Been towing a fair old weight today with my freelander, and it appeared to some what gutless, especially starting from stop on a very steep incline. It was fine on normal flat roads and round town, and don't get me wrong it does have the poke to tow!

Maybe I am just use to been able to make the earth rotate with the low down power of my previous defender! Or the trailer was to heavy!!

The torque of the Freelander will be similar to the Defender. Did you used to use low range in the Def? Do bare in mind that the Freelander makes less noise and fuss when towing than the Defender.

I've towed a good 2 tonnes with the Freely and not found it gutless, it's always out-towed the Defender and Navara when we're towing in convoy. Either you have a problem or the trailer was too heavy! Or you're just being unreasonable with your expectations! Mine: 2012 Golf GTI Edition 35
Family's: 2009 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Auto, Stornoway

Yorkshire - God's County

No only used low when removing the moon from space! It was stupidly low! It was pulling away in first was the issue, the defender could pull 4 ton in first with out knowing its there. It's like the original td5 where innitial pulling away you had to slip the clutch to get moving.

I recently towed a lwb isuzu trooper with mine (td4 SE manual) It pulled no bother but I wouldn't like to use it daily at it's max capacity doing regular hill starts, but to be fair that can probably be said for any manual!
I would imagine the defender will have a much more heavy duty clutch and running gear than most other vehicles because it is designed to be a workhorse.

An observation made yesterday:

On the motorway I overtook a double axled braked horse box trailer fully loaded with 2 large horses - all being towed by a FL1. Never knew that a Freelander 1 or 2 had the torque and PS to safely pull that lot. In the FL2 Owner's Manual it states 2Tonnes but I'm of the opinion that such a large horse box plus two large geegees must be more than that. Am I wrong - is the FL1 that capable?

no its not, its not heavy enough for the tyres to slow you down even if the brakes can, with all that weight on atleast At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Definitely not, more than likely a twin axle would have been a 3.5 tonne max gross payload so two horses weighing in at approx 500 kilo each with tack, clothing, food etc probably pushed it to its 3.5t limit.

CG - EY
Thank you for confirming my suspicions; they were travelling at the max permitted speed of 50mph / 80kph for towing but with your data I'm pleased I left them behind me.

I remember seeing a Ford Fiesta XR2 pulling a caravan. The AA guy I was driving with (pre owning LR days) said yes it's got the power to pull but no where near the ability to stop.

Amazing what people will do with their vehicles - next they will talk about putting newer front-ends on them and changing the light clusters. 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

simont wrote:

Amazing what people will do with their vehicles - next they will talk about putting newer front-ends on them and changing the light clusters.

surely only a mad man would do such a thing, or a poor parker At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race