Land Rover Freelander owners come here please...

[pamplemousse]

Hi a quick question for you...
My friend has one of these, is into horses etc and I want to get her one of those trucker's metal badges to go on the grille at the front.
But then I suddenly thought, does it have an accessable grille, like could you bolt something onto it?
Cheers for looking

Oh god not another one of these things, whats wrong with freelander fgs?!!!

whats right with them?

pamplemousse, you might be better googling.

My BIL has one and he found out loads of info via a forum when he wanted to fit a window guard.
You could try calling your local dealer too.

... I have a 4x4.

I would love to know what you ladies suggest a horsebox is towed with?

How about an estate car Eve? Or a people carrier? A friend has recently traded his Discovery for a Zafira and has found it's just as good for towing his caravan.

My horsy friends all managed with estate cars when I was younger, I'm sure horseboxes haven't changed that much since then!

But back then, 4x4's weren't fashionable of course

its more like a cross hatch grill isnt it I wonder whether things like that would fit

My sisiter has one!! she loves it carts the dogs and the horse about shes proud of hers !!

Eve - precisely! She has it for her business which involves driving down farm tracks, not so good in a normal car (no not even an estate - I have an estate and its a nightmare on ground clearance over ruts etc)and to tow her horse box?!!!
I have googled it and can't see in enough detail, I just wondered if somebody wouldn't mind having a look at one for me...
But hey you lot just go off and polish your eco halo's smugly I'll sort meself out, cheers!

just to add some perspective - my smallish car uses more petrol, has higher car tax etc etc than our freelander did, yet no-one jumps on me to get rid of it!!

Unfortunately towing rules have changed a lot in the last few years.

Each car has a stated maximum safe weight, as well as the maximum weight of braked trailer it can move away from rest up a hill with a 12% gradient.

I had an estate car.. its towing limit was 2 tonnes.

A horse box, with 2 16h horses.. is considerably more than 2 tonnes. The biggest estate cars are on the limit and a caravan is considerably lighter than a loaded horse box.

I traded down my estate car to a smaller car for day to day running and got an oldish 4x4 specifically for towing which I share with a friend.

Also.. I only do local gymkannas etc...they are not usually held in lovely car parks, they are held in local farmers fields.

That's interesting Eve, thanks for that. I shall bow down and agree then that a 4x4 sounds pretty much essential then if you own a horse box!

(It's LadyMacbeth btw, just on a namechange).

..( I am a farmers daughter.....a farmer with no money, who had 2 other jobs to make ends meet)!

this conversation did make me remember him taking cattle to market in a tralier, towed by a tractor, with no cab..driven by my dad with my sister and I sitting on the backwheel mud guards. We loved it!

...no doubt there's rules about not doing that either these days!! (probably for a very good reason)

What's wrong with Freelanders?
Well, how about the computer control suddenly cutting out on my friend leaving him going at 70 in the outside lane of the M5 with no engine, no brakes, no power steering.....

He managed to get it to the hard shoulder, got taken to the garage & had a software upgrade - six months later it did it again.

He part exchanged it two days later.
Apparently LandRover are perfectly well aware of this problem, they're just not doing anything about it, because they don't have an answer.

I thought long and hard about my shogun.. but there is not really another safe option to tow.

My horse is a heavy brute.. I know he has stood on my toe!

I could tow the box with an estate car with just him, but when his friend is on board I need the weight and power. My field is on a hill and the lane where I load them is a dirt track... slippy mud in the winter.

Ideally I would have loved a defender to tow...but they are so expensive!

so I went Japanese for reliability!

Eve - I've heard lots of good things about Shoguns and towing, last for ages apprently.
I have answered my own question if anyone is actually interested in the origin of this thread - they have no grille to speak of and a badge thing wouldn't attach

As an aside it made me chuckle when you said 'I know he's stood on my toe' - the miniature shetlands I used to look after almost broke my foot by standing on me, they are little rascals I think they did it on purpose!!

You cant legally tow horses with anything but the largest 4 X 4 and even then you might be overweight. Ive also got one - and I rather like driving it..(ducks and runs)

I love my freelander
its a company car and I ordered it to pull a trailer for my horse, but then I fell pg and priorities changed

I love it cos it holds my dog and buggy in the boot, its great in the snow,and muddy rural roads, and also is good off road.

p.s I live in the country and not in chelsea

DH says yes you can screw badges on to freelander grills but careful not to over tighten as it can crack the plastic grill.

what badge thing is it? would it go on the front of a shogun I wonder.

Thank you Scribble
Eve it is a metal horse much like the Mustang badge, or there is a horseshoe with a horse head in it. Her business is advertised on the rear wheel cover and I think she might like something horsey on the front There are some on ebay if you wanted to see them;) Search for horse grille!!!