Anyone tow with a Land Rover Discovery (Series II)?

I'm looking for a cheap SUV that my wife can drive occasionally and can tow the racecar 3-4 weekends per year.

There are tons of LR Discoveries around here with low miles for under $5k (some closer to $2500). They are rated to tow 7700 lbs, which seems surprising as they "look" kind of top-heavy and the wheelbase seems to be on the short side.

From what I've read, the SE7 model with load-leveling suspension (airbags in the rear) seems to be the best for towing.

Any experiences? Thoughts?

I'm sure a Suburban would be a better tow vehicle, but my wife would never drive one.

Pretty sure Land Rover makes the best tow vehicles ever. They ALL get towed!

Can your racecar tow the Disco when it breaks?

Is that the one where if you ever overheat it the block needs to have the sleeves replaced?

Lol.

I'm just looking for an SUV that's (a) not too big, (b) can tow around 7000 lbs, and (c) I won't hate driving from time to time.

No direct experience, but I hear that you can drive a Disco from time to time. If you work on it yourself. If you have to sub out the work, then you virtually never get to drive it.

Might look into the v8 4runners.

Aluminum buick v8, not a big power maker.... I wouldn't tow 7k with one.

BrokenYugo wrote: Is that the one where if you ever overheat it the block needs to have the sleeves replaced?

i think the problem was that the sleeves didnt have a "top hat" to keep them from sliding down over time so they end up dropping sleeves and eating the engine.

but damn it if they arent great looking offroaders that make me try to overlook there downfalls.

Not a Disco, but we used our '01 RR P38 HSE to tow a 19' travel trailer all over the east coast, from SC up to NH and out to Ohio, over mountains and everything. Was just fine. Only got rid of the RR to get a tow rig for our follow up, much larger, travel trailer.

Of course, this scene is probably more common:

java230 wrote: Aluminum buick v8, not a big power maker.... I wouldn't tow 7k with one.

The racecar is 2800 lbs and a rental UHaul trailer is (unbelievably) 2400 lbs. Figure another 200 for tires, tools, etc. and we're approaching 5500 lbs.

So, I don't plan to tow 7000 lbs. I just want something with excess capacity.

Chris_V wrote: Not a Disco, but we used our '01 RR P38 HSE to tow a 19' travel trailer all over the east coast, from SC up to NH and out to Ohio, over mountains and everything. Was just fine. Only got rid of the RR to get a tow rig for our follow up, much larger, travel trailer. Of course, this scene is probably more common:

"Since one Range Rover can't complete a road trip on its own, bring a spare!"

Mad machine tows with his Disco. He's also had his fair share of Land Rover troubles.

Someone on this forum used tow regularly with a P40 Range Rover (edit, I think it was actually a p38), and reported no problems and that it was a decent tow rig. IDK how much they have in common with the Disco, but it is definitely the same engine.

I also remember hearing in one of this forums somewhat regular LR/RR discussions that the 4.6 should be avoided because it's more trouble prone, as if that's really possible

Honestly I'm surprised that no one has come up with an engine swap kit. There has to be a reliable, readily available alternative engine that would go great in a Disco.

I've heard that SBCs don't fit easily and make to much power for the rest of the drive line anyway, I've heard of 4.3 vortec swaps, but no long term feedback on that. Surely there is some other V6 out there that could do the job?

In reply to HappyAndy:

GM 3800 V6?

since I replaced the engine on my disco with one with tophatted sleeves and fixed all the timebombs the mechanic who did the work left for me.. my Disco has been quite reliable. It did cost me almost 13grand to get it there though.

that's 8 grand for the engine

4 grand for the original mechanic (who ripped me off something fierce)

and a grand for fixing all his half assed time bombs.. like the bolts that fell out of the oilpan.

I towed my 3200 pound sailboat plus trailer from Lake Champlain to Atlantic City with a trailer that was far too long, too heavy, and had inoperable brakes. Except for needing 3rd gear to climb up out of the valley the lake is in, I had a rather drama free towing experience

i think the problem was that the sleeves didnt have a "top hat" to keep them from sliding down over time so they end up dropping sleeves and eating the engine. but damn it if they arent great looking offroaders that make me try to overlook there downfalls.

The overheat issues were almost exclusively in the 4.6's, the 3.5's, 3.9's, 4.2's never suffered from it. They had their own issues, but much more minor and easily fixed with the revised head bolt torque specs.

They had two problems with the 4.6's. The bigger one was sub-quality aluminum that at times had large pores in it, which would allow coolant under pressure to leak through behind the sleeves, and into other gaps. Mainly behind the sleeves as that's where the aluminum was thinnest. I knew more than a few guys who used ceramic block sealant additives in their coolant system which helped a lot. Engines with this issue were prone to overheating, loosing coolant into the cylinders, all sorts of issues. NO way to tell if you've got a porous block until symptoms show up. And at that point a complete engine is the only solution, lots of warranty replacement engines out there.

The issue with the sleeves wasn't the lack of the top hat, it was the method of install. The factory sleeves were made long, and the intent was the sleeve would bottom out in a stepped bore. The protruding upper lip would be machined off when the block got it's final deck milling. Unfortunately LR didn't properly taper the bottom of the sleeve, and they would sometimes shave material off the block bore, and wouldn't press all the way down as that swarf would impede further process. The top got milled off and away it went into a truck with a weeeeee little gap at the bottom. In normal operating temperature it was a tight enough fit that you wouldn't have any issues.

Over time that swarf works its way out of course. Then if you overheat, the aluminum block expanded enough that the sleeve could slip down that last little bit where it should have been in the first place, and there goes your head seal. The porous blocks made it even worse as it created an engine prone to overheating, double whammy there.

LR stopped doing their own castings and blocks when they discontinued selling trucks with the old v8, and contracted out manufacturing for replacement engine blocks to service existing vehicles. Not sure how the reputation for those replacement Coscast made blocks are.

Typical LR, they finally solved all the issues with the uneven head bolt pressures that got carried over from the original Buick design, then screw up the sleeving process and metalurgy that had been working just fine for decades. That and the rolling fireballs that NAS Defenders started turning into when the oil lines began letting lose and spraying all over the exhaust manifolds.

Darn. I did not need to see this thread! Every time the topic of Discoveries comes up, I spend an hour on Craigslist with dumb ideas in my head.

In reply to Tom Suddard: Looking to do more hiking?

I had one for about 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, put over 50k miles on it (130k - 182k) and I really liked it. I towed boats and lemons cars on open trailers all over the northeast. Mine was an SE7 with the rear air suspension which really did help when towing a heavy load and I would recommend if one were to buy one of these with towing in mind. Mine was fairly trouble free except for head gaskets once. Aside from that it was things that are maintenance or normal wear/tear (coil packs for example). It always started, it was much nicer to drive than other similar cars I had and have had access to. I only sold it as I was towing more and heavier cars and needed something bigger, so I ended up with a 2500 Suburban. They are not trouble free, but they have character, and for me that goes a long way.

Here's mine:

And here's the story of when Mental bought it just after hurricane Sandy to drive back to OK where his wife daily drove it for another year+. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/01/capsule-review-1999-land-rover-discovery-series-ii-aka-the-great-southwest-escape/

In reply to hhaase:

That fits in with the study that found that half of the English work force was drunk after lunch.

Sonic wrote: It always started, it was much nicer to drive than other similar cars I had and have had access to. They are not trouble free, but they have character, and for me that goes a long way.

I took apart your quote to highlight my reasons for owning a disco. I tried quite a few SUVs before deciding on mine. I hated the explorer and trailblazer, the "trollblazer" 9-7 was a bit better (and a lot faster than the trailblazer.. but none of them tickled me just right. The BMW X5 did, but they were beyond my price range at the time.. so the disco it was... and honestly, even having spent more than enough money to buy a very nice X5.. I have not been one bit sorry about owning my landrover.

If the bi-turbo is on your want list, you are prepared for LR ownership.

We had an 04 Disco at the shop. 26k miles and the Jatco transmission was destroyed, the engine had a blown head gasket. Owner authorized $4000 worth of repairs (which included a potentially trashed used Jatco for an insane proportion of that cost) then must have come to his senses and just brought us the title.

We tried for three months to sell it for $4500 and couldn't. We had multiple offers of $2000 and I finally sold it to a guy I knew with a british/german repair shop across town for $1500.

There is a reason they're cheap. This one was four years old and had $26k, and needed major engine and transmission repair, then we couldn't sell it for a tenth of its purchase price.

While this story isn't typical, ..... oh wait, yes it is.

On another note, I did tow with my friends' Disco. I forget what year it was, but it was the 4.6L with Air suspension. I towed his travel trailer with it (which he purchased based on the trailer's GVW of 7500 lbs). Going and stopping, not an issue. Towing a trailer with a short wheelbase and very inadequate rear air was not a joy. I think it would have been fine towing 10k in its intended application; off road towing a cannon into her royal majesty's battle, but after that experience I might say that 4000 is a more logical number.

Think of it as a tractor. It can tow a tank out of a ditch, but not great on the highway.