The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 21:05 Post subject: Snaking/ Power whilst towing

Hello chaps. Hope someone can shed some light on this please.
I have had the 07 plate elegance Diesel auto for a month now and this is the first time it has been used to tow our horses. I bought it to replace an ageing Trooper and based on the exelent towing reviews I had read decided that this was the ideal replacement. I am away at work at the moment so my daughter used the vehicle yesterday to take the horses to the vets.
Below is what she has emailed me. Bear in mind that this is the first Auto we have towed with having allways had manuals.

"So a steady 30mph was ok, although revs a lot to get there. obviously to get to 40mph it revs even more, anything over 40mph it sound like it roars the whole time as if its struggling. There was an awful lot of snaking & wiggling too, which having the horses on the back was a bit worrying. Fuel wise to get to vets it had used nearly a quarter of a tank to pull horses to vets & return back without trailer - I was just saying to mum it had done about 136 miles on a quarter of a tank which I seemed to think was reasonable for a big car, then when we headed back to vets to get horses & trailer, it was practically half way!
The car actually felt like it was going to happily let the trailer pull it backwards, I feel I fought most of the way to keep her going. We had to stop at the lights at the little bridge at Haddiscoe & it didn't really want to go up the hill from a standstill without a lot of pushing."

The trailer an equitrek show treka wieght acording to the plate is 1400 Kgs. we have a Suffolk horse weighing in the region of 900 Kgs and a coloured cob around 500 Kgs. Tack, water and all the rest of the kit around 150 Kgs, so an all up weight of around 2950 Kgs.
My Mk 4 3.2 should be good for 3300 Kgs if what I have read is correct.

We are not new to towing horses and have been towing for the last 12 years with a 3 Ltr Isuzu Trooper manual with absoloutly no issues.
I understand that a lot depends on even loading and particualy loading above the axles. With horses, it is what it is. You can not move them about.

Anybody got any ideas where to start to eliminate this problem as I bought it to use for this verry purpose.

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assassin · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:17 Post subject:

Are you towing correctly? for anything over 1 tonne it should be in 4High and your issue suggests you had the centre diff locked, you never tow with the diff locked on road, but always use 4H.

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:59 Post subject:

I am hoping so, I went over the selection of the AWD system with my daughter a couple of weeks ago before I came away when we took the trailer out (without the horse)
However I will be checking out as soon as I get home.

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 23:12 Post subject:

Spoke to daughter yesterday. She told me it was in 2H Didnt want to put in 4H as she was used to Trooper and its a no no to put in 4WD on dry roads, winds the transmision up.

drew m · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 23:47 Post subject:

Hi,
When towing anything they advise using 4xhigh no diff lock..

Drew

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 0:05 Post subject:

Lets hope that was the issue then Drew. If you are the Drew from the Trooper forum you can understand why I told her not to put it in 4WD on dry roads etc.

assassin · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:39 Post subject:

You can safely drive in 4H as they default to 4H if the system fails

They have a torque sensing centre viscous coupling which diverts 2/3rds of the power to the rear axle and the remaining 1/3rd to the front axle during normal driving, then vary the amount between the axles depending on traction, they can have more torque to the front axle if required and the vehicle senses this.

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:47 Post subject:

So, is it likely that towing in 2H could be the cause?

drew m · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:48 Post subject:

Hi,
Yes im on trooper forum as well, I understand where you're coming from saying about no 4 wheel drive on tarmac with trooper, could it be a difference in height of towbar (if there is one) I had problems years ago with a boat snaking I put it down to not enough weight on towbar (to much weight to back of boat) I bought a stabiliser and this cured the snaking..

Drew

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 21:01 Post subject:

Thanks Drew,

I will look at the height of the tow ball when I get home (away at work at the moment). To be fair, the ball did look low compared to my previous 3 troopers but there was evidence of hay and straw under the floor where the extra rear seats are stored which led me to believe that the previous owner had towed horses so I never gave the height a second thought. I guess if it was a different make trailer (we have an equitrek) then the height may need adjusting. I am hoping that the combination of the height and the fact that it was in 2H and not 4H will cure the issue.
I will keep you all informed.

Malcolm.

Bradwell Boy · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 11:00 Post subject:

Just an update. Took both horses out again, this time in 4H and it was totally different. No problems so it looks like its just us getting used to it.

Thanks for the help chaps.

assassin · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:45 Post subject:

On your model you have ASC, this controls the power to each wheel as well as the centre differential controlling power to each axle, therefore the system makes minute adjustments to keep your car and trailer under control and running correctly.