All,
Has anyone towed ie a boat close to the max of 2000kg with a TD4 at all? would be interested to hear how it tows at close to the max rated weight?
cheers 7/2010, Freelander2, HSE, TD4, Auto, Santorini Black, black interior, premium pack, side steps.

My boat is only 1500kg including the trailer, Freelie copes with it very nicely, including pulling it up out of a very steep and slippery launching area. Had to tow out somebody else's boat a few months back their Mondeo just sat there spinning its front wheels

see lots of that when waterski-ing/Jetski-ing on Lake Windermere, including the sunken failed handbrake car

I think there's a few who tow 1800+ not sure if an extra 200 would make much difference but they all seem happy

Mine tows my boat close to that weight with no prblems at all. Infact its that good I some times forget its on there and when pulling into a garage for fuel and give meself a shock lol

thanks all for that. Was wondering if you were towing close to or 2000kgs you would need to upgrade to a D4 or something. 7/2010, Freelander2, HSE, TD4, Auto, Santorini Black, black interior, premium pack, side steps.

Bit of a relief reading this guys. I chose the FL2 because it had such a better towing capacity than others in it's class.

Im about to buy a boat (approx 20ft) which will have a tow weight of avout 1700Kg and was getting worried that the FL would struggle to pull it. I am confident it'd be ok around the streets but pulling it up the ramp from a standstill was what worried me.

I am also assuming that the i6 petrol would not differ too much to the SD4?

Im thinking that as part of my sea trial I ask the dealer to use my car to see how it goes.

Any further comments/experiences would be appreciated.

Hi Guys,
I have had my FL2 for 18 months now and love it. Last year I towed one of those mini diggers which weighed about 2000kg and the car did it very comfortably.
The thing is, I recently purchased a caravan and was asked the Tow Ball Weight Maximum of the car. It hadn't occured to me before but the Max Tow ball weight of a Freelander 2 2010 model is 150kg. Not really that much and it didnt matter as the caravan tow ball weight was 135kg.

It interested me to see if it could be increased so I spoke to my Land Rover dealer and they tell me there is no way of increasing this limit even if a heavier duty tow ball kit is fitted.

Anyone else looked into this or had any experience with it?

The reason I ask now is that I also want to get a yacht which weighs in at 2000kg. I have learnt recently that the tow ball is generally 10% of the trailers weight, which would make it 200kg.

If anything happened while towing this weight I probably would not be insured for it.

I tow a caravan which I put over the weigh bridge last week at right on 2000kg. My TD4 has no problems at all maintaining the legal max. on most roads. It tows much better than my V8 D2 and at around 13-14l/100km. I don't think the i6 would be as good as the diesel given the lower torque figure and higher rev range.

Rob 2009 TD4 SE, Alaska White, Ebony Leather, Sun Roof.

Hi reklaw1947,
Do you know what the Tow Ball weight of your caravan is?

I dont doubt the FL2 can tow, actually I know it can tow 2000kg very well its just the legal side of things that worry me.

It would be great to have a Tow Bar upgrade kit to increase the Tow ball weight to 200kg. I know this an option on the Ford Territory.

Towing heavy weights is no problem for the Fl2, particularly for the diesel with its awesome torque. I routinely tow things heavier than 2 tonne (eg: cabins, trailers full of rocks or wet sand) and there's never a problem, but this is only over short distances and low speeds. The legal (and very practical) constraints concern towing an object out on the road, sometimes at high speeds and it's important to understand that the vehicle doesn't only need to "pull" the object, but it also has to "stop" it safely. For example, a 1 tonne vehicle struggles to stop a 2 tonne trailer, as the trailer will just push the vehicle out of the way - jacknife, game over.
I would think the FL2 will launch and retrieve a 2 tonne boat/yacht without too much trouble as the permanent 4WD will keep each of the wheels doing their thing, even on slimy boat ramps. Don't forget, brakes are required on anything over 750Kg that is being towed.
As for tow ball weight, it is important to get the "balance" of your tow vehicle correct at all times to be safe. I often see caravans incorrectly loaded and I wonder how they have made it up the highway safely. The ideal balance is not 50/50, rather something like 45/50% where there is sufficient weight on the tow ball to keep it there going over bumps and in stop/start situations. Perhas this is where the 10% figure came from, though 200Kg on a tow ball seems excessive and would most likely affect the balance of the FL2 adversely.

Yes ball weight on my van is stated as 150kg but it is actually slightly over that but I run a Hayman reese tow bar not the LR OEM bar along with HR load levellers. Everything works really well and it handles beautifully.
Rob 2009 TD4 SE, Alaska White, Ebony Leather, Sun Roof.

Hi Reklaw1947.

I was most impressed with the mileage you are achieving whilst towing a 2000Kg caravan. The reason I say this is that I was getting more or less the same figures towing a 1000kg pop-top van last year when I travelled many thousands of K's to the snow fields and back to QLD. Being a pop-top means there's less resistance and at a lowereweight, one might have expected better mileage. MY SD4 was only a few months old at the time, so perhaps not run-in, but I'd be interested to hear what other forum members are getting relative to the towing weight/resistance?

Hi, my mileage improved greatly with a few kms under the belt (maybe 10,000). It's just coming up to 50,000 now. I've attached a photo of the rig (not hooked up I'm afraid). Let me know if this works.
Rob

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/IMG_0170.jpg?w=54b05fde 2009 TD4 SE, Alaska White, Ebony Leather, Sun Roof.

The link doesn't work for me.

I can feel Chicken George getting ready to give you van tuggers a hard time

OK try this link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64475355@N05/6797390680/

....and back off CG  2009 TD4 SE, Alaska White, Ebony Leather, Sun Roof.