Off-Road and Towing Capabilities - RAV4 or Grand Vitara

Hi Anthea

At 750kg I'd suggest that the Suzuki would be the best bet as they have low range. Both are pretty low in terms of clearance - but at least you have a better chance with the Suzuki on sand. If you reduce tyre pressures on the sand accordingly and make sure you watch the tides - the Suzuki should do well.

Cheers

Chris

Both are capable of towing a trailer as per your requirements on road. Off road both would not be suitable. On hard compacted sand or a well graded track they are ok but if the sand gets soft or you hit a rut you would be beyond the capabilities of both. Getting to the barge for example. I have a 4.2TDI GU and would not be comfortable towing any more than 1 ton on the beach.

Craig.

The RAV is fabulous family car, particularly when the main driver is female (they are just so well targeted to women) an extraordinary road car, a very good fast dirt road car but only a very modest thing off road.

They are reported to be pretty good on hard sand.

We have both a RAV and a 4wd hilux.

The RAV has a pretty fair on road towing capacity.

The draw Back of the RAV is the lack of low range combined with low idle & high gearing......I still snuff ours on take off from time to time....partricularly when I step out of my diesel.

Going off road, particularly towing...you realy need a low range.

Get into some soft sand and you will be in low 1 or 2 giving it plenty of berries.


Some of the milder tracks, I would get the RAV over them.... but it would require care and craft.....the hilux would just drive straight up them with little or no concern.

Of the two vehicles..as soon as you say "off road"...the Vitara is the only option...and not a shabby one.

If you intend to tow a trailer with a vitara off road it better be light and well sorted.

I know of a bloke who tows a trailer up the beach with a Siera...because with his wife and 2 kids inside there is not much room for anything else....but they travel realy light..and he CAN drive.

Cheers

I know you mentioned you only have a 15k budget for a vehicle. What is the budget for the camper, is it an off road camper and is it new or second hand?

Are you able to cut back on the price of the camper and put the difference towards a decent second hand 4x4?

Hi Anthea,

We have a 2005 Grand Vitara and tow a CUB camper trailer with the transcontinental pack This makes it somewhere between an on road and an off road camper. Have not had any troubles with the suzi towing but have never been on sand. Have done over 40000Kms towing but mainly on sealed and hard dirt tracks. Corrugations are not a problem.

Be aware that our model suzi has a very low tow ball weight of 85 kg. This may be different with the newer models but it means that ours is incapable of legally towing a heavy camper even though it has an 1850kg towing capacity.

Also the tow bar is situated so low that you can scrape it coming out of a drive way.

Having said the above we are still very happy with the Suzi.

Gary Thomson

I work for a rental Co so get to drive everything from Yaris to 16 ton Pantecs. For a road 4wd a xtrail is so much more refined then a rav4, and slightly better off road.
I have tried a Rav4 on easy tracks and discovered it could not go where my Jackaroo went easy in 2wd due to very poor suspension travel.
If serious about going offroad look at a Pajero or a jackaroo. Their are still a few good ones left.
You will use more fuel , but at least they will tow a camper easy on and off road.
Cheers Pete

On Fraser Is. clearance will be a prob with both. Even a manual Forester, which is pretty capable, won't cope with the tracks there.

Keep in mind ball weight and total weight. 750 kg tare will easily turn into 950 kg gross with two people's gear.