2T+ Tow car for less than £2K?

[curtis1222]

Im after some advice on what route to go down for a tow car for my Bmw e36 drift car!
Its going to be my daily driver aswell so ideally want something that dose a half decent MPG and isn't to agricultural!
Trailer im looking at weighs around 400-500Kgs and the bmws factory weight is around 1400kg, add in some tools and tyres and its over the 2t mark of things like the x-trail, freelander, 5 series etc

any recommendations?

[Broomer]

I used to have an E39 5 Series that was plated as being able to tow 2000kg's

I could do with something like that again myself really. I'd like to be able to tow my S2000 which weighs around 1280kg's plus a trailer weighing ~500kg's, but my E46 compact's only able to legally tow 1675kg's. I don't want to get rid of it though!

Edited by Broomer on Saturday 25th July 17:22

Edited by Broomer on Saturday 25th July 17:22

[andyiley]

^^^^ What he said, I bought an e39 530i Sport to do exactly that before I ended up going down the keep it road legal route.

I also had it converted to LPG, so it then gave 50+ mpg in monetary terms.

[ZX10R NIN]

I'd say a GS430 good V8 lots of Torque they're generally lower mileage than the E39

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-GS-430-4-3-auto-SE...

or a GS300 Sport

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-Lexus-GS-300-3-0-Sp...

[gruffalo]

Merc W210 E320CDI, will pull 2tons all day long.

[paulmnz]

surprisingly, ford mondeos can tow 2t, as can the galaxy/alhambra/sahara. can get a fairly decent one for under a grand and plenty of space for spares. Reasonable performance for the 1.9 TDi engines and seem pretty robust. As a bonus you can moonlight has a mini-cab. I have one as a 'small' tow car for my race car when I dont want to take the transit (ie for going to test/trackdays. as mentioned above, e39 5-series seem to be quite popular in the race paddock too.

[jumare]

I used to tow a 4 wheel horse box with a Freelander TD4 (and also a Subaru Forrester), didn't like it but then I'm used to towing with Discovery's. Big estate sounds like a good idea, Audi A6 might be a good choice as well particularly if you get a quattro.

[Altrezia]

I went for a E39 530d as I use the car as a daily hack too. Does the job

[curtis1222]

Cheers for the replies, Didn't realise there was so much choice! will be looking out for a an e39/audi a6/merc e class estate.

Been offered a 2.8TD Fourtrak for cheap,got a massive 3.5T towing weight. Not sure what thats going to be like every day use though, anyone had one of these?

[LouD86]

Very very agricultural, early 20's mpg, and noisy. But if you get one that isn't rotten, they are good things. Mechanically I believe they are fairly good, but don't expect speed and comfort.

[pikeyboy]

Early ones are leaf sprung later ones have coil springs and are nicer to drive. Both are slow plodders but reliable and will a house down with the torque. They don't half rust though. Nice clean ones are quite sort after by equestrian sorts.v70 diesel is also a great tow car not sure of the limit though. My old 530d was brilliant but they are very big inside for an estate car.

[200Plus Club]

530d although maybe plated to tow 2t isnt safe to do so. Trust me been there done that. Work on 80% max rated load as most caravan or towing websites advise its safer and more comfortable.
I ended up with an older hyundai santa fe 4x4 which was marvellous for towing and as a daily and doesn't rot badly. Now got a modern version with switchable 4wd and its even better. 2t is a heck of a tow with anything borderline on weight so check out potential tow cars thoroughly

Edited by 200Plus Club on Monday 3rd August 10:03

[Output Flange]

Sorry, but that's nonsense. I've been using a 530d to tow with - usually at or close to two tons - and it's perfectly fine for the job. No worse than the X5s I used before that.

[200Plus Club]

Output Flange said:

Sorry, but that's nonsense. I've been using a 530d to tow with - usually at or close to two tons - and it's perfectly fine for the job. No worse than the X5s I used before that.

Just read up on safe advised towing limits. You may never had a 2 tonne load start to wander and get into speed wobble then. I didnt make the advice up its all out there from people with a lot more experience. 80-85% generally of the max permissible load for safety.
I dontgive a st personally but was advising as others did to me when i started. Ive towed with all manner of cars, sonetimes at or near their max. I err on side of caution now for heavy loads. I thought 530d fine too when i had mine.
Anyway thats my tuppence worth

[curtis1222]

Cheers for the advice 200Plus Club, ive heard this before and never really understood how it works for example a defender can tow 3500kg but yet has a kerb weight of around 1900kg, im guessing because the trailers are twin axel it increases their stability or something so then the rule dosent apply as much as say, A focus pulling a single axle caravan?

[QBee]

A few pointers - I have just spent the last month doing this

1. Get your car onto the trailer and down to a public weigh bridge, and weight it without the tow car, but with anything that you plan on having in the track at or on the trailer. Costs £5, gives you certainty of what weight you will be towing.

2. Yes, my single axle trailer with my track car on it can start to weave at 65mph, but I shouldn't be doing that speed.

3. A good diesel will always pull better than a good petrol engine - towing is about torque.

4. My worst ever weave was towing a horse trailer plus one horse, 1.8 tonnes combined, with a big heavy 4x4 rated at 2.5 tonnes. Down a steep hill on the M20, I really thought the whole thing was going to turn over.

5. The 80% rule is a good one. My Saab estate is rated at 1800kg, and tows my 1420kg of trailer and car nicely.

6. If you end up with a single axle trailer to save both money and weight, make sure that the tyres are rated for more than the weight of the trailer plus track car - I had to upgrade mine to 102/100 load rating to be safe.

7. Be certain that the agency that used to be called VOSA will know if what you have is safe and legal and will impound it if it isn't.

Finally - make very sure your trailer wheel nuts/bolts are properly torqued up. I forgot to torque them one side that final 1/16 of a turn, so they were only wheel gun tight, and the wheel came off at 50mph on a busy A road.