Offroad-Express

im looking at a 92 escudo LWB in auto.
main use is for the weekend, towing 4.5m alloy boat at boat ramp and having fun in the sand.

anyone have experience using the 1.6L auto towing a boat?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/suzuki/escudo/auction-569341472.htm

any feed back appreciated

Yeah I blew the top tank off the radiator towning my jetboat. They aren't the best for towing that's for sure!

how heavy was ya jet boat??

prado_boon wrote:Yeah I blew the top tank off the radiator towning my jetboat. They aren't the best for towing that's for sure!

^^So your radiator was buggered, thats not really a good reason not to buy one. Towing a heavyish load won't cause the radiator to shit itself if it's in good nick. I would say it will be great for your intended use, just fit a nice big transmission cooler if it hasn't already got one and it will be fine. That one you are looking at appears to be excellent value for money and should be good for quite a few k's yet. You could buy a cheaper one but why bother when that one has had everything you could ever need.

i see farmers down here using them to tow trailers and feed out all the time.

any everyone knows how heavy those bales can get.

When towing with any vehicle the big problem is usually stopping power, depending on the weight of your boat the brakes may not be great if you are on them for long periods going down hills or if you need to stop suddenly.

The engine and transmission will really only get a hammering if you are doing hard work continuously for a long time, trying to go up 3km of steep hills at 120kph is a bad idea when towing.

The nice thing with the Vit is you get a proper low range case, so when you are pulling the boat out or going slow up a steep hill, stop, chuck it in low range and just cruise it out.

Always keep an eye on the temperature and just try to drive as smoothly as possible while towing, hard acceleration or braking should never be necessary.

zukmeista wrote:

prado_boon wrote:Yeah I blew the top tank off the radiator towning my jetboat. They aren't the best for towing that's for sure!

^^So your radiator was buggered, thats not really a good reason not to buy one. Towing a heavyish load won't cause the radiator to shit itself if it's in good nick. I would say it will be great for your intended use, just fit a nice big transmission cooler if it hasn't already got one and it will be fine. That one you are looking at appears to be excellent value for money and should be good for quite a few k's yet. You could buy a cheaper one but why bother when that one has had everything you could ever need.

Nope, the rad was in good nic apparently. The top tank of those radiators are poorly designed. It wasn't a heavy jet boat, was a 4.2m fiberglass and the engine didnt overheat so I can give it that... but the radiator guy said they are crap... one of the worst he said.

I thought it would be good for towing prior to owning also... WRONG.
I can tell you that towing with a 1600 petrol isn't fun. I think they are rated to about 1000lb without a braked trailer.

Well I haven't heard of the radiators being a problem before. I'm not sure what you expected of it as far as towing stuff, it's not exactly a Safari.

I towed our work ute(nissan nivara flat deck) with a 5 spd about 10kms through 50km/h areas back to our work shop with a recently rebuilt new head and the temp shot up dramaticly with the heater on full, i imagine an auto would be worse?

The old boy tows his ally boat (must be 4+m) with the company car (late model GV) but he dosnt pay for gas, it can only be 3 to 4 years old and a v 6 something in it though.

How bout a turbo surf or terrano? I towed around 1300 kg of clay unbraked behind the qd32 NA ute and while it was a wee bit slow it certainly handled it (eventually)

thanks for all the feedback guys. will post results after this weekend as heading up to check it out tomorrow

The radiator tanks are plastic and perish along the bend where it is crimped onto the fins . They are not the only vehicle with plastic tanks .

The old man used his 1.6 vitara to tow the 5.8m alloy boat to the ramp and back for 5 odd years without an issue , all 50kph area etc and only about 5 to 10 mins away unfortunately .

If the ramps local , no worries . If its much further I would say look for a v6 model and wear the fuel cost , or maybe a 2.0 4cyl .

Chris

thanks for that chris. yep in gisborne you're 5mins from anywhere and local drivers are going 40km/h everywhere

short answer. tows fine. boat ramp and beach launch duties sorted.
but a trip to coromandel... slow.

I got a v6 escudo auto... Tows my boat mint