Monday, Jan 16, 2012 at 16:58
Hi Robin
Our vehicle is a Ti diesel version and, as this is our first 4x4, we have no point of comparison for many aspects of its behaviour. As our day-to-day car is a Citroen C5 diesel wagon, it doesn't help much for baselines for a full size 4x4. Although overall the Pathfinder is a comfortable drive and seems to do most things competently, we actually bought this vehicle with two criteria in mind. First, its has the capacity to tow our van, and second my wife (who has back problems) could get into/out of the vehicle reasonably easily (and she 'tried on' all other candidate vehicles).
We don't have any problem with the actual towing either, given the load limit is 3000kg, and it seems to move our van quite easily. And apologies for the lack of clarity, but weren't referring to any of the control systems in the Pathfinder itself.
Our problem is thus, raising our issue on the Pathfinder Club board, tends to get discussion specific to the vehicle, and as they seem to be mostly interested in off road applications, not much on towing a big van. Their solution was airbags or stronger rear springs.
On the other hand raising our issue on caravanner boards gets very quickly into mechanics of the van/vehicle equipment. ie all the problems are because 'you haven't adjusted/loaded things properly', 'you haven't used the same equipment as me...', and 'you should know better.'
Its our first 4x4 and first van, so we are looking for answers, and would rather talk to someone who actually knows how this type of combination works. Many responses we have generated in other areas, start with 'you made a mistake buying this configuration of van....', or 'I don't know this piece of equipment but I know you are doing something wrong, and this is what it is...'
While we respect the opinions, and value the input of all who have taken the time to respond to our questions, we would actually like to try to problem solve/share experiences with someone who has some directly comparable experience. Thus our question.
Thanks
Graham
FollowupID:
750052