What should the B/inlaw buy to tow his Van?, Cart before the horse thing.

Axle,
Here's a list of possibles or perhaps's.
Ford Territory
Nissan 4.2d or TD (not 3 ltr)
Cruiser 80/100 series
Landrover Discovery TD5 02 on
Landrover Disco 3
Falcon late BA or later (must have tow pack
Commodore VX or later (must have tow pack)
Any F trucks or Chev Silverado's
Pajero late models (maybe)

All of these will tow 2.2t with a reasonable amount in reserve.

A Landrover 130 would be ideal but they don't come in auto.

Disco.

The weight of the van is not relevant - It's the weight of the legally loaded van that we need to know.

What is the plated GVM?

"and looks over powering to smaller 4bys"
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Axle

A van of that size can easily overpower even the big 4bs as indicated by the endless number of jack-knifes that occur each year.

Don't make the mistake of looking only at van weight and car towing capacity for a van that long. There is a lot more to it than that. Get him to read through every word of this very carefully before he buys anything.http://www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/pdf/vehicle_dynamics_complete.pdf

You would be lucky to find a turbo diesel landcriuser in ether the 80 series or 100 series in good condition for 20g.

I wouldnt part with my 80 series for anything less than 30g.

Hamo

Well it's very lucky he got it so "cheap" because he's got more to spend... Just about the only thing that will carry that with any competence and be close to his budget will be an early V8 100 series Cruiser. It will be petrol...

I'll bet a 24' Jayco weighs more than 2200Kg when loaded.
The maximum legal weight is the ATM as stamped on the vans Compliance Plate.
OJ

Hi Axle,

I recently bought a 23foot Sterling which weighs very close to the B in Laws new van. I would think they go close to 2.5 tonne loaded.

I had previously bought a 2003 petrol V8 cruiser and it towed the van very easily and the van was not telling the cruiser what to do, if you get my meaning.

With the petrol cruiser I did not have to worry about diesel exhaust gas temperatures climbing through the roof while climbing the Moonbi Range so the whole experience was very relaxing and the V8 pulls the load with consummate ease.

I was up and down Moonbi a couple of times and also went down and back up Mt Ousley near Woollongong. It was a breeze mate.

The Landcruiser is a perfect match for these types of vans and the V8 are getting cheaper all the time.

Just had a month away with ours and loved every minute of it. Could have stayed out there another couple of months it was that good.

Cheers, Bruce

G'day Axle,

I'm having some similar discussions with a neighbour and I felt that there is really no chance of getting a vehicle that is over qualified! To place this into some perspective, she stated clearly that she will only ever tow two tonnes but a couple of vans she looked at were already slightly over so she is now looking at a new triton that will tow 3500Kg for the benefit of the extra margin it provides. So I'm suggesting that your BIL do the same for his vehicle - get one that tows 3500Kg which still includes some you have mentioned.

Personally and a little biased I've seen some cheap 4.8 patrols - yes I know it's petrol but they make a good tug.

Kind regards