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Stopping at Rivington Pike services for a coffee. All 38 foot 6 inches of outfit.
Our Freelander is now becoming a grand old lady of 10 years vintage, we have owned her from new and she’s just passed the 90,000 miles mark so we thought it might be time to retire her from towing duty. However we intend keeping her and started to look round for a suitable replacement to take on the task of towing the caravan. As at some point in the future we hope to move up to a twin axle, twin bed caravan I started looking for a vehicle that would be capable of towing what we hope to move towards in the future.
Now, this is my (our) thoughts and the rational for our eventual choice. It may not be perfect for you or even close to perfect, but this is what we considered in our choices and hopefully going through the process will help you now or in the future when you come to start thinking about a new tow vehicle.
There are lots of options and styles and we needed to narrow down the list quite a bit before getting into the detail. I did read all the reviews from the last “Tow Car of The Year Awards” to see what was being considered by the industry as the top performers, but in some respects the awards are slightly tilted in my opinion as they only review vehicles that have been put forward by the various manufacturers…. which I guess is a marketing tool for them. So there are some vehicles that are not in the awards that should be considered.
Types
We have always had 4 x 4’s as our main vehicle, with an eclectic mix of second vehicles, sports cars, saloon cars etc. Personally we don’t think a saloon or estate type vehicle, even a 4 x 4 version would be right for us. This narrowed it down to SUV type 4 x 4’s and 4 x 4 pickups.
We have nearly always had a Land Rover in the family, I passed my test in one back in 1978 and was quite used to them. Sue had been driving one for longer than she will admit to… both Discovery’s and Freelander’s. The only thing neither of us had any experience of owning was a pickup style vehicle.
4 x 4’s – Choosing a body type
So we are now down to SUV’s and Pickup’s. We very seriously looked at what we needed or thought we might need.
Currently we have a roll out Fiamma Awning, but this might change so we thought about what we would do with a wet awning when packing up… not wanting to put it in the caravan. We also thought about our bikes, we don’t take them with us on every trip, but on some occasions that we hadn’t we wished we had. The ability to take them easily on every trip was a requirement. We didn’t want to carry them on the roof though, so a rear mount on the vehicle was a must. Currently they hang off the back of the Freelander’s spare wheel and it didn’t interfere with towing the caravan and was fairly easy to load and unload. The idea of lifting them on and off a roof mount didn’t appeal to me.
We have a few things that live in the caravan – levelling blocks, corner steady blocks etc that I’d like to carry in the vehicle, and the Cadac, sometimes we don’t take it due to lack of space in our current vehicle (I hate carrying things on the back seat).
Ease of loading – it’s an art loading up any tow vehicle packing everything in so it doesn’t rattle or move about and is safe, so a rear load area that is bigger than our Freelander was a must. We actually think we are pretty slick when it comes to loading as everything is in stackable “Really Useful Box Company’ boxes.
We naturally started looking at 4 x 4 SUV type vehicles – it’s what we know most about and again being big users and fans of the Green Oval, started looking at Landy’s. Now here’s the thing, at the Land Rover dealers…. as we got out of the Freelander… my wallet went off on its own ordered a coffee and a Panini, sat down and said “no way dude”. The wallet was right. The cost of purchasing, yearly servicing and maintenance of one of the Green Oval products was giving my wallet cardiac arrhythmia. Although it may have topped the tow awards for years, it wasn’t an option for us cost wise.
OK, so what else was there similar to a Land Rover? I listed on a spreadsheet all the alternatives and proceeded to wade through them over the next couple of months.
What you have to be aware of is we started this process over 12 months ago, so I’m compressing the time scale down quite a bit.
From the spreadsheet I whittled it down to engine size, towing capacity, Gross Train Weight, Hitch weight limits, braked trailer limits, serving costs, purchase price, wheel base and rear axle to tow ball length, width, height, cost of tower and electrics…. you name it, it was included on the spread sheet. Eventually I came out with the top three contenders… well on paper at least.
Automatic or Manual Transmission
The final choice was whether to go manual or automatic for the transmission. As much as I like manual transmission for 4 x 4 off road capabilities, we weren’t going to be doing a lot of green lane off roading and automatic was the obvious sensible choice.
So with my spreadsheet stuffed full of info, boxes ticked, lists of suppliers for racks and odds and ends then next task was to visit dealers to push, pull, prod, open, shut, question and test drive my (our) top choices.
Job done.
A few days later, while driving to work at silly o’clock in the morning (about 4:45 am actually, I do remember it well ) my careful cogitations unravelled in spectacular fashion.
Caravan Chronicles 
Very interesting as that is the way I went about it before we bought our 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee in 2012. It has now done 94000 miles and we have no intention fo getting rid of it as it pulls our twin axle effortlessly. Good luck with your search.
I have a FL2 auto and could not possinbly afford to replace it with a Disocovery Sport and when speaking to a former colegue from Land Rover Experience he ageeed with me and suggested that I do what Ian has done.
A new jeep Cherokee is in the 30/40K range and is as good as a RR inclulding auto box/low range box/larther uphostory plus all the other “Bells and Knobs”
Hi Bill
I have been a massive fan of Land Rover for 30+ years and I really wanted to stay with them, but the simple matter of fact was the cost.
Jeep does have strong following and produces some very good products, I have come across them in the off road world and they have proved themselves equally capable to the Green Oval. I did look at Jeep and they came in the top 5 on my original spreadsheet.
So what was the money side of things that swayed you against the LR Disco? Servicing? Running costs of the 3,0 six? Because it can’t be budget I suspect, as a budget for the initial purchase price is whatever you set it at and you then compare what you can from each brand within that budget surely.
And are you buying new? Or used?
We are buying new. The initial cost of the purchase was a big factor of course, also the serving costs. With our eventual choice, the initial purchase coast was lower and there are no servicing costs for three years.
Simon don’t keep us in suspense. What did you decide to buy at the end of the day and did you go automatic?
+1
🙂
Interesting thread. I have a Škoda Yeti 140hp 4×4 DSG as my tow car. I also want to upgrade my van at some point to something that will certainly fall into the class of the tail waging the dog, should I keep the Yeti…
My number one choice is the current shape LR Discovery – a car I’ve loved for many years. But then you see article after article about how unreliable they are. Bottom of the list versus Škoda being at the top. Sigh. But then surely not ALL of them can go wrong! I do know to avoid the Disco 3 like the plague and I’m only looking at the Disco 4. But still. Even these languish at the bottom of the reliability lists.
Do I wait for the Škoda Kodiaq? A like for like spec of one of those to my fully loaded Yeti will be in the region of £37,000 I suspect which I’m not paying, when for £25,000 to £27,000 you can get a very nice 2012 LR HSE (with the new more powerful engine introduced end of that year). Use the change to fix the inevitable “problems”? Hmmm
But do you want to be stranded on the side of the road with a van on tow… decisions, decisions…
Good luck with yours. I look forward to Part 2!
BTW I meant to add that some caravan manufacturers will invalidate the caravan warranty if towed behind a commercial vehicle and this could include a pick up.
Hi Ian
I have checked up on the towing behind commercial vehicles aspect and I have been told towing with a pickup is not an issue.
It is worth pointing out though how many caravans are delivered to dealers by being towed behind a lorry (HGV) carrying a caravan on the back… so does that mean the warranty is invalid even before that caravan is sold to the customer? I have a suspicion that clause may be there for other reasons, although I don’t know what they are.
But why so dismissive of estate cars Simon? I purposely steer away from SUV’s mainly cos the estate does what they do, we don’t need 4wd, they’re generally cheaper for comparative internal space and appointments and everybody and their brother runs an SUV.
I’d be loathe to go back to something that sits lower on the ground again. I don’t go offroading but having that extra ground clearance helps in many places. Furthermore the trickiest surface to get traction on is wet grass. So I would also not want to be without all wheel drive either. But in saying that, nothing wrong I suppose with a Škoda Octavia Scout, Passat Alltrack, Audi Allroad, etc type estate car. They have the (slightly) raised ride height and the all wheel drive. With far lower day to day fuel consumption than what you get from a brick shaped SUV.
I think Simon wants a twin axle and I doubt if there are any estates that could safely tow a twin axle easily and within the guidelines.
Hi Andy
I wasn’t being dismissive of estate cars, they are great for some people, I just personally have never been a fan of estate cars, just don’t do anything for me. Plus lifting a couple of big snap-on tool boxes in and out is a challenge… well it was with my friends Audi. As for the 4 x 4 side of things, it is a bit of a requirement when green laneing/off roading.
Our Kia Sorento XS Auto is now 12 years old and has 101k on the clock; we have owned it for 10 years and it has only let us down once (when it had the dreaded fuel tank lining disintegration – all covered by Kia at no cost to us and loan vehicle included). We considered replacing it, but just could not justify the cost of replacement when it is giving such good and trouble free service; it gets serviced by my village mechanic twice a year (so gets far more oil/filter changes than recommended as we only do about 7k a year). Hopefully it will give us another 5 years of trouble free service at which point we may well give up caravanning and so will not need a large 4×4/SUV anymore.
I’ve had multiple Land Rovers over the years from a SIII (that is older than me and I’ve still got), through Classic Range Rover, to Disco I and 2. I’ve towed with them all. I’ve even had a few cars which I’ve been forced to tow with! But, I am now the very proud owner of a Discovery 4 and she’s amazing – by far the best towcar and in fact, the best CAR I have ever owned or even driven. She wasn’t cheap and she likes a drink (although still averages 32+ mpg and I’ve managed well over 40), but I wouldn’t be without her!
If you haven’t had one on test drive I can see why you’ve done the ‘logical’ thing – if you had, you would have already ordered one!
Good luck with whatever you decide Simon!
Hi
Yep, driven one many times.
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I can’t remember the last time I ran on grass, actually I can and it was 4 years ago and it wasn’t wet or slippery. I certainly don’t intend climbing mini mountainsides and have got over any aspirations for large high vehicles I may have harboured in the past. A grown up V70/V90 or E Class, even a Mondeo Estate will do most of what most people spend thousands more on trucks that are really over-specced overkill.
That is true. But you will be surprised by how many older people buy 2wd crossovers JUST because they are higher and easier to get in and out of. I might want the extra height to negotiate roads surfaced in something other than tarmac, but a lot of people want the higher seats just to be able to get in and out of the car without drama.
We used to have a sports car that was 44 inches high… getting in and out was not easy, that’s why we sold it even though it was fun.
The other car in my house is a 2007 Mazda MX-5 that feels as if it is mere inches above the road. Great fun but the difference to contort yourself in and out is stark against the ease of getting in and out of the Yeti (or any car with high seats).
Nissan specifically positioned the seats in the first Qashqai 100mm higher than they could have, to give this high riding feel of an SUV and to ease the ingress and egress. Which was ridiculous to do this INSIDE the car instead of in the body as on those QQs your head is basically against the headlining. Look next time on the road when you pass an old QQ, how high the driver’s heads are relative to the windscreen, compared to the new one (or any other car). Fine to get in and out easy but totally silly to peer at the road from under the top line of the windscreen!
We have a 4×4 to tow our twin axle but we find it isd a lot easier to gte in and out of the 4×4 than the Corolla plus living in the country I can see better when gtravelling down country lanes.
Hi Andy
I still do a bit of off road…. mainly soft road now. Throwing a couple of heavy tool chests in the back of most vehicles is not so easy, hopefully it will be now.
Simon also remember to not get a rigid cover for the back but to get a roll top. A rigid cover is a pain to get off when (once in a blue moon perhaps) you want to carry something big like a washing machine or whatever. You can get roll tops with guides on the edges for bike racks, as you suggested you want. A roll top gives you the most flexibility in how you want to use the back in my view. Unless of course you get a rigid cover that can lift at both ends. Like this:
They hinge like a normal cover at the front but can then also go up totally as shown above to load bigger items.
Got it covered… so to speak. A Roll N Lock cover has just been delivered!
That looks perfect!
http://rollnlock.com/truck-bed-products
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