Land Rover Defender - Highway Towing Test & Weigh-In
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- After seeing how the Defender has performed both in the bush and on the beach it's now time to see how it performs when towing.
But before we hit the road we hit the scales! Let's see if this new Defender really is a good option for 3.5 Tonne towing.
In the next episode we will be wrapping up the series with a walk around of the Defender, looking at everything we have grown to love and hate about it over the past 6 months.
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0:00 - Intro
0:35 - Tow Ball Height
4:50 - Weights
7:45 - Town Towing
12:10 - Highway Towing
15:49 - Uphill Towing
17:35 - Final Thoughts - Авто та транспорт
Great all rounder it would appear, once towed, you have a great tool to explore the new horizons. It’s everything you want and more.
Very informative video. Very useful for those hoping to tow 3.5 ton caravans with the new Defender. I towed a tandem axle 3.5 ton with the old Defender and had to use a weight distribution hitch. No problems towing with our new Disco 5 though.
Awesome video, keep up the great work!
Really impressive to see that from a 4 cylinder engine. The new defender might not be the car a lot of people wanted it to be but it is still a very capable and impressive vehicle in it's own right with an infinitely wider breadth of ability than the old defender ever had
The engine has been dropped due to the number of failures in not only the Defender,but also other models.
@@paulbarry1044 The four cylinder diesel has been but the four cylinder petrol is still for sale and is a great little motor.
Have you towed with the 4 cylinder petrol? @@paulelledge8977
well done review. You guys know your stuff.
Land Rover have done a great job on the new defender, it's high on my list...
the mirrors, surely you need to fit towing mirrors for a 2.5m wide van?
Like to see the 90 do some towing on coil springs basic and on the air suspension. Usually just hook the cable round the towball if there's no fixing point.
The towing camera actually gives you a quite good view for the side of the trailer. But you will need input the length between trailer head and the mid of the axels.
Think your a bit surprised by the way it does what you ask of it!
Interesting what has the high draw bar weight for that heavy caravan?
The legend at 16:02 like what he sees
How did you get the towing camera to only show split side views without the center hitch view? I’d love to be able to do that!
do you Aussies not use weight distribution hitch's? you can split the rear axle load with the front axle?
Great review Andy,
Very thorough
The Defender looks great, and I love the white steelies.
Clearly there is much to know, so that u r Towing safely
U said that the caravan weighed
3.3 tonne
U said ur GCM was 6,150 kg
The 110 weighs just under 2.4 tonne ?
Plus you and fuel
Let’s say 2.6 tonne ?
That adds up to be 5.9 tonne
But, u said ur GCM was 6,150 kg
What is the other 250 kg ??
Is ur Defender the
D200 Diesel with 400 nm
OR
D240 Diesel with 430 nm
???
BTW
LR vehicles have always been built very strong, solid, and over engineered, as they have always had class leading off road and towing ability
LR been doing full, front and rear air suspension for over 25 yrs in the RR
1998 Series 2 Disco had Rear air suspension
Full air suspension on Disco since the Disco 3 in 2005
With air suspension, LR vehicles tow extremely well
2021 MY Defender with 6 cylinder Ingenium Diesel motor in Australia as of April
No 4 cylinder diesel in 2021 MY Defender in Australia
6 cylinder Ingenium Diesel
D200 - 147 kw / 500 nm
D250 - 183 kw / 570 nm
D300 - 220 kw / 650 nm
If u r going to load up ur Defender and tow, 6 cylinder diesel will have the torque to manage this better then the
2020 MY 4 cylinder Diesel engines.
Thanks
Cheers
👍👍
Amazing what kind of trailers you pull down under. I have a tent trailer of 450 kg in the Netherlands behind my 2008 Suzuki Grand Vitara 2400 petrol. Big cars are taxed so high over here so only for the happy few. A Defender like this on road tax will be about 1200 euro's per 3 month's on road tax.
Great video! Can you say more about the electric hookup? How does the Defender manage the brakes on the caravan? Did you need a wireless brake controller in your setup?
There is a standard loom fitting for the Electric brake system
Really informative, thanks guys. It goes to show a stock vehicle can do it. But there aren't many out there. I think on paper, the new Defender has the best numbers and payload of any stock 3.5t towing vehicle out there (exclude the American trucks). Can you think of any others that are better stock?
You'd have to have a full size pick up to compete in US/Can. Toyota Tacoma has a 6500 lb towing capacity where as my lr4/disco 4 has the same 3500 kg 7,700lbs like the defender here.
With out the air suspension or air bags fitted on pick ups you'd have a lot of sag unless you are using a full sized 2500 or 3500 pick up. 1500 would be fine for this weight, Unladen they have a horrible jarring ride though (2500 and 3500)
We will be touching on this more in the next video so stay tuned!
Would have been better to do the D300, interested to know if you put the car into normal ride height when. Measuring?
Nice review, but i don't understand why you didn't fit towing mirrors. It's not the car's fault if you can't see behind you properly.
1750 kg on back axle thats my 1978 Range rover total weight.
The wheels look set back quite far from the centre, it must perform off road better that way but axle load is increased because of it. I can't imagine it's a stress free experience towing it in strong winds.
Hi, this is a fairly standard caravan set up with the weight distribution spot on for the build. This caravan tows better than most.
Thanks for great review, given the weights would you consider a GVM upgrade to the Defender?
Not sure you can do GVM upgrade on a monocoque chassis.
I have a petrol V6 4.0 ltre Discovery 3, this 2.0 engine sounds like a great uograde from the D3?
Given the square hitch could you not just flip the tongue and reverse the ball¿
Can you comment on if you feel the weight distribution on the suspension actively works to compensate the tow ball weight, ?
The air suspension levels the vehicle but it does not distribute weight to the front axle.
Excellent review,I am thinking of getting a 110 in place of a disco 4 HSE Luxury which I tow an Airstream twin axel.
When towing on Uneven roads it feels like someone is jumping up and down on the ball, from your review it seam that this is possibly due to the overhang.
Tried disco 5 and it’s wasn’t as good as the 4.
Also will the 90 be as good as the 110 due to it being lighter.
I'd say the new defender would be a great choice especially with the new straight six diesel engines although I'd try it first just to be sure.
@@beaviccoon470 yes it would ,have to be the 110 though,but you can’t use any of their tow bars as they only go up to 195kg and the airstream is up to 250kg.ALSO towsure’s tow bar[one of the best made] hadn’t gone gone through all the tests a month ago.
Are you able to specify how close was it to the rear axle capacity?
He gave all the numbers in the video.
So if the caravan was 3.5t, your rear axel weight would be well over the max 1.8t. How does the defender advertise 3.5t towing capacity when you were at the limit at 3.3t on your video?
Hi Robbie, that was our biggest concern with the Defender. While its almost expected these days that full towing capacity is hard to realistically achieve with a reasonably loaded vehicle. The fact that its impossible here is a major dissapointment. Hopefully this has been rectified in the newer variations.
SUPER 👍👌TEST!!! ✌️😎
Would be interesting to know the difference in rear axle weight with the recommended hitch length. Suspect significant.
I wasn't particularly good at physics and I 'm happy to be corrected but I've just done quick google search on lever effects (mechanical advantage) and force versus length from a fulcrum (the rear axle).
In the video it looks to me that the modified tow hitch is quite a lot further out from the hitch pin- the distance to centre of the D035 pin looks like about 25-30cm in various still images. I've checked on line and the Land Rover manual specifies a max recommended distance of 175mm from hitch pin to centre of ball.
If we take a conservative estimate that the modified hitch is actually 25cm from hitch pin to centre of D035 "ball" (X in following equation) and Force = (WxX)/L where W=weight of caravan drawbar, L is length on other side of fulcrum (say 2m to front axle for simplicity) then 320kg x 0,175m / 2m = 28; vs 320kg x 0.25 / 2=40 : a ratio of 1.43. So this is a significant increase in leverage on the tow hitch / rear axle.
To solve this problem when my D300 SE arrives next month up in 2014
I hope that helps anyone with concerns about towing an off road caravan/camper with their new Defender.
Edit to reply below: some of my reply did not appear:
I intend to have a custom tow hitch made up by a local tow bar centre in Adelaide with same length but raised height compared with OEM and this should solve the problem
@@davidmunday8820 good job David.
@@davidmunday8820 Did you get a custom hitch made up in the end? How much did it cost? Thanks!
@@MrShivermetimbers123 yes I did- Allin tow bars Adelaide-$75.00. Has been great last 2yrs.
I've never seen a trailer coupling like that before - is it specific to Australia? What is it called?
Hi Nick, its our Cruisemaster DO35 Coupling (3.5T Rated). Widely used in Australia but also available globally direct off our website or via Sloop Imports in the USA. Isnt compatible with override brake systems though which will rule out most applications in SA, UK and Europe.
How does a Hilux Compare on rear Axle load Capacity !!!!!!!!!!!
Land Rover Under Produced it seems
Deus tá no controle de tudo dê éu creio é tomo posi e verdade
ta mate, that was good.
SUPER 👍👌 AUTO!!! ✌️😎
Does the Defender have an integrated brake controller? Has anyone added a brake controller? Getting ready to tow a 4K pound RV in two weeks! 😆
Im not 100% sure but I think the ones in America don't have them as in the UK we don't have brake controllers as the trailers with brakes in the uk brake for you.
Why is that caravan so high off the ground - is it a offroad caravan?
It looks top heavy..
Yes, he's testing an off-road caravan. That was the part that he was explaining about having to use a taller hitch than the manufacturer stock hitch because the off road caravans are taller than normal.
What kind of fuel consumption we see towing 3.5 tons?
He tells you in the video
@@hopperschoppers Sorry will check it out, thanks.
It’s honestly mind boggling that a 4 cylinder suv has a tow capacity of 8k pounds in the US. I can’t picture this towing a 25foot dual axle trailer up a mountain side! 😂
Great review, but I have to say are you kidding about the mirrors? i don't know of any car that can see clearly down the side of a caravan that is wider than the car...
Thanks for watching, with the mirrors we were trying to highlight that unlike most other common tow vehicles in Australia there arent aftermarket options available to upgrade to for towing and the clip ons interfere with the inbuilt sensors. This may not have been clear.
@@CRUISEMASTERCOUNTRY Ahhh, that does make sense. Did not realise there are no aftermarket options available. Thanks for taking the time, and again the great in depth review.
So there shouldn’t be any issues????
We have to “Bodge” something up.
That’s a bit of a concern
At least your honest!
My maximum beer consumption or MBC, is 32 cans in one sitting. If I do 32 cans and then punch on with mates, soil myself and then die, I cant whinge that my MBC was adhered to and all this other stuff went wrong. If you want to tow 3.5t around Australia, buy a Kenworth.
I'm from the US, so I may be confused with the weights. Were you were towing 7000 pounds with a 4 cylinder? Lol
Australia mate, the nanny state of the world…
Quite normal in Europe. And on that perspective it's incomprehensible to European, why Americans need massive trucks, to tow for example normal car trailer.
That said, I remember video where, old F150 lightning was for u-haul rental guy's mind categorized being too small to tow (and rent to) regular car trailer. So the owner had to return with bigger car.
Dont tow more than the kerb weight is safest
This thing will tow 3 ton off road. Also I have driven 37 miles on an empty tank
What engine is this?
Hey Daniel, this is the D240
@@CRUISEMASTERCOUNTRY Thank you - I am in the US, we have just Ford Gas 300 HP, 4 Cycl.. I will assume like performance from it. It is amazing the power we are getting today from 2.0 liters (gas). It is the same power as my 2008 LR LR3 with 4.4 8 cyl, good stuff. The tranys are also amazing today, come on now 8 speeds.
So, the long and short of it is that this vehicle is unsuitable and for a family towing such a caravan
- the rear axle would be significantly overloaded
The additional length in the tow bar only makes worse
- thee rear axle overloading, and
- any potential sway or instability.
No mirrors? bit silly for a pro.. I seriously doubt anyone would buy a 4 cylinder to tow a 3.5T van,, want a better tow car? SD V8 RRS. Best in Aus... dont argue till you ask an owner..
Hi Pedro, part of the excercise was to see if the camera system was a suitable alternate to extended towing mirrors.
Haha! RRS can’t even reliably lug itself around let alone tow something.
Or get one of the six cylinder gas or diesel Defenders. More than enough power.
the axles loads are pretty weak for a vehicle like this
very heavy trucks 2.5 tonne to 3.5 tonne always good of road hevier than a rolls royce
I appreciate the maths, but the van look too big for the car and infers a confidence issue for me and other road users. I would conclude the car is too close to capacity and likely to cause a problem. Insurers would be unamused when assessing a claim!
So what vehicle do you think would be suitable for that size van?
@@KimboFromTheWest Isuzu NPS 75-155 4x4 truck
@@KimboFromTheWest I note this Defender is being “move on” from the cruise master fleet due to its towing capacity limits.
You should never tow anything that puts a vehicle on or close to it maximum you are only going to run in to many mechanical issues down the track. If you are considering towing anything over 2.5T then you should be looking at F250, Dodge Ram 2500 and Toyota Tundra or similar towing abilities. even 200 series Landcruiser should only be towing 2.5t max.
How does a Tundra, which runs LX-570 running gear tow better than a 200 series when the 200 has more torque and weighs 900kg more for towing stability?
Absolute horseshit.
😂😂😂. What a load of crap! Our company use the original Defender for towing ships mooring Ropes and wires which sometimes go 150 to 200m in length and puts them well over the 3500kgs recommended towing capacity..
They all get worked very hard with 18 different boatman jumping in and out daily and we’ve never had any issues because of this.
They get serviced well and we have had many years of using the defender and they have all given great service with little problems.
Wait till you hit a heavy side wind... That trailer will whip that Defender into the ditch.
another new defender hater. you can join the club.
🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
unwatchable with that editing & music