Good Tow Cars?

[badhairdave]

tongue! That was the word i was looking for. I've been getting mental blanks on basic shit for the past couple of weeks.

Thanks Guys

I had an older hilux a few years back now, around an 04 from memory, and i don't remember the suspension being anywhere near as bad (but it was good for lifting the inside rear wheel on roundabouts). Though I suppose my reference point then was a 32gtst with 8f/6r springs rather than the girlfriends C4...

[jahn-15]

tongue! That was the word i was looking for. I've been getting mental blanks on basic shit for the past couple of weeks.

Thanks Guys

I had an older hilux a few years back now, around an 04 from memory, and i don't remember the suspension being anywhere near as bad (but it was good for lifting the inside rear wheel on roundabouts). Though I suppose my reference point then was a 32gtst with 8f/6r springs rather than the girlfriends C4...

I agree that the hiluxs are pretty bad. Was going to blacktown to pick up my new 32 last week in the patrol bloody thing blew up id only just flushed the radiator and put some more oil in it when i stopped at the twin servos bloody oil was $35 bucks (diesel) so left it on peats ridge road with me car trailor and rang a mate to take me to gosford hired a new 4x4 3ltr turbo diesel hilux first thing i noticed was shes limited to 4500 rpm towed the patrol up the road and it was allover the place very dangerous left it at mt white and went to pick me 32 up the thing must have no swaybar as it was all over the road on the way home with the 32 in tow felt like it would pick up and drift across the road never again.

Now the patrols getting a 307 chev rammed in between the strut towers

[benm]

The other thing i've noticed is the tow bar is really low, resulting in a lot of rake on the trailer and also makes it difficult to get my (not very low) cars on to the trailer. I'm thinking about flipping the insert part of the bar to try and gain a bit of height. Does anyone know if it's ok to do or am i going to end up with a snapped hitch in the middle of nowhere?

I recently bought new sunraysia wheels and toyo light truck tyres for my tandem trailer (it had used ford stud wheels and used car tyres on it that were 2yrs old which needed replacing for rego). The result was the trailer sat 2 inches higher because of the light truck tyres. To combat the angle of the trailer I bought an adjustable ball mount from hayman reese for about $150 (#21228) and adjusted it to full height and now it sits level again.

Russman: My '09 VE SSV Ute sits similar to yours (not as bad, but i've had mine lowered with stiffer rear springs too) and thats with just a 550kg car on a 550kg trailer (sitting level). I'm gonna look at getting some different rear shocks or some other setup in the rear. It does tow perfectly though, can safetly do the speed limit and keep up with regular cars (which shocks them because they all pull out to overtake only to find they cant even keep up) and my fuel economy only jumps about 2.5L/100km over regular city driving (6L engine drops to v4 for quite a bit of the trip back to sydney from wakefield which helps the economy).

Still got 4yrs to go on my utes lease so after that I may look at a new Navara as well.

As for using a van to tow, no problems but you really need to put some weight in the back of them when you tow (spare wheels and tools would be ideal) otherwise they feel like the trailer is doing all the steering. They lack power but make up for it in reliability. (I traded my previous tow vehicle, a 2000 hiace with 370,000km on it for my ssv ute - the hiace was great, it just didnt like going up hills with a trailer on it haha)

[PHaT MR30]

We haven't had an issue with Hilux's towing, last 2 years used an '05 V6 Petrol 4x4 to tow our rally car around the state and its in the process of being replaced with a '11 Diesel Hilux..

The dual range gearbox comes in quite handy at times too

Draw bar, how the trailer is loaded and how the car is loaded is pretty important, I can't understand people that reverse their car on the trailer so all the weight is over the back of the axles and then complain that its handling like shit!!!

[Marlin]

Exactly, proper setup is everything!

You can tow extraordinary weight and size if it's just setup correctly (discounting relevant laws).

[samstain]

Draw bar, how the trailer is loaded and how the car is loaded is pretty important, I can't understand people that reverse their car on the trailer so all the weight is over the back of the axles and then complain that its handling like shit!!!

It depends on the length of your trailer and the relative car overhang. I always have to reverse my 180 on to get it to ballance correct.

The regulations state that the centre of your axles must be behind the center of the payload area of a trailer (which makes sence to generally ensure you keep some tow ball weight). However if you have a short trailer (as many are to keep weight down - 4m bed or less) and you drive a stripped out F/R race car on to it fowards, by the time you get it far enough fowards that there is minimal rear over-hang, the center of gravity of the car might be well over 1m in front of the center of the trailer axles - buy which time you could have 300kg on the tow ball - thats fine if you have a very H/D tow bar and a car with suspension to match. But a lot of cars these days are only rated to about 100kg ball weight - mine is actually only 85kg even though it has a 2000kg towing capacity.

If I reverse my 180 on to the trailer, and line it up so that there is zero rear overhang I get pretty much exactly the max allowed ball weight down on the towbar.

But yeah, if you haven't done your homework and reverse a car on tying it down 'where-ever', it can be a recipie for disaster.

Edited February 10, 2011 by samstain

[warps]

by the time you get it far enough fowards that there is minimal rear over-hang

Who cares how much overhang there is at either end? Drive it onto the trailer so the load is properly balanced, and as long as the car wheels are actually on the trailer (and not within the tyre radius of the edge - just a rule of thumb - nothing too scientific about that) then all is good. The only reason you'd care about rear overhang is if you have fold - up ramps. If that were the case, then having a short trailer bed is not really going to work.

Besides, if you have lots of rear overhang, your race car can conveniently block out the trailer rego plate from those nasty red light cameras - not that I'd ever contemplate such tomfoolery

But to echo the sentiments above - yes, balancing the load on the trailer is imperative. The general guide is to have 10% of the trailer weight on the tow ball, as long as it doesn't exceed the allowable down force on the towing vehicle draw bar. 4WD's tend to have a higher rating for this, which is another reason they're better for towing.

Edited February 10, 2011 by warps

[Marlin]

Yep, my JGC is rated at 3,500kg with 350kg ball weight, all with the factory hitch. Ample!

I love it so much, I'm likely ordering the new model soon once they've arrived, it's most reliable and hands down best tow vehicle I've ever owned

[hrd-hr30]

have you only owned Rovers before?

[Duncan]

that was an excellent hit!

[Marlin]

Haha. Wanker

[handbrake]

for those of you who didn't already know , it turns out a 4.5L petrol Patrol is gutless. so we are putting a turbo in it.

Edited February 13, 2011 by handbrake

[handbrake]

[bigmikespec]

Lol... my uncle just came over and I asked; is your Patrol a 4.8L? And he was like, nah, 4.5L it is gutless! Might have to let him know how you go with this... the exhaust port almost looks like a perfect square?

[badhairdave]

Most of the Japanese utes are like that, Toyota used to supply all of their test Hilux's with 500kg's of sandbags in the tray, to "give journalists a real world feel for the vehicles handling" but mainly to hide the stiff rear spring rates and resultant oversteer biased handling caused by not enough weight being over ther rear wheels.

I put a tonne of gravel in the back of it the other day. If "real world feel for the vehicles handling" means softens up the ride nicely at the expense of steering then they have it right....

[Marlin]

lolz

Summed up brilliantly

[jaxt]

for those of you who didn't already know , it turns out a 4.5L petrol Patrol is gutless. so we are putting a turbo in it.

is mercury doing this for you hb?

any more details of turbs etc?

[handbrake]

yes mercury is doing it, Luke is fabricating it all now.

GT3076 I think is the turbo going in.

staying with conservative tune and stock internals for now. maybe 200rwkw? maybe more or less dunno.

drop by sometime this week if you want to see lukes work - its good work!

[jaxt]

yes mercury is doing it, Luke is fabricating it all now.

GT3076 I think is the turbo going in.

staying with conservative tune and stock internals for now. maybe 200rwkw? maybe more or less dunno.

drop by sometime this week if you want to see lukes work - its good work!

sorry mate yep just did some more searching and just saw you started a build thread.

I'd love to drop by this build sounds good and sensible ...was told a GT3582R would be for mine but I'm liking the flavour of this one.

I reckon you could be spot on there at 200rw approx with a gt3076.

subscribed!

[JU5T1N]

6 acres with a big barn shed here merli if you need to leave your toy somewhere

2000 Grand Cherokee: 1837kg, 4.7L, V8, 162kw, 390nm, petrol.

2002 Grand Cherokee: 1776kg, 4L, I6, 140kw, 295nm, petrol.

2003 Nissan Patrol: 2440kg, 4.1L, I6, 114kw, 360nm, turbo diesel.

2005 Toyota Hilux Ute: 1490kg, 4L, V6, 175kw, 343nm, petrol.

Lighter, newer, more power, more storage, most reliable. I know which i'd have at the top of my list

I know its an older topic but why no mention of the:

Nissan Patrol: 2375kg, 4.8L, I6, 180kw, 400Nm, petrol (but can run on gas) 3500kg towing and bigger drive line then all 4 of the above mentioned cars and far stronger (diff, axles, transfer case, brakes, etc). As far as fuel economy goes, on petrol its like any other 180kw vehicle but on gas mine was fully loaded and towed a caravan from south of Sydney to Maroochydore (1200km) at Christmas cost me $215 and still had 3/4 tank of gas. The car was on cruise control most of the way and had no problems with hills etc. only problem was slower traffic...lol I could of got even better fuel economy out of it if I took off my 35" tyres, the big lift kit, winch with steel cable....makes it like a block of flats coming down the road, not exactly aero dynamic but goes everywhere I ask it to even when towing the van...