| Author | Message | ||
     Greg Adams (Gadams) New Member Username: Gadams Post Number: 3 Registered: 02-2004 |
As long as I am asking questions, I plan to get new tires for my '01 D2. I want to upgrade to some 265/75r16s soon and probably put OME or RTE springs with an eventual winch, etc. I also pull a boat that weighs about 4000lbs with all the gear on the trailer to the coast (300 to 700 miles) several times a year. How much of a difference am I going to notice towing with the bigger tires and stock ratios? Will it be miserable enough to need to switch to 4.11? Any advice is appreciated? | ||
| Kelly Fristoe (Kfristoe) Member Username: Kfristoe Post Number: 143 Registered: 12-2002 |
I don't have that much towing experience but what little I do have I would recommend the 4.11 gears. | ||
| Tony DiFranco (Nhrover) Member Username: Nhrover Post Number: 108 Registered: 11-2002 |
you will be fine I do it all the time with my '00 D2. Gas mileage will drop a little bit but that should be expected. good luck -tony d | ||
| Matt Anderson (Disco01) Senior Member Username: Disco01 Post Number: 277 Registered: 10-2003 |
Greg you will hear all kinds of recommendations from various people on what you should do, and no one is really wrong.(ok I can think of some cases where someone might be wrong, but whatever) However, I recommend you wait and see how it is firsthand before you do anything. You absolutely cant go wrong with this plan. Just make sure you are aware that bigger tires will lower your effective axle ratio, and all that that entails. | ||
| Timothy A. Green (Tree_trimmer) New Member Username: Tree_trimmer Post Number: 3 Registered: 02-2004 |
I can only speak from experience with my 95 D-1. I have a 3.9 and raised my disco with the ARB HD spring/shock and installed 265/75 MTR's. I did this just before buying a 26 ft. travel trailer. The gvwr on the TT is very close to the max for the disco. The larger tires killed what little power the disco had. I towed the TT about 540 mi. round trip twice last summer. Most of the trip was in third gear around 50 mph. I am definitely going to re-gear my diffs, not to go a lot faster, but to take some strain of the drive train. Also, towing is not exactly a breeze with the disco. I drive a truck for a living and was still very cautious during the trip. Beware the big rigs going by! | ||
| michael harrington (Mike97d1) New Member Username: Mike97d1 Post Number: 29 Registered: 07-2003 |
ihave a 97 d1 with 245/75's and a 2" lift. i tow my buddies 33'boat that weighs about 12000 lbs.i don't go too fast,but i could go fairly fast if i wanted to.gearing seem to be fine to me. | ||
| Matt Anderson (Disco01) Senior Member Username: Disco01 Post Number: 293 Registered: 10-2003 |
Hahaha..........holy dog shit. 12000 pounds behind a Disco has got to be some sort of record. | ||
| gil stevens (Gil) Senior Member Username: Gil Post Number: 414 Registered: 02-2002 |
the 2 scariest things ive read on here recently.. 1. towing 12,000 lbs. behind a disco. I hope you never go down a hill with that boat back there..  2. from "rover puppy" in a parking brake thread.. "My truck has tried to take off for some independent exploring without me twice... On one of those occassions, it almost pinned a young man between his truck and mine." yikes.. | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 959 Registered: 05-2003 |
Timothy, Since you drive a truck for a living and said to beware of the big rigs going by, I'd like to ask you a question. This does not have anything to do with towing. With my heavy D2, I try to stick to the right lane at highspeeds on the highway. I am gaining more confidence bumping around in the wake from the big trucks. However, I had a weird experience last month. I moved into the left line to pass a semi and the semi that was behind me also pulled into the left line to follow me. Just as I had enough clearance and started to move back into the right lane in front of the truck that I was passing - the semi behind came between us to push ahead of both of us. I had no choice but to give way allowing my truck to go off the highway by a few feet. I really had a tough time controlling my truck and I know I would have crashed if it weren't for those ridges built into the interstate on the outside of the outer left lane. The ridges felt like they were halting some of the swinging as my truck wanted to fishtail. It was really really really hard to get back in the lane when he got past me and between us. It felt like I was being sucked into a wake that was really hard to pull out of. I hope you can understand my question. It's hard to explain - the only thing I can think of to compare it to is that it was like the magnetic field pulling magnets together but amplified lots and lots by the big size of trucks. Does that make sense? Have you or anyone else experienced this? It was very scary. Thanks in advance, Jamie | ||
| gil stevens (Gil) Senior Member Username: Gil Post Number: 415 Registered: 02-2002 |
I experienced alot of that this summer on the road. At 70 mph any big rig that passed me or one that I passed threw the disco off completely. Its the wind resistance coming around the big rig and as the truck passes thru the air the air comes back together behind the truck and creates a very rough situation. It only happens to me at speed with a ton of stuff on the roof. youll notice it to if you get to close to an 18 wheeler from behind. Find one on the highway and move back and forth behind it and youll find the exact point where the resistance begins and be prepared for it any time a rig is near. Sometimes it can be extemely violent. Multiple 18 wheelers will cause even more flux in the air movement and create even more resistance, thats probably what hapened to you. | ||
| Christian Kiely (Redrover47) Member Username: Redrover47 Post Number: 76 Registered: 09-2003 |
I cannot even imagine towing a 12000 lb 33ft boat behind a D1. My friend used to tow a 30ftboat and also a car trailer that weighs about 11000lbs fully loaded behind a suburban 2500 with a 7.4 liter and used all sorts of sway control between the truck and the trailer, and it really struggled, not to mention going up or down a hill. (He has since upgraded to a diesel F350 dually crew cab.) I tow an 18ft boat (w/o trailer brakes) behind my D2 that weighs about 2500 lbs and it is very noticable compared to trailering with other trucks I've driven. Discos weren't exactly designed to tow! | ||
| Micky_dee (Micky_dee) Member Username: Micky_dee Post Number: 67 Registered: 11-2003 |
speaking of the sucktion effect behing rigs. imagine your self on a bike. man that is scary. and for boats, seems unlikely but he did mention that he does not goe very fast! my below range around the yard! 33 feet its got to be 12.5 wide and with fuel and gear onboard...? our 34 footer only fits on a hydrolic trailer , and the tow rig was a tractor from and eighteen wheeler. | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 960 Registered: 05-2003 |
Thanks for the input, that makes sense. I definitely prefer driving mine off road more than on the highways. I do not enjoy the heavy load + the unpredictablity of other drivers. Never thought I'd be one prefering to drive in the "slow lane" Thanks again, Jamie | ||
| Matt Anderson (Disco01) Senior Member Username: Disco01 Post Number: 294 Registered: 10-2003 |
This is a bit off the topic, but Micky when you mentioned 12.5 feet thing I got to thinking about width. Is there a maximum width allowable by law? I was thinking it was 8'6" but I could be wrong. I know my boat has exactly an 8'6" beam and literaly takes up an entire lane. So does anyone know the law on this? | ||
| Christian Kiely (Redrover47) Member Username: Redrover47 Post Number: 77 Registered: 09-2003 |
I think there is a max width for vehicles (probably varies fromstate to state) but I don't think this applies to trailers b/c many boat trailers are wider than 8'6", more so now with wider beams on newer boats. | ||
| michael harrington (Mike97d1) New Member Username: Mike97d1 Post Number: 30 Registered: 07-2003 |
i didn't say it was legal to tow that boat with a normal truck,but very posible.we got a trailer for a 36' donzi speedboat that could hold the weight, little mods and it's good. it was really a lot easier than you think.have some confidence in your rovers..load your trailer correctly and it won't sway..i'll try to take some pics next time. | ||
| michael harrington (Mike97d1) New Member Username: Mike97d1 Post Number: 31 Registered: 07-2003 |
by the way i think my rig is only 10'6" wide. | ||
| Micky_dee (Micky_dee) Member Username: Micky_dee Post Number: 69 Registered: 11-2003 |
yup that is what i figured. an offshore boat on a triaxle trailer i bet. these boats are lighter and narrower than the typicle express cruser or convertible fly bridge boat. i mean i have been looking into a trailer for my wellcraft and they recomend a fith wheel type hitch. shes 34 by 12.5 twin 454's and dam heavy. | ||
| Timothy A. Green (Tree_trimmer) New Member Username: Tree_trimmer Post Number: 10 Registered: 02-2004 |
Jamie, I'm not sure I fully understand the situation you were in, but it sounds to me the truck made a bonehead move. If he passed you on the right without giving you time to pull back into the right lane, he used poor judgment and created a dangerous situation for all three vehicles envolved. There are plenty of truck drivers who make poor decisions just like car drivers and even land rover drivers. Also, I'm no physics expert but I think the air between two trucks or a truck and camper works like the air flowing over an airplane wing. The air between the two vehicles has less pressure than the air on the outsides of the vehicles and they are pushed/drawn together. And Gil is also correct, as the air moves back together behind the larger vehicle creates a lot of turbulence. I think the reason the big trucks are not affected by this as much is the fact the trailer tires are near the back of the trailer whereas the tires on most boat trailers and campers are near the middle of the vehicle to support most of the weight. This creates a pivot point where the suction created buy the semi as it passes a camper pulls the rear of the trailer toward the center of the road which in turn pushes the hitch of the tow vehicle to the right causing the tow vehicle to feel like it's fishtailing, then the driver starts to correct this and as the truck continues to pass the suction affects a different part of the camper causing more unstability. A car, being smaller does not feel the full effects of the suction between the two vehicles. I found that if I moved close to the white line when a truck started past I did not feel the effects as bad. Also, unless the D2 is extremely different than the D1 I can't imagine it having much more tow rating than the 5500 lbs the D1 has. This rating is assertained by engineers and safety experts. To exceed the tow rating is extreemly dangerous no matter how much confidence one has in his vehicle. Pulling a load is not nearly as difficult as stopping said load. | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 976 Registered: 05-2003 |
Thanks Timothy, It was not a nice truck at all. Really shocked me because usually truckers are courteous and somewhat predictable in their driving. It almost ran both of us off the road while it manuevered between us since there were only 2 lanes. I gave way moving to the left more than the semi on the right did because he was about to swing right into me. I still can't figure out how a semi that big got the acceleration to pull that one off. I was not happy (to say the least), I even yelled and called the truck a bad word which scared my dogs traveling in the back seat. I don't have a trailer and I don't ever want one, my loaded truck is more than enough for me. Thanks again, Jamie | ||
| Shane Lesteberg (Snwbord24) New Member Username: Snwbord24 Post Number: 28 Registered: 01-2004 |
I don't know if my '03 Disco is different than the 99-02 because of the 4.6 vice 4.0 but the tow rating is 7700 lbs on it. Of course that's for trailers with brakes, it says 1650 lbs for unbraked trailers. Also, I haven't noticed the wind problems near as much as expected. I don't have a roof rack but haven't even noticed it pulling my boat (of course it's just a tiny 14' aluminum boat). | ||
| Garth Petch (Garth) New Member Username: Garth Post Number: 36 Registered: 02-2003 |
Jamie I know it's not an exact analogy, but consider the airstream from the front of a truck as the bow wave from a boat, the wave being the area of high pressure and the trough as being the area of low pressure and visualise the way another boat gets thrown about by the wake. Put 2 boats together and the mess the two wakes create...waves that are twice the size, troughs twice the depth, and areas of flat water. The Disco is like a slab sided, flat bottomed fishing punt in the middle of this and will get tossed about more than a smaller, sleeker and deeper hulled boat. Behind a speeding truck there is an area of low pressure, which depending on the truck may extend for 5 to 20 metres, then an area of turbulance where the air blows in to fill the low pressure area. If you are a really gutsy and/or stupid driver you can sit just in front of this turbulance and get the best fuel economy you have ever had. Garth |
