Best tow vehicle for my scooby ?
 

Time to upgrade the trusty old Vectra this year and wife doesn't want wheels thrown in her Audi ??? women :rolleyes:

Current short list of

Mercedes Vito 110 Diesel (chipped to 150bhp)
Transit SWB low roof 125ps (if such a model exists ? )
Vauxhall Vivaro 1.9 (chipped to 130 but heard of issues with fuel pumps failing)

Or maybe something smaller such as a Shogun 3.2 DiD ? Warrior 2.5 td or some other turbo diesel 4wd ?
I've no idea how these things tow or what sort of mpg to expect ? Do they have room for a spare set of 4 wheels, tools etc ? Will they maintain 70mph uphill with a loaded trailer ?

Budget circa £10-12k

Any suggestions ?

Andy

T-uk has an Animal (like the Warrior) that he'll tell you all about.

Get a van big enough to put a bed in Andy........ that way you could take your workshop with you, and even better... kip in it aswell!!!!

Hi Andy,

You will pick up a new Vivaro for that budget complete with 3yr / 100k warrenty.

Although only 100ps they give our VW Transporter TDi130's a good bashing (laws of power to weight your aware of!). You'll return 600 miles/tank unladen.

You buying as business or personal? (VAT)

Duncan

Oh the Vivaro is coming with free LWB upgrade, ply lining and roof rack at the mo'

It will be a business purchase so the vat is not an issue.

Must go look at new Vivaro pricing :cool: Don't want a big van so SWB will do fine.

Andy

Legacy Estate 2.5 ?

Although they're a little bit thirsty, i've found them to be a quite capable (and cheap ;) ) tow car.

What about the new VITO 115???? - these are 150bhp out of the crate

http://www.vandeals.co.uk/content.php?categoryId=43

sorry maybe the 115 is just out of yoru price bracket:(

http://www.vanman.co.uk/newvans/van-68.htm

http://www.ukvanprices.com/vanresults_model.asp?SEARCH=%20v.variant_long_name %20like%20'*Mercedes-Benz%20Vito*'


Also Motorpoint seem to be doing good deals on vans.

Steer clear of Mitsi's, pieces of ****e..

If you want value for money go for a Frontera or Isuzu Trooper 2.8 TDi (same cars basically), The 2.8 TDi lump is a great engine!

I have a Nissan Primastar, which is the same a s the vauxhall vivaro. Its chipped to 120 ish bhp goes well and returns 600 miles to a tank, which is around the 30 mpg mark.

I also use it for towing a big double wheel trailer with our 93 ra rally car strapped on it. It will sit on the motorway doing 70mph all day long fully loaded also.
You can buy them for around the £10.5K mark plus VAT brand new and they come with more goodies than the renault equivalent. Full electric pack, reversing sensors etc etc. I have had 2 of these now and covered over 80K miles in the last 2.5 years without any problems.

good luck

jon

my vote goes to the transit, ive got the swb low roof van and i love it loads of room in the back, i have only got the 75hp model, the other day i was going along a stretch of up hill dual carriageway about 75mph and a recovery transit (at a guess 125hp) with a car on the back and towing a trailer with another car on absolutely flew past me, they have alot of torque

Were do you base that analysis (sp??) on ?? :brickwall

I have 4 shoguns at work, ableit all commercial & all work very well, never had an issue with any of them & they are all approaching 1 year old.

I think your statement is unfounded. Deal in fact :)

Will you be using it for towing only? If you're going to use it to travel the length of the country to do mapping sessions also then a more comfortable car/4x4/pickup based option would be my choice.

I'd go with the VW Transporter TDi-chipped of course with a Superchip:D . Speak to Conrad Bradley ( RacingLine ), his mate has one of these on a 55 plate and on his rolling road it made 220 bhp ( I think that's right ) and 330 lb per ft torque:eek2: . It sounded great for a diesel.

Cheers Paul.

P.S. You could always do similar to what Dave the butcher has done and make a pick-up:norty: .

ive had a renault traffic 1.9dci over a year now which is same as vauxhall vivaro/nissan primastar, its got a £100 chip i got of ebay, it drives better than most cars, and most of the time i prefer to take the traffic instead of the 04 wrx.
mine averages round 30+mpg but most of the time but it sits arround 100mph on motorway im sure it would be better if its not thrashed all the time. ive driven the vito 112cdi which had similar performance but the traffic handles better has a lot better spec, ac, cd player, e/w etc. vito has better build quality.
never like the transit ive driven, better to stick with vito or traffic/vivaro. might change mine later in year or next year for a used transporter 2.5tdi 174bhp but not driven one of them yet.

220bhp!!! in a van, i bet thats as quick as a standard wrx

Have to agree with STI-04 on this, have ahd both Trooper & currently have a Shogun 2.8 TD and the Shogun has had no problems so far - trooper fell to bits around me.
Andy F _ I use this for towing my 19' trailer with track 205 + spares to Knockhill (You know the hill situation there lol) all the time and it is perfectly capable. I dont think the warrior 2.5 engine is as good as the 2.8 so worth a shot of both to confirm.
unladen I get 30 mpg , fully loaded 24/25 ish. Just another opinion if you dont really want to go down the van route ( and you can park it anywhere without fear of getting stuck :D )
Daz

:D It was 200 HP and 330 lb's /ft, it goes very well. I'v had a Vito and I wouldnt buy another with all the hassle I had.

Hello again Andy..
I used to be a recovery driver for quite a while and have spent many thousands of miles behind the wheel of a Fiat Ducato 2.8TD flatbed..
I found it very hard to fault pulling 2 cars uphill at any speed I wanted to travel at...Go and try the 130hp van and see what you think...
Regards
Martyn

Andy, the car we have, the Mitsubishi Shogun Sport is superb for towing. When we went to Brunters for the Evo bashing day, we sat at 85+ with the scoob on the trailer.

You wont get the vat back on that though, and is probably a bit too civilised for what you rally need. So go for its more industrial brother, any variant of the L200 pick up.

Or you could go for the Nissan Nivaro pickup.

Go drive T-Uk's with the trailer on, and the Shogun sport is virtually the same, except it had more rear passenger legroom.

Steven

I would go for a Navara, thats what i'm getting anyway :cool:

I would look at nissan our mitsi L200 is p1sh.

I tow with an Isuzu Rodeo Denver- drives like a dream and will tow at silly speeds. Its done 25k now in just under a year, and no probs or complaints- I love it.

It is, however, a bit thirsty. At 60mph on the motorway you can get just over 30, but I usually average 23-24 driving it like its an Impreza :D

Andy, how about this for a towing vehicle? :)

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...98#post5631298

I think you should consider this, an ex-Prodrive chase vehicle for the SWRT :norty:

Ideal, diesel, spare seats, air-con and the right colour as well as being cheap...ish...

;)