crawling over mahoosive rocks!

I do a lot of cattle showing myself, local shows are grass, no problem for the disco, ground is usually good in the summer. County shows are concrete yards anyway.

I go very slow on the little roads, so as not to throw the cattle around, and I cruise at 56 mph on the dual carriageway. Just the same as a cattle truck!

61jason61 said:

And wasn't aware of off road limits though. Towed 1600 approx kg loaded with ponies through my paddock fine

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I found that interesting as well.

Have moved some pretty heavy trailers around farmers fields with various landrovers in the past without any difficulty. Guessing the towing limit is aimed more at the serious offroad use... the kinda thing you'd be using a Sankey trailer for rather than an Ifor Box trailer!

Will be testing out the low range box next weekend shifting a pretty heavy box trailer up and down a long 1-in-3 gradient but at least its mostly concrete with a few gravel bits

private penguin said:

I found that interesting as well.

Have moved some pretty heavy trailers around farmers fields with various landrovers in the past without any difficulty. Guessing the towing limit is aimed more at the serious offroad use... the kinda thing you'd be using a Sankey trailer for rather than an Ifor Box trailer!

Will be testing out the low range box next weekend shifting a pretty heavy box trailer up and down a long 1-in-3 gradient but at least its mostly concrete with a few gravel bits

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A lot of the problems off road are down to tyres and tyre pressures, momentum will be key I Towed out caravan through some boggy campsites at festivals and straight past another 90 which was stuck, I had special tracks on mine at the time and they had road tyres, I parked my caravan up and went and towed him out.

warrior said:

A lot of the problems off road are down to tyres and tyre pressures, momentum will be key I Towed out caravan through some boggy campsites at festivals and straight past another 90 which was stuck, I had special tracks on mine at the time and they had road tyres, I parked my caravan up and went and towed him out.

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Had no issues at all at the weekend. Towed trailers up and down the steep track all weekend with no trouble at all in terms of traction - although one hill start with a heavy loaded trailer in deep gravel did get the wheels to spin briefly!

Our own trailer did really well. Unfortunately my colleague managed to hit the jockey wheel of another trailer going down a "step" in the track, and the breakaway cable on yet another trailer snapped off in my hand due to rust. To top the weekend off, the brakes on my colleague's disco failed leaving him stranded at the top of a hill near home facing the embarrassment of a call to the AA, and having his trailer recovered by a friend with a Mitsubishi L200 (the shame!)

yeah the off road towing limit is something to look at

I recently dragged a caravan along a very long beach and couldn't make more than 10mph using my mates td5 disco on grabber a/t 2s that twin axle caravan (1400kgs ish) sunk like a stone on the soft and wet sand
was after his sister tried to take it to a patch of well used camping ground at the end of the beach only accessible via the beach she was using a delica with the same tyres and it sunk to its axles after 100 yards

In fairness.... thats less to do with the landrover's towing capacity off-road - and more to do with the caravan's own ability to be towed off road. Caravans tend to be on small narrow tyres which will sink straight into sand and essentially the caravan becomes a dead weight. The landrover is designed to tow 3.5t (on road) on the assumption that the 3.5 tonne weight is rolling on wheels. Towing a dead weight is a different matter.

private penguin said:

In fairness.... Dragging a dead weight is a different matter.

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There's a world of difference between towing and dragging.

brian47 said:

There's a world of difference between towing and dragging.

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Unfortunately not with a heavy trailer on soft ground, and if it is very soft, you could bring ploughing into the equation too!

Come to think about it, wernt the early landys for ploughing.

Tony e said:

Come to think about it, wernt the early landys for ploughing.

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Nah, it was the Disco that came with a ready fitted plough blade!

Tony e said:

Come to think about it, wernt the early landys for ploughing.

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Not exactly, but they did have some agricultural applications. Light fieldwork like harrowing and rolling, some PTO applications, more powering mowers and turners than actual cultivation, I think.

They were supposed to be a compromise vehicle, but tractors got bigger and better, so those uses died out over time.

neilly said:

View attachment 108873

MY02 Defender handbook. Not sure where you read 3000Kg????

Cheers

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Now I'm concerned. The roof rack limit is way lower than I use. I have a Hannibal roof rack that is 60kg and then when I'm in it that adds another 100 plus another 70 odd when my missus is in it. Am I straining my roof?

Coffeelandy said:

Now I'm concerned. The roof rack limit is way lower than I use. I have a Hannibal roof rack that is 60kg and then when I'm in it that adds another 100 plus another 70 odd when my missus is in it. Am I straining my roof?

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Presumably you and your rife are not on the roof rack whilst it is moving? My understanding is that the weight limits for the roof rack are more around the safety of driving with the load on the roof and how it will affect handling etc than about any risk of damaging the roof.

Obviously if you chuck a tonne up there you're going to be in for trouble, but roof tents are designed to go on roofs of landrovers, and as long as you follow the instructions supplied by the manufacturer I can't see why there would be any problem.

Ah that makes sense the tipping angle will be reduced by excess weight on the roof. Cheers.

Didn't want to start a new thread...

I'm picking a small camping trailer up the weekend. Never towed before, is it worth taking a bit of weight to put in the trailer rather than towing empty?

I was thinking the mother in law but it's only a 750kg unbraked