what 4wd to buy

Yes well, I tow an 19 foot dual axle van with a new Mitsubishi Triton 3.2 diesel and it works for me.

A mate has the 2.5 Navarra and he reckons it is great. I know the Navarra has better seats than my Triton. But the Triton out pulls the Navarra.

If you are buying new then the latest Prado D4D diesel is a great tow vehicle.

If you done need the load space of a dual cab ute don`t buy one. The wagons will give you a better ride and more std features.

Prado has heaps of torque and relatively good fuel economy, however is much more expensive than many others that should tow an 18 foot van. Calculate the all up weight of your van when loaded (give yourself about 500 kg of load and then check vehicle specs for legal towing weights. remember every dollar saved on vehicle purchase is another dollar to spend during the big trip. Hyundai Terrican & Pathfinder both have good reports and are many thousands of dollars cheaper than Prado. Guess it all depends on how deep your pockets are.

New/Used ?? How many people/kids ?? regards Steve M

Diesel is the way to go if you want fuel econony,and if turbo like most of the later models are majority have plenty of pulling power, hilux, triton, navara, prado, pajero, patrol, cruiser etc. When you say not serious off road, are you talking maybe taking a back road or are you disconectiong the van and going to be doing some sight seeing off road. Is the van an off road van ?? Reason Im saying all this as some thing like a late model falcon or the sort is just as capable pulling a van around Australia. Regards Steve

navara 2006 d22.....brilliant!!!

Laura

Some people swear by the Explorers for towing. Not really suitable for serious offroad use but you dont want that anyway.

Definately go for a 2000 GXL Prado - they are great in every respect...did I mention that I had one for sale?? :P

If you are looking at a decent turbo diesel at a good price pick up a 1-2 year old Hyundai Terrican. Duncan WA on here has one(he has a petrol) and my old man has a turbo diesel. Its built on the old pajero chassi. They have a 5 year warranty so if you get a 1-2 year old one it still has a good 3-4 years of warranty left on it. The 2.9crdi engine is nice to tow with too. They are only around $40k brand new, redbook says 2006 model $23-25k. Still got heaps of warranty left too. Hope this helps
Matt

The simple answer is to get a large capacity Petrol 4wd on LPG.

Way cheaper to run than any diesel and will offer better power but torque as a rule. Low down torque is great, but is no substitute for higj up power.

A 4.8 GU patrol will rip your van down the road and be cheap as chips to run on LPG.