MY Daily Driver/Tow Vehicle Thread

Marks adapters has an adapter to bolt up the Disco transfer case to a 4l80e trans. Combine that with $500 worth of LSx truck motor and you have yourself 50 extra ft lbs of torque and 100 extra hp. Just sayin.

Good to know! I do wonder how 182hp feels in a truck that big.

You need a Range Rover Classic. It's a BEAST of an SUV, has no downsides to the Disco, in my opinion.

Paul_VR6 wrote: Good to know! I do wonder how 182hp feels in a truck that big.

Its really not bad. I have to accelerate to from a dead stop to 50mph to match traffic, then change over 3 lanes to make a left, all within about 2 city blocks on my daily commute. It always does it without too much stress.

The one guy already sold the 97 I wanted to look at but he's getting an off lease(?) 96 with less miles that he'll have today. Interested to see how these things drive.

Well good news on the current Gremlin status of my Disco. It was my fault. Apparently during the recent headgasket repair I didn't fully seat the plug to the MAF. Plug backed out just enough to lose contact intermittently.

Driving it again reminded me to mention the ride. It is a truck! A luxury truck with suede and leather stuff and coil springs, but the solid axle front and rear give you a side to side rocking motion over bumps and entrance ways that you don't get in most vehicles. I don't notice it unless I take some time away, but an IRS ute probably doesn't do that.

Discos are also known to be a little top heavy, some advice you often read here in the UK is not to use roof racks on them...

IIRC one of the main differences between Disco I&II is that the II is a little longer and has a little more trunk space as a result. If you're looking at one, carefully check for rust, the chassis, trunk floor and other parts are known to rust well. They also suffer from electrolytic corrosion due to being steel framed and aluminium skinned.

Honestly, I'm impressed. The 96 has 101k on it and didn't look too worse for wear. Only rust was some surface on a spot on the door sill at waist height, and then some underside stuff on the trunk floor. Nothing scary. Needs rear brakes to pass inspection but the srs and abs lights are on. Dealer tech friend tells me to just man up and pull the bulbs, ha!

It definitely drives like a truck, but I've had those before, I can deal. The strangest thing was how stiff the throttle was. If you got into it it'll move, but it seems the opposite of 'snappy.' Could be the fact that I drove my car there instead of the van.

Might go see an 01 tomorrow morning if the weather holds but it's a bunch more money not sure if it's worth it.

I think if I can get the 96 down to about 3k it's a done deal.

Look up the "3 amigos" to get some idea of what you are in for with trouble lights. I paid $3500 for my 99, but looking back it was probably a patch it up and sell it job. I think they did a quick and dirty budget head gasket job to move it.

That was a fun hour of reading, yikes! Still not scared away. I had an 00 Audi S4 and if all the warning lights weren't on the battery was sure to be dead.

After and Audi and a VW, a Disco may seem trouble free.

An Audi and MANY VW's, most of very questionable pedigree.

Going to probably check out that 01 this morning before we make our final decision on the 96.

There was one year of problematic engines. I think it was the 03? There is also a variety of setups for the transfer case diff lock. The 99 or so models had a locking transfer case, but no mechanism inside the vehicle for doing so. Land Rover felt like the fancy traction control should do it all. Certain models around that age had no locking capability of the center diff at all. Around 01-02 they put the locking handle back in the vehicle. I would suggest looking this all up because I am going off of fuzzy memories.

Already got a line on a 4.6 long block out of a rolled Range Rover.. you never know.

Bought the 96 this afternoon. Ended up getting it for 3200 which I think is fair for the mileage and condition. Just need to do rear brakes and new wiper blades and the inspection is included as well. Score.

Now we just need another few feet of snow to test this bugger out.

Congrats!

Thanks! I'll try and keep this updated so that future people looking for mrs approved tow vehicles will have a running history of the shenanigans.

Four hours for the first rear brake, the second one should only take twice as long as I know how to do it

I really enjoy driving it other then the nagging need to run over things I see near the road.. rocks, trees, rivers..