£1600, 2.8 pajero or Grand cherokee on gas for towing?

[Mr Pies]

As above. Potentially will be used for towing my E36 drift car once I've got the trailer test passed on my licence.

Which would you go for and why? I need reliability as I do around 140 miles per week around town.

TIA

[Mr Pies]

Sorry I should have been a little more clear, it doesn't have to be gas. Whichever gets me as close to 30mpg round town, and is as reliable as possible I will settle for.

Ideally I fancied an auto but it seems manual Daihatsu fourtraks are in my price range. Any experience of those?

Edited by Mr Pies on Friday 7th December 02:20

[bakerstreet]

The 2.8TD Pajero will do 19-25, but round town they do 19mpg

The Cherokee will do 25mpg on a run, but thats it, Expect 18-22 round town and I'd expect high teens towing.

I'm not sure on the towing weights.

Might be worth looking at a Frontera or a Trooper too

[Mr Pies]

I'll have to find out the towing weights. The car I'll be towing is 1390kg. Just wondering if something smaller like a freelander etc would be suitable?

[Mr Pies]

So jeep cherokee, fourtraks, pajeros and troopers are ok though? Even the swb versions of the latter 2?

[Mr Pies]

I'm really liking the lpg jeep Cherokees as you get much better mpg and the seem a nicer place to be inside with most having leather etc.

Are they reliable though? What is spare parts availability like?

[wuckfitracing]

Warning look on auction sites and see how many jeeps fitted with LPG kits are broken. This engine does not like LPG.

[Mr Pies]

I have noticed that.

So come on lads help me out. £2000 tops, what's the most reliable, best mpg (gas or diesel) as close to 30 mpg I can get that's best for the occasional (every 4th weekend) towing job I can get?

Stick with the pajero 2.8 and according to the pocuk forum I'm gonna get 19mpg at best round town. I do 140 miles a week to work and back including the gym. That's about £40 a week in derv right?

[JakesterUK]

For 2k an lpg'd Jeep will have done moon miles, best bet go drive a Jeep or Paj and decide, I've owned quite a few Jeep's diesel, petrol and LPG, stay away from the 2.5 diesel it's horrid and grim on fuel.

The 4.0l straight six is pretty bullet proof and bar inlet manifolds occassionaly crackingwill run forever, parts are cheap and plentiful.

LPG wise ONLY buy one that's been pro installed and is fully certificated, as there's lots of 'farm yard' installs about.

[furrywoolyhatuk]

As briefly mentioned above, 3.0td toyota surf, just check for the usual rust.

[pcn1]

What price have the early Grand Cherokee 2.7crd's come down too yet ?

Im very happy with mine !

[bakerstreet]

pcn1 said:

What price have the early Grand Cherokee 2.7crd's come down too yet ?

Im very happy with mine !

They are around £2.5k and upwards. They will have high miles, but the 5 pot diesel merc engine is very good. They are used in merc sprinter ambulances. Thats a good enough adert for me!

[tr7v8]

I've got a 4L Grand Cherokee WJ, it does 22 on a run, around 14 or so around town, I manage 18MPG overall. The 4 litre is bulletproof & is very reliable on gas (which some of the other engines aren't), tow limit is 3250Kg. Mine has zero rust which is one of the reasons I have a Jeep & not a Land Rover.
Servicing basically means changing fluids regularly. Axles & gearbox/transfer box all need doing & get forgotten. Parts availability no problem, lots of bits from specialists or the US. Jeep dealers can be expensive for some bits, others are reasonable. All GC are auto, avoid the crap 2.5 & 3.1 deseasals. The 2.7 is OK but is possibly too expensive for your budget.
Having towed loads of cars I reckon your towed weight will be 1T for the car, 1T for the trailer & spare. So around 2000kG max.

[jagracer]

furrywoolyhatuk said:

As briefly mentioned above, 3.0td toyota surf, just check for the usual rust.

You wont get 30mpg around town (more like 20-23) out of one of those and would probably see 20mpg if you take it easy towing.

[furrywoolyhatuk]

jagracer said:

You wont get 30mpg around town (more like 20-23) out of one of those and would probably see 20mpg if you take it easy towing.

So not much differnence between the other offerings then.

There's also the veg oil route if you have the time or the inclination!

[scrwright]

+1 for a 4l wj grand on lpg. Mine gets used & abused but looked after and is up to 230k miles and still running great. Nice tow truck too. Avoid the diesels and the v8s dont seem to be as reliable as the straight 6s

[pcn1]

My 2.7crd has indicated on the trip computer 36mpg on a motorway cruise (circa 65mph, and not towing anything !!)
My real world driving on a mixed bag of roads, M4, A4, local back roads etc in rush hour times and I have 25.2mpg showing.

I did come across a South African website for Jeep owners a while ago where 1 owner was aiminmg for 250,000 miles out of his 2.7crd with careful maintanence. (dont remember what he had on it at the time)

[ed1983]

2.8 paj will run on veg oil very well

[Mr Pies]

Trying to find (unsuccessfully so far) someone who knows about lpg systems and jeeps in general to come and have a look at this with me the weekend.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251198140348?ssPageName=...

[tr7v8]

Mr Pies said:

Trying to find (unsuccessfully so far) someone who knows about lpg systems and jeeps in general to come and have a look at this with me the weekend.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251198140348?ssPageName=...

Prins system so well known, find a local dealer/installer & get their opinion. Otherwise it doesn't look bad.