Tdi vs td5 for towing!!! 110 defender

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warrior

warrior

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I'm away and have next to no signal and in my phone and searching is hard,

I'm selling my 300 tdi 90, I was going to keep it to use daily and for towing my challenge truck,

But a 90 is really to small and there's not a chance I could use it for work that's why I want a 110, after all only a landrover will do. And I have a soft spot for defenders I'm now on my 3rd, if I buy a 110 it will be my 4th,

I hve used my current 90 to tow alsorts from a mini digger to our caravan to my 90 challenge truck. But to me it feels like it doesn't have the power to tow my 90 very far. Might just be me, my everyday van is a 170bhp transit and if my dad isn't busy I normally tow with his discovery 4 sdv6 auto. I've just towed with this 6 hours to the new forest and it was effortless,

I'd like a landrover I can use every day and tow with and throw my tool and my dogs in the back,

Is a td5 any better to tow with than a tdi? I know one lad with a td5 110. (A fellow member) am I wasting my time or is a td5 better, I know I could get the 5 remapped.
 
Basic TD5 is 135bhp, 300TDi is around 113bhp, V8 is 182bhp (Thor engine)

Whether it is worth getting a TD5 and remapping is a moot point, I'd not bother having run a V8 for 5+ years now.

The TD5 really needed a Euro3/4 upgrade and 160bhp, but Land Rover dropped its development, so you're stuck with a remap if you want more grunt.

Peter
 
A 300tdi should be all you need to tow anything. I have had (5 Disco) 300tdi's and towed all sorts of things including other land rovers and vehicles and never had a problem. This includes an 8 hour round trip towing a jaguar xj8 on a trailer.

They arent the quickest for towing but will always get anywhere you want them too.
 
both would be fine to tow with, both can be tuned for more grunt if needed, I have seen farmers towing tractors over the fell roads around here with old tdi's - towing a little old 90 should be no problem compared to that ;)
 
I'll ask a mate if u can borrow his td5 90 for a day to tow with vs my tdi 90 and see what I think, I know my tdi should be up to it and it is upto it I would jump in it now and tow 3.5 tons anywhere although it wouldn't be the fastest, I'm after more everyday drivability and an swaying more towards a td5 110, this said I've never driven a td5, only ever tdi 90 that I owned and a mates tdi disco.
 
The prob you will have towing a landy on a trailer over a caravan is wind resistance as a landy on a trailer will be a lot higher than a towed caravan where as towing a mini digger on a trailer the digger will be quite heavy i would think compared to a caravan or a trailer with a landy on it, think a TD5 will tow all of them better than the 300tdi but think you will have more chance of having problems as reguards ECU and other electric's :)
 
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Possibly controversial here but a loaded up defender plus a trailer really needs more than 110-130 bhp to mix with modern traffic. The tdi engines were great in their day but are old hat now and even tuned up only really give 130bhp. A td5 as standard is no better really at 122 horses but they can be tuned up to the 200 mark if you have the pockets? Anything less than that and you will find yourself slowing down rapidly as soon as you hit a hill at road speeds at least.
 
mdowds81 said:
Possibly controversial here but a loaded up defender plus a trailer really needs more than 110-130 bhp to mix with modern traffic. The tdi engines were great in their day but are old hat now and even tuned up only really give 130bhp. A td5 as standard is no better really at 122 horses but they can be tuned up to the 200 mark if you have the pockets? Anything less than that and you will find yourself slowing down rapidly as soon as you hit a hill at road speeds at least.
Click to expand...

This is sort of my take on things, my tdi will be fine for every now and again but its an old motor now, and isn't for every day use at least for me

My transit has been playing with and is 170 bhp and 400 ft/lbs touque, that pulls very hard in every gear, as does my dads lr4 sdv6 and I'm chasing the same dirt of driving experiance, I'll try borrow a td5 of a mate befor a make the jump I think, I tow offten Ndfkr the cash I have in my transit could buy a nice defender

My tdi towing my 90 challenge truck is up and down the gear box like there's no tomorrow and on steep hill starts I used low range as I don't want to destroy the clutch

Ps anyone reading this wanting a off road spec / greenlaner / daily driver 300 tdi hard top see my other posts I'm selling one
 
mdowds81 said:
Possibly controversial here but a loaded up defender plus a trailer really needs more than 110-130 bhp to mix with modern traffic. The tdi engines were great in their day but are old hat now and even tuned up only really give 130bhp. A td5 as standard is no better really at 122 horses but they can be tuned up to the 200 mark if you have the pockets? Anything less than that and you will find yourself slowing down rapidly as soon as you hit a hill at road speeds at least.
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying, but there are still a number of people towing cattle with Tdi. Also some with Td5. I think the ones with Td5 have had more reliability issues, just from what I have heard. Not a scientific appraisal :)

Towing animals you just cant go very fast anyway, very slow on bends so as not to throw them about in the trailer.

From what I have seen, power characteristics of the engine are more important than actual bhp when towing. And the trans makes as much difference as the engine.
 
I found a 300tdi was adequate for a 130dc hcpu + trailer running at 7450kg train weight , on the flat it could manage 60mph cruise even with the aircon in use , it did slow down a bit up hill, but the sort of power needed to not drop speed going up hill is somewhat excessive in a defender .
 
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