RELIABILITY of the small diesel tow vehicles

I think the issue of towing is almost irrelevant to your question. Towing itself does not shorten the life of a vehicle. I can't comment on the other brands but my Hilux is an Auto and tows beautifully (06 TD D4D). If your question relates to towing 2.5 Tonnes well you can't with a Hilux. Diesel's working hard and serviced well should last as long as one that only does some towing IMO.

Gooday ian ; A wise man once said theirs not substitute for cubic inch.

Towed my 18ft Jayco around Oz in 2005-06 with a 3litre manual Patrol, 30,000
ks no problems; it had done around 80,000 when I sold it.
Towed my 18ft Jayco around Oz in 2010 with a D4D auto Prado, similar ks and on returning to Busselton WA with 70,000 on the clock and 1 month left on warranty, Toyota replaced all the injectors. the Prado seems to be a lot Quieter than when it was newer.
Both are good towing vehicles, both have done a good job and wouldn't hesitate to buy either again.
Hope this helps
Rob

Most of the utes you list have 3 litre diesels, the same capacity as the Patrol and would have much lighter bodies than the Patrol. Apart from the fact that a heavier body vehicle might have more control when towing a heavier van, I don't see that a Patrol would necessarily be better suited.

From a similar question I answered a couple of years ago ------------------


Hi Huggy

Have to be brief as gearing up for another dash into the bush.

There are lots of misconceptions in 4wd field and many are feed by
general dumbing down of specs and more interest by buyers in multiple seat
memories than performance.

Typical case is that "diesels have more torque" when all the customer has to
do is turn over the brochure to see the figures.

It is a big field but following generalization is worth while.

The main game in engine life is determined by how much it does
over how big it is. This makes it hard for a 3lt to last as long as a
4800 pulling the same weight.

Indicators of engine wear are the Engine Life Factor (ELF) and the
Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP)

ELF = RPM X Compression ratio
BMEP = Power / (size X RPM)

BMEP is more appropriate for lower reving/output engines like Patrols.

Relative figures for 4800 ,4.2TDI and 3LT GU Patrols are -

4800 = 8 4.2TDI = 7.7 3LT= 10.7

I.E. The 3lt has much higher internal pressures than the others.

This makes it a lot harder to keep temperatures in the cylinder
walls and bearings under control.

The engine pressures resulting from combustion, transfer the
power thru the crankshaft via the main bearings, and heat is
dissipated into cylinder walls and oil etc.

Don't take the above to mean I wouldn't have a 3lt , in fact I think they are great cars , the fact that engine life is shorter than other patrols doesn't mean they cannot give great service for several years.
You just need to work towards an honest apprasil of the products offered and get what most fits your requirement.

Robin Miller

Just an aside - I wonder how hard the components in the new VW 4 door ute's motors will be working (2.0L ... single or twin turbo)... and how long they could last, when regularly towing the max load of 2.8 tonne. That scenario makes a huge contrast with the huge number of 4.0L+ TD's towing decent loads in Australia at present.... less so, with the many 3.0L's of course..... but still, that is a small motor.

I towed extensively with a Nissan Terrano II 2.7 TDI diesel, it had done 400,000km when I sold it & still going strong.

I think that it can have beneficial results too. If a diesel is working harder it will warm up to it's correct operating temp and stay there longer. The biggest problem is that most "Jap type" diesels actually don't get worked hard enough to get to the correct temp. This causes fouling of the rings and can help to cause glazing of the bores leading to oil consumption and a premature rebuild because of gunk. The v8 toyota's are a prime example. If worked hard (not flogged) when new they tend to use minimal oil compared to those that have been babied.

But being fully warmed up and stressed to the max are two completely different animals. personally, give me more cubes anyday.

Thanks for the replies and the point of views.
Regards,
Ian

I would not like to be towing that weight full time that's for sure. I tow my boat which would be around two ton for 360k occasionally - I have hilly country and it definitely works the motor.

The temperature gauge rises when hitting the hills and I have to back off the throttle and change down in the gears to keep the temperature manageable.

I have put on 95k now without any major issue, just had one fuel problem with a faulty in tank fuel pump.

They have the power but do not know if they would last?

Cheers Tony