2nd Hand Land Rover Discovery / Defender / Range Rover

Range Rover classic, 3.9 auto, on LPG.

Ideal for towing that sort of weight, effortless to drive, and will breeze up hills with the heavy trailer. LPG so will have reasonable economy.

£3,000 should get you something in reasonable condition.

Is LPG worth it for the space lost? This is going to be a commercial vehicle (towing an 100kva genny) so any space in the back would probably end up with a pile of distro in it :)

What sort of age/mileage should I be expecting for my money?

I would go for a manual, considering the trailer. Erik-Jan.

I dunno, i like the idea of an Auto, i'm a lazy sod too :)

You need not lose any space, sill tanks fit nicely if you do not intend doing any seriuos off roading (and they make pretty good rock sliders if you do take it off road!) You can also have the petrol tank removed, and two tanks put in its place, with a small patrol tank at the side of the chassis rail, directly under the filler neck.

I paid £2500 for mine, which (at the time) was about 10 years old, and in pretty good nick. I fitted the gas conversion myself, which cost me about £5-600, including 4 tanks (2 sill, and 2 where the petrol used to be)

You should be able to find something decent around h/j/k reg, with LPG fitted for that price.

I see, probably don't want to be using petrol in this one anyway now i think of it, either lpg or diesel i think :)

On or around Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:19:25 +0000 (UTC), "SimonJ" enlightened us thusly:

There's also an 80l single tank to go in the petrol tank space, too. Easy fitting, 4 big bolts through the floor.

On or around Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:53:04 GMT, Alex Threlfall enlightened us thusly:

Hmmm... Threlfall. Not related to a Tom of the same name, are you? Used to edit the MCC "triple" magazine.

On or around Mon, 28 Mar 2005 02:52:28 +0200, Erik-Jan Geniets enlightened us thusly:

I'd go for the auto, meself, stronger box and smoother. The 4-speed ZF is a damned fine piece of kit.

Nope fraid not :) Well, not unless i have a secret twin/brother/uncle/something!

Well for that price you don't want to muck about fitting lpg. Get a diesel for 30mpg.

I'll get shouted at for this but they're all pretty much the same beast. The Disco and RR are on the same chassis ( my early Disco even has RR on the foot pedals!!) and the Disco is said to be slightly bigger but whether that's bodywork or load space I don't know.

You'll be looking at the 200/300 Tdi engine I guess and that was fitted to all of 'em at some stage. If I'm wrong someone will correct me pretty smartly.

If you are towing regularly the the rear doo configuration may be very important. With some things on the back I can't open my Disco door without uncoupling the trailer. I guess there's more room in the back of the Deffy than the other two. The RR is usually overpriced in my opinion but it often has nice goodies fitted. I guess if image/comfort/goodies is an issue then it's the Disco otherwise the Deffy.

Have a look on eBay to see the going rates for all of these.

I have towed my 2.5 ton boat on a 4 wheel trailer behind the Disco and it performed admirably, even though I now know that the shocks were knackered at the time!!

TonyB ( Cover ears and waits for ripostes!)

Well my colleague's bought an disco already, so i'll see how his manages before commiting myself to one or the other :)

Def. leaning towards an RR atm.

Won't you need additional oil coolers then? The trailer weighs 2.6 tons! Erik-Jan.

On or around Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:39:49 +0000 (UTC), "TonyB" enlightened us thusly:

I'd like to know what engine you're planning on fitting to get 30 mpg towing

2.6T...

Mind, neither will a 3.9 v8, even taking the LPG price into account.

200 and 300 TDis will return 30 or a tad more running light, and not too fast.

I've known our 300 to do well under 30 hammering up the motorway at

*CENSORED* mph. Towing a heavy trailer will knock a bit off too.

a 3.9 V8 will, on LPG and properly tuned, return similar fuel COSTS to a TDi.

Oh, and beware of RR turbo diesels, as opposed to TDis - they're the VM engine, which, although not as bad as some say, is not in the same class as the TDi.

The main issue with LPG is tank range and availability - the latter is improving, the former is difficult, even with multiple tanks, to get much over 300 miles without tanks in the car.

by contrast, the TDi, running light, will go about 600 miles, or about

450-500 in heavy towing or flat-out mode.

On or around Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:17:20 GMT, Alex Threlfall enlightened us thusly:

'twas just a thought. Not all that common a name.

Yes, that is a point, whatever I go for it's going to have crap economy when towing, however as most of this mileage will be billed to the client anyway it's less of an issue :)