Shite Tow Cars

[Captain Furious]

You may find something like a Range ROver has a stock cooler.  In actual fact, most if not all cars will have some form of ATF cooler as standard, it is just a question of how well it works.  Ford's solution is a pipe which passes ATF through the bottom radiator tank and then back to the gearbox, i'll leave it to you to decide how effective you think pumping hot ATF through hot water is at a cooling mechanism.  I don't think its just Ford who do this, but i'm not that familiar with other marques and their Autos

 

The other downside to this setup is that typically old radiators corrode and the pipe can split causing water to mix with ATF and gearbox death soon afterwards.

 

With a P38 electrical failures will probably get you much sooner than gearbox, but in my mind its worth putting one on, especially since gearbox rebuilds tend to start at £1000+

 

Another top tip is that if your auto has an overdrive gear - eg on my Granada 4th is only really an overdrive, tow with the leaver in position 3 instead of drive to disable it.  There is less strain on the gearbox in a lower gear and it will stop it shifting in and out of 4th all the time which overheats the fluid.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

You may find something like a Range ROver has a stock cooler.  In actual fact, most if not all cars will have some form of ATF cooler as standard, it is just a question of how well it works.  Ford's solution is a pipe which passes ATF through the bottom radiator tank and then back to the gearbox, i'll leave it to you to decide how effective you think pumping hot ATF through hot water is at a cooling mechanism.  I don't think its just Ford who do this, but i'm not that familiar with other marques and their Autos

 

The other downside to this setup is that typically old radiators corrode and the pipe can split causing water to mix with ATF and gearbox death soon afterwards.

 

With a P38 electrical failures will probably get you much sooner than gearbox, but in my mind its worth putting one on, especially since gearbox rebuilds tend to start at £1000+

 

Another top tip is that if your auto has an overdrive gear - eg on my Granada 4th is only really an overdrive, tow with the leaver in position 3 instead of drive to disable it.  There is less strain on the gearbox in a lower gear and it will stop it shifting in and out of 4th all the time which overheats the fluid.

That half-arsed system was a disaster for early W211 E Class Mercs, I seem to remember it was Valeo rads that you had to avoid. I think there was a recall in the end. Problem is some that failed just had a new rad and cooler and years later some boxes were failing due to glycol contamination and Mercedes didn't want to know.

[Captain Furious]

Yeah I read a story recently of it happening to someone, they had their box rebuilt at a cost of £OMG but nobody identified the root cause, a few weeks later Box#2 was dead too.

 

The plus side is that it means there is already pipework running to the rad, which is where you want to mount the cooler, so they're relative childsplay to fit...usually.

 

Obviously, I sit here dispatching this advice, but I haven't yet heeded it myself, I haven't fitted one on the Granada yet because the 24V has an engine oil cooler and aux cooling fan in the way so I haven't figured out where to mount it.  But I do have a spare gearbox standing by..

[Guest Hooli]

I'm thinking of becoming a caravanista. I was looking at a P38 Range Rover( in petrol flavour). Would I need to fit an AFT Cooler to this as most came with tow bars factory fitted?

 

I'd be amazed if it didn't have a cooler already fitted. On mk1 Discos it was built into the side of the rad as a separate system. On the LH side I think as pretty sure the engine oil cooler was on the RH side.

In fact I think R380 gearboxed LR's often had gearbox oil coolers on the manuals too.

[gordonbennet]

Even the bloody Landcruiser has a (hopefully) rare chance of coolant seeping into the transmission oil via radiator contamination, seems mainly to affect the Diesels should it happen (though percentage wise petrols are in a tiny minority here and usually cover less miles), everything appears hunky dory on my petrol version, i do check the gearbox dipstick weekly looking for discolouration, so trust i'm reducing the risk as much as possible.

 

Trouble is a genuine rad is bloody expensive, especially if there's bugger all wrong with the one on it, and i'm none too sure about sticking some aftermarket rad on.

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

Discovery 200tdi is pretty hard to beat in my opinion.  Up hill, down dale- with 3.5t hanging off the back 

 

3dr for maximum shite points, obviously.

 

 

Yep, fetching it's great grand shire home

[Rusty_Rocket]

^^ Nice- that's an early (early) one with those graphics behind the rear window?

[mat_the_cat]

I'd be amazed if it didn't have a cooler already fitted. On mk1 Discos it was built into the side of the rad as a separate system. On the LH side I think as pretty sure the engine oil cooler was on the RH side.

 

That's correct, but they also have an air cooled ATF cooler running in front of the radiator. I had one corrode through (apt for a Discovery) so had ATF consumption almost matching fuel consumption on the way home!

[Ghosty]

I like how all the tow car of the year choices are top of the range models Bit daft.... 

Golf 4Motion is daft - 2.8 V6, full leather etc, only one step below an R32! 

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Would love a disco, but due to license laws (mines a post 1997) a disco with a caravan would put me over the max allowed weight

 

The XM I've now bought is just the ticket - it has a gross weight a shade under 2000kg and the gross weight of my van is 1000kg so I'm well within the 3500kg max weight rule. In reality my gross train weight will be nowhere near that.

[bub2006]

If the disco weighed 2200 fully laden for example and you bought a van that was 1300 fully laden you are fi e weightwise. Just dont exceed 3500

[jonathan_dyane]

Not true, if the VOSA lads want to be twats they do it on gross weight and payload capability rather than actual weight.

[oldcars]

Not true, if the VOSA lads want to be twats they do it on gross weight and payload capability rather than actual weight.

True, that's why it took me so long to find a light van incase i was stopped.

[scruff]

If the disco weighed 2200 fully laden for example and you bought a van that was 1300 fully laden you are fi e weightwise. Just dont exceed 3500

 

 

NONONO

[bub2006]

What I mean is if car x and van y cannot exceed 3.5 ton going off the platedweight then surely you are OK? For example car weighs 2 ton laden max according to plate and van weighs 1000 max plates that doesn't exceed 3.5. Even if the car can tow more both plated max weights combined don't exceed 3.5.

[bub2006]

But this stupidity is why I have a car and not MPV.

[scruff]

You are right I was referring to the Disco reference, MAM of a Tdi 5 door is just shy of 2800kg I think.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Yeah it's all based on the potential loads and not the real weights - I think a disco gross is around 2800 so total gross train weight with my van would be 3800 and I'd be technically driving without a license....

 

To be fair you can tow a fairly big van and stay within the 3500kg limit, with the XM being almost 2000kg limit I could whack a 1500kg mam van on the back and be legal. Obviously being on the limit you'd want to be clever with the weight distribution to try and stay under the notional 85% guide...

[They_all_do_that_sir]

My Volvo towing the van

 

 

Being the 140bhp petrol it could barely pull itself but was stable once moving

[Rowver]

Too much work for my long suffering 75 really but here she is with my rescue p6 having hauled it 200 miles up hill and down dale. She earned her keep that weekend!

[dcd1979]

 

One of my old mans towing vehicles although he never towed the van as far as i towed my 70's and then 80's sprite alpines behind my meastro 1.3's before upgrading to a montego the 1st thing my dad always used to do when brought a new car was fit a towbar no mater what the car, and I still do the same