Driving Xantia in snow

Post by **CitroJim** » 11 Jan 2010, 21:23

andmcit wrote: Best towcars are hydraulically equipped!

There's no disputing that Andrew!

lurchy666 · Post by **lurchy666** » 11 Jan 2010, 21:58

citroenxm wrote:Blimey! Avoid the Frontera, what Ive heard, the worst 4 x 4 x far..

Disco pretty good, Toyota land cruiser MUCH MUCH better..

Or the Nissan Pathfinder or what ever body it has..

Im NO 4x4 expert by Far, its only what Ive read, but most complained about the Vauxhall..

Paul

i did have a 2.3 frontera at one point and really liked it but the engine was useless in it the 2.3 came from the bedford cf van and just had a turbo bolted to the side of it, had a drive of a 2.8 isuzu powered one and that was lovely,

i was thinking a defender or series landy but they are making stupid money

disco my mum has got one and as a drivers car i dont like it, brakes are crap and clutch is horrable, land cruiser never really liked, much prefer the look of the hilux surf ( and we know they are un breakable from the top gear programs

)

the caravan i got to tow is a 22 footer twin axle thats why the xantia was struggling a bit when i last tried to tow it anywhere ,

altho a car trailer with a fiesta on it caused the clutch to slip in the high gears once xantia was warm

i'm not disputing the best tow cars have hydrolics (great for loading and taking load) and i'll have another hydrolic citroen tomorrow if i knew it would tow the caravan (or car trailer usually with my brother in laws useless espace on it) but the xantia really hated having anything on back of it, (maybe it was just mine playing up)

i'm just thinking 4x4 or big old rwd volvo estate to tow the stuff around for now just for easyness sake and plus helps with the roads around here as most of them you cant tell where the road ends and the field starts cause of either mud all over the roads or the blasted ice

then when i get rid of the caravan and get a lighter one another comfy hydrolic bus or maybe see if i can fit the hydrolics to the 4x4 lol

by the way really liking the pics,

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 11 Jan 2010, 22:02

An XM??

They have either 2.1 td or even 2.5 td engines!!

Paul

lurchy666 · Post by **lurchy666** » 11 Jan 2010, 22:26

problem is i need something with quite a lot of weight cause the caravan sways about a bit behind the xantia, my old frontera when i had it was fine with it slow but fine,

thats why i was going for a 4wd or a big volvo like the 960 cause the weight will hold the caravan a bit better, not cause of the engine size/power,

plus ever since i turned over an esc0rt van with a cherry picker on the back cause it started swaying on the back of it, any sort of sway gets me touching cloth if you get what i mean,

the escort didn't have enough power to pull it out of it and letting off the throttle made things worse then it got a lot worse when i saw the wheel of chery picker lift up in mirror and that is all i remember, i think that is why i dont like fwd for towing,

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 11 Jan 2010, 22:57

For the love of god dont buy a frontera, i had thought they had died out now anyway. I had to drive one on a farm to tow a trailer around to help out, it want that old but was reduced to farm work. Horendous thing, id rather have pulled the trailer around myself

It was old when it first came to this country and its design is positively ancient now, im sure you can find something better.

What about a freelander? The petrols must be quite cheap now and they do make pretty good cars, dont drive like a typical 4x4 on the road either. We had a TD4 2001 freelander for a while for pulling our horse box. If truth be known we used to pull an awful lot more than it should have done, but it was brilliant at it, a huge ifor and 2 big horses wasnt a problem, so a caravan should be well within its stride. Though the petrols are rover engines so thats not great.

Range Rover V8, hmm that would pull a house never mind a caravan, but shares in BP might be needed

Discoverys are good cars and not as silly money as old defenders are.

Volvo sounds good, i like volvos, lots of car for very little money and well built, generally.

We have never towed anything heavy with an Xm, though i bet an Xm estate would be perfect, especially in diesel form. Weighty, self leveling and enough pulling power. Was it not tow car of the year at some point in the 90s?

We did used to pull the same horse box with our old Activa, which performed very well too. They seem to make good tow cars Citroens.

Bad news about your Xantia though, at least you might get something happier to tow your caravan.

lurchy666 · Post by **lurchy666** » 11 Jan 2010, 23:08

oh yeah sorry i seem to have hi jacked the thread a bit,

and please dont tempt me with a rangie v8, my dad had an old f reg rangey at one point 3.5 v8 and dear god it was rusty all over but the noise it made, that noise was the best noise i've ever heard out of a car what i was driving, 20 mile in my hands was a good 20 quid in petrol, (all because i loved the noise when it was in kickdown) and i cant afford that sort of petrol bill again, my 2.9 granada was bad enough lol,

hadn't thought about freelander, now goingg to see whats on ebay again lol

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 11 Jan 2010, 23:32

Seems to be the way in which the FCF operates, its great

. And anyway, the snow has nearly gone now

I love the noise of the V8 Range Rovers, my mum used to have a 3.9 V8 Vogue SE. What a car, though it did 10MPG around town and at very best 20 on a good run.

What about a Volvo S80? I really do like those cars, never actually noticed how much of a bargain they are until now. Huge huge cars for quite little money, brimming with kit, well made and there is just something about Volvos i like, especially the S-series cars (S40,60 etc). Wouldnt mind an S80 myself, dont know why i didnt think of one before.

Good time to buy cars really, as sales are a bit slow at the moment some people might just want rid.

I had best start advising you to buy a french car before i get into trouble

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 12 Jan 2010, 10:54

Similar to the pic's shown I towed a GSa last may behind my xantia on a twin axle trailer which was 20 feet long by 10 feet wide the hire company had hired out all the smaller trailers for ferry crossings, it was a very windy day and my xantia estate performed brilliantly.

I have also towed my Dads old Bx on a trailer with my old 1.7D bx now that struggled a bit even with a tiny little caravan.

come to think of it A BX was awarded towcar of the year about five years running way back in the 80's and it to had hydraulic suspension and brakes.

In my opinion you just cant beat a hydraulic citroen for towing and I for one can't see the point in owing a car that you cant get a tow bar for.

Besides all that it has a Bosch pump and I filter used veg oil to run it the set up cost me about 150 quid for the equipment in my shed and the final fuel product costs me around 25p per litre, in extreme cold temps I mix diesel with the filtered veg 50/50 in a warm summer I run it neat.

a reasonably large family estate car with loadsa boot space good towing capeability and extreemly cheap to run, why I didnt realise all this when I asked the question "should it stay or should it go" god only knows.

regards Nigel.

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 12 Jan 2010, 11:05

lurchy666 wrote: i cant afford that sort of petrol bill again, my 2.9 granada was bad enough lol,

hadn't thought about freelander, now goingg to see whats on ebay again lol

Time to look for an xantia with a Bosh fuel pump and build yourself a used veg oil filtering system Mk1's are better on Veg oil the Exhaust Gas Reburn systems on Mk2's drop the milage a bit. and generally need a fuel heater of some kind.

Used veg is getting scarce but it may not be to late to establish a resonable supply even if you pay for some like me your going to save a packet.

regards Nigel.

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 12 Jan 2010, 13:35

Mk1's also had eGR on late models. Its easy to disconnect though.

KP · Post by KP » 12 Jan 2010, 14:28

I've used a mk2 2.1 Xantia hatch with an Ifor williams twin axle trailer loaded with a fiat coupe 20vt on it from warrington down to brum once without any issues. fair enough it wasn't that fast but was quicker than i expected and braked very well too

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 12 Jan 2010, 16:07

Freelander petrols dont have rover engines, they have the K series honda built twin cam 16v units fitted to later rovers as part of their honda ish partnership, and are quite good lumps if im honest, watch for head gasket issues though.

D

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 12 Jan 2010, 17:53

XantiaMan583 wrote:Mk1's also had eGR on late models. Its easy to disconnect though.

You mean I can actually disconnect the EGR system??

would this not effect emmisions at MOT time? or do I just reconnect it a week before? bearing in mind I don't have a catalytic converter anymore.

regards Nigel.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 12 Jan 2010, 18:11

Deanxm wrote:Freelander petrols dont have rover engines, they have the K series honda built twin cam 16v units fitted to later rovers as part of their honda ish partnership, and are quite good lumps if im honest, watch for head gasket issues though.

D

The K-series is very well known for having headgasket problems, i cant remember which engine size is the most problematic now but its something to watch out for as it is very common. Ive heard of a good few 1.8 freelanders suffering this problem.

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 12 Jan 2010, 19:59

yeah Chris all K series is a pita for heads and the job is fiddly, you actually have to reasemble the whole thing, run it up then strip the cam carriers off to re torque the headbolts, it takes 2 hrs just to re torque them when the job is done!!!!!, its not difficult to do by any means but fiddly i found. Good engine though, smooth, economical with good power delivery, beat a ford or vauxhall 16v hands down in my view.

D