Flatcapdriver

Following my van thread which put me off the idea (thanks for the input anyway) I'm now looking at replacing my Series Landy with something that can go places, tow and be reasonably practical for long trips.

I quite like the idea of a 3.9 Vogue, preferably with a LPG conversion as I like the look of them, they're great off road and will possibly be a reasonable investment like the Landy.

Good ones are as rare as hens teeth, so I've just started to consider a Jeep. Must be petrol and ideally LPG although there don't seem to be so many about.

Question is - which would be better? Any input gratefully received.

Budget circa £2500 max.

Franx2

I've had a 3.5 Rangie which wasn't a great success, although I think it was down to a badly installed LPG system which caused it to overheat and burn out a few pistons

Other than that it was good though - I liked it a lot as a car, although the lack of economy meant filling up with LPG a ridiculous amount on long trips. Again, that could be sorted out with bigger tanks.

If you get the Rangie, don't get one with a tank in the boot - big underslung ones if possible, and you don't lose any spaced that way

Kev_turbo

Go steady if you get a jeep. The rear diffs die on them all, the rebuild is not cheap either. The one I had did 12mpg (4.0LTD) but was bloody good at towing absolutely anything - including moving a static caravan at one point down a 1/2 mile farm track.

Kev

Flatcapdriver

Needless to say, the only decent one I could find has the tank in the boot which I need to change. The bloke who had it before was an off-road nut by the looks of it having spent over £11k in the last few years modifying this Range Rover - new engine, gearbox, suspensions etc etc.

The only issue I have with torpedo tanks is that they're going to cause a problem off roading - any opinions?

IainCam

I have a Disco 3.5 V8i with LPG, has the twin underslung tanks. I reckon that if you were doing some serious offroad you'd either want to get some decent protection on them (and/or raise the suspension to get more clearance and chuck bigger tyres on) or get a system put in where you could remove the underslung tanks when offroading and mount them in the boot.

I had been looking at getting an additional tank for the boot and having a quick release system fitted which would have allowed me to get the distance between fill ups for normal running about and take it out if I needed the boot space.

Ended up not bothering as I decided I was going to get shot of it... still have it yet, although I really do need to get my *rse in gear and flog it so I can spend it on the scoob

Luan Pra bang

for an extra £500 look in the right places and you could pick up a 96 4.6 HSE with leather air-con etc. At the moment these cars are in freefal price wise. You can save up and get LPG done at a later date.

graham22

You could have my SWB Nissan Terrano 2.7TDI for not much more, 1998 with 87k, peace of mind japanese reliability, 125hp, 30-35mpg, half decent spec etc, just a bland badge on the front!

Franx2

Why not get a Tdi Rangie?

If you have a look on Auto trader, there are quite a few in that price range, which are likely to be newer than V8 ones as well. I'm told the 2.4 and 2.5 VM turbo diesel is nothing special, but the Tdi's fine - I have one in my Defender The acceleration won't create too much G-force , but they're reasonable enough, and a lot more frugal than the V8s...

I haven't seen any underbody protection for LPG tanks on sale, but I'd be surprised if nobody made it. Could always get one made I suppose.

Flatcapdriver

They're all complete bodge jobs - at least the ones I saw. The other issue with the 4.6 litre engine is that it suffers from overheating as a result of the cylinder liners being too thin.

Like my Series III, the Classic Range Rover will (if properly maintained) hold its price which is a rarity these days. The reason I've gone for LPG is that I get staff rates.

IainCam

Yeah the 3.5 V8's are the ones to go for (but I would say that )

The equivalent mpg on lpg equals the TDi's and at least it's a bit quicker (still not sparklingly quick though).

I think most of the protection for underslung lpg tanks are made by whoever owns each vehicle rather than an off the shelf product... I've not seen any pre made ones anyway, although got to say I never looked that hard for any.

If you want you can have my Disco for half what your budget is