Tow Car?

[frozenwaffles]

Hi guys, i am looking for a tow car now that my skyline is becomming a track car. this is a long story

anyhow, im looking a forester 2001 GT at this point or a Stagea RS4. what do you guys recon?

my biggest concern right now is that both cars dont seem to be able to tow enough. from what i understand i need to be able to tow about 1700-1800kg (Car + Trailor).

Any advice welcome

My car is an R33 GTST 1995.

[Birds]

For that tare weight, get a turbo diesel or V8 4x4. Or a V8 ute/sedan

[mad082]

+1 for turbo diesel 4x4. something like a patrol or cruiser, although the petrol ones will still tow well also, just a bit thirstier on fuel.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

theres a big thread in the motorsport section, think they start to ramble on a bit though..

Tow car thread

also you should get something with a bit of weight otherwise your trailer will push you all over the shop.

dont get an old discovery unless you're going to power it up. slowest thing on wheels

[paulR32gtr]

I've got an 03 rodeo dual cab turbo diesel 4x4 and it's brilliant for the price. Tough as nails, pretty good on fuel, tows my 32 no problems, fits four comfortably and I don't care if it gets dinged up. Plus can take it out on the 4x4 trails for a bit of fun.

If you want something more pedestrian then a v8 commo or similar would be my pick. Only mildly ashamed to admit I actually like the latest ss 6litres.

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

F650

[Johny Bravo]

Buy a good old r31. Slap a turbo on it. You more then likely have one laying around, stiffen the arse end and ya done.

[Deano 1]

4.2TD Nissan Patrol = AWESOMENESS!!!!! good on fuel too mine gets 15-16L per 100 when towing my R, and also sweet for offroad work too!!!!

[BezerkR32]

have had two trbo diesel tritons now, and both were great. new one is excellent, great fuel economy and all the bells and whistles.

[evil_weevil]

yeah id be going diesel triton or patrol or hilux towing a skyline or bigger

I use my VX berlina for my mx5 - but mx5 weighs about 950 and the trailer is 300kg

gosford to EC and back I averaged about 12.5L

edit - Duncan uses his stagea...but that is now quite heavily modified! he cannot help himself LOL

[frozenwaffles]

ive decided on a Nissan X-Trail...

[mad082]

which one? turbo diesel or petrol? if petrol than good luck with that. you would've been better off with a commodore or falcon as they would pull it much better.

the turbo diesel should be ok though. actually has a decent amount of torque, unlike the petrol.

[frozenwaffles]

have you towed something with an x-trail?

[warps]

I wouldn't be towing a loaded car trailer with an X-trail. I used a Forester XT (similar size and weight) for towing the RX2 on a 550kg trailer, and it was no fun. There was plenty of power there, but it never felt stable, and the trailer pushed the car around a bit.

Fair enough it was a crappy trailer with a too short draw bar, but the fact is that for regular towing, you can't beat a solid heavy vehicle that's made for it. X trails, Rav's. Foresters etc. really aren't up to the task safely IMO.

My new trailer behind the Pathfinder is in another league. Load the car wrong, though and you certainly know about it (FWD this time with all the weight over the front. Have to load it a lot further back than the RX2 was).

Considering you're towing a R33 GTSt, you'll just be asking for trouble trying to tow it behind anything like a forester / x trail etc. They may be stable with a box trailer, and you might even get away on a short trip with a well balanced car trailer, but anything involving speed, corners, bumps etc is only going to end in tears.

If the towing vehicle isn't manufacturer rated to tow the weight you're planning, your insurance won't pay if you have a crash.

You have been warned. Don't become a statistic

[frozenwaffles]

i hear you warps, but the x-trail has a towing capacity of 2000kg. this is a manufacturer rating. i plan on stripping the R33 as much as posible and the trailers i have been looking at are all around 500kg and are double axel electronically braked...

from all the reports i see, the x-trail seems ot be more than up to the task. i plan on only towing say once a month down to marulan or somewhere like that. if the track car thing really takes off for me and i strat heading to other interstate tracks, well then yes i'll probably look at a patrol or something like that, but my car needs to primarily get me around town everyday to work etc...

[GTR-N1]

If you wish to use a soft roader, either the X-Trail or Foz can do it (with their load ratings). The quality of the tow bar is important eg. Hayman-Reese or equivalent (& not a cheapie)

The diesels can tow with more gusto without any toll on the engine.

* Warning:-

You've also thought through the electronic braking system on the trailer which is good;

...because it's essential that this is operating perfectly (and I mean perfectly), if it's behind a soft roader on a stretch of downhill braking.

If you get an X-Trail or Foz, I'd just do some test braking with that loaded trailer as you start off on a long trip; because you don't want to be turned around on a braking manoeuvre.

[Deano 1]

there is no way i would put a skyline on a trailer behide a xtrail or fozza, a basic towing rule is, try match your tow car as best as poss with the tow weight..... therefore 2T of car and trailer vs 1.3T of car..... = Car is the lil bitch that gets pushed around soon as you need to brake hard, or a roo runs out in front of you and you turn shape...... if the road is wet and you turn a corner there is more chance of you oversteering the car cause the trailer will push you around the second the ass end of your car gets out of shape you will be goin right the way around jacknifing your car.

other thing to think of is, the size of motor and your overall weight.... you tow car weight is 1.3-1.5T and your Trailer 2T.... that means your goin to be pulling a 3.3-3.5T with a Toy ass lil four banger.....

my sudgestion if you cant afford the patrols or landys, or you just dont like the ruggness of them, or you dont need a 4x4..... Buy a4x2 Nissan D40 Navara with the V6 petrol, i had one before my patrol.... and farkkkk that thing pulled like a train with the gtr on the back, 6th gear with the A/C on, and cruise control siting on 120klm all day long on the freeway no matter what you put in front of it. mine was a 4x4 but... : D

[Psymon]

Even an NM or NP Pajero can be had for decent money these days and would handle the towing a bit better than the X-Trail. They're not as big as a patrol or cruiser but still a decent size. Petrol 3.5L ones are cheap as chips but the 3.2 diesel would be the better option.

[warps]

the x-trail has a towing capacity of 2000kg.

Really? That is a surprise. Current model?

To be honest. Nissan does exaggerate the towing capacity a little. They rate the pathfinder / Navara at 3500 kg (may have reduced it to 3000 though). This is the same rating as the twin turbo, 3 tonne Landcruisers. I wouldn't be towing a hell of a lot more than 2 tonne with my pathfinder - I just don't think it would handle it very well. Sure it will do it, but not very well. In this class of vehicle, towing capacity is a big selling point, so why wouldn't they whack a high number in there? Obviously it has to be able to do it, but remember there's a difference between "being able to do it", and doing it well.

My XT was rated at 1800kg, but again it was very uncomfortable at those weights.

For 2-2.5T towing, I reckon your Pajero / pathfinder / prado / Ford territory are a good choice. The petrol models generally have a lot of power, but not as much torque as the TD models, and will use a hell of a lot more fuel.

I guess the big thing is what's your budget? No point talking about a $70k prado if your budget is $15k.

Edited October 29, 2010 by warps

[FineLine]

Towing a 33 with an xtrail is sheer folly. Actually you wont be towing, you'll be getting pushed. That combo will shunt like a mofo.

I have towed damn near every day of my working life for the last 30 years with a wide array of vehicles. Going for something marginal is false economy. A 4 banger will die in no time flat, they simply work too hard to be a long term project.

4 patrols used to a minimum of 450 thousand kilomters with the sum total of repairs being one starter motor and the usual brake pads wearing out etc.

The land cruiser is a more refined vehicle but not in the same ball park when it comes to longivity compared to the patty, transfer cases, clutches and gear boxs all fell to the work load.

The pommy offerrings are just shit. I dont give a tinkers how refined or comfy a landy or a rangey may be they are farken worthless to me sitting in the workshop getting repaired.

Current tow vehicle is the patrol with the twin overhead cam 4.8 litre in line 6 cylinder. Initially it was intolerable to live with the fuel useage but a decent header and exhaust system and an aftermarket ecu with a tune saw a good increase in useable power and a massive improvement in fuel economy. The torque of this engine is staggering. Nothing but nothing slows it down to any great degree. It just pulls and pulls.

In the original op's situ I would look very closely at the navara/triton/ hilux range. all available with a 6 banger of some sort and all chassised strong vehicles that can take the long road.