Towing in 5th gear

Muzzgit,

Check out Post ID: 15551

Whereas vehicles may be able to tow in 5th gear the owner of that vehicle is only buying trouble as sooner or later the gear will fail due the stresses demanded of it. If the manufacturers advise not put excessive loads on 5th gear, why do it?

As mentioned in post id 15551, 5th gear is not directly attached to the driveline and only acts as a cruising gear so that the engine revs can drop and the engine can operate more efficiently and economically at higher speeds.

Frankly, in my opinion, putting a heavy load on 5th gear, is alike to being Brain Dead.

SOME vehicles will tow a heavy load forever in 5th gear with no problems. (One example (-: GQ Patrols.)
MANY will not.
It's potentially an expensive gamble finding out if yours will or won't.

However- no matter the vehicle- the way to really ask for trouble is to LUG it in 5th rather than changing down at the first opportunity.
Cheers

i'm the offender in this post! Baz's description of being towed home all the way in fifth is possibly a little bit of poetic licence! Just a way of describing how well the turbo diesel pulled all the gear home. We did get into fifth gear on quite a few occasions on the way up the hume and we also used fourth quite a lot. I would consider myself a reasonably good driver and having owned three cruisers over the last 18 years and towed many heavy loads to various locations (including a 6 ton concrete truck from whitecliffs into Cobar many years ago) I have never busted a gearbox, many other parts but never a gearbox. I am not defending the toyo box but will say i am aware that the 100 has a weaker box than the 80 and towing is not reccomended in Fifth under heavy load in any car. I would say that coming up the hume with the cruiser in fourth and with it racing away, it is quite suitable to use fifth then when load comes on drop back to fourth. I intend to be around for a few years yet and will keep you all posted on how the box stands up to my driving. it's already done 140k and seems to be holding up well!!

Mick

How common is it for Patrols to spit 5th? My uncle often tows a trailer, well over 1000kg with his cab chasis patrol - deisel but not sure what model. He does lots of k's but tends to use and abuse and spat 5th at 60,000km. The nissan mechanic said that its pretty common.

cheers

stu