Tow Vehicles, yet again
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: The Briny Bar
Forum Description: The place for general chat on saltwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=137331
Printed Date: 23 Mar 2023 at 6:00pm
Topic: Tow Vehicles, yet again
Posted By: Kevin.S
Subject: Tow Vehicles, yet again
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 8:46am
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For reasons that will be obvious if you've seen my other post, I'm looking into a new tow vehicle. I have an FC595 boat, which I think is about 1200 kg. I live on a rural section that is quite steep, so really would like 4wd with low ratio box if possible. I'm looking for a diesel. The tricky bit is that I can't justify spending much as I don't use my car a lot. I was looking at spending $5-10k, the nearer the bottom end of that range the better. Looking on trademe, that price range seems to be filled with Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe vehicles from around 2006-2009. I know nothing about these, anyone used one for a tow vehicle? What were they like? Anything else I should be looking for, or avoiding?
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Replies:
Posted By: JustAnotherSpearo
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 9:41am
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That year Santa Fe is more like a toy all wheel drive. From memory, dont quote me its been a good 10 years since my parents had the 2006 santa fe. But it was full time front wheel drive with a button to make it all wheel drive that would cut out over 40kph. Was open diff and useless on beaches firm or soft and that was pulling a 520 lazercraft. Concrete or gravel id imagine no worries but if its mud, wet grass or sand. Think twice. |
Posted By: Otto
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 10:08am
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Had an IX35, towed the 5.8 Surtess ok on a flat road but was low so had to be careful especially on judder bars etc. This had done approx 150,000km and started clunking at times, found out a common fault in these Santa Fe and Kia is a failure with the AWD. What was bad was we could not get a new part. The only part found was at the bottom of the South Island. Fixed and now another employee has it. more explained here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAtBfWbH_I4" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAtBfWbH_I4 So getting one fixed may be a problem. Because of running costs the petrol Prado is at the high end of your price bracket
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Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 10:25am
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Thanks, looks like I can cross off the Santa Fe. i wasn't sure if it was "real" 4 wheel drive or not. The Sorento seems to be, it has a selector for 2 high, 4 high and 4 low anyway and one advert mentioned diff locks. It's monumentally ugly, but I can live with that if it does the job. I had a petrol 4x4 once, pretty sure I couldn't afford to fuel one these days -and I really don't go very far.
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Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 11:47am
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HI Kevin Have a look at Subaru outback 3lt wagons,all wheel drive,$5k will get a good 2004/2005 model. I have one and tows way better than my old holden 3.5 ute ever did.
------------- Amateur's built the ark. Professional built the Titanic |
Posted By: pompey
Date Posted: 06 Dec 2022 at 12:01pm
| Petrol is cheaper than diesel these days. If you are not using the vehicle much, why wouldn't petrol be an option? |
Posted By: kimber7wsm
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2022 at 7:23am
| If you tow regularly, I recommend a full ladder chassis type vehicle. The petrol patrols can be cheap to pick up if you look enough as it's the diesel everyone wants. I was about to sell a work one for $5000, but someone kindly wrote it off. |
Posted By: Coutta
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2022 at 12:23pm
| Have a good look at the pre 09 Kia Sorento. Full ladder chassis and low ratio 4WD. They'd have no trouble pulling your FC. |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2022 at 3:38pm
Yes, that seems to be ticking all the boxes. Anything I need to be aware of with them?
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Coutta wrote:Posted By: Marligator
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2022 at 12:41pm
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I used to have a Subaru Forrester and it towed an AMF 5.8m no problems at all, used to tow down to Waihau from Tauranga, never had any issues. The AMF would weigh very similar to a FC 5.95. You should be able to pick a good one up in that price range. ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Sambosi
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2022 at 1:05pm
| Just don't go near any Subaru with the 4 cylinder 2.5L engine. |
Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2022 at 1:13pm
------------- Amateur's built the ark. Professional built the Titanic |
Posted By: waynorth
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2022 at 1:46pm
2.5 also has a timing belt rather than the 6 cyl 3 litre's timing chain - the belt needs replacing after 100k or risk totaling the engine if it goes. My 3.0 did a great job towing an unbraked 1.5 tonne tinny. Plenty of weight on the drawbar gave good stability on the road, no problem with braking but worked hard on our steep ramp, and pretty thirsty.
------------- treat fish like fish |
Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2022 at 5:52pm
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The bigger Subies get some good cred Kevin, if you just use it for towing to our local it would eat it up. I haven't towed my boat any real distance in many years. ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2022 at 6:37pm
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The H6 Outback is a very nice car and would tow the boat no problem, but I'm quite keen on something with low ratio as I've had to use that now and then moving it around here. It's quite a serious slope on the drive, a builder tried to bring a loaded trailer up recently with his Ranger and it couldn't do it (I think it might have been a 2WD model). |
Posted By: Marligator
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2022 at 7:01am
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I have had two Forresters (ex lease) which I purchased at about 65,000km and sold at about 180,000 km never had any trouble with them at all. Yes you have to change the timing belt at 100,000km, but that was the only major expense I had. ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Coutta
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2022 at 8:26am
| All I would do if I owned another Kia for towing would be to put some heavier shocks in the back. If there's too much weight on the tow bar they tend to be a wee bit light in the front end. Not an issue on short trips though. |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 16 Dec 2022 at 10:14am
| Just to throw a couple more in the mix, anyone got any experience of a Ssangyong Rexton 2.7 diesel or a VW Taureg 3.0 diesel? |
Posted By: Coutta
Date Posted: 16 Dec 2022 at 11:01am
| I have a mate who used to pull a 5.6 Steadcraft with a Rexton. Heavy boat for its size and the Rexton had no issues whatsoever. You'd be a bit over budget I'd imagine. |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 16 Dec 2022 at 11:18am
Would be over budget for a newer one, but older (2005-2008) models come in budget.
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Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 16 Dec 2022 at 11:52am
| The garage rang, kind of good news and bad news. The good news is that after fitting the new cam belt and push rods I got them it is now running fine. But the bad news is that they have no idea why the timing belt snapped either. I'm torn between just using it and hoping it doesn't happen again and selling it while its running and getting something else. |
Posted By: kimber7wsm
Date Posted: 17 Dec 2022 at 6:53am
| When was the Cambelt last replaced? It's best practice to change a cambelt every 100,000km for that very reason. |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 17 Dec 2022 at 9:59am
That's the odd thing, the cam belt was only a couple of years old and had only done 15,000km or less. As you would expect it looked in excellent condition, apart from being snapped, so something jammed solid enough to snap it but when the garage looked everything was running freely. Which is what worries me about it.
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Posted By: Alan L
Date Posted: 17 Dec 2022 at 7:42pm
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If it was loose (enough) it could have jumped a few teeth, then jammed. Is it an auto tensioner, or do you have to tighten?
If auto, is it jammed/stiff. Maybe it was wrongly set at the beginning - some of them can be tricky to install. Alan ------------- Legasea Legend member |
Posted By: kimber7wsm
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2022 at 4:41am
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On our car, a tiny piece of timing chain guide (which is made of plastic) broke off when I hit a severe bump. This fell down and ending up going between the crank pulley and the timing chain, causing it to jump a couple of teeth. We were really lucky in that while it buggered up the timing, it didn't jump far enough to cause damage. Took quite a while to work out why the timing was suddenly out, as it affected the low rpm a lot more than high RPM. Maybe something like that happened, or as Alan said the tensioner could be not working. Was the tensioner replaced with the cambelt?
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Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2022 at 5:03am
So brings it to mind faulty belt or cheap after market part,nicked belt when replacing?I see a lot of car manufactures are ditching the belt and gone back to chains.
------------- Amateur's built the ark. Professional built the Titanic |
Posted By: Reel Deal
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2022 at 7:32am
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In that price bracket I’d look at an early Touareg VW. Lates is $150k. Only cause I’ve used one issue free for 8 years and tow an extreme 645. Twice a year from Whangarei to Taupo no probs and these wagons are crazy good on slippery stuff. Often I can’t walk on boat ramp slim pulling myself along car sides to get in but pulls loaded up boat no probs. I also do beach fishing so a bit of dune work, biggest plus is they are sooo comfortable to drive with all the luxurious. ------------- The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2023 at 1:57pm
| Quick update in case anyone was interested. I sourced a set of secondhand pushrods and bought a new cambelt, which the garage fitted before Christmas. After fitting these it ran fine. I've done about 500km over the holidays and so far, so good. I would like to upgrade but suspect that without a lot of luck it can't be done on the budget I wanted to do it on. Loved the look of the Toureg, but at the age/mileage I could afford trouble with the air suspension seems quite common and very expensive to fix -more than the car would be worth expensive. |