Land Rover Series 3 Towing Capacity

[105SprintGT]

I would like to find out what would be the maximum towing capacity in a private yard of a Series 3 Land Rover fitted with a Toyota 2.4 turbo diesel engine. I would like to clarify that this is required for towing boats on trailers in an enclosed yard and therefore not intended for legal road use.

[Watchman]

A number of factors will determine this including how solid the chassis and axles are, the nose weight of the trailer, the power of the engine and whether your low range box is in good condition.

Legally (which you're not interested in), I believe they are good for 3.5 tonnes.

How heavy are you thinking, how many axles, what weight is the nose/tongue?

[CAPP0]

To turn the question back at you - what's the heaviest boat/trailer combo you're likely to want to move, and how far? Is the yard flat?

[InitialDave]

Based on experiments conducted by generations of British farmers, the towing capacity of an old Landie is "however well you welded the replacement rear crossmember on".

[Super Slo Mo]

If it’s otherwise standard apart from the Toyota engine, then I suspect your half shafts and/or diffs will be the limiting factor as they were never that strong to begin with.
It used to be common to upgrade the rear axle to a ‘Salisbury’ unit which was much stronger.

You could engage 4wd (or low range) of course, which is fine in a straight line, just don’t try and turn on a dry surface with a heavy load on.

To be fair, once you have the trailer moving the load is easy, it’s getting it going from a standstill that will be the hard part.

Would you not be better off with a small tractor?

[105SprintGT]

Watchman said:

A number of factors will determine this including how solid the chassis and axles are, the nose weight of the trailer, the power of the engine and whether your low range box is in good condition.

Legally (which you're not interested in), I believe they are good for 3.5 tonnes.

How heavy are you thinking, how many axles, what weight is the nose/tongue?

I'm calculating that the gross weight of the two axle draw bar trailer and boat would be in the region of 9000kg. Nose weight of trailer would be negligible as the load would be balanced on the trailer. How solid the chassis, transmission and axles are, as correctly stated, would have to be looked at.

[105SprintGT]

CAPP0 said:

To turn the question back at you - what's the heaviest boat/trailer combo you're likely to want to move, and how far? Is the yard flat?

I'm looking at a gross combo weight of around 9000kg for very short distances and in a flat concrete area.

[105SprintGT]

InitialDave said:

Based on experiments conducted by generations of British farmers, the towing capacity of an old Landie is "however well you welded the replacement rear crossmember on".

Good point!

[105SprintGT]

Super Slo Mo said:

If it’s otherwise standard apart from the Toyota engine, then I suspect your half shafts and/or diffs will be the limiting factor as they were never that strong to begin with.
It used to be common to upgrade the rear axle to a ‘Salisbury’ unit which was much stronger.

You could engage 4wd (or low range) of course, which is fine in a straight line, just don’t try and turn on a dry surface with a heavy load on.

To be fair, once you have the trailer moving the load is easy, it’s getting it going from a standstill that will be the hard part.

Would you not be better off with a small tractor?

Points noted. A tractor of course would be the way to go if the Land Rover can't manage.

[Watchman]

105SprintGT said:

I'm looking at a gross combo weight of around 9000kg for very short distances and in a flat concrete area.

Wow, that's significant.

I think the "pull" is possible but I'd still be concerned about nose/tongue weight.

[OverSteery]

Is this a "private" endeavour (how many boats do you have?). If it's a business this sounds like one for the HSE!

[105SprintGT]

OverSteery said:

Is this a "private" endeavour (how many boats do you have?). If it's a business this sounds like one for the HSE!

We can say it's a private endeavor to move my boat when absolutely needed.

[CAPP0]

105SprintGT said:

CAPP0 said:

To turn the question back at you - what's the heaviest boat/trailer combo you're likely to want to move, and how far? Is the yard flat?

I'm looking at a gross combo weight of around 9000kg for very short distances and in a flat concrete area.

As above - that's quite a lump. Whilst the Landie might move it, in low range, you've got the nose weight questions as above, the chassis condition issue, and I imagine even in low range it's going to hit the clutch quite hard.

Do you already own the Landie? (apols if I missed that above?)

[Tyre Smoke]

If it gives you any pointers, my Range Rover Sport (Supercharged) once pulled a loaded Hungarian Artic that was spinning it's wheels on an icy uphill stretch of road. That must have been 44 tonnes, but did have the benefit of it's own diesel engine 'helping' by turning it's driven wheels, albeit with little success.

Wasn't much of an incline and only towed it about 100 yards, but neither the Rangey or the Artic suffered any ill effect.

[eggchaser1987]

Moving is a chance if all in good condition. Stopping on the other hand, old drum brakes on a series 3 were never that good in my experience.

[InitialDave]

A cheap Discovery may be a better option, as you can use the low range on grippy surfaces more easily, and it'll have a bit more poke.

Remember the launch publicity stunt where you used one to tow a train?

[Super Slo Mo]

CAPP0 said:

As above - that's quite a lump. Whilst the Landie might move it, in low range, you've got the nose weight questions as above, the chassis condition issue, and I imagine even in low range it's going to hit the clutch quite hard.

Do you already own the Landie? (apols if I missed that above?)

The half shafts will give up before the clutch I’d expect. Especially in low range. Especially with an engine that’s far more powerful than the original.

Saying that, it will probably be ok for occasional use providing the op takes it very easy.

[105SprintGT]

CAPP0 said:

As above - that's quite a lump. Whilst the Landie might move it, in low range, you've got the nose weight questions as above, the chassis condition issue, and I imagine even in low range it's going to hit the clutch quite hard.

Do you already own the Landie? (apols if I missed that above?)

As I've already stated I envisage to have negligible nose weight as the load would be balanced on the double axle draw bar trailer.
Yes I already own the Landie which would be more convenient to use, in view of space restrictions, as against an AMG M35A2 multifuel military truck which I have.

[Watchman]

I missed your original declaration regarding minimal nose weight. In that circumstance, I'd say if your S3 is in decent condition / structurally sound, then it should be OK if used with mechanical sympathy.

But 9-tonnes is significant, even if some of that is the weight of the S3, so if anything did break...


My brother moves a boat around with an S3... Considerably lighter though. A RIB - probably only a tonne.

[john2443]

There's a pic in a book about heavy haulage (Bob Tuck I think) of an S1 towing a Pickfords Scammell and trailer, about 250 tons! unfortunately Google doesn't find it.

(Well, it was towing it for a split second, the Scammell couldn't get moving and the LR snatched it just enough to get it underway)