Are Land Rovers unreliable

Submitted: Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
ThreadID: 2649 Views:1866 Replies:5 FollowUps:11
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My mate wants to buy one can they do 120 kn's per hour towing a trailer? Now that you are here what do you think.
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Reply By: TonyY - Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
Yup. My Td5 will do 120kmh in 5th gear up a steep hill pulling a fully laden double horse float.
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Follow Up By: Mick - Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
But only if the horses get out and into harness up front!!! I don't think Tony really meant his response to be taken seriously though!! LOL
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Follow Up By: Mick - Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
By the way, I don't doubt that the V8 petrol could do it but I've spent too long behind Td5s without a trailer, slowing down on slight slopes. Their economy is great but their highway performance is well .... a little leisurely. They certainly will do 120kph and more but they start to slow down when a hill even comes into sight! ..... and as for highway speed overtaking - well that requires patience too. But you must also remember that they are powered by a small diesel so you can't expect petrol performance.
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Follow Up By: Tonyy - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
Mick,

my reply was tongue in cheek, I would never tow any trailer at that speed!

However, have you ever driven a Td5? My daily journey home from work concludes with a long, fairly steep hill. (Good 4 lane road). If I am doing 80kmh at the bottom I can accelerate to 100kmh in 5th gear by the time I reach the top. In 4th gear I could probably reach 140 but I haven't tried that. Of course no diesels really compare to a big petrol motor but I leave most other diesels struggling behind. I can easily maintain speed up the hill with the horse float.
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Follow Up By: Damien - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
Tony, i certainly don't think you'd leave my T/D Jack behind!!
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Follow Up By: Tonyy - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
No I don't think I would, same goes for a DiD Paj or any modern Td although one thing that helps the Defender along up hills is the relatively low gearing 8-).

But it certainly has more get up and go than any old technology diesel (mechanical injection).
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Follow Up By: Mick - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
TonyY have a look at stevesub's post further on - I think he sums it up. I haven't driven a TD5 but have friends with one and have followed them many times on trips. If I lead and set my cruise on the limit they always drop back quite quickly so I normally let them set the pace. Believe me passing at 100kph is scary especially long road trains. Mind you I drive a petrol Prado which is at the other end of the performance scale!
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Follow Up By: Tonyy - Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00

Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00
Hi Mick,

I saw Steve Subs' post but can't really comment on the Disco, mine is a Defender which may be a different story. The truck sits quite happily on 110kmh and when I put the boot in to overtake will pull strongly past 130 (don't do that often and not willing to push it further, although some South Africans on one of the LR forums comment about cruisng at 140!).

Perhaps you are missing my point. With a modern diesel size is not necessarily important (unlike everything else 8-) ). For a small motor the Td5 has impressive output (much better than the older 4.2L Tojo or Nissans), and it is possible to re-chip them to 170kW and 430nm which is not too shabby. (Not sure what this would do for longevity though!).
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Reply By: Mick - Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
Just an afterthought after doing two follow ups ..... what has towing a trailer at 120kph got to do with a question on reliability???
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Follow Up By: Truckster - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
Nothing at all.

He is trolling.....
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Reply By: royce - Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 at 01:00
I tow often. Cattle, sheep, horses and other farm gear as well as the off-road trailer. I can't think of any time I would consider towing over the speed limit..... maybe up the Stuart Highway I could creep up to 110k, but if anything goes wrong, it goes REALLY wrong when towing.
AnswerID: 9928

Reply By: stevesub - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
Had a Disco TD5 for 6 weeks while our Freelander was being fixed - again. Top speed was 140kph, overtaking over 100kph was scary, great acceleration around town.

As for reliability of Landrovers, we are buying a Toyota when we get to Australia in Feb next year to live as we so not think that the Land Rover products are as reliable as we would like for outback driving - we are in the Auckanld Landrover owners Club and know a bit about the reliability?? of the LR vehicles.

The un-relaiblity is made worse by dealers who do not know what they are doing when you have a problem and also the amount of electronics that they have these days with Lucas (Prince of darkness) or similar wiring. A minor problem, eg in a friends TD5 with a blocked air intake turned out to be a major with turbo changed and the ECU was to be the next until the owner found the blocked air intake.
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Reply By: Savvas - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
Not sure about other states, but in NSW it's illegal to tow at speeds in excess of 80km/h. It doesn't seem to be a well known or observed law, though.
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Follow Up By: Mick - Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00

Thursday, Dec 19, 2002 at 01:00
It USED to be so SAVVAS. It's you who doesn't know the law I'm afraid.
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Follow Up By: Hoffy - Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00

Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00
I understood that the NSW regs were changed about 2 years ago allowing you to tow at the posted speed limit?????

Keith
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Follow Up By: Savvas - Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00

Friday, Dec 20, 2002 at 01:00
Didn't know about that change. If you hire a trailer from Kennards they still remind you that the speed limit for towing is (was?) 80km/h. Having just browsed the RTA website, I can't find any mention of this so it's likely my info is out of date .... and so is Kennard's.
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