What size van?- up to 20' should be OK. Towed our 18' Heritage easily, then we upgraded to a 20' Stirling outback that was heavy as it was fully loaded as we are living full time on the road. Ours was a 2006 model and we did put a snorkel and larger exhaust which made a big difference - especially if taking off on a hill. Only traded it in as we wanted a bigger van (23') and needed a 3.5 ton towing capacity and 350kg ball weight.
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
I tow a smallish van at around 1600kgs with a 2006 D22 3.0 litre Navara and find that as long as I don't have a head wind it tows well on the flat. The performance of the 2.5 litre D22 is similar. Certainly does struggle up hills though. Being a manual it is not uncommon to be back in 3rd gear going up a hill and having trouble holding 80kph. Economy and reliability however seem to be good with the Navara.
Depending on what you will be towing there may be better vehicles.
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has a similar vehicle and has had it chipped, to see what difference it has made to the performance. Although not cheap at approx. $1500, it is certainly a cheaper option than replacing cars if the little extra oomph is all you need and the chip can give that extra power without any damaging side effects.
Hopefully there is someone out there who can shed some light on this aspect for us.
