Trips

Shona and I have both travelled a bit in the past due to work. Shona has also travelled overseas a number of times. When we get the time we might get to relate some of these experiences here.

Apart from the "Destinations" branch, the rest of the information on this page and "Van Selection" and "Preparation" is to do with setting up to go caravanning. The "Destinations" is about where we've been...

Matching a Tow Vehicle to your Requirements

The primary intention for now is to relate the experiences we are having with the caravan trips that commenced when we took delivery of the Jayco Heritage 65-5 van that you see in the background on most of our Website.

We started our caravan adventures when we had a Commodore. We thought the 5.7 litre V8 engine would be well capable of towing a full sized caravan. We soon learnt that cars like Commodores are constructed for occasional towing of things that are up to their own weight, and once the towed weight exceeds the vehicle weight, things deteriorate rapidly.

As all the latter lessons in towing were detracting greatly from our pleasure, we chose to trade the Commodore in on a more capable tow vehicle.

At the time of making a selection for a replacement vehicle, a number of factors were considered. In a basic descending sequence our selection process looked like the following:

Overall running costs indicated that diesel was the only logical option. We expect to get out with the van quite often, so fuel economy whilst towing was weighted heavily. Petrol engines suck a lot more fuel when you load them down doing heavy towing.
Update on fuel economy for those looking for tow vehicles - On a 7000 kilometre trip towing our van for 5000 of those kilometres, we averaged 14.2 litres per 100 kilometres. We did as well as 7.8 for a short stint without the van, but averaged more like 9.2 overall without the van. (Around town the average is 11.5). The economies with the van on were from 13 on a flat, wind-free road where a constant 100 could be sustained, to 23 when pulling at 110 into a headwind and on a hilly road. Overall, our towing average is 15.5 l/100k, and we travel at the speed limit.		The BMW X5 which I'd longed for prior to when they first arrived in Australia, had just brought the diesel into their Australian line-up. A test drive had me hankering for one even worse! I had never known of a diesel that fired straight up without waiting for glow plugs to preheat things. I was amazed at how quiet it was, and how much get up and go it had! (After the momentary turbo time lag.) Technically the X5 3.0d is endowed with 390Nm of torque and 135kW of power and rated to tow 2700kg whilst it weighs 2155kg empty - just under 16kg of car for every kW of power. (A major decider was that BMW were happy to provide finance that matched our requirements!) (The power of the diesel X5 is not sufficient to overtake with the van on unless there is plenty of room, and on long hills the speed dropped back to about 90kph). The next version of the 3 litre diesel engine has even more power and torque, whilst being more fuel miserly (or so the marketing people say!)
A Pajero Exceed DiD also went out for a test drive. It was quite lovely, but still larger and more truck like. The 6 stacker in-dash CD changer and reclining rear seats would have been a bonus as would the central clump of "cute" instruments to show your direction, and altitude, etc. I was still not taken by the bulges over the front wheels, and didn't like the rear overhang past the rear axle of the long wheel base. The short wheel base is not a current option that they import into Australia. Technically, the relevant numbers were smaller than the X5: 373Nm, 121kW and 2500kg towing although the engine is slightly bigger at 3.2 litres. The kerb mass is 2180kg - or 18.02kg for every kW. The maximum towed weight is 2500kg.
The Toyota Land Cruiser Sahara turbo diesel certainly has some big numbers associated with it. It is the tow vehicle of choice by lots of people, but I was also thinking of how big, heavy and truck-like it was. I hadn't been too impressed by a mate's petrol Cruiser a couple of years earlier, and I was amused at all the horror fuel usage stories I'd been hearing. When you look at the technical numbers whilst considering how much more fuel you burn to get them, they start to look less impressive! 430 Nm and 151kW although 3500kg can be towed. The engine is 4.2 litres and a kerb weight of 2680kg (Looks like 17.75kg for every kW of power before you put anything in it).		Fuel economy - Extremely interesting to find that a couple of owners of these suggest they are getting economies of around 7 (or less) litres per 100 kilometres without a van on, and around 10 with the van on. I really can not comprehend that a much heavier vehicle with a bigger and less sophisticated engine than an X5 is getting substantially better fuel economies! Another owner reported that he was getting 10 with no van, and about 13 with. Yet another 10-11 with no van, and 14-15 with van and travelling 80-90kph. The petrol Land Cruiser gets around 20 on average, and as bad as 30 from other people's figures that I've seen.
	The other supposed tow vehicle is the Nissan Patrol. As I need an automatic, the 4.2 litre ST is not an option (The engine's output numbers are smaller than the 3.0 litre, but it is rated to tow up to 3500kg.) The 3.0 litre puts out 354Nm and 116kW which equates to 23.54kg for every kW. The manual 3.0 litre is rated to tow up to 3200kg (depending on the load in the car itself), but the automatic has a 2500kg towed weight ceiling. It looks the goods, and there's enough of a dedicated following, but I struggle to understand why you would choose one specifically for towing. (Unless you wanted it so you could go off road once you set the van up somewhere?)
Land Rover diesel comes with smaller numbers again. By comparison the smallest engine - 2.5 litres which outputs 340Nm (auto) and 101kW to heft 2360kg of vehicle around. That seems to be 23.37kg for every kW. I find it amusing that everyone else has moved onto electric brakes in caravans, but Land Rover still speak specifically of overrun brakes (I guess they want to target owners of towable boats) when they rate the towing capacity as 3500kg. (I'd hate to try this on a hilly road!) There is a stated limit of 250kg on the towball, so that makes for a towball weight that's just over 7% if you go right up to its tow limit, and if you wanted to go off road towing something the tow limit drops to 1000kg! The rest of the car was fine except I didn't like the fact that the doors didn't open very wide.
	We also had a look at the Ford F250 4x4. The first thing to note here is that the thing is 6.3 metres long and most parking spots are only 5.5 metres! By far the biggest engine at 7.3 litres and a whopping 4173kg tare weight, making the vehicle a truck in all senses. The engine outputs 684Nm and 175kW. As it weighs so much, there's 23.85kg for every kW. It would happily pull 4500kg (recently up-rated from 3500kg). We had thoughts that if we bought one of these it would just keep running for 20 years (provided the body didn't fall apart first), we'd just have all sorts of hassles parking it. We also had doubts about it's resale value if we ever needed to sell it.
The following were either not available when we were looking, or not something we seriously considered.
The Volkswagen V10 Touareg was not out when we were looking. It is certainly impressive in a lot of it's numbers, but falls off dramatically with the maximum towball weight of 140kg. Even though VW rate it to tow 3500kg, Australian Design Rules (* see note below) supposedly indicate that 5-15% of the towed weight must be on the towball means that the maximum towed weight could be 2800kg. Otherwise it kills everything else here!
	The Toyota Prado diesel didn't excite us at all. It's towing rating is the same as the Pajero's, but the engine is much lower powered. At the time of our investigation, the new styled body was not on the market.
I was never really a fan from the early models, so the Holden Jackaroo was not something we seriously looked at. It's numbers are comparable to that of the Pajero, including the maximum towed weight of 2500kg.

The X5 is not a proper 4x4 in most people's thinking. In our case it is the ideal vehicle as we are not that adventurous with our off-road. We acknowledge that 98% or more of our time will be in bitumen or formed roads, so the X5 will be able to fully service our needs! On a recent holiday we did take it on some deep sandy tracks and it surprised even me! Even though there is no low range, the diesel's torque just chugged away and worked with the traction control to pull us along merrily, the extra wide tyres floating easily on the sand. We averaged 11.1 litres per 100 kilometres doing this low speed stuff. On another occasion we were out on some thick mud the day after some heavy rain, and the Michelin tyres behaved much like slicks skating over the slippery surface.

Turbo Diesel Tow Vehicle Comparison

The figures below are copied from the manufacturer's brochures and Websites. Apart from the Nissan Patrol and Land Cruiser 78, the figures are all for automatic transmissions. Please do your own investigation before deciding which vehicle is right for you. (The table is sorted in descending wheelbase)

	Wheel placement			Engine		Claimed Max Towed Weight							Claimed l/100k
Vehicle	Wheelbase	Front Track	Rear Track	kW Power	Nm Torque	Towball	Off Road	On Road	Actual Max Towed Weight	Weight	GVM	GCM	City	Hwy	Avg	Made
Ford F250 7.3	4013	1736	1729	175	684	?	4500	4500	4500	3146	4219	9071	N/A	N/A	N/A	Brazil
VW Transporter T5 (See notes)	3400	1620	1620	128	400	100?	?	2500	2000?	1905	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Germany
Holden Rodeo	3050	1520	1525	96	294	?	2000	2000	2000	1868	2900	3750	N/A	N/A	N/A	Thailand
Toyota Land Cruiser 78	3180	1435	1420	122	380	?	3500	3500	3500	2050	3300	6800	N/A	N/A	11.7	?
Nissan Patrol 3.0	2970	1605	1625	118	380 (M)354 (A)	200-350	3200(M) 2500(A)	3200(M) 2500(A)	2500(A) 3200(M)	2370	3000	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Japan
Nissan Patrol 4.2	2970	1605	1625	114	360	200-350	3500(M)	3500(M)	3500(M)	2440	3080	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Japan
Range Rover	2880	1629	1626	130	390	250	1000	3500	1000 - 3500	2435	3050	N/A	14.4	9.4	11.3	UK
VW Touareg	2855	1645	1657	230	750	140	3500	3500	2800	2470	N/A	N/A	16.6	9.8	12.3	Czech Republic
Toyota Land Cruiser 100	2850	1620	1615	150	430	?	3500	3500	3500	2680	3260	N/A	N/A	N/A	11.0	Japan
BMW X5 (2004)	2820	1576	1576	150	480	270	2700	2700	2700	2105	N/A	N/A	12.0	8.0	9.4	USA
BMW X5 (2003)	2820	1576	1576	135	410	270	2700	2700	2700	2170	N/A	N/A	12.3	8.2	9.7	USA
Mercedes Benz ML270	2820	1555	1555	120	400	?	2650	2650	2650	2175	2870	N/A	12.4	8.0	N/A	USA
Ssangyong Rexton	2820	1550	1540	121	340	?	2270	2270	2270	2045	2550	N/A	12.6	8.4	9.9	South Korea
Land Rover Defender (Manual)	2794	1486	1486	90	300	250	1000	3500	1000 - 3500	1928	3500	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	UK
Toyota Prado	2790	1575	1575	96	343	250	2500	2500	2500	2170	2900	N/A	N/A	N/A	12.6	Japan
Mitsubishi Pajero DiD	2780	1560	1560	121	373	250	2500	2500	2500	2220	2810	5310	N/A	N/A	N/A	Japan
Ssangyong Musso	2755	1510	1520	88	256	?	2500	2500	2500	1977	2520	N/A	14.5	9.3	11.1	South Korea
Holden Jackaroo	2760	1455	1460	118	333	250	2500	2500	2500	2125	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	?
Audi Allroad C5	2757	1574	1585	132	370	?	2100	2100	2100	1825	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Germany
Jeep Grand Cherokee	2690	1511	1511	120	400	?	3500	3500	3500	1989	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	9.7	Austria
Jeep Cherokee	2649	1524	1518	110	360	?	2800	2800	2800	1956	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	9.9	USA
Land Rover Discovery	2540	1540	1560	101	340	250	1000	3500	1000 - 3500	2142	2880	6380	12.7	9.0	10.3	UK

Ford Explorer, Holden Crewman, Lexus etc don't have diesel options, so are not included above.