hi folks,
i have a 300 tdi and i find the disco struggles when it comes to most inclines when the caravan is being towed,just wonderng if having a intercooler upgrade would solve this problem.

also in normal condtions when you guys are towing,are you spending most of the time in 5th gear or do you find if better to stop in 4th?

any feed back appreciated

 

I also have a Discovery 300tdi which I use, amoungst other things, for towing a caravan. Overall I find the Discovery an excellent tow vehicle, but as you say it does tend to struggle a little on some inclines. That said, it doesn't really matter what you're towing with you'll always notice a definate resistance once you start trying to tow a caravan up a hill and I find that the Discovery does quite well when compared to other towing vehicles. There's not many people who come past me when I'm towing, and the ones that do are generally V6 or V8 petrol vehicles so I can't really grumble.

The gearing isn't ideally suited to towing I don't think, because I also find myself going between 4th and 5th gears regularly while on a towing journey. Sometimes I tend to leave it in 4th depending on the road conditions confronting me, but generally I find 5th is fine when you're on flat land.

I don't have an intercooler fitted on my vehicle, but I do have uprated cooling fans which help keep the engine from getting too warm. I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who's fitted an intercooler and what benefits it gave in terms of performance.

Brian

 

many thanks for the reply brian,
i feel much happier now after reading your comments,i had the caravan out this weekend and as long as get to around 2.500 rpm before i get into 5th and on a flattish road,the disco pulls well.

i moved up from a frontera 2.5tds and its gearing was a lot different & its maybes a case of just getting to know the disco

all the best

 

Well, you need +2500 revs before the turbo kicks in properly, so it's definately advisable to change gear after this point. To be honest I apply this rule even when not towing, I don't normally change gear until about 3500 revs in normal use and perhaps even higher when towing.

My partner's Dad had a Frontera and he told me it was absolutely awful at towing, but I'm not sure which engine model he had. He's since moved on to a 2.7 Terrano Diesel which has got quite a bit of poke in it - it's faster than my Discovery.

Still, I wouldn't swap my LandRover for his jap crap...

Brian

 

You do have an intercooler fitted.... but you can up rate it to be twice the size, and yes it makes a difference. You can also uprate the turbo as well, that is a straight swap, though expensive. What a lot do when they up rate the intercooler they slightly turn up the boost pressure as well on the existing turbo.
Brian has also done a good thing by removing the viscous fan and having electric fans as the viscous runs all the time and thus saps energy from the engine, though not huge amounts, it all helps.

The gearing in the disco is designed for motorway driving, the defender has slightly lower gearing, as a result, I find I do not change down anywhere near as much. But I do not have the same top speed as the disco in the first place, so it is all relative.

Try here for more info, (applies to disco as well...)

http://www.lrm.co.uk/archive/technical/intercooler.html

Supplier...

http://www.jeremyjfearn.co.uk/intercooler.htm