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We are thinking of buying a second-hand landcruiser.  We used to have a Rav4 and had problems with the rear door mounted spare wheel when hitching up as the handle of the Alko stabiliser used to catch on the wheel cover and wouldn't go into the upright position without hitching the van at an angle to the car.

Some of the Landcruisers also have rear mounted spare wheels but they seem to be higher from the ground and may not be a problem. 

Does anyone have any advice or experience of hitching onto a Landcruiser with the rear door mounted wheel?  Does anyone have any experiences of towing with a Landcruiser (good or bad) that they would like to share??

Cheers

Anne

Aw Anne, dunno where all the Landcruiser owners have gone so in their absence I will try to offer a little knowledge of the Landcruisers.

I have a friend who is on his second one, the first was supremely reliable and apart from servicing and new wiper blades, tyres etc performed faultlessly.  He had a shogun and a Disco before and the LC excelled in both fuel consumption, reliability and ride quality in comparison.

He has just bought another one.  I know he towed a large trailer from time to time and said you didn't know it was there so I don't think its towing capabilities will be a problem and other members on here have commented to that effect in the past.

Afraid I can't help re the wheel fouling the hitch but it is certainly a tall vehicle so I think you will be ok.

Ali

Hi,we have had a 04 Landcruiser since october,so only towed a couple of times with it,and has been a competent and smooth tow vehicle ,which is alot more than I can say for the shogun we had before,which we only had for 5 months I think that say's it all.

We haven't had a problem with the Alko handle and rear mounted spare tyre,but we do seem to have a longer towbar that takes the ball past the spare wheel,this was already fitted when we purchased the car.I would add a photo but not sure how to.

Shirl

Anne R,

Up until last August I towed my twin axle with an "R" reg Colorado(3.0 Td) and it was in my opinion a fantastic tow car, effortless. I do agree that hitching up with the spare wheel on the back was a buit of a nuisance as it sits very low on the door but it is easy once you get used to it.

Last year I changed to a Land Rover Discovery (Td5 02 plate) and hitching up is simple as you have a lot more space even with the spare wheel on the back door. I do find it an equally good towcar although it doesn't have the same power as the Landcruiser but, the ride with the "active" suspension makes towing very smooth with no "bouncing". It is also a more economical towcar as I can easily achieve 25-28mpg compared to 23-25mpg with the Landcruiser. It's all a matter of personal choice but I will struggle next year to decide whether to buy a Discovery 3 or, a new style Landcruiser.

Good luck in your search.

Jamsie

Hi Anne R

We are on our second LC in 4 years. First was 51 Reg 3.0 TD  D-4D Auto [4 speed] Colorado - Solo 30mpg, Towing 1486kg Caravan 25mpg. This car had a towbar fitted - but I do not know what make - the Alko handle did just foul the spare wheel so I had a 3/4"- 1" spacer fitted which solved the problem.

Current LC is 55 Reg 3.0 TD D-4D Auto [5Speed] LC3 - Solo 31mpg, Towing same van 26mpg. It has a Cruise Control which is brilliant [solo or towing]. We had a Witter towbar fitted to this car [mobile fitter] and no spacer was needed. You can hitch up at any angle.

In over 4 years of ownership we have had not a single fault with either vehicle - our only expense being servicing charges. The LC is a superb Towcar, our van is no lightweight and it is single axle but we have never had any towing problems and it so comfortable - a real long distance cruiser. When we bought our first caravan [after a 30+ year break] we had a 1.9 TD 130bhp Passat Sport Estate [6 speed manual] But we found the outfit was 'twitching' when being overtaken by faster traffic. I think we tried all the 4x4 models and were not happy with any - then we tried a P reg 3.0 TD Colorado it had done 70k and we were hooked - it was just so impressive over all the others - most of which were Demo Models.

I have a friend who has a Landscape gardening business. He has a P reg Colorado which has now done well over 200,000miles - again no problems - cylinder head has never been off.

As I do not know your budget I can only advise that you try to get the 3.0 D-4D engine which was available from Jan 2001. The earlier engine did have a few which developed hairline cracks in cylinder heads, but this may have been due to poor maintenance.

Finding a nice used LC is not easy - people tend to keep them for years. On both my purchases I shopped online using Toyota's website where you can search their Dealers for a car on price/year/colour etc. I drove from Cornwall to Salisbury to buy our first LC and then to Harrogate [Yorkshire] for our second. Both were from Toyota main Dealers.

I think Alko now offer a shorter detachable handle to solve these spare wheel mounts.

Feel free to ask any other questions, I will be glad to help.

http://www.ggg.co.uk/

Somebody put this link up a while ago, seems like a knowledgeable dealer?

Ali

When I eventually decide to change my Espace, it'll be to a Land Cruiser amazon. I know several people with them, neither have ever had the bonnet up for anything other than servicing & neither of them will buy anything else as long as they can get the Amazon. The problem for me is, they buy new & their trade in is too much money for me. 

That word of mouth recommendation has to be a good advert for the vehicle, certainly good enough for me.

BB

Quote: Originally posted by Basilbrush on 24/2/2008

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When I eventually decide to change my Espace, it'll be to a Land Cruiser amazon. I know several people with them, neither have ever had the bonnet up for anything other than servicing & neither of them will buy anything else as long as they can get the Amazon. The problem for me is, they buy new & their trade in is too much money for me. 

That word of mouth recommendation has to be a good advert for the vehicle, certainly good enough for me.

BB

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Changing my Landcruiser now.  You can have it for what I have been offered PX. £5000 R reg 114000 on the clock.

Many thanks to everyone for their help and advice.  You've given us plenty to think about.  There are just so many tow cars out there - its a real puzzle to choose the right one.

Anne

 go for the landcruiser, we love ours, tows well, 8 comfy seats, and not bad on fuel

 aww sry to hear that, we get around 27 mpg if we are towing or not, i suppose its like anything else you are either lucky or not, hope that the engine is under warranty as it has only done 3000 mls since its rebuild, fingers crossed and good luck