Landrover Discover Sport + T\A at 93%
I am considering changing from a full sized Discovery to the Discovery Sport new 2-0 litre in auto guise. I currently have a twin axle Unicorn with a max laden weight of 1753 kgs. I have done the checks and the tow would be legal (LR have a max limit for 2,000 kgs) although the caravan is at 93% of the tow car weight. Having towed for 30 years plus the fact that T/As tend to be more stable and the car has trailer stability whilst the caravan has ATC I do not anticipate any stability problems. My question is to any Discover Sport owners who have a similar outfit on how they find the cars performance. The Discovery 4 was effortless even on long hill climbs. Also it could reverse the caravan on soft ground against an incline (sometimes I used the low ratio box) Again any experiences would be appreciated on general satisfaction when towing a large T/A would be appreciated' I accept that some loss of push and pull is to be expected.
My plan in a couple of years is to downsize to a single axle.
Comments
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I understand that if you fit a tow bar to the Discovery Sport you cannot 'stow' the spare wheel, which may or may not be important to you.
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Not a problem Phil I have the option of a 5 seater with full sized spare wheel and the heavy duty tow bar. The problem you have identified applies to the 5 + 2 seater option. The additional 2 seats in the rear leave insufficient room for the full sized wheel but as I would never carry 7 people I would be ok.
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Not sure if this is relevant to your question, but there was a clip on utube some time ago of the car towing 100 ton train I believe. I expect it is still available to view. Obviously a stunt but might give you the confidence on pulling power.
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Tirril, as to the Discovery Sport it's not linked to your direct question but do a search on 'B pillar rattle'. I was recently considering purchasing a Discovery Sport until I found forums with this issue being discussed. Just look at the authorised fix for this problem. It begins with a hammer and chisel opening a weld on the pillar through to rewelding the pillar to the roof!!! This fix is not guaranteed to work. I've put a link here to the most recent technical bulletin from Landrover below (sorry if link doesn't open up as having problems with this new website). There is no end date as to vehicles which may have this problem.
http://www.discosportforums.co.uk/download/file.php?id=4223
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Hi Tirril. I am just coming up to a year's ownership of a 2.0 Discovery Sport HSE auto with which I tow a (single axle) Bailey Unicorn Vigo series3. This year, in addition to various breaks in this country, we spent six weeks on the continent during which we visited Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France. I really rate my Discovery Sport as a towcar and also find it a very pleasant car overall. In answer to some of the comments above, my car has 7 seats, a removable tow bar and a spare wheel, although the latter is not full size. Having said that, due to what turned out to be a bad electrical connection, the car was with the dealer when I had a week booked with the caravan in South Wales so Land Rover loaned me a vitually new Discovery 4. I had never previously driven a `full fat' Discovery and I must admit that it was by far the best vehicle I have towed with in 36 years of caravanning, although as a passenger, my wife preferred our Discovery Sport. I am very happy with the Discovery Sport and it is a very capable tow car (also mind-blowing off road as I discovered at one of the Land Rover Experience Centres) but it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that it is as capable a towcar as a Discovery 4.
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Many thanks dwlgll20 - I have downloaded the information from the web link. Quite a shock and if I proceed and then have the problem I will at least know what to say to Landrover. The vehicle on offer would be brand new so hopefully the fault will have been eliminated by now.
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Many thanks to kentman. I understand your liking the Discovery 4 as they are superb, as you would expect having won the CC tow car award year in and year out.
The model I am looking at is also the HSE 180hp in auto. I was surprised that it was available on order in just 5 seater form which means I get the deployable tow bar and full sized spare wheel. The tow bar and car are rated up to 2,200 kg for towing. Interestingly the CC matching service obviously works on just basic weight of the car, not the driver and fuel in the tank which then quotes a 93% car/caravan match. I checked the tow sure match website which gives an 82% match and factors in the additional driver/fuel allowance.
One other question does the car get into 8th or 9th gear when towing at motorway speeds? The gearing is obviously high but max torque does come in at fairly low engine revs at 1750 rpm. Again many thanks
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Hi Tirril. Obviously, I don't constantly monitor which gear the auto 'box is in but my impression is that when cruising with the caravan in tow it is generally in 8th gear, occasionally dropping-in to 9th. Perhaps because of the number of gears enabling the engine to work more efficiently, I find that the Discovery Sport generally tows at lower revs than the Freelander 2 which I owned previously.
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Is there not a display option to show which gear you are in? How would you determine if there were a fault holding gears, or not changing? Or an unfamiliar driver like your OH had locked it in a gear (been there done that)
The 9 speed Merc autobox shows it by default, my 7g box has a menu option to display it. Pretty sure a hired Disco 4 had a display that showed the gear too.
More gears would mean lower revs. I took a 9 speed V6 diesel MB out for a test drive recently. At motorway cruising speed it ran at 1500rpm in 9th, my 7 speed V6 (same engine) does 1700rpm at same road speed.
Thought JLR were full of gadgets and toys these days
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As far as I am aware, I can only see which gear the car is in if I use the gearbox manually with the flappy paddles. Frankly, the car, like most modern ones, has more toys than I want - eg. I have disabled auto headlight dipping because it does not return to mainbeam quickly enough for my taste and can be fooled into inappropriate dipping by the reflection from large white road signs. Are we so pathetic that we really can't flick a switch for ourselves?!
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Many thanks for the feed back all. I went ahead and got the 2-0L 9 speed auto version which I collected today. The following might be of interest to caravaners who like me prefer a full sized spare wheel and heavy duty tow hitch. You can now order a high spec HSE etc with just 5 seats and instead have a full size alloy spare wheel and any of the heavy duty tow bars including the electric deployable hitch.
The car has max torque at quite low revs (1750 rpm). A short trip solo on the motorway suggests 9th gear is just about the 1700 rpm mark at 70 mph. Which backs up Kentmans finding that towing at 60 mph will generally be happening in 8th gear.
Just to answer Vulcans question - when running in auto the actual gear is displayed as in Drive. However you just flick the up/down paddle changer and it then shows the actual gear being used.
Another bonus for towing is that 1st gear is so low that in general driving in auto the car starts in second gear, using first only when needed.
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As per my first paragraph, to determine if the box is working correctly or needs a software upgrade, or has been buggered about with by a techie on a laptop whilst in the workshop, or locked in the wrong gear.
They are more than just an auto gearbox these days, don't you know nuffink? 0 -
I agree with Vulcan
.... my 7 speed Merc auto only shows which gear you're in when you've limited the max gear it'll change to, later R Class have flappy paddles, but mine doesn't. i just leave it to it. One of my Smarts always shows what gear it's in when in auto, but the other (older) one doesn't. SWMBO's Citroen C3 shows you 
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Hi Tirril. Hope you enjoy the new toy. Having just 5 seats and a full-size spare wheel makes sense if you don't need the extra ones. I wanted 7 seats for occasional use (such as tomorrow, taking grand children to the pantomime). Happy Christmas everyone.
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I have just swapped out my 190 BHP HSE Auto Disco Sport (bought new) for a Mercedes GLE 2.5D. I have just bought a TA van and it also came out at 93% for the ratio. The GLE comes out at 71%, is more refined than the Disco Sport and significantly more economical with much more advanced tech over the LR. I didn't think I would recommended another car over the Land Rover (I've had 4 in the past) but I'm afraid the GLE trumps it.
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Enjoy your new Merc asl1956.
Just on the point regarding the Clubs tow car/caravan weight matching service they use the vehicle weight supplied by the manufacturer. It seems that they do not include driver plus fuel. Certainly if you use the Tow Sure site their figures show my car to be 150 kgs heavier changing the CCs figures from 93% to 84%. On the Tow Sure site you can add further weight as required, for example passenger(s), luggage, tow bar etc (quite a heavy item). It is a more sophisticated method as it gives ratings for acceleration, stability etc. Just for fun I added in higher and higher car loads and whilst the % rated kept reducing you get a report of lower hill climbing www.towcar.info
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Hi Tirril,
I have this exact car with the deployable tow bar. You will rarely (if ever) get into 9th when towing, mainly because the gearing is quite long. When driving solo the car sits at about 1500rpm at 70mph in 9th gear. At legal towing speeds the revs would simply be too low. It tends to shift between 6th, 7th and 8th on motorways depending on incline.
I have found the Disc Sport to be excellent although I would warn against expecting Audi or BMW build quality. Overall I am very pleased with the car. No technical issues, but plenty of squeaks and rattles to be dealt with by the dealer. Most recently an annoying heat shield rattle from underneath. I average around 40mpg solo (50 - 53 on a long careful motorway run) and about 25mpg towing a Coachman at 1595kg MTPLM. Tows like a dream in my opinion, but I don't have a Disco 4 to compare to
I understand B pillar rattles have been resolves for all "new off the line" cars...
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