Hello

I'm moving to a pretty remote part of the countryside and need a 4 x 4
to get around. Here's what I'll need:

1. Able to pull a trailer with a 1000kg load (1,000 litre water
container)
2. Able to pull a small caravan (the old wooden 70s ones - pretty
light)
3. Climbing / descending dirt tracks, snow, plenty of potholes/mud but
nothing very steep or truly off-road.
4. 5 doors
5. Fairly economical (25mpg asking too much?) diesel - perhaps even
GPL - but I have little experience of the latter
6. Either manual or auto - I don't have a preference, although please
advise if one is preferable

This group seems very knowledgeable so I'd be grateful for some
guidance.

Thanks, James

wrote:

Hello

I'm moving to a pretty remote part of the countryside and need a 4 x 4
to get around. Here's what I'll need:

1. Able to pull a trailer with a 1000kg load (1,000 litre water
container)
2. Able to pull a small caravan (the old wooden 70s ones - pretty
light)
3. Climbing / descending dirt tracks, snow, plenty of potholes/mud but
nothing very steep or truly off-road.
4. 5 doors
5. Fairly economical (25mpg asking too much?) diesel - perhaps even
GPL - but I have little experience of the latter
6. Either manual or auto - I don't have a preference, although please
advise if one is preferable

I'd go for a manual, much better for hill descent in this price range.
Autos are much better with the expensive hill descent systems fitted to
recent models.

This group seems very knowledgeable so I'd be grateful for some
guidance.

A local dealer (to me) was selling some nice looking Vitaras in that
price range. They should tick most of the boxes on the list above except
they are petrol and not diesel, and the ones I saw were three rather
than five doors.

Several very large 4x4s of the likes of Chevvy Blazers and Ford
Explorers available in good nick for that sort of money, but again
petrol and given they have 4.0 engines unlikely to get 25mpg.

You'll get lots of people advising the purchase of a clapped out Landie
for that money. IME that means you'll be spending £££££s on maintenance
unless you are a spanner monkey.

Personally I'd also consider a Daihatsu Fourtrak. For your money you
should be able to get a 1998/9 vehicle with reasonable 60-80k mileage. A
decent 2.8 turbodiesel engine in the Fourtrak, the ride is agricultural
but then that's true for any decent 4x4 in this price bracket.

wrote:
Hello

I'm moving to a pretty remote part of the countryside and need a 4 x 4
to get around. Here's what I'll need:

1. Able to pull a trailer with a 1000kg load (1,000 litre water
container)
2. Able to pull a small caravan (the old wooden 70s ones - pretty
light)
3. Climbing / descending dirt tracks, snow, plenty of potholes/mud but
nothing very steep or truly off-road.
4. 5 doors
5. Fairly economical (25mpg asking too much?) diesel - perhaps even
GPL - but I have little experience of the latter
6. Either manual or auto - I don't have a preference, although please
advise if one is preferable

This group seems very knowledgeable so I'd be grateful for some
guidance.

Thanks, James


Shogun or Pajero maybe - well spec'd and will just scrape 25mpg - not
towing though.

chrisu wrote in
:

Shogun or Pajero maybe - well spec'd and will just scrape 25mpg - not
towing though.

Oh, I don't know about that. My 2.8 returns about 22mpg with 1200kg on the
back and some of the 2.5s can scrape 30mpg solo and 25mpg towing under a
tonne.

You can get a good late 2.5 or early 2.8 Mk2 for three grand. Nearly all
are autos - but the Super Select / Auto combination is pretty good and you
can switch between 2 and 4 wheel drive on the move (up to 30 mph), and
"change gear" without disengaging drive. The auto-creep and hand-throttle
are also very useful when it gets a little slippy.

If you're tempted, there's a lot of info on the owner's club site
(http://www.pocuk.com/)

HTH,

--
Geoff

Geoff Lane wrote:
chrisu wrote in
:

Shogun or Pajero maybe - well spec'd and will just scrape 25mpg - not
towing though.

Oh, I don't know about that. My 2.8 returns about 22mpg with 1200kg on the
back and some of the 2.5s can scrape 30mpg solo and 25mpg towing under a
tonne.

guess I've got a leaden right foot then.......... ;-)

You can get a good late 2.5 or early 2.8 Mk2 for three grand. Nearly all
are autos - but the Super Select / Auto combination is pretty good and you
can switch between 2 and 4 wheel drive on the move (up to 30 mph), and
"change gear" without disengaging drive. The auto-creep and hand-throttle
are also very useful when it gets a little slippy.

If you're tempted, there's a lot of info on the owner's club site
(http://www.pocuk.com/)

HTH,

Thanks folks - I appreciate the input. I'll have a look at some
Pajeros.

On 2007-06-06, wrote:

Thanks folks - I appreciate the input. I'll have a look at some
Pajeros.

Haven't they got a locking rear axle diff? If so, even more ideal for
your towing needs. If only some have it, then try to get one that
has. I think it was an option at the factory.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!

Ian Rawlings wrote in news:slrnf6dlh0.dbn.news06
@desktop.tarcus.org.uk:

Haven't they got a locking rear axle diff? If so, even more ideal for
your towing needs. If only some have it, then try to get one that
has. I think it was an option at the factory.

All have locking centre diffs. Few have locking rear diffs, but many have
limited slip rear diffs, which might be better for towing because you don't
need to worry about "winding up" the rear diff. There's allegedly an easy
way to tell (apart from jacking the rear axle and watching which way one
wheel turns when you turn the other by hand) that a particular car has LSD
from a sticker on the driver's side B-pillar. If it has this label, the car
has LSD if not the car might still have LSD but the label's fallen off.
BTW, it's important to know whether your car has LSD because they need
different lubricants and "normal" diff oil can wreck a LSD.

Here's one of many threads on the owners club forum about this subject:
http://www.pocuk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=63451

HTH,

--
Geoff

Geoff Lane ) gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying :

There's allegedly an easy way to tell (apart from jacking the rear axle
and watching which way one wheel turns when you turn the other by hand)
that a particular car has LSD from a sticker on the driver's side
B-pillar. If it has this label, the car has LSD if not the car might
still have LSD but the label's fallen off.

And if the car's got a sticker but the rear axle's been changed for a non-
LSD one...?