Towing Tips and Best Practices for NP Pajero

[erockzah]

I have a NP 2005 Pajero 3.2 DiD automatic. My van is 2 tonne. What are the best practices to towing something of this weight? I heard that you should do sport shift and not take it out of 4th gear at 90kph?

Any other pointers. Someone recently corrected me to not tow in 4wd ?

[spot01]

I have a NP 2005 Pajero 3.2 DiD automatic. My van is 2 tonne. What are the best practices to towing something of this weight? I heard that you should do sport shift and not take it out of 4th gear at 90kph?

Any other pointers. Someone recently corrected me to not tow in 4wd ?

You should tow in 4H on bitumen (but not 4Hlc, unless on unsealed surfaces) - there should be a placard on your sunvisor saying this.
Unsure of the exact speeds to shift in your model, but manual is the way to go, especially up & down hills.

Also make sure you change the trans fluid regularly (twice as often as normal for towing) & use the correct spec fluid.

[Ian H]

You should be using a WDH too.

[erad]

1 On steep downhill sections of the road, do NOT rely on you brakes alone - use lower gears and let the engine help control the speed.

2 Try not to go too fast. Wind drag varies according to the cube of the speed. For example, assume 100 km/h as the reference speed. If you travel at 90 km/k, the wind drag is 73? of that at 100 km/h. Similarly, at 110 km/h, the drag is 1.33 times the 100 km/h drag. Whilst wind drag is not the sole factor in fuel consumption (rolling friction also plays a large factor), it is significant. Also consider the prevailing winds at the time. If you are punching into a 25 km/h headwind, you can expect to use a lot more fuel.

3 Consider the traffic behind you. Because you are towing a large brick, the drivers behind you will generally bust a gut to get past you (so they can see what is going on) and quite often they will simply get in front of you and then even slow down a bit. Then once they get to a passing lane they go like hell to get past you, then slow down again. Be considerate of them - you are blocking up THEIR road! Similarly, truck drivers. 95% of them are really good and if you give them a chance to safely overtake you (should you be holding them up a bit), they appreciate that. After all, they are working, you are not.

If you find a queue of traffic banked up behind you, as soon as you can safely pull over, do so and let the traffic pass. Eventually some clown will overtake 15 cars at once and could easily finish up causing a massive pileup of crashed cars (including you).

4 In traffic, allow extra distance between you and the car in front. This is because you are less maneuverable and need extra distance to stop if needed. Invariably, when you leave a little extra gap, some mongrel will jump into that gap. Grin and bear it.

5 Nearly every time I go through a major city, it is peak hour (I think peak hour is all the time in cities). Travelling in multi lanes can be scary. If there are 3 lanes (eg Pennant Hills Road in Sydney), stay in the centre lane. This is where the trucks normally go. It is only for a short time and sure they take off slowly, but once on the move, they go at traffic speed quite well. Be patient. In Melbourne, local drivers do not know where their cars start and finish, so on a 2 lane piece of road, I normally travel in the left lane, but I put the Right side of the caravan just clear of the lane marker. Then I have a fair margin on the Left side of the van, but more importantly, few drivers will come alongside the van - they just sit back.That way, if you need to merge out because of parked cars etc, you can signal and then go out easily. Just go with the flow... The following cars may even let you out! You are bigger than them....

6 Reversing the caravan... This must be the leading cause of divorce. No matter what I try, nothing works with my wife. You and I know that in order to get a caravan into a space you need to swing the car the opposite way, and then once you have the angle as you want, you swing the wheel the other way and chase the van around. Finally, when you have reached the angle you want, you have to take the car beyond the angle, and finally straighten it all up. Simple isn't it? Well, no matter what I say, my wife cannot get it into her head that you need at least 3 or 4 metres of travel before any significant directional change can occur. Shall we say that things can get heated at times...

And then there is the tyrrany of distance. Normally, I am crawling back very slowly - nothing comes from my wife until a sudden STOP! is screamed at 125 dB noise level. A simple 6 feet, 3 feet, 2 feet, 1 foot countdown gives so much more information to the driver. Even when she remembers this, she forgets to do it at times - 6 feet (nothing, nothing ) STOP!

Go to a quiet parking area and practice reversing the rig. Get a system of communication going that works for you. A really good way is for her to use a handheld UHF. That way, she doesn't have to shout. It makes her feel better. This works as long as she remembers to press the talk button before she talks....

Getting our caravan into our driveway is really difficult. I have now adopted the approach where I sit her in the driver's seat and walk along beside the car telling her "left hand down half turn, straighten, a little bit left, full right lock, straighten, stop." That works 95% of the time and the odd 5% when things go wrong, it is definitely MY fault (it is always my fault anyway).

We have been married nearly 48 years and caravanning most of that time, but it took me at least 40 years to get it this far.... The same thing when sailing. I shut her up be giving her the helm. Only once - that was enough - no more cattiness then.

[Terryo]

Look into getting a transmission temp guage and you can see how your driving style is affecting the transmission temp at a glance.
I have a transmission temp guage. I tow a Tvan so lighter than your van. If I leave the transmission in auto it will drop into 5th gear once it hits about 80km\h. The temp guage will go up to about 85 or 90 degrees. Drop it manually back to 4th at the same speed the temp guage will sit around 50 to 60 degrees. Put it back in Drive and it takes a couple of kilometers to go up again, back into manual takes about twice as long to drop the temp back down again.

Also make sure your fan is working properly. Once they get a bit of age on them they don't work as well. Got mine reconditioned around 350K but was having trouble for a while before then if towing up steep hills. Quick engine temp rise going up, followed by quickly back to normal once going back down the hill.

[Muzza]

I have a NP 2005 Pajero 3.2 DiD automatic. My van is 2 tonne. What are the best practices to towing something of this weight? I heard that you should do sport shift and not take it out of 4th gear at 90kph?

Any other pointers. Someone recently corrected me to not tow in 4wd ?

I towed a 2T van behind my NP auto for 7 years, this is what I found
92-95 was about the best speed
I manual shifted in sported mode all the time
Didn’t use 5th gear a lot
Fitted airbags and used a WDH
Used gear down hills, or trailer brakes, the NP has fairly small brakes particularly the rear.
I fitted a boost gauge, this way I could tell roughly how hard the engine was working 20psi is full boost
Changed the auto oil every 20k by draining sump and refilling, part flush, The car has gone to another home now, however has now covered 300k with no transmission or pump issues.

[erockzah]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I appreciate it :-)

[Nab]

Towing 1.6T, I used 4th gear, 4H and about 98-100kph gps. It sat on about 2600-2700rpm and was quite happy doing that all day. Even 5kph faster it made a lot more noise and just felt not comfortable.

[Lance]

Just a quick thought from me.....
Companion Shafts...
Check you have modified 'Hot-Fix' shafts.

The earlier shafts can cause diff oil leaks particularly when towing, pre 10/05 build date I think
Lots of threads here about the Companion Shafts.