Costs - well, it aint cheap! £50 of fuel moves you 240 miles ish -
although
LPG conversions are popular on v8's like what I've got (Graeme - what do
you
get out of yours?)
*cough* not a lot! We average around 10-12mpg on LPG or petrol in daily use
which is short journey commuting on longer motorway journeys it will stretch
out to much nearer 20mpg.
Trailering gets us back to about 10 mpg on motorways but that's with a Rice
Treble (about 1100kg unladen) and three of the neddies which probably gives
us around 2.3 tonnes to tow. We can average just over 50mph on a motorway or
decent dual carriageway and the auto box is a godsend - much more
comfortable ride for all and I just use it like a manual - shift into lower
gears and hold them on the lever rather than mucking around with the
throttle - it needs locking down into first gear on some of the hills around
here but there's something very satisfying about the sound it makes at 3,500
rpm chugging up them (I know - sad eh?)
£50 most likely gets us between 300 and 400 miles depending on how much
towing and short commuting we're doing - best run we had was just over 240
miles for around £25 - must have been a tailwind. My way of looking at it
is you cannot run a big 4x4 and quibble about the fuel consumption.
Ours is only a lowly 3.5 - Simon got the 3.9 LSE *sniff* which has the
groovy air suspension. Given that the Defender is pretty much just an
agricultural version of the Range Ruster then I would spend my £5K on a late
Range Rover Classic rather than a Defender - much more comfortable and, if
you pick the right model, not that much dearer in parts - especially if you
can use a spanner. However spannering a 90 is a lot easier than a RR.
LPG here is now 36.9p a litre which makes running one of these gas guzzlers
about the same per mile as a diesel version even after you factor in the
priceof the LPG conversion (DIY about £700) - if I were doing less mileage
then I would maybe not even bother with an LPG conversion to be honest but
we run it as the primary family transport so it does a lot more miles than
the secondary family transport (the much cursed but cute 1968 Land Rover
which [AFAIK] is rated to tow 2.5 tonnes but I would hesitate to tow a
wheelbarrow behind it)
Of course, I'm biased - but I do think that there is nothing to touch the V8
and 4 speed ZF automatic box in a Range Rover or early Discovery for
smoothness,quietness and towing ability. I think that the 200TDi and 300TDi
engines sound and drive like the Transit I used to tow drilling trailers
with and the TD5 is not within my price range (or if anything breaks in it
my engineering skills either) but I'd also strongly advise anybody thinking
of picking up a Defender/Disco/Range Ruster at around £5K to also invest in
some good tools and a workshop manual - you'll need them.
Recent breakdown of Range Ruster meant I had to tow with a borrowed Diahatsu
Fourtrak - very willing to tow but I had forgotten how much I hate turbo
diesels with a fairly narrow power band - it was also a bit noisier that the
RR but you'd get a fairly newish one of those for £5K and I reckoned it
better value for money than a Defender.
Also drove a TD5 90 (not for long) recently and, frankly - it shows it's
design age - hated it, driving position, clutch, gearchange and the price
tag on those is.......
God I'm getting boring - bye
Graeme