I'm looking for anyone with long term experience with towing moderately heavy loads over a long period of time.

I'm at about 90,000 miles, 60,000 miles of those are mine. I regularly tow my 2800 LB camper hundreds if miles. I know the specs say 5500 Lbs is the max, but it seems I have problems with my Disco after long mountainous tows. The last two really rough trips involved high winds and big hills. The first trip over new years I came back to a blown head gasket. This last rough trip I came back with a blown radiator. Is this a normal time for these things to break or is this related to towing?

Thanks,
Brian

 

I will tell you, those 2 issues would have happened on or off your trip.
D2's pull well, the only thing I always tell people to do is to keep fresh coolant in the radiator along with a bottle of either Water Wetter or Purple Ice and change your tranny fluid every 20,000 miles adding a bottle of Lucas tranny additive and you'll do find.
Might also want to drive in Sport Mode to take a little load off the tranny.

 

Awesome, that was the info I was looking for. I do typically tow in sport mode especially in the mountains. I'll often drop into 3rd as well. climbing a 2000 foot pass with a 30 MPH headwind is rough.

Thanks for the info! My Disco is in the shop getting it's 90,000 mile service (mostly fluids) which includes the transmission fluid. In the process I'm getting a new radiator and power steering pump...or parts... or whatever else they find wrong with it.

Brian

 

Unless you are on flat ground always have tthe trans in 3rd to keep it from overheating and drive no faster than 65 mph.

 

yeah, I'm RARELY on flat ground. Vegas is surrounded by mountains. To get out of town it's at least a 4K to 5K foot climb. The rover does alright without wind, but if the wind kicks up, it's REALLY slow going. I'm typically in 3rd, but rather then watching my speed, I try to keep the RPMs at 3 or below. Sometimes that translated to 30MPH and sometimes it's 65.


Mike/Spike, if you guys are ever in Vegas, let me know. There are some GREAT trails out here.

Brian

 

Will do, thanks.