Discovery TDi Towing

hiya Ronswon.....
first things first......
what is the designated towing weight of the disco?
what is the designated towball weight for the disco?
has the disco had a hard life,,,maybe a tired motor?
is the suspension going to cope with the extra weight thrown at it?
answer these to start with and you are on the road to finding the answer to your question..
and dont forget,,, the age ole question,,,,how many more oil leaks are gunna appear on the disco????????????????? :) ( just joking) :)

rick.

Can't speak directly from the Discovery's point of view, but if its anything like my Patrol, I don't think it will be a big issue.

A mate of mine borrowed my 3.3L turbo diesel patrol (81kW & 258Nm?) to tow a 2 ton Range Rover on a (??200kg??) car trailer. While it was definitely no rocketship, he did say that he was suprised how well it did up some hills and such.

While the 2.5L landy TDi is similar in power to the SD33T, id expect it to be a little bit better being newer and having direct injection. Discos are rated up to 3500kg anyway I think from landrover specs. And besides, diesels love to lug.

Some modifications you might look at - a few extra psi of boost from the stock turbo (with injection re-tuned to suit i think). Also heard that a bigger and more free flowing mandrel bent exhaust provides definitely benefits low-down for turbo diesels.

Hope this helps,
Dave.

Ronswon,
As with the other comments, check things out, wind deflectors can help on a roof rack, also seeing it's an auto don't forget you may need a transmission oil cooler, if you have one you may need a bigger one. Engine cooling should be considered, I've fitted a bigger rad to my Rangie I only tow an off road camper trailer. Watch for oil leaks as mentioned and long range tanks for the fuel you'll need it.

Hi Ronswon,

I tow a ~1.6T van with my Patrol (420Nm with Dtronic) and previously with my 1HZ cruiser (272Nm). The cruiser towed the van very well, but you did have to use the gearbox on hills and into a strong headwind you were flat out in 4th at 80km/hr.

When I upgraded to the Patrol, it was a relevation to tow with power to spare. But the interesting this is, I actually found the cruiser more "relaxing" to tow !!! The cruiser was close to the slowest thing on the road and virtually never passed anything. With the Dtronic equipped Patrol, I easily sat on the speed limit regardless of hills or headwinds, but there were all these other dam vans sitting on 80-90 that I kept on overtaking. Or, if I couldn't overtake, I felt frustrated that they were going too slow. But as far as stability goes, both the cruiser and patrol didn't even feel like they had a van behind.

When on clear roads with no real traffic (ie. up North as opposed to down South in WA), the extra power of the Patrol enabled the cruise control to be left on in 5th whereas the cruiser needed to drop back to 4th on the hills. Plus I got 2-3l/100kms better economy with the Patrol while travelling faster.

I would expect the Disco to be a tad slower than the cruiser as you plan more weight with less power. But would I do it? Hmmm... after having the Patrol, it would be very hard to go back to the power of the cruiser. But when I didn't know any better, I was very happy with the cruiser's power.

Don't know if this helps, but thats my experience.

Cheers

Captain

Ronswon,

A friend of mine tows a Roadstar 20ft full height caravan (about 2ton) with his 1997 TDI Discovery automatic, not a problem, he said it is no rocketship but holds on to the legal speed limits.
On some of the big hills such as some of the moutain passes, he goes to low range and takes it easy to give the torque converter a brake....

Will