What diesel 4x4 ~3k, needed for boat towing duties.

swansty

RMS Regular
Messages
5,318
Location
Banbridge
Drives
Disco and Saxo
Would a Disco/Range rover not be a money pit for about 3k?
Disco will likely have more rust than the Rangie but perhaps less to go wrong. You are at the bottom end of a market for what we’re once expensive ish cars so buy with the eyes open.
 

Simon998

RMS Regular
OP
Simon998
Messages
11,590
Drives
Cayman S
Important question: what size and weight is the boat?

I launched my 5.4m rib/75hp 4 stroke engine with my old 2000 Passat 1.9TDi and it was effortless. Heavy diesel engine over the driven axle and the boat/trailer wasn’t heavy enough to cause it any concern. So long as the front wheels stayed on dry standing, it would never have been a problem. The great set of winter tyres would have went it it’s favour had the front end touched water, but never needed to test that theory.

I usually used the Jeep Renegade for launching and again, it was more than up to the job. I’d have been comfortable using it to tow and launch a boat twice the weight, but always engaged 4wd when on the slip way due to the value of the Jeep and not wanting to take any chances...

It's a fishing boat, pretty damn heavy when it's all loaded up. 24ft I think, I don't know much about them. It's pretty steep where he launches the boat and he's tried it in a few normal cars previously with his smaller/lighter boat and it was a nightmare. Once he got the diesel Tucson he was over the moon as it was effortless but it gave him a few large bills in the 2 years he had it and eventually shat the bed.

I'm swaying between a big Trooper, XTrail or Discovery atm.

Disco will likely have more rust than the Rangie but perhaps less to go wrong. You are at the bottom end of a market for what we’re once expensive ish cars so buy with the eyes open.

That's the problem, he hasnt a clue about cars. He has a van for work and another car to run about in, this is purely for for the boat.

Cheers for all the help.
 

purplea4T

RMS Regular
Messages
3,967
Location
Bangor
Jeep Cherokee 2.8’s are cheap and more than up to towing anything I put behind ours. Some parts can be dear, some very cheap but they’re easy to work on. They do like to rust a sill or two though.
 

Simon998

RMS Regular
OP
Simon998
Messages
11,590
Drives
Cayman S
It's all the rust things that's putting me off discos/jeeps/rr's. He was changing the brakes every year as it got dipped in the water often and then parked up all winter. Something easy to work on and cheap for parts would be ideal. I priced rear brakes for the Trooper & Disco and they were surprisingly cheap so thats a plus.
 

Apis

RMS Regular
Messages
4,073
Location
NW
Drives
various
It's a fishing boat, pretty damn heavy when it's all loaded up. 24ft I think, I don't know much about them. It's pretty steep where he launches the boat and he's tried it in a few normal cars previously with his smaller/lighter boat and it was a nightmare. Once he got the diesel Tucson he was over the moon as it was effortless but it gave him a few large bills in the 2 years he had it and eventually shat the bed.

I'm swaying between a big Trooper, XTrail or Discovery atm.

Sounds like a low range box would be handy too. Not sure if the X-trail has one (?), but the Isuzu and the Disco do.
 

Coog

Admin
Messages
47,514
Drives
GTI
Kia Sorrento is another worthy option. We towed the arse out of one launching boats for years on very greasy slip ways and it was dead on.
 

suckindiesel

RMS Regular
Messages
3,626
Location
Lisburn
Drives
A6 Allroad
Combination of a hilly area and a 24ft boat would rule out any cars for me, don't know why people suggesting them....its easy to say 'x' car tows great, but I'd want to be legal/safe. Plus, we scrabbled for grip for years with front wheel drive family cars and just an 18ft speed boat, and its hard on clutch too, whereas any jeep I had was effortless by comparison - sounds like he's been there before and seen the difference.

Any old full size 4x4 at £3,000 nowadays can be very hit and miss due to the life they live - fine if you know what your looking at, but bit of a gamble IMO. Providing the boat isn't over-weighting it (assume was fine with the Tuscan) I'd probably avoid the Shogun/Disco/Trooper idea and go for a CRV/Rav4 size of a thing, though they have no low box. A Grand Vitara has a low box and Peugeot HDI engine. A 2.8 Cherokee has an absolute ball of torque, low box, and a higher towing cap of anything else its size (2800kg I think), they're cheap too so your budget would pick up a tidy one, though not as reliable as the jap stuff. I'd avoid Patrols/Terranos, they like to rust like nothing else, and the 2.2 in the Xtrail is a Renault engine (although I've had a few with no bother) the idea of steep inclines/heavy loads/short runs would worry me.
 
Last edited:

Simon998

RMS Regular
OP
Simon998
Messages
11,590
Drives
Cayman S
Combination of a hilly area and a 24ft boat would rule out any cars for me, don't know why people suggesting them....its easy to say 'x' car tows great, but I'd want to be legal/safe. Plus, we scrabbled for grip for years with front wheel drive family cars and just an 18ft speed boat, and its hard on clutch too, whereas any jeep I had was effortless by comparison - sounds like he's been there before and seen the difference.

Any old full size 4x4 at £3,000 nowadays can be very hit and miss due to the life they live - fine if you know what your looking at, but bit of a gamble IMO. Providing the boat isn't over-weighting it (assume was fine with the Tuscan) I'd probably avoid the Shogun/Disco/Trooper idea and go for a CRV/Rav4 size of a thing, though they have no low box. A Grand Vitara has a low box and Peugeot HDI engine. A 2.8 Cherokee has an absolute ball of torque, low box, and a higher towing cap of anything else its size (2800kg I think), they're cheap too so your budget would pick up a tidy one, though not as reliable as the jap stuff. I'd avoid Patrols/Terranos, they like to rust like nothing else, and the 2.2 in the Xtrail is a Renault engine (although I've had a few with no bother) the idea of steep inclines/heavy loads/short runs would worry me.

By the sounds of things a cheap beater would be the best option, everything else just seems to be something for someone with a bit of mechanical know-how. Another Tucson/Kia/Rav4 for around a grand then just scrap it when it gives up the ghost.
 

suckindiesel

RMS Regular
Messages
3,626
Location
Lisburn
Drives
A6 Allroad
Id go for something with low box like a Grand Vitara personally, but haven't seen the size of boat or steepness or the slip/roads.
 

Robin_Hood

RMS Regular
Messages
508
Drives
Defender
Pity your budget wasn’t higher..

I have 05 Discovery 3 HSE, leather, nav, automatic, tow bar etc and which will be going up for sale shortly.
133k, 2 owners from new and originally supplied by Charles Hurst, we have owned it for the last 10 years and it has been fantastic
File full of receipts incl suspension compressor, suspension arms, belts done, just serviced this week and was MOT’d on Monday

On 20” rims and fully colour coded with discovery 4 rear lights.

60F2B00F-4D97-4DC2-A62B-775A4F5B4DDC.jpeg
 

dddrrift

RMS Regular
Messages
3,569
E53 x5 3.0d? Use mine for boats all the time, no issues at all on the slipway, loves getting her toes wet, although mine is a manual with a good handbrake lol
 

stevieturbo

RMS Regular
Messages
21,096
Location
Antrim
Drives
Old Ford
Ever driven a 3.1 auto trooper? Worst auto box I think iv ever experienced, had 3 auto bighorns, 2 out of 3 had gearbox problems.

Didnt say buy an automatic trooper...just said buy an automatic.

For towing and all that nonsense, they're far handier....of course dont buy a bad automatic. And for a worse box, 525tds. Worst auto I've ever driven, totally useless gearbox.
 

Nicky

RMS Regular
Messages
24,533
Drives
HiluxSurf
Thats brutal lol never had any issues with ours in 10 years of ownership

As someone rightly highlighted, I only ever seen them and various other vehicles when they were broken, so that has tainted my opinion of them. Hard to look past the Shogun’s common enough need for a £1500 injector pump when you only ever seen them in that capacity though.

I’m very happy with my TD6 Range Rover which was a fraction over half of the OP’s budget, and will mostly certainly be testing it’s towing capacity in the coming weeks even though I already know this particularly vehicle regularly towed 3-3.5ton with the previous owner.
 

Mr.Mint

RMS Regular
Messages
3,330
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Many Things.
I have a 04 Shogun Sport with 108k on it and Mot'd to January 20 if your interested.

(I know this is a shameless plug :joy:)
 
Top