Military landrover towing capacities

[Centurion]

Hi all,

this may have been better in the I know its stupid but. What are the trailer weights that can be towed by.

 

Weights in kg please. I have a box trailer which carries up to 3000 kg grossthe unladen weight is 900kg

 

1. Airportable l/rover series 2a or 3

 

2. Landrover 90

 

3.Landrover 110

 

Thanks

Centurion

[ruxy]

Solihull were always a bit vague , quoting tractive effort, that is until they had to mark to international VIN plate.

 

Early S3 Lightweight and S2A , seat-base states 2 tons (arguably offroad) these vehicles had 10" front brakes.

 

==========

 

Late S3 Lightweights "rationalized axles" 11" front brakes , fitted VIN - compare axle loadings & permitted = good for 3.5 tonne gross overun braked.

 

Any Defender , TUL/TUM , Wolf , whatever , check VIN plate axle loadings , AFAIK - all good for 3.5 tonne gross overun braked

[landyandy]

90 and 110 are both rated at 3500 kgs with overun brakes fitted

[Tony B]

Land Rover also tip toe around the hitch. Basically the Series can tow 3.5 ton max, the most you can tow on a 50mm ball, with over run brakes. NATO hitch on Land Rovers has a tow rating of about 7 tons. 4 wheel trailers with coupled brakes max tow 4 tonnes. But the vehicle must be resubmitted to Land Rover for an uprated VIN plate. The manual also recommends for loads over 2 tonne on 90 and 110 start in low ratio and change up. Depending on your UK licence the max tow on B and C1 is 8.25 train weight. I was loking it up last night. Off road max is 1 ton.

Edited January 22, 2012 by Tony B

[paulbrook]

When the 90's and 110s were first introduced we had terrible trouble with the new (diesel) engines - and all sorts of shenanigins were undertaken as the "blame" rocked back and forth between LR and MOD. No fewer than 6 variants of the engine were tried and eventually under an initiative called Op Terry we got to test the latest version - all 55bhp of it. We trialled a fully laden FFR with a 3/4 ton trailer, all up weight of the whole thing 3.5 tonnes. It reached 30mph in 30 seconds (unless you turned right up Queens Avenue in which case you didn't get to 30mph) and pulling out at every road junction was a heart-in-mouth gamble.

 

After that the MOD bought a load of V8s as a stop gap, plus we naughty boys in the user trials organisation started using disgusting words like Pinzgauer in polite conversations....

 

So even with a better power curve than the Mk6 Terry engine theoretical towing weight is one thing, the reality of taking something with a big anchor on the back onto HM's highways (safely - and by that I mean being able to accellerate as well as brake) needs careful thought.

 

As an aside LR insisted that their engine was excellent as witnessed by the fact that it was fitted to virtually every London Taxi in existence. We checked with the cabbies who nearly choked on their bacon sarnies before saying exceptionally colourful things about that particuar engine (and the benefits of repowering with Isuzu)

[ruxy]

Was the Mk.6 Terry engine the adapted one (IIRC idea by a REME Major) with the metal oil recovery cyclone to stop paper element filters fogging up ? (and permitting the oil engine to run for ever until the sump ran dry) Possibly it was a Major Terry ?

Edited January 22, 2012 by ruxy
speling

[ruxy]

The Zeus timing gear kit originated from the London taxi regulating authourity (I forget their title) having to clean up smokers , they then went on to make the black cab stop better :-

 

http://www.zeus.uk.com/about.php

[paulbrook]

All I can remember about the Mk6 engine was that it was totally useless, with the same power output as a Yugo 55 and none of the excuses.

[g0ozs]

Centurion

 

The other observation to make about towing with Landrovers is that handling is affected by front heavy trailers even if they are well under 3.5 tonne. I used to have a Marconi NCRS trailer - a 1.8 tonne 4 wheel horsebox-like radio shelter - and even stripped of all equipment it was unpleasantly front heavy - because the bulk of the electronics was forward of the wheels and the mast stowage projected well forward of the body it must have been worse in use. It came with a dire warning plate mounted on the tow bar that the vehicle had to be ballasted to 2320KG (presumably with the ballast weight forward of the rear axle?) and several horror stories from people familiar with the trailers in service.

 

 

Regards

 

Iain

 

[Tony B]

From manual recommended nose weight limit 75 kg 165 lbs. Also states nose weight plus rear load musn't exceed axle weight. No minimum weight which suprises me. A single axle trailer in particular does need a certain amount of weight to keep it stable or it wants to lift the back of the vehicle. Obviously to much nose will lift the front and can blow the back axle.

[g0ozs]

Tony, Centurion

 

Thinking about the NCRS the problem would not be just the static weight but also that a lot of the kit inside the box was high up, so it would pitch forward and push down the towbar when stopping .. not an issue with the normal Sankey or other low trailers of course !

 

Iain