What's your tug?

Beth54 · Guru

RE: What's your tug?

cultana · Senior Member

Beth54 wrote:
If all goes to plan, I'm going to be changing my tug in the near future
So I was wondering....
1/what is your vehicle? Nissan Patrol, 2005 GU IV, ZD30 Di manual
2/ are you happy with it? Yes
3/ Why did you choose this vehicle? It has a 3.5 t tow bar with 350kg ball weight

Also I needed something to tow a trailer with hay, about 2.8t not including trailer weight as well as a wooden horse float, about 2t

Also I have the NADS done on the Patrol.

Other thing earlier Patrols have a problem wih 5th gear espicially when towing. Fixed in the GU IVs.

Anyway the X Trail sounds more suitable based on some of your comments. You could always try to get the temp skiny spare replaced with a real tyre.

Beth54 · Guru

I never thought about asking for a full size spare. That's a good idea.

My son and my sister have Nissan Patrols and are very happy with them. And my brother has a Landcruiser, his second one.

Rip and Rosie · Guru

We are towing with a Ford Territory diesel RWD.
We did extensive research, so I know exactly why:-
1. comfortable to drive, and doesn't feel like a truck
2. suitable to spend a lot of its life as a grocery waggon ( :) )
3. manufacturers recommend the use of WDH - lots of others recommend that they NOT be used, and I wasn't prepared to tow without one.
4. seats fold flat
5. Australia wide servicing and diesels only need one service annually
6 diesel is available everywhere
7. had plenty of space in the rear section for the dogs, and good airflow
8 tow capacity was exactly what we needed with some to spare
9, RWD- previous tow vehicle was FWD and that got us into some difficulty with braking, and when the ground was boggy
10 it was red.

Beth54 · Guru

I agree Rosie, red's the way to go. Actually, I like your list. Very practical.

I might be a bit slow today but what's WDH? confuse

I wonder why the Territory didn't come up when I put in RWD on the various sites. confuse

Rip and Rosie · Guru

WDH = weight distribution hitch = those bloody bars.

The Territory has an option of all wheel drive as well, but when I researched it, I found all your tyres wear out at the same rate and I don't fancy buying 4 tyres all together. With rear wheel drive you can rotate your tyres and just replace 2.

Now, some of the men will tell me there are heaps more benefits to AWD, but I an satisfied with the decision to have RWD.

Rosie

Beth54 · Guru

Rip and Rosie wrote:
WDH = weight distribution hitch = those bloody bars.

The Territory has an option of all wheel drive as well, but when I researched it, I found all your tyres wear out at the same rate and I don't fancy buying 4 tyres all together. With rear wheel drive you can rotate your tyres and just replace 2.

Now, some of the men will tell me there are heaps more benefits to AWD, but I an satisfied with the decision to have RWD.

Rosie

I knew that! biggrin What you say about the tyres is interesting. I hadn't heard that.

Does anyone else know of any other RWD vehicles that would suit my purposes?

ShortNorth · Senior Member

Beth54 wrote:
........................................Most of you seem to have the larger vehicles, but I guess you have the larger caravans, whereas I don't need anything too big when it's just me myself and I.
My first priority is always the economy of the vehicle, towing capacity and clearance.....................................I think a compact SUV, as they call them, would be right for me, so I would still only want a smallish van..................................

Hello Beth,

I've been watching this topic with some similar interest. I'm currently researching new vans and tugs for a potential future upgrade. You may find my evaluations of interest to you. Not everyone has to have a massive off-roader costing heaps of $; at the budget end of the spectrum there is some very nice offerings.

The way to do it is to find a suitable van first, then find a suitable tug to go with it.

VANS - My base specs - single axle, up to 2000ATM maximum, hard top (pop-tops have too many compromises), fixed bed (having to convert seating/beds every day just doesn't work) and shower/toilet - around $45k maximum.

For convenience I'll break the vans up into two groups:
Group A - up to 1500 ATM - mostly lightweight 'euro' vans
Group B - 1500 to 2000 ATM - mostly lightest Aussie vans
Anything over 2000 ATM is, for me, just too heavy, too big and cumbersome, too expensive and needs a big more expensive tug.

Suitable offerings in Group A are - Adria 432PX, Adria 512PU, Swift Alpine 4, Swift Major 4 FB, Elddis Xplore 504, and Bailey Orion 430-4.
Suitable offerings in Group B are - Avan Aspire 449, Avan Frances 560, Coromal Elements 542S, Jurgens Sungazer J19, Diamond 169 and Sportscruiser 1550.

There's 12 well equipped vans for between mid-$30k to high-$40k. There are many smaller and cheaper vans below these 11 examples, but for overall long-term comfort, convenience, features, and bang-for-buck, I'd personally not drop below those models mentioned about. The Group A's would be best kept to tar roads with only a little good dirt occasionally - the Group B's are a bit more rugged and can cope with 'reasonable' off-road, but not for out-and-out bush bashing.

In your case a van from Group A would be the best suited, and can be towed by a budget SUV with around 1600ATM

TUGS - Tugs can go from around mid$20k's to 'What ? - how much ???'. For this exercise I'm initially looking only at the cheaper end of the spectrum, the Chinese and Korean tugs - around $35k maximum - auto preferable, diesel or 4x4 ONLY if I need it to get the maximum ATM rating.

For Group A vans - Korando S petrol 1500ATM, Sportage Si 1600ATM, ix35 1600ATM, GWM X240/X200 1700ATM.
For Group B vans - Korando SX diesel 4x4 2000ATM, GWM V240/V200 dual cab 2000ATM, Stavic diesel 2000ATM, and Actyon Sports SX diesel dual-cab 2300ATM - I've included the Actyon as it is the cheapest dual-cab with decent (i.e over 2000kg) tow capacity. Over 2500kg you're into the higher priced big dual-cabs.

There's a batch of 8 budget tugs for between mid-$20k to mid-$30k at base entry-level pricing. Don't forget that auto adds about $2-3k, diesel adds about $2-3k, and 4x4 adds about $2-3k - then allow about $1-1.2k for a tow bar, electric brake controller and wiring installed. I would allow at least a 100-200kg buffer under the vehicles maximum ATM, e.g. Korando S, nothing over 1400kg, Korando SX, nothing over 1800kg, Actyon, nothing over 2100kg, etc.

Many would laugh at the Chinese or Korean cars, but once you go past these into the more well established names, you're adding another $5-10k into the cost - secondly, to get the required higher tow rating you usually have to go to their diesel/AWD versions - i.e Forester 1500/1800ATM, Subaru XV 1400ATM, Yeti 1200/1600ATM, Tiguan 1800/2000ATM, Dualis 1200/1400ATM, Grand Vitara 1600ATM. CR-V 1500ATM, Outlander 1600ATM, CX-5 1800ATM, Kuga 1500ATM, Captiva 1500ATM, X-Trail 1500ATM, Koleos 2000ATM, Sorento 2000ATM, Santa Fe 2000ATM, etc., very quickly you could find yourself paying $50k+ for a tug.

Right at the moment, my favorite combos are:

Group A - Adria 512PU (1500kg) + GWM X200 auto (1700kg) - $40k + $30k (inc towbar)
Group B - Sportscruiser 1550 (1950kg) + Actyon SX auto (2300kg) - $40k + $32k (inc towbar)

That's two nice combos for under $75k total, with a bit of change left over for some nice add-ons in the van or tug !

I don't know if these will be my final choices, but they are realistic options for a combined total of under $80k for van and tug. Obviously, savings can be made by buying a 2-3 year old van and 2-3 year old tug. I won't be able to finalise my combo for quite some time yet, maybe another 2 years or so, but I now know what I'm looking for, and when the time comes, I'm right on to it, I don't have to stuff around spending 6 months or more to decide, I've done my homework early.

Hope you can glean a few ideas out of this research that might help you to choose your ideal van/tug combo.

Regards, Brian

Beth54 · Guru

Wow! Thanks for all that info. I've been studying it for awhile and googling away...you've given me a lot of food for thought.

I much prefer the layout of Group A vans but I wonder what happens if something goes wrong. As in spare parts availability? And do they have a roll out awning/can one be fitted?

Besides which, if group B is more suited to our dirt roads, I may be better with off with them. I do tend to use dirt roads a bit, between free camping and rellies out west who live on properties. I wouldn't do really rough stuff but dirt/gravel for sure.

Also I wouldn't necessarily need the shower/toilet. It'd be nice, but if it meant extra $? I'd just as soon go without. I already have the porta loo.

And I would be buying a used one. It's more important to me to have a newish car than a new van. I'd be happy with a van that's 10 or so years old, rather than my current 25 year old girl.

From my googling and advise from here, I think I'd still go with a smallish van of maybe 14/15ft, mainly because of the weight factor. But also, with just me and occasionally a friend, I don't need anything bigger.

Therefore I'd be looking at a vehicle that could tow up to 2000kg. And if Rosie is correct about the tyres, I don't want an AWD or 4WD. Not that I doubt you Rosie, I'm sure you've done your homework too. wink I couldn't afford to replace 4 tyres at once either.

Speaking of tyres, that's also something to think about I guess. What's a good tyre size that's not going to cost a fortune? I'd want to take that into account when choosing the tug. My son can probably advise me on tyres anyway, as he used to be in the business.

Back to vans, I've seen a lot of used Jayco Starcraft advertised. As with vehicles, I'm always suspicious of lots of the same model for sale. Is it because no one wants them, ie they're lousy? I have a theory that vehicles that are rarely advertised are the better ones. ???

-- Edited by Beth54 on Monday 23rd of September 2013 02:53:26 PM

Grams · Guru

Beth54 wrote:
If all goes to plan, I'm going to be changing my tug in the near future
So I was wondering....
1/what is your vehicle?
2/ are you happy with it?
3/ Why did you choose this vehicle?

1. 2001 Toyota Prado Turbo Diesel

2. We love it, it is so good on fuel, and it's great it has twin tanks.

3. Because it was diesel, it was auto, it had a turbo, it is in excellent condition, and like I said great on fuel.

Lynn