Which one to buy?

There is perhaps too little detail in this question.

What is your budget for this? Are you buying new or second hand?

If you are buying new then I would recomend the Pajero Diesel.

You need to find out how much the van will weigh to make sure that whatever you choose to tow it will be legal. Pay attention to the tow ball loadings.

What makes you want to buy such a monster van?

How many of you are going to use this van?

For a van that size, a minimum of a Nissan Patrol or Toyota Landcruiser with a 4.+ litre engine.

How many people? How much stuff you taking

Towing a 24ft van ? go with large engine, wouldnt go paj or prado..


Patrol, or cruiser or troopy, and either petrol or diesel will do, diesel will do it easier and lots cheaper...

Dave from Exploroz should be able to fill in some blanks, they have been around more than others here,..

Gday Mike
you dont say how long you are going for or what sort of roads you intend to travel,if you are sticking to bitumun you may well get along resonably well with either of the cars you mentioned( settle truckster)if you are willing to take it easy & dont push for large amount of kms per day but if you inend to tow in off road conditions i would have to agree with others that i would look to toyota land cruiser or nissan patrol, definatlty recommend that you go diesel becuase they dont make trucks diesel for no reason, it wil cope better with the strains of pull large van much better, but just remember to keep up your service schedual as you go
Regards Bruce

Nissan 4.2 114kW/330Nm, Nissan 3.0 116/354, Pajero 121/373, Toyota 151/430. So the Pajero lies between the Nissans and the Toyota in power/torque. The Toyo would be nice, if you had the extra $25,000 (which is how much more than the Paj it costs). Not to mention the higher running costs.

As a part time tour operator, I would suggest that you purchase a
toyota. I would say that most operators use toyotas and for good reason.
I work with a mate that runs patrols and they are always in for head,
body mounts, floors cracking and wheel bearing problems
The toyotas are built alot tougher. You can see this in the country areas
by the number of 1960's and 1970's vehicles still in reliable service.
The final thing is that you can get parts literally anywhere. Hope this helps.

Mike

I tow a van (17 foot) and I come from a caravanning family. my father had vans for years as did my relos. A 24 foot van is BIG and there are serious isses to consider. You are best to get advice from a caravan forum - not a 4wd forum. Best is to talk to owners of similar rigs.

I met one couple in Timber Creek towing a 24 foot van with a new pajero. The van suited them perfectly. They were doing the 'work around' and were planning on spending years on the road. They were having no problems with vehicle/van combination but remember that there are many issues that are more critical than engine capacity when towing large vans.

There are people that have purchsed vans - even custom built ones from so called reputable caravan manufactuers - only to find that the van exceeds the vehicles safe or warranted towing capacity. The towball weight is always an issue with a van of that size so dont just dont go on the rated towing capacity (ie 3500 kg) becuase its usually the allowed tow ball weight that becomes the real problem.

The advantage with 24 foot vans is that there are some very good bargains to be had on the second hand market- cheap and late model. But it may also be difficult to resell. Alot of the second hand big vans could once be towed in some states by most vehicles. The states now have uniform laws but there are still restrictions on what can tow what. You will be surprised by the 'low' tow ball vertical weigth rating that some 4wd manufacturers have.

Most people are touring with either poptops or 18 foot full vans. Also, there are transmission issues with towing. Auto is not better and manuals are prone to blow up 5th gear after thousands of kms.

I know this is more than you asked - but pitfalls are a plenty. Start buying caravan world magazine

Sean